Fix my brother's PC!

[GT40FIED]

First of all, I'd like to thank Aaron and all of the other computer junkies who roam this forum. I've learned so many tips and tricks it's insane.

Anyhow...my brother's computer is totally fucked. When it boots it will load the wallpaper and nothing else. The toolbar at the bottom of the screen will be there for half a second then disappear. No icons, it won't recognize anything in the drives...nothing. Even the task manager shows absolutely no programs or tasks running. But the wallpaper's there (a non-windows wallpaper) so I know it's recognizing at least that file. It's a Hewlett-Packard (I know, I know...they suck) running Windows ME. I attempted to run it in safe mode to at least access the command prompt, but it did the same thing even in safe mode. If I can't get access to the command prompt or anything else I can't even reformat the damn thing. Any ideas how to get around this unusual flaw? I'm completely baffled. I've never seen a computer problem that didn't have at least one weakness.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

A combo of Windows ME andthe HP isn't too great

But seriously... if you have a virus scan disk or something you can boot from, try that first. If you want to try to put that drive in another system as a secondary drive and get the files from it after that, go for it.

Then, you can still reinstall windows. Go into the BIOS (usually hit DEL when booting), make sure it is set to boot from the CD first. Put the Windows CD in the drive and reboot. The CD will run the setup program so you can either install over the current version or format and start over.

If you need the files on that computer and you can't get them any other way, try installing Windows over itself or in another directory. That's not guaranteed to work though, so beware before trying it. You could lose everything. Even if you get your files, the registry will be wiped so you have to reformat or reinstall all of your programs...

[blind34_1]

Originally posted by GT40FIED
First of all, I'd like to thank Aaron and all of the other computer junkies who roam this forum. I've learned so many tips and tricks it's insane.

no problem man. this is one area of this forum where i can give more than i take


as for this problem, his number one problem is that he's running ME. But, lets put that aside.

First thing I would try is try to get into safe mode. For ME, i don't remember how to do this. Microsoft says hold down CTRL while shutting down, but that doesn't sound like an option for you.

I don't know if the F5 and F8 keys will do it for ME. They did for 98. try pressing either of them right before the splash screen comes up

from there, just going into safe mode can sometimes fix the problem (its weird). from there you should be able to undo whatever it was he did last before it stopped booting (you'll need to find that out, because he surely did something)

msconfig might also help you selectively startup so you can isolate the problem.

or just install ME on top of the old one and hope for the best.

i was reading this article from microsoft about this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=273738

[ebpda9]

does me have an event log ? i know the NT/2k/XP have one. that usually helps a lot in troubleshooting

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by blind34_1
from there you should be able to undo whatever it was he did last before it stopped booting (you'll need to find that out, because he surely did something)

Therein lies the problem. One of his tenants (he sublets rooms in the house while renting it from my mom) has a friend who supposedly "knows computers" and he came to look at some problems with it. Next thing you know the PC is fucked and his tenant won't give him the number of the guy who last touched it. That leaves me with no idea of what's going on or what this fucktard did. All he says (through her) is that he "found it that way" which is bullshit because I performed maintainance on the PC just a week before he fucked it up and I know my brother isn't computer literate enough to fuck this up on his own (he calls me with every little PC question he has).

[ebpda9]

it's f8 to get to the list of any boost options on any windows os

[blind34_1]

hmm...then you have NO idea what the problem could be. could be somthing minor that can be fixed with a repair install, or it could be more major, like a virus. If so, you'll have to take care of the virus problem first. that's speculation though, id say use f8 like hondaman said, boot to safe mode, see if that does anything. use msconfig from safe mode and try turning everything off, then turn one thing on everytime you restart, to see what the problem is?

make any sense?

[Nelsmar]

im guessing registry problem, what happened is its shuting down all the programs that start on startup, or just not starting them at all, it starts explorer and then gets to a part in the startup that it relizes its soposed to have explorer closed(kinda confusing ran into something like that other day.) what you need to do is boot of the ME disk, either by going into your bios(commonly F2 del or esc) and make sure it is set to boot off cd, once your there select "Upgrade" on the install choices, this will reset your registry, but leave all the programs you have installed installed, it will make hte default startup, so everythign starts up like a fresh copy of windows. but your programs you installed will probably not start up you need to set them to do that. see if that work.