Friend’s computer. PC - 256MB RAM, Celeron D processor, Windows XP home.
Upon boot it shows a strange splash screen - a black and white beach scene, with the XP logo in the bottom left and the scrolling progress bar on top.
It then goes to a color picture of clouds and blue sky. Nothing else. No icons, no status bar, nothing. And nothing comes up.
I try to get into safe mode. The safe mode initial screen comes up, then the color picture of clouds and blue sky. The same one. With nothing more.
I removed the hard drive and read it via USB on my computer. Everything seems to still be there.
I replaced the ntoskrnl.exe (?) with mine, thinking something had corrupted that. Nope, same thing.
I can’t run anti-virus. I can’t run spyware checks. I can’t do a disk check. I swapped memory with my machine to see if that was the problem. Same thing.
Is it hosed? Can anyone help this poor abused system?
Ok so if you get to a command prompt the OS is loading on a bare string. If you type explorer at the command prompt does it bring up the desktop?
From that command prompt you can run chkdsk as well as Spybot if it is on your system already you just will need to use dos commands to change directories. I’m about to go to bed put post your results and either I or someone else will help further
OK, the safemode command prompt does the same thing as the safemode - it goes to a safemode screen then the pretty clouds - and locks.
I was mistaken. I can get to a DOS prompt through the recovery panel, but it severely limits what I can do - I can’t run programs, for instance. It has a very small list of commands it will accept.
I type EXPLORER - it says Command not recognized. It will only accept a small list, accessed by typing HELP.
None of the safemode commands work - they all go to the safemode screen, then to the clouds.
Boot normally. What happens if you press Ctrl-Esc? Can you right-click on the desktop and bring up Properties? What happens if you press Ctrl-Alt-Del? Do you get the Task List?
If none of that works, try resetting the profiles. Make a backup first. Copy - don’t Move - the user’s profile away and delete the original. If the problem persists, repeat, but also copy the Default User profile from your PC.
Since you can read it on your PC, you might try delving into the System Volume Information directory (it’s Hidden) and look for a restore point from before the problem happenned. You can manually copy over the registry files. Make a backup first.
Still not working? Undo all what you did above and try an Upgrade Install of XP Home. Do not proceed if it won’t let you do an upgrade install.
Guess this isn’t terribly helpful at this point, but if and when you get it fixed, get him to run XP Pro instead. I remember having a ton of problems with Home.
Once the pretty clouds come on the screen, the only key combination that brings anything up is Windows-U, the Utility Manager. No other key combinations seem to have any effect. Safe Mode is useless, as it simply goes to the “pretty clouds.”
Quartz, thank you for the advice. Problem is I can’t even get past that “pretty clouds” screen to change profiles. The only way I can read the hard drive is to remove it and USB port it to my computer. Can I change the profiles from there? All the data seems to be there, but the computer will not boot.
And the recovery console is useless. It simply takes me to that curious DOS prompt, where regular DOS commands will not work (except for their limited set of commands). It won’t run anything, copy, rename, etc. There are no reinstall disks, it’s all on the recovery partition, which I can’t seem to access.
ETA: It seems that there is some program that is installing that “pretty clouds” picture over the other desktop items and preventing me from changing to the desktop. No hard facts supporting this, just an odd feeling. It seems like the desktop is there, under the clouds, but I can’t access it. Is that a possibility?
Yes - you can do this easily with the drive attached to your PC. They’re under \Documents and Settings%Username%. Simply copy the whole profile away somewhere safe then delete the original. Don’t move it; copy, verify, and delete. Once it’s working again, copy back what’s required.
If you have the XP Home installation disks, you can boot to the CD and do a repair re-install of the OS. That should replace any corrupted files that could cause this problem. Personal files on the hard drive should be maintained, but you could back them up via your USB hookup.
Apparently whatever has taken control has locked the profile compaq_owner (which is the default profile) so nothing can access it. I’ve tried unhiding, setting attributes is DOS, deleting, a whole bunch of stuff and it’s impervious to opening.
I think this is the profile that’s causing the problem. This practically confirms it. Now - to find out how to get rid of it.
Thank you Manny. Unfortunately, nothing in safemode works - it just goes to pretty clouds and locks up. The only prompt I can get is the recovery console, and it’s very limited in what commands it accepts.
I may be on to something here. I was able to take control of the compaq_owner folder in safe mode and rename it. Now to input a neutral copy of default user from my computer - and let’s see if it works.
I know absolutely nothing about Linux, unfortunately. I may have to learn, after this.