Guest Kento Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 explorer.exe doesn't start with windows. Thus I have no desktop icons, nor taskbar upon manually starting the explorer process manually via the Taskmanager, it either doesn't appear at all, or flashes into and out of existance repeatedly for about 30 seconds, the kills itself permanently once again. I have tried system restore, last known good config and booting into safemode. Safemode didn't work. I didn't have a taskbar or icons.. well I had the start ICON, but it didn't work. i reinstalled SP2 to no avail.. I have done a repair installation of XP Home. Still is broken. loosing my data and applications is not an option, nor is it possible to back them all up. And I refuse to pay $59 for support of a $79 Operating System. Though if it becomes necessary, I will be forced to do so... though I highly doubt it will be of any help..
Guest Kento Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 RE: explorer.exe is damned For the record Computer fully scanned with: AVG Anti-Virus Pro. AVG Anti-Spyware Pro. Avast! Ad-Aware SE Nod32 Pro and boot scans by Nod32 and avast. to clarify: occasionally when i start explorer manually, I do get the icons and taskbar and full system, but only for around 10 seconds. longest was 43 seconds. Then it closes it self and I'm back to only taskmanager. Good thing I have Vmware... I can run XP within that perfectly fine (for obvious reasons) which is how I can even manage... and a note: even though I have properly reinstalled my drivers after the repair install, my Linksys wireless G USB modem doesn't work, though it's process does load... Taskmanager labels it as "Not Operational" and I can't fix it as explorer doesn't live long enough... dragged teh PC over to router and plugged it in to ethernet..
Guest Kento Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 RE: explorer.exe is damned I don't get errors by the way just a relatively short boot to login, then an extremely long (1-5 minute) login process... i'm quiet certain it's related.
Guest Vanguard Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned "Kento" wrote in message news:4560D206-23AA-4380-810F-E68F87EB5C53@microsoft.com... > explorer.exe doesn't start with windows. > Thus I have no desktop icons, nor taskbar > upon manually starting the explorer process manually via the > Taskmanager, it > either doesn't appear at all, or flashes into and out of existance > repeatedly > for about 30 seconds, the kills itself permanently once again. Might be your user profile is corrupt. Explorer.exe *is* the desktop but if it cannot display the desktop then maybe your user profile is screwed up. Try creating a new user profile. Instead of logging on under your own account, logon under the Administrator account (which is never to be used as normal account but only in emergencies). Create a new user account and check if you can then login okay under that new account.
Guest MAP Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned Kento wrote: > For the record > Computer fully scanned with: > AVG Anti-Virus Pro. > AVG Anti-Spyware Pro. > Avast! > Ad-Aware SE > Nod32 Pro > > and boot scans by Nod32 and avast. > > to clarify: > occasionally when i start explorer manually, I do get the icons and > taskbar and full system, but only for around 10 seconds. longest was > 43 seconds. Then it closes it self and I'm back to only taskmanager. > > Good thing I have Vmware... I can run XP within that perfectly fine > (for obvious reasons) which is how I can even manage... > > and a note: even though I have properly reinstalled my drivers after > the repair install, my Linksys wireless G USB modem doesn't work, > though it's process does load... Taskmanager labels it as "Not > Operational" and I can't fix it as explorer doesn't live long > enough... > > dragged teh PC over to router and plugged it in to ethernet.. 1.AVG Anti-virus 2. Avast 3.NOD32 Having three running anti-virus programs could be the start of your problems! Keep NOD32 and dump the others. -- Mike Pawlak
Guest Malke Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned Kento wrote: > For the record > Computer fully scanned with: > AVG Anti-Virus Pro. > AVG Anti-Spyware Pro. > Avast! > Ad-Aware SE > Nod32 Pro > > and boot scans by Nod32 and avast. > > to clarify: > occasionally when i start explorer manually, I do get the icons and taskbar > and full system, but only for around 10 seconds. longest was 43 seconds. Then > it closes it self and I'm back to only taskmanager. > > Good thing I have Vmware... I can run XP within that perfectly fine (for > obvious reasons) which is how I can even manage... > > and a note: even though I have properly reinstalled my drivers after the > repair install, my Linksys wireless G USB modem doesn't work, though it's > process does load... Taskmanager labels it as "Not Operational" and I can't > fix it as explorer doesn't live long enough... > > dragged teh PC over to router and plugged it in to ethernet.. It certainly sounds like winlogon has been damaged but it could also just be a corrupted user profile. There isn't any way for us to tell. Are you able to get into Safe Mode? Last Known Good Configuration? You can always back up your data even if you can't get into Windows as long as the hard drive is physically viable. I would do this now. Here are a few ways to recover your data: 1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install of XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd. 2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is general information on using Knoppix for this: You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's. http://www.knoppix.net http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers http://www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Guest Kento Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned 1. Nod32 is the only live scanner. The others only run boot and manual scans, and during the manual scans I make sure to stop Nod3 live. Never more then 1 scanner is running. 2. I have tried last known good config, but that didn't do anything. Safe mode didn't work. 3. My data and programs are shared across two hard drives, adding to 400GB... the largest hard drive other then the two is a mere 20GB, hardly possible. Though I suppose I could reinstall XP on the 20GB and use the two other hard drive as slaves... they're all SATA. 4. I have tried burning liveCDs, but my burning program, MagicISO, gives me errors upon trying to start and burn any CD. The only CD I have available is an old Ubuntu, which doesn't support NTFS read/write. 5. Administrator has a password I do not know... perhaps I have a boot CD around that can find it, though I doubt.. Plus I might menntion, There have been no new downloads, installs or anything of the such for about a week, it was one day it worked, shut down, and the next it didn't....
Guest Malke Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned Kento wrote: > 1. Nod32 is the only live scanner. The others only run boot and manual scans, > and during the manual scans I make sure to stop Nod3 live. Never more then 1 > scanner is running. > 2. I have tried last known good config, but that didn't do anything. Safe > mode didn't work. > 3. My data and programs are shared across two hard drives, adding to > 400GB... the largest hard drive other then the two is a mere 20GB, hardly > possible. Though I suppose I could reinstall XP on the 20GB and use the two > other hard drive as slaves... they're all SATA. > 4. I have tried burning liveCDs, but my burning program, MagicISO, gives me > errors upon trying to start and burn any CD. The only CD I have available is > an old Ubuntu, which doesn't support NTFS read/write. > 5. Administrator has a password I do not know... perhaps I have a boot CD > around that can find it, though I doubt.. > > Plus I might menntion, There have been no new downloads, installs or > anything of the such for about a week, it was one day it worked, shut down, > and the next it didn't.... In order to back up your data, you need more equipment. If you don't want to buy it, take the machine to a local computer professional. This will not be a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. You don't want to write to NTFS from Linux. You want to use Linux to either burn your data to DVD or to copy the data to an external hard drive. I prefer Knoppix to Ubuntu for rescue work, but that's just me. Once you've retrieved your data - and please note that you cannot retrieve program installations - you can try and repair your Windows install. Depending on your skill level, you may be able to load a rescue CD such as one built from Bart's PE (a professional computer repair shop will have other rescue tools) to see what is happening and possibly repair it. The alternative is to do a Repair Install of Windows and if that doesn't work, a Clean Install. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install How-To http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What you will need on-hand Why do you not know the Administrator password? Glancing through your previous posts, I don't see where you said whether this is XP Home, Pro, or Media Center although I might have missed it. Here is information about retrieving a missing Administrator password: In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The default password is a blank. In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows. If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the built-in Administrator account's password to a blank. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ If you can't get into the built-in Administrator account or explorer.exe doesn't function correctly, then do the Repair or Clean Install. I understand that this isn't what you wanted to hear, but without being able to see your machine and perform tests on it, there is nothing else I can suggest. There is no way for me to know why this happened without having the machine in my shop. Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers http://www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Guest Kelly Posted July 28, 2007 Posted July 28, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned If you have recently updated your display drivers, try a rollback. -- All the Best, Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP) Taskbar Repair Tool Plus! http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm "Kento" <Kento@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4560D206-23AA-4380-810F-E68F87EB5C53@microsoft.com... > explorer.exe doesn't start with windows. > Thus I have no desktop icons, nor taskbar > upon manually starting the explorer process manually via the Taskmanager, > it > either doesn't appear at all, or flashes into and out of existance > repeatedly > for about 30 seconds, the kills itself permanently once again. > > I have tried system restore, last known good config and booting into > safemode. Safemode didn't work. I didn't have a taskbar or icons.. well I > had > the start ICON, but it didn't work. > i reinstalled SP2 to no avail.. > I have done a repair installation of XP Home. Still is broken. > > loosing my data and applications is not an option, nor is it possible to > back them all up. > > And I refuse to pay $59 for support of a $79 Operating System. > Though if it becomes necessary, I will be forced to do so... though I > highly > doubt it will be of any help..
Guest Kento Posted July 29, 2007 Posted July 29, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned I reset the Admin pass... explorer doesn't function there eit er. Using a tool I found, I created a new user... that account also didn't have a functional explorer. I have not done any driver updates for about a month, though they all are up-to-date... repair install didn't do anything to fix the problem. I ran "sfc /scannow" via command prompt, which didn't find anything wrong... I t ought I mentioned it, but I guess I didn't.. I am running OEM XP Home SP2 with updates...
Guest Malke Posted July 29, 2007 Posted July 29, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned Kento wrote: > I reset the Admin pass... explorer doesn't function there eit er. Using a > tool I found, I created a new user... that account also didn't have a > functional explorer. > > I have not done any driver updates for about a month, though they all are > up-to-date... > > repair install didn't do anything to fix the problem. > > I ran "sfc /scannow" via command prompt, which didn't find anything wrong... > > I t ought I mentioned it, but I guess I didn't.. > I am running OEM XP Home SP2 with updates... If you can't get into Windows and the Repair Install did nothing, then back up your data as previously discussed and do a Clean Install. Since the problem apparently appeared mysteriously after no changes (hardware or software) on your part, run a drive diagnostic first to make sure the hard drive is sound. Go to the hard drive mftr.'s website (or use SeaTools from Seagate) and download the diagnostic utility. You will create a bootable CD (with third-party burning software) or floppy with the file you downloaded. Boot the computer with the media you created and do a thorough test of the hard drive. If the drive fails any physical tests, replace it. Good luck and EOT for me. Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers http://www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Guest Kento Posted July 29, 2007 Posted July 29, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned =/ I stopped the printer service several month ago, as I don't have a printer... out of sheer desperation I re-enabled it, even though I still don't have a printer... now explorer runs again! I have justed tested it in various ways and it indeed is fixed... strange that for several months it worked fine and suddenly it stops working... although now the computer does run much slower... perhaps it merely needs to be defragmeneted as a result of the repair install... Thank you everyone for your help! :-)
Guest Patrick Keenan Posted July 29, 2007 Posted July 29, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned "Kento" <Kento@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4560D206-23AA-4380-810F-E68F87EB5C53@microsoft.com... > explorer.exe doesn't start with windows. > Thus I have no desktop icons, nor taskbar > upon manually starting the explorer process manually via the Taskmanager, > it > either doesn't appear at all, or flashes into and out of existance > repeatedly > for about 30 seconds, the kills itself permanently once again. > > I have tried system restore, last known good config and booting into > safemode. Safemode didn't work. I didn't have a taskbar or icons.. well I > had > the start ICON, but it didn't work. > i reinstalled SP2 to no avail.. > I have done a repair installation of XP Home. Still is broken. > > loosing my data and applications is not an option, Then back up the drive, now. > nor is it possible to back them all up. If backing them up is not possible at this time, stop using the system until it is, because drive failure and data loss are both inevitable. > And I refuse to pay $59 for support of a $79 Operating System. > Though if it becomes necessary, I will be forced to do so... though I > highly > doubt it will be of any help.. I would suggest that you start by focusing on making a decent backup. This is actually easy to do. Find another system with sufficient drive space, remove and attach your drive to that system, and back it up via any of the many effective methods available You can be selective and just copy specific files, or you can use something like the trial version of Acronis TrueImage and make an image of the complete drive. With that particular approach, you can have the complete drive backed up in under an hour, most of which you will spend doing something else. Or, spend the CDN$50 - $70 for a new hard disk, put it into the system, *removing the old drive*, and reinstall XP to the new drive. After XP is working properly, attach the old drive and copy the data to the new one. It is always your responsibility to back up your data and keep install media safe. Disk failures happen all the time. HTH -pk
Guest Kento Posted July 29, 2007 Posted July 29, 2007 Re: explorer.exe is damned damn explorer quits again, but instead f every few seconds, it dies after a few hours, so it's still usable any all my data is backed up to a remote server. My problem is the PROGRAMS which can not be backed up. Were it not for the number and value of the applications installed, I would not hesitate to reinstall the system from scratch, as documents can be restored in mere minutes via downloading and over witting the default folders...
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