Oh HELP! CPU usage 0% and applications not opening

firedancer

New Member
I screwed up. I'm not sure how, but I need expert help right now. I have intermediate knowledge of computer systems, and can usually troubleshoot any problem, but not about this one. I know nothing!!!

OS: Windows XP Professional

Things I've done recently:
> Changed my wireless network to WEP secure
> Reconfigured other home computers accordingly
> Ran registry fix - suspected problems caused by that - undid fix
> Ran OS Repair - I think it made problems worse
> Ran system restore - problem is I erased all past checkpoints because I had a corrupt file from who-knows-when so I reset system restore. However, it hadn't created a new checkpoint yet so I didn't have one to access before these problems started. :eek:

Here are my problems:

> CPU Usage says 0%
> Programs and applications can take 10 minutes to start or not start at all
> Some icons do not open when you click on them
> I cannot connect to the internet
> The programs like Norton Internet that used to be in the taskbar are gone and I cannot open them from Start/Programs
> Set up network connections but when scanning it does not pick up any networks at all. I cannot open Network Diagnostic or Network Troubleshooting. I go to Control Panel/Network Connections and it does not display any connections at all. Links to help troubleshoot this problem are not working.
> I reinstalled my Wireless Network Adapter (Netgear), but again, when scanning it does not pick up my network.

I am screwed big time I think! I have no idea what to do next and this is almost bringing me to tears. Somebody - anybody - I'll take ANY suggestions you have. PLEASE!!!!

I'm sure there will be more information you need, so please ask away. I'm desperately in need of help (if you can't tell).

Thank you so much!!!
 
I am also trying other ways right now to find a link to the network. I tried running Network Wizard several times but every time it stops responding.

Open IE/Tools/Connection, and there is nothing shown. I click to Add, wait 10 minutes or so while the hourglass sits there, and when it finally responds I get Error 711: A configuration error is preventing connection.

There has to be some computer configuration wizard, right? How do I find where the errors are??

I am going to Help and Support right now to see if I can find some answers, if I can get it to respond... :(
 
Trizoy -

Before I tried that, I was waiting for the Network Wizard to shut down (I had shut it down through Task Manager but it would not shut down). The (Not Responding) window became a (Not Responding) window! I've never seen that happen before! When I did what you said, it kicked the CPU Usage up to 7-10% right away and also kicked the Network Wizard into gear, too - but running the new task explorer.exe took me right to My Docs. Is that what was supposed to happen?
 
try a virus scan in Safe Mode, viruses often look like Sys32 files and after the registry fix the virus could have been corrupted so it's now conflicting with a system file. something similar, but not to that degree happened, to my computer
 
jkyprodigy,

I ran the virus scan in safe mode, but came up with nothing but a low risk tracking cookie. Any other suggestions on what to do?? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?
 
WEP is not a good encryption. Use WPA, it's faster encoded and more secure. Our connection was slow as well on WEP 128bit and I switched to WPA and it's perfect now.
 
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Thanks for the WPA tip, nexolus. I think there's definitely a virus... I can't even access the system backup. Applications won't open. :( But I'll switch to WPA when I finally get it figured out.
 
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