Windows won't load fully

The_Other_One

VIP Member
I've not had a lot of time to diagnose this computer that came in today, but it has an interesting issue I've not seen before. OK, as with all machines, I removed the drive and scanned it using our "tech machines". I used AVG, Avira, and Malware Bytes, each finding a few infected files. After cleaning the drive, I pop it back into the machine.

The computer will boot to Windows XP without any errors. However, it will only get to the point where it shows the desktop background; no icons. Normally at this point, I can do CTRL-ALT-DEL and start Explorer. However, Task Manager has been disabled for the account. OK, so I boot to safe mode, login as the Admin (which still won't get to the desktop) and do the same. Unlike what I normally get, My Documents opens up...?

There's probably something still infecting it because USB drives won't work and the CD-ROM apparently won't work either (visible but won't open in My Computer). I may run a repair on it tomorrow, but I know the team's very particular about doing that...
 
I would suggest running combofix on it and most of your problems should go away. The missing cdrom in my computer should just be a registry edit by deleting the upper and lower filters.
 
Yeah, I was going to run combofix, but I couldn't get my drive to be seen. And the optical drive does show up, just can't be read. Perhaps tomorrow I'll pull the drive out and put combofix directly onto the hard drive.
 
Sounds like it will need a repair and then a full scan with mbam/combofix. if you can't even get that far, format it i'd say.
 
Does the cd drive show up in the boot? If it does, you coulp probably just run the repair utility off the cd
 
I've not had a lot of time to diagnose this computer that came in today, but it has an interesting issue I've not seen before. OK, as with all machines, I removed the drive and scanned it using our "tech machines". I used AVG, Avira, and Malware Bytes, each finding a few infected files. After cleaning the drive, I pop it back into the machine.

The computer will boot to Windows XP without any errors. However, it will only get to the point where it shows the desktop background; no icons. Normally at this point, I can do CTRL-ALT-DEL and start Explorer. However, Task Manager has been disabled for the account. OK, so I boot to safe mode, login as the Admin (which still won't get to the desktop) and do the same. Unlike what I normally get, My Documents opens up...?

There's probably something still infecting it because USB drives won't work and the CD-ROM apparently won't work either (visible but won't open in My Computer). I may run a repair on it tomorrow, but I know the team's very particular about doing that...
i guess u should repair d os and try fixing the ntdrtect.com file which must ve been curropted.all d best.
 
this may be pointless to ask but did you type in "explorer.exe" instead of just "explorer" in the run bar? just typing in "explorer" opens my documents but "explorer.exe" has always brought up icons for me.
 
I ended up loading combofix on the drive then popping the drive back into the system. It managed to make it boot again. After that I ran a few more tests and the system seems to be good to go. Of course, the customer's voice mail is full so I can't inform him his computer is good to go. :P

I'm actually at work now. When I started, they were backed up. Now our inbound shelf is empty :P
 
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