Hello,
I'm working on my grandmother's computer and trying to get it to boot
properly. A couple days ago, after re-installing the dailer software for her
lite DSL internet connection (it just lets her control when she's connected
and when she's not) she found that her computer would kind of slow to a stop
during startup. I'd load the desktop and taskbar/system tray, plus the
volume control, a few other things, and after the splash screen for Adaptec
DirectCD would disappear, it would leave the pencil in the corner and stops
loading anything. The Start menu will not appear (the Start button stays
depressed and won't pop out), and nothing will appear in My Computer after a
warning box from IE informs you that the ActiveX settings may prevent the
page from being displayed properly. Most of this stays the same in Safe
Mode, except that you can only see 4 items in My Computer and the CD drives
don't appear. I haven't tried a whole lot, but I'm planning on a virus scan
with my Norton Antivirus 2004 setup CD, but I don't know what to try from
there. System Restore will not load properly at all, but I can use Winkey +
R to run anything I want (apart from opening folders, they still appear with
nothing in them but the status bar saying there is).The OS CD is one of
those System Recovery CDs that OEM manufacturers make but choosing not to
run setup leaves you at a DOS prompt allowing acsess to the hard drive. Does
anyone have any further suggestions as to a course of action? Thanks for the
help.
Jonathan Moscardini