What has my niece done?

angelcake · 25 October 2006 at 1:46PM

I can get into safe mode but it won't let me do anything? no icons no desktop no start menu nothing!

tobyosbourn · 25 October 2006 at 2:09PM

What version of windows was it running?

angelcake · 26 October 2006 at 6:54AM

Hi, It is a packard bell and has windows xp on

When It is turned on it flashes up the dos stuff going through gets to the 'Windows xp Home edition screen then you hear a click and there is a black screen with a mouse cursor showing!

cdbrown · 26 October 2006 at 8:27AM

save-a-lot wrote:

HiAlso, it is not the best idea to download free programs to check for spyware, adware etc as this itself my be some form of adware.

I don't agree with this - Adaware by Lavasoft, Spybot and HijackThis are all excellent programs which are all free.

startrekker · 26 October 2006 at 10:00AM

angelcake wrote:

I can get into safe mode but it won't let me do anything? no icons no desktop no start menu nothing!

seems i have seen this before, it wasnt caused by hitting escape but viruses and loads of them..
I booted into safe mode and nothing was was on the desktop at all. i got the start menu up by pressing alt and window tab or ctrl and window tab. I was then able to access the anti virus software and run it from there. I do believe though that in the end i re-installed windows as it had been trashed so much.

amcluesent · 26 October 2006 at 6:36PM

>you hear a click and there is a black screen<

Hmm, 'clicks' tend to be from failing hard disks. Not good news, but only a PC repair bod could properly diagnose what is happening.

johnmc · 27 October 2006 at 12:59PM

No, the click is probably from the monitor.

I agree with Startrekker. I too have seen the same thing. I would suggest that the system files have been corrupted by virii, spyware etc.

I would recommend following Albertross' advise (above). If that fails then remove the harddrive and buddy it in your own (make sure your own virus checker is up to date first). Run a virus check on it and, preferably, format the drive and reinstal Windows.

angelcake · 27 October 2006 at 8:01PM

How would I do this? Step by step please? Many thanks xxx

albertross_2 · 27 October 2006 at 8:13PM

try safe mode (F8 at boot), ctrl alt del, task manager, new task explorer, it might just kick it into life.. or it might not.

juno · 27 October 2006 at 8:16PM

With most packard bells, you can press and hold F11 on starting to run the recovery programme. This will reinstall windows though, so do it as a last resort as you'll lose everything.