[jeromeburnet]

Hi all,
my 1st post, and I am already begging for help...
I will explain what happens to me...
From one day to another, my PC decided to change the appearance, which renders it almost impossible to use.
To summuarise, on my desktop, all the names of each icons dissapeared, so did the clock, the quick launch icon appear from time to time.
If I click on the right button of my mouse, a grey bar appear, but not the usual menu. You can see the black triangles that allow to open sub menus are here, but I can't see any writing... If I click on something it opens, but I have to take a guess each time...
In the windows, just the icons appear, but all the names (even on the buttons: the "OK" and "cancel" words do not appear)
All the "file" "edit" "view" etc do not appear, and I can't click in the void there, nothing happens...
I managed to take a screen capture, and managed to upload it on photobucket for you to see:

Firefox, however, works fine, all the "file" "edit" etc menus appear and work perfectly...
I really do not get it...
Can someone help me?
Do I have to format my system partition and reinstall xp?

Thanks a lot for your help!

J

[evilfantasy]

What have you downloaded lately?

[jeromeburnet]

Originally Posted by evilfantasy What have you downloaded lately?

hi!
Well, the latest program I tried was called ultimate defrag.
I was not very happy with it, so I erased it;
What it did was uncompress all the files on my system drive, making it run out of space;
i used the windows assistant to recompress and erase all unused files.
then things worked well again... until one day, when things went pear shaped.

Although, I don't know if it is related, but bittorrent gives me an error message after I start the PC, and say that the application has to close...
But I didn't get a file from it for a while... So I doubt this is a virus, but I don't know much about Pcs and stuff (well a bit, but that problem leaves me helpless).
I use avast antivirus, and it notices virus straight away usually...

By the way, I managed to upload another pic, so that you can see what shows up when I click right on my mouse:


so not much shows up in the windows' window... That's the "my computer" window, and I clicked right... just this anorexic menu with icons and arrows appear... And that is the same for every single drop down menu.
Basically, it is as if all text has been erased from Windows...

What I have done so far:
- many registry cleanings
- spyware scans
- disk cleanups (both partitions) using the windows' tool (scandisk), and I ticked the "repair errors" and the other option
- erased that stinking ultimate defrag.

Maybe I should try to do a new defrag to put the files in the right place again, I don't know, maybe the ultimate defrag put some files in some unknows areas, and the PC struggles to find them or something... I'll give it a shot; it can't hurt...

[evilfantasy]

Where did you download ultimate defreg from?

You could have downloaded a bad torrent. It just did not show itself right away.

Aggressive reg cleaners can do damage to systems. This is what concerns me the most right now.
Did you create backups of the registry before cleaning?
Also what reg cleaner did you use?

We can recommend safe cleaners and defraggers but I think it may be better to not do too much just yet.

Do you have the windows repair disk?

[SgtJohnDoe]

if you dont have much on there or if you dont mind losing ur apps (u can always backup on other drive) , a good ol' format should take care of this...

[jeromeburnet]

Originally Posted by evilfantasy Where did you download ultimate defreg from? You could have downloaded a bad torrent. It just did not show itself right away. Aggressive reg cleaners can do damage to systems. This is what concerns me the most right now. Did you create backups of the registry before cleaning? Also what reg cleaner did you use? We can recommend safe cleaners and defraggers but I think it may be better to not do too much just yet. Do you have the windows repair disk?

Hiya, and thanks for your reply.
The programs I have are downloaded from a French website for computing. I have downloaded loads from them, and never have a problem.
For the reg cleaners, I use the same for many years, and I never have had a problem.
They are:
ccleaner
regscrubxp
Advance window care (that also optimise windows)
I did do some backups, and I tried to reinstal them, but as I can't browse windows (withou names for any folder) I haven't found them...

I think it is more towards the bad torrent, as there is a problem with bit torrent...

I will have to format my system partition I guess... On this part, i really just have the system. all m programs are on the other partition, so it doesn't bother me too much...
I just have a few programs on that one...

[jeromeburnet]

Originally Posted by SgtJohnDoe if you dont have much on there or if you dont mind losing ur apps (u can always backup on other drive) , a good ol' format should take care of this...

it looks like it is what I must do...
thanks for your reply...

[SgtJohnDoe]

np, wish i knew of another way, cause that one is a last resort. good luck with that

[LVend90]

Originally Posted by jeromeburnet I did do some backups, and I tried to reinstal them, but as I can't browse windows (withou names for any folder) I haven't found them...

Don't know very much about computer. But I can suggest this. How about search option under 'My Computer"? You can always search by using the file extension. Backup file should have different extension than others. Hope this help.

[SgtJohnDoe]

O w8 b4 formatting i just thought of something else.....good ol' system restore... Just restore it to like 1 month ago and it should be good...

[jeromeburnet]

hey everybody!
Thanks for all your help!
I did a repair of Windows xp, and it sorted out the problem.
Thanks again!

[evilfantasy]

Post # 4

Originally Posted by evilfantasy Do you have the windows repair disk?

Glad you got it sorted out.