can't open anything in windows, need help badly

Hey guys, for some reason, I cannot open ANYTHING in windows xp w/ sp2. It worked fine in the morning when I was surfing the web (emails, forums, xanga, I did not download anything and I know that for sure) but in the afternoon when I came back from lunch, I couldn't open anything. No one could have possibly touched the laptop and I am sure of that as well.
In details, when I double click on an icon, whether it's on the desktop or in the startbar, all icons and the startbar disappears for a bit, leaving only the wallpaper, then reappear again as if the computer just logged on. This happens for everything I click, including folders, my computer, IE, norton antivirus, everything. This also happens for all 3 accounts on the laptop. I also notice that ever since this started happening, my start apps do not load. It seems like they load but everytime one of them finishes loading, the icon-startbar-disappear-reappear thing happens, so this happens for like...every start apps I have as well.

I've tried booting up from my Windows CD and do a repair/recovery. However, it requires my Administrator password which I have never set and simply clicking enter does not work. All the accounts do not require a password to log in. I'm really stuck here, and I don't want to reinstall everything unless I really have no alternatives. Please give me some help and advices, thanks.

Specs of laptop (Asus M9V):
Pent - M 750
1G ram
80 GB 5400 rpm HD
ATI X 600SE
WinXP sp2

 

Hmmm.. can you get to the Start, Run? Type in cmd. When you are in command prompt (black screen) type in chkdsk /r Then it will ask to do a check the next time the computer restarts, press Y. Restart your laptop. It will do a scandisk, do not press any key. Not sure if this will work, but worth a try.

I've tried it in the past with other problems and it worked. Let us know if it worked or not.

 

try booting into safe mode. let it go all the way. then shut down/restart up normally and see if it still does it.

 

I just spent about an hour and tried both methods suggested but I am still having the same problem Thanks for the great tips though.

Would there be a default password for the Administrator if none was set in the first place? That Windows repair/recovery option from disc booting seems to be my best bet at the moment.

 

what happened when you booted into safe mode?

 

It was basically the exact same thing. I couldn't launch any programs or open any folders and that same disappear-reappear phenomenon occurs. I am really close to just give up and reformat

 

well, what you're describing sounds like explorer crashing repeatedly. honestly, i would suspect a virus. you don't necessarily need to download something to get a virus. if i were you, i would use someone else's computer to download the following updated virus definitions and spyware definitions. boot your computer into safe mode and log into the administrator account -- this is important. if the admin account works, you need to install the updated definitions and run scans. if you are comfortable working in the registry i'd also recommend taking a look at the runs and/or using hijack this.

best of luck.

 

Yeap, looks like explorer is crashing over and over. A system restore could be useful, though it explorer is crashing repeatedly, you may not be able to access it.

 

Hey guys, the problem is solved now and honestly, I don't know how. I turned it on this morning and logged on to my usual account and everything works fine except two error messages that pop up one after the other. One says that it can not find "C:\Program" and the other says it can not find "Files\PrintDL.exe". After clicking OK (the only choice) for both errors, everything is back to normal. Except now I get these two error messages every time I log on (comes out on all accounts). I've tried scanning with Norton Antivirus and Spybot with the most recent updates. Although Spybot found a few problems and that I successfully fixed all of them, the two error messages still doesn't go away. Norton did not find any problems. Are there other anti programs I should try?

What causes explorer to crash over and over? And what's system restore?

Thanks for the help guys =)

 

Look for your startup file. Something (or someone) must have pressed "enter" or put a space between those 2 entries... It should be "C:\Program Files\PrintDL.exe"

(run msconfig under "run")

hope that helps

 

I've seen cases where the .exe file type will be associated with a program (which usually means a virus) that causes these kinds of errors. The only reference to PrintDL.exe I could find was here, and it was loaded via the win.ini file with a LOAD directive. Usually you shouldn't need anything with LOAD in the win.ini file, FYI. Hope that helps.