Strange problems in Windows XP...

vivid_vibe

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406
Hello all,

I am trying to help my father resolve some troubling problems with his Windows XP Pro desktop computer, hopefully without a reinstall. When he went to log on the other day, almost all of his desktop icons were gone and windows was behaving as if it had just been installed. For instance, the take a tour of Windows thing came up, and even when other programs were run, they too behaved as if they had just been installed. His Outlook Express when opened had to be configured again with e-mail address info and pop and smtp server info. Once you straighten all of this out, if you do a reboot the behavior begins all over again. His favorites under IE are also acting up, and all of his e-mail is apparently gone. The strange thing is, his favorites are in the proper folder, but IE will not display them. There are other problems as well: all desktop customization resets upon a reboot. There are other problems I'm sure I'm forgetting as well.

I have tried running sfc, it solved nothing. I have tried running Norton System Utilities to perhaps repair a corrupt registry, it helped nothing. I am probably about to reinstall Windows unless someone here recognizes all of these symptoms as pointing to a particular problem.

He is running Windows XP Pro SP2 with all updates current as of 10/10/06. Also, is there any way to try to recover his e-mails? Where and in what form are they stored on the harddrive? Any suggestions will be greatly, greatly appreciated (and repped of course).

vivid
 
Just a long shot but is the system time correct with date and time (lower right corner of task bar). Maybe Windows thinks it’s just been installed because the time is off by a few years.

I have seen a system with XP show some date in 1990 once (that really messed things up) so if the time is off by very much like years then replace the motherboard battery (or reset it to the correct time and see what happens) .

Just a thought, I hope it’s that simple.
 
Well, the system date and time is correct, so that's probably not it. Thanks anyway.
 
sounds like a new profile

try logging off and seeing if there are more then one users
 
Well, there are three user profiles on the system. The other two are unaffected entirely. They function as they should. Thanks,

vivid
 
go into my computer, open "c", documents and settings, the user profile file and see if you cand find the information that's missing
 
go into my computer, open "c", documents and settings, the user profile file and see if you cand find the information that's missing

Well, I am able to navigate to his favorites folder, and it contains all of his favorites, yet IE will not display them if you click favorites. I do not know where e-mail is kept though, nor in what form it is saved in.

vivid

EDIT: Okay, I found his e-mails and managed to get them imported back into OE. The Favorites thing is strange though. I can't find a way to make IE open or recognize them in any way. However, you can open the Favorites folder and double-click them and visit each site that way.
 
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Save all his stuff flush his account and make a new one and put back his docs and favs.
 
Well, I am able to navigate to his favorites folder, and it contains all of his favorites, yet IE will not display them if you click favorites. I do not know where e-mail is kept though, nor in what form it is saved in.

vivid

EDIT: Okay, I found his e-mails and managed to get them imported back into OE. The Favorites thing is strange though. I can't find a way to make IE open or recognize them in any way. However, you can open the Favorites folder and double-click them and visit each site that way.
drag them into a differant profile folder
 
drag them into a differant profile folder
better

C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Favorites

use the alternate profile, go to run, use this command to open the folder, or, just cut and paste the favorites into your new favorites folder using

"favorites" all by itself in run
 
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Number 30 on the left side might be of some help. kellys-korner

Check this registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

For "nosavesettings" with a dword of 1 = enabled a dword value of 0 = disabled

If that string is there it should be set to "0".
 
I agree that it is probably something profile related, doing a clean install of XP would be a bit drastic.

Creating a new profile is probably your fastest solution, you may also want to run this little tool on the PC:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-8912-4e18-b570-42470e2f3582&displaylang=en

Well, I ran the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service on the Windows website and did a reboot, same results.

Number 30 on the left side might be of some help. kellys-korner

Check this registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

For "nosavesettings" with a dword of 1 = enabled a dword value of 0 = disabled

If that string is there it should be set to "0".

Tried the reg file from Kellys-Korner, no luck. Also, nosavesettings is indeed set to "0" already. Guess I'll be deleting his current profile and assigning him a new one. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

vivid
 
just create a new profile as suggested, i'm sure the issue will then resolve itself.
 
if it happens again........something that you must not overlook is the battery on your mother board..how long has you father had that pc ? I had that problem about 2 years ago...and after so much of trouble and asking forums here and there..I finally found out that was the answer..changed the battery and worked as usual again
 

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