[AmberBabyMwah]

I know this question has been asked already...but my situations alittle more complex....please read along!!!
:confused:
Okay I have an Hp, running on Windows XP..The computer is basically new, never used for anything other than wordpad. Just recently connected it to a cable modem. Was running absolutely beautifully.

And here the problems began...one of my roommates downloaded a game program onto the computer..The programs true name is VMUD i believe...i did a search under all files and folders for VMUD and it found nothing. So i was snooping around and came across a "Z"MUD. Ran another search, and it had downloaded itself into about 7 different places with all the same folders.

Went through the entire computer and uninstalled the program, and deleted all the files.

Well lets just say i live with an ignorant roomie and he went and downloaded the programs again after i had spent all the time to rid the computer of it.

After a reboot when it was reinstalled..the computer only loads to the desktop. All the icons appear on the desktop, but an hourglass appears over the taskbar and start button. This is a problem thats been listed on the site already..but most people have been able to fix this problem by running safe mode, and pressing ctrl + alt + del. I for one..can't do either..tried getting into MSDOS before the reboot completes...but it wont allow me to. And i can't access the processes through ctrl + alt +del, because i have no control over the screen...its an hour glass for everything, the mouse moves freely without freezing..but i can't click anything.

i've restarted numerous times, unplugged and plugged every cord back into the tower, and nothing seems to be helping. I know people have come here with the same problem..just with alittle more access ability than I, so i'm hoping that someone can help me out with my problem...thats just alittle more complex than the other similiar ones. ***And before any confusion begins..i'm on a laptop writing this not on the desktop***

Any Suggestions would be well appreciated..Thank you for your time

:confused: -Amber <3

[LTheobald]

OK, first - ZMud. I believe this program is harmess (I've played around with it before) so I don't think this would have been what has caused the problem. Anyway, onto fixing it...

This is a problem thats been listed on the site already..but most people have been able to fix this problem by running safe mode, and pressing ctrl + alt + del. I for one..can't do either..tried getting into MSDOS before the reboot completes...but it wont allow me to. And i can't access the processes through ctrl + alt +del, because i have no control over the screen...its an hour glass for everything, the mouse moves freely without freezing..but i can't click anything.

First, even though you have an hourglass on the screen, pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL on most occasions will interrupt this. It may just take a little time. Make sure you hit CTRL+ALT+DEL as soon as you have logged in.

As for getting into safe mode - why can't you access DOS? When you reboot your PC you should be holding F8 from the very start. After a while it should give you a prompt giving the safe mode choice. You'll want "Safe Mode with Networking" as we may need to download something off the internet (if this doesn't work, just use Safe Mode and download the items from the laptop and transfer them via disk). Let us know if you don't even get this prompt - With XP you should certainly get this prompt. The easiest way to fix this problem is to get you into safe mode so let us know any errors etc. you are getting.



Once you get into Safe Mode, you'll want to do several things:

• Download and run a couple of spyware removal tools (see my signature for 3 v.good ones).
• Click on Start >> Run. Type in "MSConfig". Take a look under the Startup tab and remove anything that you don't recognise (also if you have the laptop near you, search for the program names in Google to see what they do).

[ScottGem]

While the game itself may be harmless, where your roommate got it from may have also loaded some spyware junk. Do you have anti-spyware and anti-virus utilities on the machine? Since its connected via broadband you NEED both of those and a firewall.

You also need to to create an ID for your roommate that is limited so they can't keep screwing up your PC. Set a password on your ID and set your screensaver to kick in after a short amount of idle time.

[AmberBabyMwah]

okay so ended up leaving the desktop on over night when all the issues started with it, hoping that maybe it would unfreeze at some point. Before i decided to leave it go, i restarted it once again and tried the F8 thing again to get into safe mode, but it still just went straight to the desktop background and frooze.

So after it being on all night i woke up in the morning and while it was on, it must have jump started one of the virus scanners i have and i rebooted and was able to get into safe mode. Changed the restore point, rebooted, and then after the reboot, it said that it couldn't restore to the point that i had choosen? so i clicked "ok" or whichever option it gives, and was planning on going and picking another restore point, but after i got out of the system restore..everything was fine? So i dont really know what happened..but everything is up and working beautifully. I'm actually on the desktop now.:rolleyes: Glad things ended up working out..hopefully i dont run into the same problem in the future because i didn't "properly" fix the issue.

Thanks for all the suggestions

-Amber <3

[ScottGem]

Glad its solved. Apparently something got corrupted and restoring an older config fixed it.