PC Help needed: When the Start button and Desktop dont appear - what is the cause?

Discussion in 'Video Games and Technology' started by Recall, Mar 4, 2008.

  1. Recall, Mar 4, 2008
    #1
    Recall

    Recall Player Select

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2006
    Posts:
    6,127
    News Credits:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    227
    Likes:
    +9
    Sometimes when I power up my laptop the desktop icons and start button do not appear, well nothing appears except my wallpaper, resulting in my having to power it off and then turning it back on. Its a new laptop (Dual Core with XP, at my request - I don't like vista) I only bought it about 2 months ago.

    Does anyone know the reason why it would do this? Or any remedy to slove it?

    Thanks for your help
     
  2. Joe Moore, Mar 4, 2008
    #2
    Joe Moore

    Joe Moore Is Not Jim... Veteran

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2003
    Posts:
    14,474
    News Credits:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    312
    Likes:
    +35
    Ebay:
    Twitter:
    Sounds like Explorer.exe is not kicking off properly. You can do so manually by hitting ctrl+alt+delete and clicking on Task Manager. In the menu, click on File - New Task (Run). then just type in explorer.exe.

    that should help and prevent you from the need to restart if it happens.
     
  3. Recall, Mar 4, 2008
    #3
    Recall

    Recall Player Select

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2006
    Posts:
    6,127
    News Credits:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    227
    Likes:
    +9
    Ok, thanks for the info, much appreciated, I have no idea why the explorer.exe wouldn't be starting correctly.
     
  4. yodafett, Mar 4, 2008
    #4
    yodafett

    yodafett Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2005
    Posts:
    1,457
    Trophy Points:
    177
    Likes:
    +4
    Facebook:
    Twitter:
    This also happens a lot when MS updates are applying (as some don't finalize until a PC is restarted), and they just seem to hang there. We see this a lot after I manually push updates out to the workstations here at work.
     
  5. BetaSword, Mar 4, 2008
    #5
    BetaSword

    BetaSword Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2006
    Posts:
    272
    Trophy Points:
    111
    Likes:
    +0
    Annother possible reason might be a damaged RAM-Module, which could also cause a Ble-Screen-Crash.
    If this problem keeps to pop up, try removing one(preferrably leave those most nearest to the CPU), and start up your PC, if this problem then disappears, it's most probably, that the removed RAM-Module is toasted(currently, I'm running without my second 512MBDDR2-PC400-Module).
     
  6. Recall, Mar 4, 2008
    #6
    Recall

    Recall Player Select

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2006
    Posts:
    6,127
    News Credits:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    227
    Likes:
    +9
    If anything is toasted on a new laptop that's causualy used then someone is gonna pay, hopefully :p 

    I'm hoping its not that drastic but if its something that causes this then i'm gonna have to look into it, thanks for the help.
     
  7. BetaSword, Mar 5, 2008
    #7
    BetaSword

    BetaSword Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2006
    Posts:
    272
    Trophy Points:
    111
    Likes:
    +0
    Let's hope it's not such a big problem.
    Also, if the RAM is toasted, you might encounter some slight Color-Changes, when holding the Module to reflect the Light a bit on the black Surface of the SMDs - at least, thet's how i managed to identify my RAM-Module to be toasted.

    Or it might could be annother problem, like a corrupted Antivirus-Installation.
    In fact, one Update, i got on my PC of Avira Antivir rendered my PC unuseable, then i reinstalled everything, getting the same problem after Antivir updated. Then I just started in Protected Mode, and uninstalled Antivir.
    To maintain Antivirus-Protection, i've installed AVG Free, having no problems since then.