Strange Problems at startup

[bsaber]

Hi Everyone,

Recently I've been having a lot of strange problems with my desktop when I boot it up. Here are a list of some of the problems:

1) I can't open the volume controls because audio mixer isn't detected or something of that nature. (This happens every once in awhile when I start up the computer but when I reboot the problem goes away.)
2) Everytime the computer starts up the system32 folder opens.
3) Sometimes the "appearance" of windows changes. It looks like when you put the performance settings for "Visual Effects" all the way down to "Adjust for best performance". (Occurs randomly when I'm using the computer.)
4) The Taskbar pushes all the open "program" tabs all the way to the right hand side. I have to unlock the Taskbar and manually drag it back into place.

I have scanned my computer for malware with my antivirus (Nod32), Ewido Security Suite, Ad-aware, and MS Antispyware. There were one or two trojans but thats about it. I haven't changed any system settings for quite some time now and everything looks to be the way I set them before these problems started occurring. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Bsaber

 

[Peddant]

Have you tried system restore ? Try creating another account ?

 

[bsaber]

Hi,

I have more than one account on the computer and it seems to happen in all of them at random. And I don't think system restore will work because these problems have been occurring for quite some time now. Thanks for the reply.

Bsaber

 

[Peddant]

Given the range of problems,there must be a bad registry situation.Obvious suggestion number 3. Scandisk ? and 4. Reg cleaner/fixer ?

 

[C0d3Warr10r]

MSConfig is your friend

I would recommend using MSConfig (Start->Run->msconfig) and make sure that no goofy programs are loading on Windows startup. It would also be a good idea to check the "Services" tab to make sure that no (Non MS) services are running that you don't recognize. If you aren't sure what services to disable, BlackViper has a great guide located at this site. A more detailed description of the services are located here . A fairly compete guide of programs that appear in taskmanager when Windows starts is located here.

Hope the links help you sort out your problem. If all else fails, log into the administrator account and burn a copy of your profile (located at c:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]), include any nonmicrosoft drivers on this CD, format your hard drive and reinstall Windows. Bear in mind that you could spend hours, days, or weeks troubleshooting your problem when you could simply reinstall your OS in less than an hour.

Best of luck,

C0d3Warr10r

 

[bsaber]

C0d3Warr10r,

I've checked msconfig as well as the services as you suggested and haven't found anything that shouldn't be there. I will be running a rootkit scan in a few minutes after writing this post, just in case. Any more ideas?

Bsaber