Losing Desktop

[john]

I upgraded from ME to XP Home. That's when problems
started. Hard drive got eaten up by mysterious MS virus -
had to replace. Reloaded ME and XP on new drive. In
the last three months I've had to reformat drive 3 times.
Now I lose my taskbar and desktop and have to try to run
everything off of Task Manager. After a "restore" and a
ten minute wait everything comes up and seems okay, until
a restart is done. Then I get a system error, lose my
desktop and have to go back to the Task Manager. Any
clues - I've heard there is a problem with the XP upgrade
on ME. Should I just deep six the system and order a new
system with XP Pro

[Walter Clayton]

I'm running fine with XP over Me. The issues however are very real. They
tend to revolve around leaving applications that hook deep into the system
installed prior to the upgrade. Anti-virus, firewalls and burner apps fall
in this category specifically but there are others. Unfortunately correcting
those issues post upgrade is tricky. Other issues revolve around driver
support. Some of 9x drivers will cause problems post upgrade, although
that's a rare situation.

However, without knowing exact error messages, it's all pure guess work at
present as to what the issue is.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp


"john" > wrote in message
...
> I upgraded from ME to XP Home. That's when problems
> started. Hard drive got eaten up by mysterious MS virus -
> had to replace. Reloaded ME and XP on new drive. In
> the last three months I've had to reformat drive 3 times.
> Now I lose my taskbar and desktop and have to try to run
> everything off of Task Manager. After a "restore" and a
> ten minute wait everything comes up and seems okay, until
> a restart is done. Then I get a system error, lose my
> desktop and have to go back to the Task Manager. Any
> clues - I've heard there is a problem with the XP upgrade
> on ME. Should I just deep six the system and order a new
> system with XP Pro

[john]

Sorry for taking so long for the response to your
question about the type of error message. I had to wait
for my system to crash again to get the error message.
This time it took two days.

When I start up after my desktop disappears - other than
for my background picture - I get the following message:
16 Bit MS Dos
C:\window\system\userinit.exe
The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction
CS: 0dbf IP:64fc:0f 04 00 00 00

All programs appear to be functioning in the background
as I can access them thru task manager (as I am doing
now) Still have no task/tool bar and no desktop icons.

Tried system restore to no avail.

Any help will be appreciated. Although I have already
ordered a replacemnt CPU with XP Pro installed, it would
be nice to solve this problem so that I can network to my
old cpu.

Thanks again.
>-----Original Message-----
>I'm running fine with XP over Me. The issues however are
very real. They
>tend to revolve around leaving applications that hook
deep into the system
>installed prior to the upgrade. Anti-virus, firewalls
and burner apps fall
>in this category specifically but there are others.
Unfortunately correcting
>those issues post upgrade is tricky. Other issues
revolve around driver
>support. Some of 9x drivers will cause problems post
upgrade, although
>that's a rare situation.
>
>However, without knowing exact error messages, it's all
pure guess work at
>present as to what the issue is.
>
>--
>Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
>Associate Expert
>http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
>Any technology distinguishable from magic is
insufficiently advanced.
>http://www.dts-l.org
>http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/def
ault.asp
>
>
>"john" > wrote in message
...
>> I upgraded from ME to XP Home. That's when problems
>> started. Hard drive got eaten up by mysterious MS
virus -
>> had to replace. Reloaded ME and XP on new drive. In
>> the last three months I've had to reformat drive 3
times.
>> Now I lose my taskbar and desktop and have to try to
run
>> everything off of Task Manager. After a "restore" and
a
>> ten minute wait everything comes up and seems okay,
until
>> a restart is done. Then I get a system error, lose my
>> desktop and have to go back to the Task Manager. Any
>> clues - I've heard there is a problem with the XP
upgrade
>> on ME. Should I just deep six the system and order a
new
>> system with XP Pro
>
>
>.
>

[Walter Clayton]

That's the 16b DOS emulator. Do a find on your machine for all versions of
command.com and cmd.exe. If you see one outside of the windows\system32
directory structure, rename it to something else and see what happens.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp


"john" > wrote in message
...
> Sorry for taking so long for the response to your
> question about the type of error message. I had to wait
> for my system to crash again to get the error message.
> This time it took two days.
>
> When I start up after my desktop disappears - other than
> for my background picture - I get the following message:
> 16 Bit MS Dos
> C:\window\system\userinit.exe
> The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction
> CS: 0dbf IP:64fc:0f 04 00 00 00
>
> All programs appear to be functioning in the background
> as I can access them thru task manager (as I am doing
> now) Still have no task/tool bar and no desktop icons.
>
> Tried system restore to no avail.
>
> Any help will be appreciated. Although I have already
> ordered a replacemnt CPU with XP Pro installed, it would
> be nice to solve this problem so that I can network to my
> old cpu.
>
> Thanks again.
> >-----Original Message-----
> >I'm running fine with XP over Me. The issues however are
> very real. They
> >tend to revolve around leaving applications that hook
> deep into the system
> >installed prior to the upgrade. Anti-virus, firewalls
> and burner apps fall
> >in this category specifically but there are others.
> Unfortunately correcting
> >those issues post upgrade is tricky. Other issues
> revolve around driver
> >support. Some of 9x drivers will cause problems post
> upgrade, although
> >that's a rare situation.
> >
> >However, without knowing exact error messages, it's all
> pure guess work at
> >present as to what the issue is.
> >
> >--
> >Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
> >Associate Expert
> >http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> >Any technology distinguishable from magic is
> insufficiently advanced.
> >http://www.dts-l.org
> >http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/def
> ault.asp
> >
> >
> >"john" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> I upgraded from ME to XP Home. That's when problems
> >> started. Hard drive got eaten up by mysterious MS
> virus -
> >> had to replace. Reloaded ME and XP on new drive. In
> >> the last three months I've had to reformat drive 3
> times.
> >> Now I lose my taskbar and desktop and have to try to
> run
> >> everything off of Task Manager. After a "restore" and
> a
> >> ten minute wait everything comes up and seems okay,
> until
> >> a restart is done. Then I get a system error, lose my
> >> desktop and have to go back to the Task Manager. Any
> >> clues - I've heard there is a problem with the XP
> upgrade
> >> on ME. Should I just deep six the system and order a
> new
> >> system with XP Pro
> >
> >
> >.
> >