John Schneider
September 22nd 06, 05:17 AM
Running XP Pro SP2 with all current updates on an IBM ThinkPad T42. Had a
routine day at the office and the machine was working fine. Got home and it
went downhill quickly.
Popped the laptop in the docking station and booted. After logging on, my
wallpaper came right up, but it took about 4-5 minutes (normal time - 4-5
seconds) before all the icons on my desktop showed up. My taskbar was shrunk
to a thin grey line. Hovering over the top edge, I got the double-arrow
cursor, but it would not let me drag the size back to normal. After trying
everything I could think of, I finally got the taskbar back.
When I start any program, it does not show up on the taskbar even though it
is running. Some system tray icons are missing, most notably my network
icons. Control Panel/Network Connections - nothing there. The SQL Server
icon in the system tray is stuck on "Starting" status. In Event Viewer,
there are some suspicious entries in the System and Application logs, but
when I double-click on any of the log entries, nothing happens. Right-click,
I get the context menu, but clicking on Properties does nothing either.
Ran virus & spyware scans, but they came up clean.
How could I have possibly hosed my system so badly just by driving home?????
ANY ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
routine day at the office and the machine was working fine. Got home and it
went downhill quickly.
Popped the laptop in the docking station and booted. After logging on, my
wallpaper came right up, but it took about 4-5 minutes (normal time - 4-5
seconds) before all the icons on my desktop showed up. My taskbar was shrunk
to a thin grey line. Hovering over the top edge, I got the double-arrow
cursor, but it would not let me drag the size back to normal. After trying
everything I could think of, I finally got the taskbar back.
When I start any program, it does not show up on the taskbar even though it
is running. Some system tray icons are missing, most notably my network
icons. Control Panel/Network Connections - nothing there. The SQL Server
icon in the system tray is stuck on "Starting" status. In Event Viewer,
there are some suspicious entries in the System and Application logs, but
when I double-click on any of the log entries, nothing happens. Right-click,
I get the context menu, but clicking on Properties does nothing either.
Ran virus & spyware scans, but they came up clean.
How could I have possibly hosed my system so badly just by driving home?????
ANY ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!