No desktop after SP2 installed

I have successfully installed SP2 on dozens of systems but have a problem
with one particular laptop.

Laptop has XP Pro installed and SP2 seems to install ok and system reboots.
Get to the network login screen and logon as normal to network, get the
startup tune but only a bleu desktop, no icons or start-menu bar etc appear.
Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up the usual 6 button box and Task Manager shows
processes running, I can start a new process and open a CMD line and navigate
the drive etc. If I try to start another copy of explorer it loads but no
desktop appears.

System has XP service pack 1 and all other required hot fixes applied. It
has 256mb RAM and 11gbytes free disk space.

Luckily I was able to boot into safe mode and uninstall SP2.

Now this systm is used by a sales person who takes it abroad a lot so I
would like to get sp2 and all its features running. Can anyone suggest what
might be wrong?

I guess I could wipe the system and reinstall XP from scratch and then sp2
but that will take time and the user likes the way the system is set at the
moment.

Boot in Safe Mode, disable your anti-virus program. Reboot.
Install SP2. Reboot. Enable anti-virus before going to the Net.
"How to Boot in Safe Mode"
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/capture/safemode.html

"Maurice" wrote:

I have successfully installed SP2 on dozens of systems but have a problem
with one particular laptop.

Laptop has XP Pro installed and SP2 seems to install ok and system reboots.
Get to the network login screen and logon as normal to network, get the
startup tune but only a bleu desktop, no icons or start-menu bar etc appear.
Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up the usual 6 button box and Task Manager shows
processes running, I can start a new process and open a CMD line and navigate
the drive etc. If I try to start another copy of explorer it loads but no
desktop appears.

System has XP service pack 1 and all other required hot fixes applied. It
has 256mb RAM and 11gbytes free disk space.

Luckily I was able to boot into safe mode and uninstall SP2.

Now this systm is used by a sales person who takes it abroad a lot so I
would like to get sp2 and all its features running. Can anyone suggest what
might be wrong?

I guess I could wipe the system and reinstall XP from scratch and then sp2
but that will take time and the user likes the way the system is set at the
moment.

Well I can try that but on every other system I have installed SP2 on had the
same, McAfee Enterprise 7.1 AV software, installed on them and they gave no
trouble.


"Byte" wrote:

Boot in Safe Mode, disable your anti-virus program. Reboot.
Install SP2. Reboot. Enable anti-virus before going to the Net.
"How to Boot in Safe Mode"
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/capture/safemode.html

"Maurice" wrote:

I have successfully installed SP2 on dozens of systems but have a problem
with one particular laptop.

Laptop has XP Pro installed and SP2 seems to install ok and system reboots.
Get to the network login screen and logon as normal to network, get the
startup tune but only a bleu desktop, no icons or start-menu bar etc appear.
Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up the usual 6 button box and Task Manager shows
processes running, I can start a new process and open a CMD line and navigate
the drive etc. If I try to start another copy of explorer it loads but no
desktop appears.

System has XP service pack 1 and all other required hot fixes applied. It
has 256mb RAM and 11gbytes free disk space.

Luckily I was able to boot into safe mode and uninstall SP2.

Now this systm is used by a sales person who takes it abroad a lot so I
would like to get sp2 and all its features running. Can anyone suggest what
might be wrong?

I guess I could wipe the system and reinstall XP from scratch and then sp2
but that will take time and the user likes the way the system is set at the
moment.