Dell dimension 3000, Windows XP SP3. I ran CCleaner first (mostly temp files, etc). Then ran chkdsk during the night. Got up in the morning and the taskbar was all but gone, except for a thin blue line. Had to leave for work, so didn't get to it until now. It appears my internet connection is gone, I clicked on my ISP icon and nothing. I did manage to get a workable taskbar by adding a new taskbar. I tried to get into System Restore, but got a message that windows was unable to use System Restore and I needed to restart, did that and still got the same message.
I'm currently in Safemode, but no taskbar, and I can't seem to get a new one. That's where things are at the moment.
What I need is a way to get into System Restore.
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

This sounds like a corrupted registry. Do you have a recent registry backup you may have made using ERUNT or similar such utility? Sometimes if your registry is corrupted the System Restore service won't even run, in which case you might be out of luck unless you have a registry backup to restore from. Or if you have an image backup from Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost or similar program, to restore a good image ..

Have you tried "Use Last Known Good Configuration" ?

Actually, I thought about that as I was getting into SafeMode, but I was concerned that the last known good configuration would be the one when chdksk finished. Now that I think about it what would I have to lose. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks.

Okay; it was like I thought: Windows figures that the "good configuration" is the one I have. (no internet connection, can't use System Restore). The actual message I'm getting when trying to access System Restore is: "System Restore is not able to protect your computer. Please restart your computer, then run System Restore again". When I restart, I get the same message. I was able to get into Safe Mode(with Network connections), and did have a taskbar, but still no internet connection, and I got the same message about System Restore.
I do have a backup on an external harddrive, but I'm not sure how uncorrupt it is. I think that harddrive was what was causing Windows to take so long to load.

Edit: Well, Windows wasn't even recognizing the drive when I hooked it back up. I guess I'm --well--screwed. Know of any good deals on Windows 7?

Yeah..sounds like your HD is pooched. 6 minutes for bootup means either a bad Hardware issue or a bad virus. Neither one is good.

There is one last resort that you could try. If you have your WinXP disc ( not a Recovery Disk..a real WinXP disk ) you can use XP's " Hidden Total Rebuild Feature " that will completely restore WinXP to pristine condition with absolutely no loss of data and no re-installation of third party programs required. It really is a very, very handy feature.

The only thing that you will have to do is to go to Windows Update and install all of the Security and Critical updates...but that's no big deal.

Fred Langa wrote a feature on this some years ago ( BTW, it works with W2K and Vista as well ). Windows 7 now incorporates this procedure as part of it's Automatic Repair Option.



If you get things back up and running after following the above procedures, then I would immedialtely Back-up all Data to your external drive.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897&queryText=Xp\'s%20and%20nondestructive%20and%20rebuild

Post back with results please.

BTW, what mfg of HD do you have? WD has some very good diagnostic tools that you may want to check the HD with.

MSU

What caused the 6 minute bootup time was the external harddrive where my two backups were. I had one for the Dimension 3000 and one for the Dimension 8100(my 'spare', and the one I'm currently using for Internet browsing.
I'm getting another error message when I click on My Documents folder. It says: "Windows Live ID Internet Connection Error", "Your request cannot be completed because the Windows Live ID service could not be found or did not respond. The service might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your network settings".
I did notice before hitting the sack last night that chkdsk was listing a 'whole bunch' of ("Invalid Security ID" replacing with default Security ID").
Edit: The 6 minutes was mentioned in the "How run chkdsk" thread. It seemed better to me to start a different thread, since it's a different problem. (maybe I should have just posted this in the other thread?
On the Windows disk. It's an upgrade disk first of all, and it also is SP2, not SP3, (which I now have); plus I can't find it yet. I do have a Vista Home Basic disk, which I bought, but never installed.

MSU

Simple-I disconnected the external harddrive and the 3000 booted up normally.

There has to be some problem for it to do that. Can't think what it might be though.

MSU

The external harddrive is where I had my two backups, which I've mentioned. My guess, is that it's corrupted. Windows doesn't even recognize the harddrive now. See post #4.
My main problem at the moment is my C drive on the 3000, not the external harddrive(except for the fact that that's where my backups were). To also mention; most of the programs seem to be running okay on the desktop; it's just that there is no operable System Restore and no internet connection. Under 'connections' in Internet Options, the box for Dialup is empty; it's not showing my ISP (Pacific Online). I'm going to call them tomorrow.

No, because apparently I don't have my Windows CD. I moved a few years ago and haven't used that CD since. I found my XP Office CD. The only thing I have is the reinstallation CD and I'm not sure if that will work, because it has SP2 on it and I have SP3 installed.

Edit: I don't think there is any sense in calling my ISP either. I noticed that all my printers are gone from the the printers and faxes folder in Control Panel and when I clicked on 'Add printer'; the message I got was: "Unable to complete operation. The printer spool service is not running".

The others have made such excellent suggestions, - that's what I like about this forum, the people are so knowledgable and helpful on practical computer issues, especially System Recovery issues like this one.

Well, let me just add my little "two cents". Let's hope you get back up and running with a functional Windows that has all its Services running well. What can happen at any time is, your Registry can get corrupted and then, to borrow chickenman's rather blunt phrase {which I looked up on google}, you are royally FUBARED!

The pre-emptive answer for that possible dilemma is this:
Go here, download and install the little ERUNT utility:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

Set it to Autorun a daily backup of your Registry. You won't have the problem ever again of having no good Registry Backup from which to recover. ERUNT will even run from Safe Mode, which indeed may be necessary when cannot boot into Normal Mode of Windows. Hope that helps, and good luck!

It looks like my 'reinstallation' CD has everything that Fred Langa is 'talking' about. I've got some more reading to do yet, so that I have a better idea of what to do as I go along.

On another note; I went searching for harddrives. That was a lesson in futility. Staples, Best Buy, Office Depot--nothing. The Dell has EIDE harddrives, which appear to be disappearing. I can probably get one online. It might be time to think about another computer, maybe a notebook or netbook for Christmas.

I'm going to keep at getting the 3000 up and running in the meantime.

An option that you have is to get an adapter bridge that will allow a new SATA hardrive to connect to your existing IDE mobo.

Attachment #1, (jpg file)

Thanks, I printed that out for future reference.

Well, I was almost successful on the repair of Windows. Everything went well until the part where Windows started asking for a file from True Image. I had the True Image which I put in the CD drive, but Windows couldn't find it. the file is: 'timntr_2k.sys'. I did a search of the 8100, which also has True Image 9 installed on it and nothing came up; I included all hidden foleders and files. I'm going to try a search of the web; then log onto Acronis webpage if I don't get it.

Edit: I found out how to get it.
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-91863.html

IT WORKED! I am now on the Net with my 3000! YES! Thanks, especially to Richard(Chickenman), but also to everyone else who posted in to help. All my printers are listed in Control Panel, obviously, my Internet connection is back. I will be installing the ERUNT utility. Making new backups. I'm going to reformat my external drive for storage(I think the drive is okay, it was the backups that were corrupted). I will do run a check(not chkdsk), on the drive and also my secondary harddrive, which I also want to use for backups.

Steve

GREAT News!

Good stuff!! Perseverance pays off...

Actually, there is one slight glitch still. When I had the problem with the taskbar, I somehow deleted the My Documents folder from the desktop. Is there a way to get it back?

I believe you can also use TweakUI to display shortcut to My Documents on Start Menu,-
or you can configure that from Start Menu as well.

Attachment #1, (gif file)

Thanks, I've got the My Documents folder taken care of, but I have still one more problem. I installed IE8, I can't get into Windows update. It tells me I have connection problems. The only program that has a connection problem is Windows update, everything else connects just fine. I know I can go to the Microsoft website and get them manually, but that's kind of a pain. Does anyone know of a way to 'jump start Windows Update, or come up with something else?

Thanks,
Steve

I just got back from work, so I haven't tried the second suggestion. I did print out the procedure. I tried the reset idea, but it didn't work.
When I got things up and running, I tried to go to Windows Update, and it told me I needed a version of Internet Explorer 5 or higher and asked me if I wanted to download IE 8, so I did.

The second idea is what I need.
Scenario 1--"You have repaired the Windows XP installation by using the Windows XP CD".
Yep, I did that.

I'm off to see if it works.
Edit: Method 1 didn't work.

Attachment #1, (gif file)

There is also the "Microsoft Fixit" in this article:

How do I reset Windows Update components?

Other Articles on MS WebSite to look at:

How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows XP

How to read the Windowsupdate.log file

How to troubleshoot common Windows Update, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server Update Services installation issues

How to troubleshoot Windows Update or Microsoft Update when you are repeatedly offered an update

Information for network administrators about how to obtain the latest Windows Update Agent

Your settings are not saved when you try to personalize the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site

Finally I have attached a ZipFile containing simple Script which will re-register the WU components, but I think the Dial-a-Fix utility will do the same thing.

Attachment #1, (zip file)

Thanks for all your replies. I did need to fix Windows Update, but I don't think that's all of the problem. I think it might be Internet Explorer. The message I got was: "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage"; that happened on trying to load several web pages, including here, which is my home page. I used System Restore and took it back to just after Windows finished with the repair process. I had a CD with IE7 on it, thinking it might be safer installing from the CD, instead of a downloaded exe. I did that, and got a message that it was unable to update all of the files for IE and to restart and go to tools in IE and select updates. When the computer restarted, it hung up with several programs still needing to load. It just hung there, so I ended up having to do a hard shutdown. I just restored it again, so I'm back to 'after repair'. Maybe I shouldn't trust the IE7 cd. I'm trying to find the right order to do things in. The reinstallation CD has SP2(that's where I'm at now). I do have a CD for SP3.

You receive an error message in Internet Explorer: "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage"

Thanks, I printed that out.

If I read this right, you have restored with SP2...then tried to Install IE8 then back to IE7. Both IE8 and IE7 need XP SP3 installed BEFORE updating from IE5x or IE6x.

So uninstall or rollaback your current IE version. That should put you back to IE5.0.

Then run your SP3 update CD. That will have a massive number of Critical updates and will update system to IE6.x ( IE5.5 is minimum version needed for Windows Update to work )

Then go to Windows Update and let it install all critical updates. DO NOT let it install IE8 until you have finished installing ALL of the critical updates.

Note: You may have to go back to Windows Update several times, as some new update packages have further security updates. Make sure that you install IE8 separately...and then only as the last item. Then go back again to Windows Update and install the latest security updates for IE8.

There is a particular order that things have to be done..and if you don't get them right...things will get messed up. Ideally, IE8 should not be prompting for download until after SP3 is detected. I think that is a glitch on the MS pdate site.

I'm back to the fresh reinstall (after). I checked the System Restore lineup and I did install SP3 first. I'm pretty sure I went to Windows Update and it then said I needed IE5 or above in order to get updates. I'm going to do the "Register the Wups2.dll file in Windows" fix first though, and also download and install ERUNT(actually that's the next thing I do before SP3).

Just to let you know that you're not the only one experiencing problems with Windows Update and IE8.

I recently clean installed WinXP Pro SP3 ( with IE6.x ) on a backup system. Upon going to Windows Update it had a bunch of critical updates..... and it prompted to install IE 8.0.

I let it do so and went back to Windows Update after rebooting as I knew more Critical Updates would be listed. Lo and behold..WU wanted to load critical security updates for IE6.0...which I wasn't even using anymore!!

I knew that was a glitch from WU...so I uninstalled IE8.0 ( rolling back to IE6.x ) . Then I went back to WU and installed all critical updates...EXCEPT IE8.0. After that was all said and done I installed IE8.0 separately....reboot..back to WU site....download IE8 critical updates...reboot and system was happy.

Weird.....

Thank you, that sounds exactly what happened to me. I'll make sure not to let WU install IE8 until I get the updates.

In progress

SP3 is installed, but Windows Update still says I need IE5 or higher. I checked IE in program files and it shows ver.6.02. Another thing(which could be a factor)is that I'm unable to launch IE itself. I have the original IE icon on my desktop and clicking on that does nothing(except for all the desktop icons doing a quick blink). When I installed SP3 it put a shortcut to IE(it put 4 shortcuts), I deleted all but one, and clicking on that didn't work.
edit: I did enable Automatic Updates, that hasn't worked either.
edit2: The IE shortcuts are appearing when I click on the oringal IE desktop icon. Clicking on the shortcuts does nothing. Added to all this is that Firefox is my default browser.

If I could afford to get Windows 7, I'd do it and do a clean install, but work has been scarce.

Try this: Go here and download the StandAlone Installer for IE7

Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP

Then install that first. It will (I think) ask permission to download and install the security updates for IE7, when prompted, give it permission to do so. See if that gets you into the Updates Site. It will put the proper registry entries in the Registry, I'm thinking that is the problem right now.

After that, if IE7 installs and fixes the Registry, you can do the same for IE8:

Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP

Good Luck! You're almost there!

...adding to what Randy has said. You should be able to find another shortcut to IE via your regular start menu program.

If you download TweakUI it also has options to place IE shortcuts back on your desktop. This should fix that issue.

Hey....just a thought. Are you running a third party firewall? It may be blocking access for IE.

Also, go to Internet Options in the Tools Menu. Click on the Connections Tab and open LAN Settings. Make sure that automatically detect settings is NOT checked.

Hang in there buddy...you're almost there.

One word of advice. Working on computers can be frustrating. If you find yourself getting fed up... walk away from the thing for a day and clear your mind. Sometimes you miss the simplest things when you're all stressed out.

Steve: Please make sure that you read this!!! I've never had this happen but MS does have a hot-fix for no Windows Update after installation of SP3.

No Windows update with WinXP SP3

To Richard, Randy is right, it's the same thing. I've already done that; I did it as soon as System Restore finished. I just installed IE7, I currently don't have any IE icons. I thought since they didn't work, that there might be something wrong with them and the message was when I went to delete it, that I could go to Control Panel, Display and get it back(that proved to be incorrect).
I still can't get into Windows Update (with IE7 installed). I went to Start, All Programs and click on Windows Update and nothing happens(I know it takes a little while for it to load, but it didn't. I'm going to download TweakUI and see if I can get an IE icon, to see if I can get into IE and maybe do Windows Update from there.

PS I had one success; When I was in Display, Desktop, Customize Desktop, and under General Tab it showed My Documents, My Compute, Network Places. The box for My Documents was unchecked; so I put a check in it and I now have a My Documents icon back on the desktop. The 'My Documents' shortcut did work, but this is better.

Off to get Tweak UI

Nope, well, your link sort of worked; except that I got the same Damned message that I posted above. This is with IE7 installed. AAAAARRRRGGGG!
I got TweakUI downloaded, so I'm going to install that, now.

Edit: I got my IE icon back; not that it's doing me much good. I clicked on it and got the arrow with the hour glass (I don't remember the correct terms), and I thought GREAT, but that's all I got, IE didn't load; at least when I clicked on the IE icon, it didn't make all the other icons blink.

The only other thing I can think of, have you scanned for malware? Malware can block access to MS Update, although I doubt that is the problem here.

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM):
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

SUPERAntispyware (free):
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Will keep trying to find a fix for this!

Edit: Thought of something else, check your HOSTS file to make sure it hasn't been altered. In XP it is located in the following directory here:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\

See also this MS Article:
How do I reset the hosts file back to the default?

That's a very good point. It has been a week or two since my last scan. Guess I'd better do that now. I like to start with A-Squared, it seems to find the most.

Thanks for the suggestion,
Steve

edit: Nod 32 did find 4 threats, didn't say what they were, but I deleted. Before that A-Squared wouldn't update(said there were connecton problems). After I NOD32 deleted the threats; A-Squared updated fine. It' 60% through a deep scan and hasn't come up with anything, so we'll see. SuperAntiSpyware didn't find anything on it's scan, but it too, said it had connection problems. When A-Squared finishes, I'll try updating SAS.

Did that, and clicking on Windows Update from Start, Programs did nothing; clicked on Randy's direct link and it's still telling me that I need IE5 or above(as I've said, I have IE7 installed). Maybe I should forget Windows and go to Linux. This is nuts.

Hello Steve,

Try posting to the Windows Update newsgroup, sometimes they can help with these issues:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsupdate&lang=en&cr=US

I posted there with problems I was having getting SP3 to install on this computer and they provided some helpful tips ..

Warmly, Ran

No, I can't open IE at all. I click on the icon and I get a flicker of the hourglass(like it's going to open), and then nothing. That's probably part of the problem. I'll try the newsgroup tonight.

Thanks,
Steve
edit: On another note; The desktop icon for SyperAnti Spyware; is that supposed to have a red circle with a line through it. I'm thinking no. I forgot what it did look like. Here's a screen shot.

I'm not sure if this will help but worth a try:

Internet Explorer Repair Guide and Tool

Worth exploring all options I guess ..

Randy,
That IE Repair tool is a 'registry cleaner' (RegCure). I let it scan and it came up with 1400 odd problems. It 'fixed' 8 of them and if I want to fix the rest I have to buy the program. I clicked on 'IE Repair Tool' on your link several times and it still came up as RegCure when it came time to download it.
Steve

I didn't see CCleaner on your desktop. That will do a good cleanup and registry scan and clean up. If you have never used it I would tick all the selections. Get it here

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

jmc and chickenman have made some excellent suggestions. Meanwhile I was thinking, should you get your system 'clean' to where you're pretty positive you have no 'badboys' (malware) or nasties, - and if the MS Update site STILL gives you cryptic feedback about not having the right version of IE, - you can try maybe this Site:

Internet Explorer 7 running side by side with IE6. (standalone)

My thinking is, we are trying to get you into a 'state' where you have SOME version of IE which the MS Update Site will recognize and honor and allow you to run the updates. Once you get to that point you are relatively "home free" in that you can get all your updates, and later upgrade IE to the latest version (IE8) once everything is working OK:

Install multiple versions of IE on your PC

There is also this archive, evolt's archive of browsers, which contains the older IE versions:

http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/win32

So I'm thinking you do NOT want to install any version of IE prior to the version 6SP1 which is, I think, the MINIMUM version which MS Update Site will recognize and honor and allow you access to the updates.

The author of above site says, "The installer was made to work with Windows XP." So at least we're using the right O.S. to try his installer. If we can EVER get a version of IE, even the EARLIEST one, onto your box which MS Update will recognize and allow updates, then we hopefully have solved the problem.

Because then you can get your system fully up-to-date, and you already have the standalone installers for IE7 and IE8, and might be able to just install the latest version of IE from MS Update as a last step if you wish.

Good Luck, and hang in there, I know this must be really frustrating! Also note that if you choose to post to that Windows Update newsgroup, you might also want to post your IE problems to the IE newsgroup. You can ask THEM (the MS Gurus who hangout there) which place they think is the better place to post your problem, or one of them might even forward or transfer your thread to the most appropriate group.

Thanks for the helpful replies. I just got home. I have CCleaner, I just don't have a desktop icon. See my first post, running CCleaner was the first thing I did that began this nasty episode(to be fair, though, I don't think it was CCleaner that cause the damage; and I'm in agreement with you guys that it sounds like there's still some 'Stuff' in my system somewhere. The only firewall I have is Windows and I checked the exceptions and both A-Squared and SuperAntiSpyware are both checkmarked. I currently don't have Malwarebytes(I had trouble with getting definitions some of the time (probably due to the dial-up that I'm on. I am going to download and install it and run them all in SafeMode. A-Squared did update, but not so with SAS.
I did find tonight that Outlook Express won't send/receive my mail.
I got this error message: "The host (my email address) could not be found. Please verify that you have entered the server name correctly. Blah, blah, blah". I guess it's all tied in with IE not working. Randy, my reinstallation disk that I used for the repair has SP2 on it and I believe it was IE6.02--. Oh, I've uninstalled RegCure.
I'm off to do my 'chores', that you guys have laid out for me. I probably won't get to the newsgroups tonight. I think getting this system cleaned out is the first priority.

I do appreciate all the help from you guys.

Steve

Well, that was --umm--interesting. In the midst of trying to get through the info to download Malwarebytes; I got a threat alert from NOD32. It was in C/SystemVolumneInformation-restore----. It was listed as unkown, the NewHeur-PE virus. I'd better forget about MalwarBytes and get to SafeMode and run some scans.

Questions on operating in SafeMode; Nod32 wasn't available(at least I didn't see it);everyting is too big. I couldn't adjust the screen resolution. I right click on the desktop, clicked on properties, clicked on settings, but wasn't able to move the bar to change the resolution. I don't have a desktop icon for NOD32; when I want to do a scan, I just click the little icon in the taskbar, but that wasn't there in SafeMode; when I opened A-Squared, the start scan button was off the screen. Know any quick fix for this?
I'll do the disk cleanup and get rid of the restore points.

Steve

Depending on how long you want to spend on this thing...I'm thinking that you "may" want to do a clean install of XP. You've so far had 5 virus detections...no telling what they have messed up

Pull all of your Data off the HD and back it up on your external HD. If you've partitioned your main HD and keep your Data and Third party programs on a separate partition you're ahead of the game. Make sure that you record all necessary serial and license numbers for third party programs.

Re-scan all data on the External drive with Nod32 to make sure that saved data is clean.

Blow away the C: drive with a clean. Make sure that you format the C: partition with a FULL Format, not just the quick format.


This all depends on how comfortable you are with starting from scratch and how much data you have to restore, but if you don't have a breakthrough in the next couple of days, I would seriously consider a re-format and clean install.

Richard (a.k.a. chickenman) has made some more (as usual) really excellent suggestions, - as sometimes you have to 'punt' and start clean, - especially if you can salvage all your data; that puts you ahead of many folks who lose BOTH their operating system AND precious data (email, etc) to situations like this.

I do not know how you could have gotten 'infected' with an up-to-date NOD32 running on your box, - since that is one of the very best AVs on the market. (I assume you let NOD run in real-time with the real-time protection enabled and running in your System Tray). NOD's heuristic detection is outstanding, possibly the best - which is why I suggested you clean-out your System Restore points when NOD found a heuristic detection of virus in your System Restore - I've seen this before on security sites, - NOD is rarely wrong with these heuristic detections.

Hopefully this thread contains some helpful links that others might reference when they do a search on this forum or on Google. The link to MS Windows Update newsgroup is particularly useful since some genuine hi-powered 'gurus' (Microsoft MVPs) hangout in those newsgroups, - guys who really know their stuff, - not just "laymen" like myself and chickenman (no offense Richard but we aren't registered MVPs with Microsoft, heh).

Chickenman was right to mention that if you're having trouble updating SAS or MBAM, that is a tell-tale sign that you truly have a nasty or multiple nasties still resident on your system. And the fact you're apparently still being cutoff from MS Update. These malware authors should be collared and shot, or hung publicly, IMHO .. for the havoc they wreak on innocent people. And how they program their badboys to disable our security software (disable our AV, AS, MS-Update, etc) and make it difficult to impossible to update our system security.

Good Luck, and please hang in there and don't become discouraged, since as I say, you're still way ahead of the game if you're able to salvage your data .. but maybe you can yet 'fix' your box without having to resort to the dreaded "reformat and reinstall everything" solution. Yet starting clean has its advantages, especially if you don't lose any precious data in doing so.

PC specs viewable here...
Folding@Home with Team PleasureDome!

I have cleaned some really nasty bugs with this program. It has total functionality for 30days in trial. I would give it a shot it.

Trojan Remover 6.8.1

http://www.simplysup.com/tremover/download.html

Thanks, I forgot, I have TrojanHunter. I haven't scanned with it, I guess that's next.
By the way guys, I haven't mentioned it, because it doesn't have any backups on it, but I have a secondary harddrive, where my D drive is and the My Documents folder resides there. The My Documents folder on the C drive acts as the shortcut to it.(I'd forgotten that, too).
Here are the screen shots of the two harddrives and partitions, and of the D drive. One question I have IF I do decide to do a clean install. Do I just format the C drive itself, or the complete harddrive?
I'm still going to visit the newsgroups, before resorting to extremes.

Yeh, NOD 32 has been updating just fine(it keeps nagging me about Windows not being up to date on Security updates), but otherwise it's fine, and I had it scan both the C and D drives. I just now finished updating Trojan Hunter and let that scan (found nothing), oh, and also Spybot; updated fine, and scan found zip. The only spyware program that is giving me any problems is SuperAntiSpyware. I've already uninstalled it and reinstalled it, but now that I think about it, that was before the last virus that NOD32 got.

Yeh, that's what IE is doing and I haven't tried that fix yet. Thanks! My next planned step after I try the IE fix, IS to go to the newsgroups, and also, to start making a list of the programs I have loaded and make sure that I have all the exe's I need, IF I do the clean install.
edit: That didn't work. I still get a brief flash of the arrow and hour glass and then nothing, so--onto the newsgroups.

Steve