Mustsbro, Try a repair/reinstall.  Repair Reinstall will delete all of the files and registry used by XP. It will not delete applications and user settings. You will have to get all the updates again including SP1 (if sp1 is not on your cd)
1.- Insert the Windows XP CD
2.- Configure your system to boot from the CD drive.
3.- Restart the computer
4.- Press the spacebar when the computer prompts to Press any key to boot from CD"
5.- The Welcome to Setup screen appears.
6.- Press the Enter key to continue. Do not choose the option to press R to use Recovery Console.
7.- The system scans to see which hard drives are available.
8.- When the license agreement screen appears, press the F8 key to accept.
9.- You should now see C:\Windows Press R to repair
10.- Setup will proceed with the installation.
Once setup is complete the system will restart.

Let us know if this works

Mustsbro,

Are you saying that some outside agency uninstalled your antivirus program? Before you do a repair reinstall it would be helpful to know whether the computer has a virus and if so, what it is. It certainly sounds like you are seeing virus activity. You can do an online antivirus scan with Housecall here.

It also might be connected with this latest worm:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/pf/w32.beagle.m@mm.html

Sorry I was unclear above, I couldn't  change what i wrote. Right before my system got messed up, I had performed a virus scan, with the newest updates, and it was clean. Once the system was messed up, and I could not access anything I removed Norton Antivirus 2002. It is possible that I have a virus, but unlikely because since I removed Norton, I have not been online, or even connected to a telephone line. As I said above though, the system remains in the same condition before the repair was done; it is still mostly unusual. I hope this helps you more then the other one.

---

@Mustsbro wrote:
The virus software was uninstalled by me, so it could not be a virus.

---

I have no idea what that statement means. Did you uninstall an antivirus program or did you remove a virus? If the latter, what virus was involved and how was it removed? Did you do an online virus scan?

Mustsbro,

Since the repair reinstall didn't correct the problem you might try running the Dell diagnostics to see if perhaps the problems reported with the hard disk might indicate there is a hardware problem. If so, calling Dell is the next step.

Is the dell Diagnostics on their disk, or is that the one you can choose as the way you start the system?

One more thing i noticed, even after I repaired windows xp, the display controls in the control panel, do not give me the option to return to the windows xp theme. it says it is not there. (this is when i go into safe mode)...i am unable to access the control panel through he regular method, just like i cannot access anything else that way. 

Also, how do I remove my files. I cannot send them over the web, I cannot print them out, it does not allow me to burn disks. Is there another way that I am overlooking (i do not have a floppy drive)?

Message Edited by Mustsbro on 03-16-2004 12:50 PM

Mustsbro,

The diagnostics are in both locations. Since you clearly have two computers (one of which works to post here) you could install your hard drive from the troubled XP system onto the other and copy the files to its hard disk. If the operable computer is using Windows 9X though and your XP's hard disk is formatted with NTFS the 9X system will not be able to read the hard disk.

Yes, I do have to computers, but is it possible to hook a notebook hard drive into a desktop?