winvista premium explorer.exe screwed up

[katuuuz]

hello hello.

weird issue, not sure how to trouble shoot it. when i log off of my pc, it doesn't go into sleep mode anymore. i click that red power button's drop down menu in the bottom right corner after i log off windows, and choose sleep. the screen goes of like it used to, but then flicks back on. i noticed upon rebooting my explorer.exe doesn't launch and i'm greeted with an open window of "my documents". brian actually helped me the first time by telling me to run task manager and type "explorer.exe" as the command, and sure enough that brings me my windows vista.

#1 i don't want to manually launch explorer.exe every time i log on/reboot

#2 could this have to do with why my pc won't sleep? (and save power.. the screen should shut off and my blue light on the tower should start blinking and fans should stop/slow)

#3 i installed tweakui for vista and another .exe that went hand in hand with it when i was trying to configure my boot sequence. i've since uninstalled both, could that have caused it?

i have no viruses or spyware according to norton anti virus (up to date just renewed my subscription today) and spyware doctor. if anyone could help me i'd owe this forum, yet again, my life for helping me through the trenches.

game on gameex, game on.

[Brian Hoffman]

hello hello.

weird issue, not sure how to trouble shoot it. when i log off of my pc, it doesn't go into sleep mode anymore. i click that red power button's drop down menu in the bottom right corner after i log off windows, and choose sleep. the screen goes of like it used to, but then flicks back on. i noticed upon rebooting my explorer.exe doesn't launch and i'm greeted with an open window of "my documents". brian actually helped me the first time by telling me to run task manager and type "explorer.exe" as the command, and sure enough that brings me my windows vista.

#1 i don't want to manually launch explorer.exe every time i log on/reboot

#2 could this have to do with why my pc won't sleep? (and save power.. the screen should shut off and my blue light on the tower should start blinking and fans should stop/slow)

#3 i installed tweakui for vista and another .exe that went hand in hand with it when i was trying to configure my boot sequence. i've since uninstalled both, could that have caused it?

i have no viruses or spyware according to norton anti virus (up to date just renewed my subscription today) and spyware doctor. if anyone could help me i'd owe this forum, yet again, my life for helping me through the trenches.

game on gameex, game on.

See how you are... I first asked you if you had a shelling incident and you denyed it.. Now your telling me your playing with boot files.... See how you are...

I believe thats withholding info... hehehe

Okay do this... create a new account.... And log into it and see if the new account has the same issues... Those registry keys sometimes are on a per user basis... So it may help... Other than that you can do a system restore from a restore point.. If neither work your kinda fucked... just reinstall vista... Of course this is easy for me to say... hehehehe

anyways try it and let us know what happens.

[katuuuz]

See how you are... I first asked you if you had a shelling incident and you denyed it.. Now your telling me your playing with boot files.... See how you are...

I believe thats withholding info... hehehe

Okay do this... create a new account.... And log into it and see if the new account has the same issues... Those registry keys sometimes are on a per user basis... So it may help... Other than that you can do a system restore from a restore point.. If neither work your kinda fucked... just reinstall vista... Of course this is easy for me to say... hehehehe

anyways try it and let us know what happens.

when you asked, it was before I used tweakui. anyway, the system restore didn't work when I tried it. I selected the earliest restore point available. now I'm at work so i'll try the new account when I get home. If in fact I do need to reinstall windows, I just pop the vista cd in and go right? I don't have to format do I? I don't want to mess with my drivers if I don't have to.

[bkenobi]

If Vista installs like all other windows discs, you just boot from the CD/DVD and it will take care of everything. I personally would choose to format the drive during installation (delete partition, create new partition, format using NTFS). That way you know that it's a clean install with no fragmentation or residual problems. I suppose you could try using the "repair installation" option first, but I find that that creates issues down the road sometimes. On the up side, *sometimes* you don't have to download drivers again, but that isn't always true. IMO, it's better to just format and deal with the drivers.

[Brian Hoffman]

when you asked, it was before I used tweakui. anyway, the system restore didn't work when I tried it. I selected the earliest restore point available. now I'm at work so i'll try the new account when I get home. If in fact I do need to reinstall windows, I just pop the vista cd in and go right? I don't have to format do I? I don't want to mess with my drivers if I don't have to.

Did you try creating a new user acct?

[katuuuz]

sorry for the delayed response, i havn't been on the computer in a day or two. anyway, yes i tried setting up another account, but to my dismay faced the same problem... -blank color as a background with the my documents window. never saw anything like it. i probably was the culprit messing around one night under the influence of alcohol, but can't seem to pin it to a specific action i might have taken. (...or remember taking).

anyways, i've decided to undergo my first format and reinstallation of windows since i've been operating under vista. hopefully everything is relatively the same as xp was. i've decided to troubleshoot with the gameex family, even though there is a vista forum, because i've come to know and trust a lot of your software/pc related intelligence. anyway, i'm pretty sure i'm correct in how i'll do this, but i'll offer my plan anyways just to be sure. ...plus one rather stupid question, but what kind of post from katuuuz would it be without at least one?!

first I'll boot from the vista cd and follow instructions on how to format my partitions and reinstall vista premium. if in fact i do need to reinstall my device drivers, i'll use the diagnostics cd that came with the pc and says "dvd for reinstalling dell ispiron 531s computer software." ((i've never used on of these cds because by the time i formatted the computer i already lost the discs that accompanied it in the box. luckily i bought this pc like a month ago)).

now for the stupid question:

will norton be included in this software dvd if it came pre-installed on my pc? ((i wouldn't normally care but i just paid thos S.O.B.'s $50USD for another years subscription today)).

thank you to all who feel the need to reply. you've been kind over the time i've been here. (2 years in august!)

[Brian Hoffman]

now for the stupid question:

will norton be included in this software dvd if it came pre-installed on my pc? ((i wouldn't normally care but i just paid thos S.O.B.'s $50USD for another years subscription today)).

thank you to all who feel the need to reply. you've been kind over the time i've been here. (2 years in august!)

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You can download it from norton and use your key they emailed you when you re-upped your subscription