xp and No desktop

tech

I have a DEll Dimension 5000, This is running XP Pro SP3. It will boot into windows and give me a blank desktop, I have went into safe mode and did a system restore with no sucess. I get the safe crap

I have created a user within safe mode and have the option to click on the new user in normal mode but it sits on a desktop with no icons

I have booted from the XP cd and attemped a repair, it is looking for a password that I havent got..

I have booted from ERD commander to reset the password and this still will not let me into Reapir mode

I have scanned the harddrive as a Slave disk in another Pc and it found no virus or spyware

What else can i do ?

You can leave the password field blank if you don't have one.

tech

ive tried that and no good

Capt'n Midnight

just to clarify , you have desktop in safe mode ?

run ccleaner, / msconfig / autoruns and turn off as much startup stuff as you can to rule it out

you may need to reinstall

tech

i've done all that, no joy got the password and ran a repair, Also chkdsk /p found loads of disk errors. I have tried an inplace upgrade and it now stuck in a reboot cycyle !!! Clean build time. I spent all day going in circles

Unregistered.

Do you have a desktop with no icons? is the task bar there?

samhail

can you hit ctrl alt delete when your blank desktop loads and try file run and type in explorer.exe
that might bring up your desktop.
if it does then your shell isnt loading when starting. which is unusual.
see how that goes
(following on from unregistered)

mp22

right click on blank desktop and check if "show desktop" is enabled