PLEASE HELP, an EMERGENCY!?

Question

ok well, I've been using my brother's sony vaio laptop since yesterday and today I noticed the volume buttons on the edge of the laptop stopped working. So, I restarted the laptop and the volumbe buttons were kind of back to normal...but they didn't work as good as they did before. I have no idea what happened to them. anyways, so I restarted it again and now they don't work at all. Also, a pop saying spooler subsystem has enocountered a problem. Following that, the toolbar dissapeared for a couple of secs but then it came back. This toolbar thing has been happening since yesterday. Just now when I was on the internet explorer a pop saying internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close showed up. Omg, i am freaking out!!! I am going to be in soooooooooo much trouble from my brother as he isn't going to believe me when I tell him I had nothing to do with it. Please help me and walk me through step by step. atleast help me diagnose. TY!

everything on my desktop has disappeared including the task bar and start. but when I restart it ..it comes back. I've scanned it twice and there's nothing wrong with it. I used mcAfee and spyware. The spooler thing keeps popping up.

everything on my desktop has disappeared including the task bar and start. but when I restart it ..it comes back. I've scanned it twice and there's nothing wrong with it. I used mcAfee and spyware. The spooler thing keeps popping up.

Answer 1

you are in BIG trouble!!!!!!

Good Luck!!!

Answer 2

Okay.
Hang in there.
The next time the desktop disappears. Don't restart the computer. Just test the following:
hit [ctrl]-[alt]-[del] of you get a window go to the TASK MANAGER button. once in task manager
go to file --> new task.
you will get a box.
type the word "explorer" without the quotes.
that will bring your desktop back up.

report back on that. if you CANT get a window, report on that too.

*****
next up you need to disable any startup processes that may be causing the problem.

The next time you shut down the machine, you need to bring it up in safe mode. tap F5 once a second while booting the machine.

if the computer crashes in safe mode... you have OS repair job on your hands.
If it seems to operate okay in safe mode, you can go to msconfig and eliminate all the non Microsoft processes from startup.
That's START -- RUN type msconfig in the bar and hit enter.

That will bring you a window.
In the tabs you have General, system.ini win.ini boot.ini services, and startup.
leave all of the ini tabs alone.
In the services tab: on the bottom of the window make SURE the box beside "hide all microsoft processes: is CHECKED.
double check that.
it IS checked? okay. click the disbale all button, and the TRIPLE CHECK that hide microsoft thing, and then click apply.

in the STARTUP tab click the disable all button, BUT DO NOT APPLY YET.
go to the list.
click the check box next to the following items:
avgcc if you have it.
ctfmon
isuspm
atiptaxx if you have it
synTPLpr if you have it

click apply.
go ahead and restart normally.
at this point, if the computer behaves properly, and doesn't crash, you know you were dealing with a rogue process somewhere in the disabled list in msconfig.

you can add them back one at a time untill you get the problem.

Answer 3

My gut tells me that you have some spyware. Run a complete spyware scan using an up to date scanner. You can download a good one for free here.

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Download this, install it and update it. Then run a scan and let if fix the problems. This should help. Try not to worry. You didn't do anything wrong. This kind of crap happens all the time.

Also, that spooler subsystem error has to do with printing. Is this pc trying to print something? Is this windows xp or windows vista?

This article explains a fix for the problem in xp:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810894

Before you start messing with the registry you might want to try a system restore. Goto control panel System System restore and restore to a point before yesterday when the problem started.

Answer 4

Hey man...calm down. If you are running vista it is probably just another bug. One other possibility may also me this but if it is this you will never know until it is too late. The popular website MySpace has had some problems with a virus that isn't a virus. there is a worm called the "windows 32" virus. what this is doing is slowly eating away at your system32 which is VERY CRITICAL in running even the most basic operations in your laptop. Most virus programs wont detect it because it targets some virus programs as well. Hey man i really wish you the best of luck to you man. If it is this......um....there isn't really anything you can do but restore your computer using the restore disks but you can back up your data to an external hard-drive or even a flash drive first. it ain't a big deal and he can't really blame you man. Not very many people know about this worm. It ain't like he can take away y0ur birthday. Besta Luck To Ya

Answer 5

do you know how to run a virus scan and a spy ware scan? try doing those 2 things.