Caporegime
- Joined
- 12 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 26,778
Hello all, I have a weird problem with my desktop computer. I've turned it on this morning for the first time in around a month, in the hope to play some games. I switched it on, as soon as Windows loads I get the update notification in the systray, I downloaded the security update for Windows and then restarted, after this the folder on my desktop with all of my downloads and shortcuts in has disappeared and is nowhere to be found.
Not only this but also the Windows update notification keeps popping up in the systray telling me there are important updates to download, I click on the icon, it tried to download the update, tells me it's failed, then proceeds to keep bugging me about the downloads that it fails to download. I tried opening IE and that displays pages fine so it's definitely not the Internet connection.
After this I decided to reboot and try loading a game, I press start, all the items on the start menu are showing the icon as if there's a missing shortcut, they are just a bunch of blank white icons. I ignore that and try loading a game anyway, at which point I get a black screen and the PC is unresponsive to key strokes and mouse clicks, forcing me to hold the power button in to shut the machine off.
I've just ran a virus scan using AVG and it reports no problems, I also scanned with Windows Defender and that also confirms there are no threats. I'm not sure what I should do, there definitely seems to be a problem as nothing I try to run is working, I get the same black screen and a crash, and also the fact all of the folders that were on the desktop have disappeared is a bit worrying.
I was thinking of putting in the Windows disk and either restoring, or reinstalling Windows. I definitely don't want to have to reformat the machine as there are tens of gigs of games downloaded through Steam that I really don't want to have to download again. The machine is kept clean and it's only used for gaming, I use a MacBook to do all of my browsing and I'm not the type to just click anything (activeX notifications etc).
The motherboard and graphics drivers are all up to date and AVG has the latest virus database downloaded for it.
The specs are as follows:
Asus P5N-D
E8400 @ stock
2GB Ram
Nvidia 9800GT
Cheers in advance.
Not only this but also the Windows update notification keeps popping up in the systray telling me there are important updates to download, I click on the icon, it tried to download the update, tells me it's failed, then proceeds to keep bugging me about the downloads that it fails to download. I tried opening IE and that displays pages fine so it's definitely not the Internet connection.
After this I decided to reboot and try loading a game, I press start, all the items on the start menu are showing the icon as if there's a missing shortcut, they are just a bunch of blank white icons. I ignore that and try loading a game anyway, at which point I get a black screen and the PC is unresponsive to key strokes and mouse clicks, forcing me to hold the power button in to shut the machine off.
I've just ran a virus scan using AVG and it reports no problems, I also scanned with Windows Defender and that also confirms there are no threats. I'm not sure what I should do, there definitely seems to be a problem as nothing I try to run is working, I get the same black screen and a crash, and also the fact all of the folders that were on the desktop have disappeared is a bit worrying.
I was thinking of putting in the Windows disk and either restoring, or reinstalling Windows. I definitely don't want to have to reformat the machine as there are tens of gigs of games downloaded through Steam that I really don't want to have to download again. The machine is kept clean and it's only used for gaming, I use a MacBook to do all of my browsing and I'm not the type to just click anything (activeX notifications etc).
The motherboard and graphics drivers are all up to date and AVG has the latest virus database downloaded for it.
The specs are as follows:
Asus P5N-D
E8400 @ stock
2GB Ram
Nvidia 9800GT
Cheers in advance.
