PC f*cked up.

[Ameer]

AdvancedSetup told me that I should post here.

First off, my PC was like any other PC. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, the MS Automatic Updates program had downloaded some updates. Since then, my C drive always has below 100MB free space. Whenever I try to delete something, a Microsoft error windows comes and I have to click 'Send' or 'Don't send', then everything disappears including the taskbar, then everything comes back up after 10 seconds, but everything that was open, closes. The exact same thing happens when I right-click on any file or folder.

So I wanted to free up some space so I could use System Restore, so I went into Control Panel->Add or remove programs to try and uninstall programs with hefty memory. There should be a 'Remove' or 'Change/Remove' button under each program installed, but that isn't the case for me. I can see no buttons whatsoever.

I've installed Anti-Malwarebytes, and had a total of 8 infected files, and deleted them. I've also tried many other programs to get rid of harmful software, even registry cleaners. Nothing seemed to do the job.

That's about it. Any form of help is much appreciated. TIA.

[swagger]

Hello.

What operating system are you running? It sounds like you might be running under a limited user account which does not give you the option to remove programs. Also, have you tried running a program like CCleaner which will delete a lot of unnecessary files from your computer.

Regards,

Keith

[Ameer]

I'm running on Windows XP. I'm not running under a user account or anything, just administrator. Everything was fine until about 2-3 weeks ago, when I tried installing MS updates.

I've ran two registry cleaners, but I'll also try CCleaner.

Thanks for your reply.

[Ameer]

Ok I've tried CCleaner, and got rid of about 129MB of god knows what. Then I ran the registry cleaner and cleaned about 730 entries. I rebooted the PC, and nothing new happened, except I now have 173MB of free space in my C drive. Still get the Microsoft error windows telling me to 'Send/Don't send'.

What else can I do to avoid this?

[swagger]

I didn't say to run the registry cleaner :x Try to avoid registry cleaners. They don't offer any true performance boosts and they can end up doing more harm than good. Let's try 2 things... 1, let's look for hardware conflicts..

1. Right click on My Computer on your desktop and select Manage
   
2. Select "Device Manager" from the left hand pane
   

Do you see any red x's or yellow question marks with an exclamation point?

2, let's look at Event Viewer to see if there are any errors going on...

1. Click on the Start menu and select Run...
   
2. Type in eventvwr.msc and click OK
   
3. When Event Viewer opens, select "System" from the left hand pane
   

Do you see any errors as you scroll through the events?

Also, what type of Windows Updates were you trying to install? Did it fail or did it install? Did anything else happen besides you trying to perform Windows Updates?

Regards,

Keith

[swagger]

Also, does your hard drive still have under 100 MB left of free space? If so, you must start backing up some things and deleting them or just outright deleting them. 100MB of free space is not health for the Windows O/S

[Ameer]

1. Right click on My Computer on your desktop and select Manage
   
2. Select "Device Manager" from the left hand pane
   

Do you see any red x's or yellow question marks with an exclamation point?

You forgot one thing; I mentioned in the first post that I cannot right click on any file/folder. When I do, the error report window comes up.

2, let's look at Event Viewer to see if there are any errors going on...

1. Click on the Start menu and select Run...
   
2. Type in eventvwr.msc and click OK
   
3. When Event Viewer opens, select "System" from the left hand pane
   

Do you see any errors as you scroll through the events?

The first quarter of that page displayed about 90-100 errors, and several warnings.

Also, what type of Windows Updates were you trying to install? Did it fail or did it install? Did anything else happen besides you trying to perform Windows Updates?

Regards,

Keith

I took a visit to MS update's site, and I had downloaded and installed about 1.3GB of updates. When the updates finished downloading, I had to shutdown my PC in order for them to be installed. However, there were about 20 updates left to be installed, and I suddenly had a power cut. From then onwards, I've had the errors that I've mentioned in the first post.

Thanks again for your reply.

[Ameer]

As of now, I have 164MB of free space in my C drive.

[Jaxryley]

A power blackout whilst installing updates can be very hard to fix.

You could try and run sfc /scannow and or a chkdsk /r which can take ages to run and no guarantee on a fix.

Then there's a Repair Install you could try as well but to honest I would be saving needed data and formatting - reinstalling.

[hello2007]

try the shellex from nir soft maybe its 3rd party shell extensions that need to be disabled

[Ameer]

A power blackout whilst installing updates can be very hard to fix.

You could try and run sfc /scannow and or a chkdsk /r which can take ages to run and no guarantee on a fix.

The chkdsk scan runs by itself most times when I reboot my PC.

Repair Install you could try as well but to honest I would be saving needed data and formatting - reinstalling.

I have no XP CD or whatever is needed to reinstall or do a repair install.

try the shellex from nir soft maybe its 3rd party shell extensions that need to be disabled

Where can I get these softwares?

[exile360]

Where can I get these softwares?

ShellExView

[Ameer]

I feel as if ShellEx is not needed. Are there any particular extensions which I should disable?