Dell laptop problem - help please

Fixing a Dell laptop for a good aquaintance. Model Inspirion 1100, about a yr or yr & a half old. Maybe 2 yrs old.

So in booting up through normal mode all I get is the screensaver but no icons, no taskbar. Nothing but the screensaver.

Did a lot of work on it so far in safe mode with & without network support (won't connect to internet though). I basically followed all the steps from MajorGeeks guide hxxp://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407. Except nothing in normal mode & no online scans. Although with Adaware & Spybot Search & Destroy I did update them manually. My results: no viruses, tons of spyware (about 25 all removed), added SP2, did 2 registry cleaners (RegCleaner & RegSeeker) & found over 2000 errors & defragmented the HDD (was 20% fragmented). Still just the screensaver in normal mode.

Please any help from knowledgeable folks appreciated. Thanks.

Edit: doing a repair install now.

Hi Zapjb,
IN reading your thread, you have done a lot of work.
I assume the laptop was not dropped or damaged.
try these locations...some good points on system restore
msconfig and some start up commands and also problems with sp2 and drivers. one of these articles should help you.
Windows XP System Restore Is Easy to Use
XP - safe mode b4 normal boot - TechSpot Troubleshooting
The Dark Side of Windows XP Service Pack 2
good luck,let me know how you make out

Nah I finally just did a fresh install.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zapjb

Nah I finally just did a fresh install.

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Which is my preferred first option.