i can't log in.......start up applications won't run. blank screen

little help
my pc has been playing up a bit recently.i could not connect to the internet, having now connectivity(try to refresh and repair connection.) so i gave it a clean and scan. hoping that i might be able to find and correct the problem.no such luck.
turning on my pc last night i found that when i logged on i would find that i could see my wallpaper but nothing else. no other applications would run. i tryed to bring up the task manager but it would come up with the an error.
unsure what to do, i restarted but same problem. i rebooted into safe mode.
safe mode works fine. but wasn't able to access "network connections", there wasn't anything in there...
any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

bill

 

I will state the obvious. You need to fix the problem in safe mode. I would back up any must haves then try re-installing your OS. You boot off your CD not your HD and install on top of your old system. Then re-boot off your CD and reinstall a GOOD virus scanner then scan and see if it finds anything.

 

I think you should try reformatting your computer.

 

Why do some persons think reformatting is the solution to most problems? 80% of the time that bricks what ever you had. Harddisks fair much better than devices not ment to be formatted by a PC. I have herd of persons formatting mp3 or mp4 players memory sticks. I don't know why they think their computer can format better than the factory. I doubt the computer format even formats the devices correctly. I have never heard of anything surviving that. Someone kinda of remembers some one formatting an mp3 player a few years back and it lived. Maybe that was a hoax. It has been 100% leathal in the last 2 years.

You reformat when you think there is something wrong with the format or formatting will remove certain folders that can't be deleted. You need to think things through if you reformat.

aglio2cry, the reason you might not want to not do that is maybe there are motherboard drivers you need to run your computer that you will be clueless how to replace when your compuuter is wiped clean.
If you don't have your OS key you will need to by a new OS if you formatted your disk. There are recovery utilities that will find your software key on your old disk if it hasn't been formatted.

Those are 2 good reasons not to format.

If you are going to do something drastic reinstall windows.

If you do format. Buy a new bigger disk and format that. If you discover you didn't get everything off the drive you still have it. A terabyte disk costs less than an OS.

 

Brilliantly stated (by Mez).

Reformatting only fixes the symptom. If you don't discover what or why the problem occurred, it's bound to reoccur.

Unfortunately, most people don't have the patience to do it the "right" way and take the low road of instant gratification.

Now, that having been said, I am fortunate to have multiple backup systems in my house so I'm never "100% down".