Win XP Desktop Disappears

[mpare]

Lately, my entire desktop disappears after the computer has been sitting idle for a while. The only thing that is visible is the wallpaper. I've tried hitting "control + alt + delete" to no avail. The only way that I can get get back to normal operations is to restart the computer by hard booting it. Any suggestions as to what is causing this and what I should do to remedy the problem? Please don't tell me that I have to do a complete reinstall. By the way, the OS is WinXP Home Edition. The computer is protected in countless ways from viruses, etc. As well, there is plenty of RAM and the computer is defraged and the registry is cleaned on a regular basis.

[jvincent]

Did your hibernate or suspend settings get changed somehow?

[Indio]

Go into your control panel and select Appearence and themes, then select display, under the Screen saver tab, check to make sure that you re not setup for power saving or hibernation after 15 minutes.

[MusicMan]

you sure someone isnt pulling something like this on you?

http://my.break.com/content/view.aspx?ContentID=327994

[Nat Williams]

ctrl alt del doesn't fix the problem, or it doesn't do anything at all?

If you have any applications open, and they are still responsive, then it sounds like explorer is crashing ... Ideally you can get to a position where you can end the process and then run it again (run explorer.exe) ... if you can't do this, then a reboot would be required, and eventually a reinstall might be the only solution if you can't isolate the reason for the problem.

If nothing is responsive (a full crash) it would be difficult to identify the problem, although there are logging applications out there that will provide a log (and consequently on reboot show you the last thing to happen before the crash)...but there's a good chance a reinstall is in order ... especially since it often takes longer to diagnose and solve these types of problems than it does to start fresh ...

[mpare]

Thanks for the suggestions. As it is, my computer was not in hibernation mode nor was it set to shut down the hard drive after a specified period of inactivity. I have reset the time (1 hour) before the monitor turns off. Other than that, I really don't wish to do a reinstall unless I have absolutely no choice. Nat, you may be correct that I have no choice, but that will be my last resort. I will keep you advised.

[oktawa]

u prob hibernated ur comp or locked it

[Hank Hill]

That happened to me so I switched off the computer and then hit F12 as it was booting up. A screen should come up giving you a bunch of boot options. I hit "reset to settings when computer last worked" (or something phrased like that) and let it boot up.

It solved the problem and it never did it again.

[Nat Williams]

I just realized that you may be suffering from something else ... Your harddrive might be dying.

Have you ever been there when it crashes? If so, do you hear the drive attempt to access data then make a higher pitched sound than usual, then go silent? If so, your drive is on its way out, and you need to back it up asap and get a new one.

p.s. if you have a really quiet case, take the side panel off so that you can hear the computer better. If you ever hear a higher pitched read attempt followed by a freeze (either temporary or permanent) then it's your drive.

[mpare]

Thanks, Nat. I may be deluding myself, but I don't think that's the problem. By the way, the problem has not manifested itself again. I have my fingers crossed.

I just realized that you may be suffering from something else ... Your harddrive might be dying.

Have you ever been there when it crashes? If so, do you hear the drive attempt to access data then make a higher pitched sound than usual, then go silent? If so, your drive is on its way out, and you need to back it up asap and get a new one.

p.s. if you have a really quiet case, take the side panel off so that you can hear the computer better. If you ever hear a higher pitched read attempt followed by a freeze (either temporary or permanent) then it's your drive.