I'm getting very frustrated finding out what's going on with my computer. I have a new (4 month old) Compaq Presario X1000, 60 gb hard drive, 512 megabyte RAM, DVD/CD-RW drive, running Windows XP Home. Not sure what else you need to know at this point. About 3 weeks ago Outlook suddenly went unstable, crashing everytime I went into the email program. I'd get a message about not being able to open a mail folder because it was missing a .pst handle. Then the calendar feature also started locking up. Then I noticed that bootup started taking longer and longer (it previously booted in a flash), then started going briefly to a blue screen, then to the Compaq log in screen. My son, who is a beginning technician at Best Buy, checked with his fellow geeks, but no one had a clue. He called another computer builder/service person, he had no clue, but suggested we do a deep virus scan in safe mode. It kept getting hung up when it reached system 32, mui folders. They all had the .dll extension. The service tech said to find the file, delete it to the recycle bin so I could restore it if necessary, and then continue. I did this repeatedly, having to delete about a dozen files in a sequence from this folder. Ultimately, I gave up that scan mode because the scan kept hanging up. The deletion of the files didn't appear to make any difference (although I don't know if I would have had more problems down the line), so I ultimately restored them all because I didn't want to create even more problems.
BTW, I have scanned for viruses several times (and never found any) and have used 3 different spyware programs which have each found a few spyware, but not many (I do this regularly, so I don't get a huge number). I had done a disk cleanup and a lengthy defragmentation just before this all started, so I don't know if that might have misplaced something.
I finally uninstalled Microsoft Office and re-installed it (luckily the disk came with the computer). While Outlook now seems to work OK, the bootup problem still remains. It takes about 30-40 seconds to just go through the Windows XP screen, where the little light keeps going from left to right. Then it goes to blue screen, or sometimes a black screen, then to the Compaq screen.
I finally did a chckdsk last night--my son had neglected to tell me that it was available and I found it by chance--it found two clusters, one in that infamous MUI-outlook.pst file, and another one also in the MUI file labeled 040Ahhctrlui.dll. It repaired both clusters, and found nothing else.
It still takes forever (I know that's subjective--my old 98 computer takes way longer still!) to boot. My biggest concern is that this is a prelude to bigger problems and I want to stop it now if I can.
I have very little installing at bootup, although I can't help but feel that it actually hasn't gotten to that part of the bootup anyway. I do have a number of programs on the quick launch bar, but again that shouldn't have anything to do with the beginning bootup should it?
I do have the installation disk if I have to reinstall, but I really don't want to go that route if I don't have to as my son says it will mess up everything on the computer and I really don't want to have to move everything off first. I can--just don't want to unless there is no other recourse.
Does anyone know what's going on?
LindaM
BTW, I have scanned for viruses several times (and never found any) and have used 3 different spyware programs which have each found a few spyware, but not many (I do this regularly, so I don't get a huge number). I had done a disk cleanup and a lengthy defragmentation just before this all started, so I don't know if that might have misplaced something.
I finally uninstalled Microsoft Office and re-installed it (luckily the disk came with the computer). While Outlook now seems to work OK, the bootup problem still remains. It takes about 30-40 seconds to just go through the Windows XP screen, where the little light keeps going from left to right. Then it goes to blue screen, or sometimes a black screen, then to the Compaq screen.
I finally did a chckdsk last night--my son had neglected to tell me that it was available and I found it by chance--it found two clusters, one in that infamous MUI-outlook.pst file, and another one also in the MUI file labeled 040Ahhctrlui.dll. It repaired both clusters, and found nothing else.
It still takes forever (I know that's subjective--my old 98 computer takes way longer still!) to boot. My biggest concern is that this is a prelude to bigger problems and I want to stop it now if I can.
I have very little installing at bootup, although I can't help but feel that it actually hasn't gotten to that part of the bootup anyway. I do have a number of programs on the quick launch bar, but again that shouldn't have anything to do with the beginning bootup should it?
I do have the installation disk if I have to reinstall, but I really don't want to go that route if I don't have to as my son says it will mess up everything on the computer and I really don't want to have to move everything off first. I can--just don't want to unless there is no other recourse.
Does anyone know what's going on?
LindaM
