I'm posting on behalf of a client.
He's running an HP ProOne 600 G1 AiO with Windows 7 x64, 4GB of RAM, Intel Pentium Processor, and WD Blue 500Gb hard drive.
Last week, his computer froze and became inoperable. He forcefully shut it down. Since then, it has been misbehaving. Here are the symptoms:
- His Start menu is completely empty. Previously stored and recently used programs no longer appear in the list.
- His icons disappeared from the taskbar. I can't pin items to the taskbar.
- Devices and Printers won't open. The window just sits there and loads.
- I can't view hidden files and folders. Every time I change the option to Show hidden files and folders in Folder Options, it reverts back to Hide.
- His default printer changed to Windows Fax. Since I can't open Devices and Printers, I can't set his normal printer as the default.
I've done some poking around and have found solutions to each of these problems, but it seems like there's a larger underlying issue.
I've done the following, but to no avail:
- chkdsk /f
- sfc /scannow
- Windows System Restore (returns with error code 0x80070571)
- Virus scans with Webroot and HitmanPro
- Enable Bluetooh Service and set it to Automatic (to try and fix the Devices and Printers issue)
I should mention that he also uses AOL Desktop. One other gentleman in the office uses it, as well, and this other gentleman frequently complains about performance issues. Both computers are identical. They're the only two in the office who use AOL and they're
the only ones who ever seem to have problems. I'm wondering if there's a correlation.
Any advice/suggestions as to what else I should try or insights into what might be wrong are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
