Black background with most icons missing.

Answered Black background with most icons missing.

  • Thursday, April 07, 2011 9:08 PM
     
     

    I have a production box at a customer's site that has a problem.  All of our maintanence is done remotely.  When I remote into the box I just see a black background and only four icons are showing.  There are usually about 13 icons on the desktop.  All applications appear to be running normally.

    I reviewed some of the other black screen reports and could not find any that sound like the exact same problem.  There are a bunch of boxes that were built using the same image, so I'm concerned we are going to see this problem occurring elsewhere.  So, I'm not sure restoring to a previous point would solve the actual problem. 

All Replies

  • Friday, April 08, 2011 5:08 PM
     
     

    When I have seen something like this (not remotely) it is often caused by a virus.  Is there some way you can do a thorough scan of the system?  I guess this may be tricky remotely.


    Steve
  • Friday, April 08, 2011 9:23 PM
     
     Answered

    It is unlikely that it is a virus because the box is so isolated. 

    I did check the theme and it was set to theme-unknown.  I changed the background back to Classic and that worked, but the icons were still missing.  Under C:\Users\Username\Desktop the icons were still present.  So, I just copied them back onto the desktop.  I'm just wondering what could have caused this because this box sits on a network and runs mostly untouched. 

    • Marked As Answer by Vivian Xing Friday, April 22, 2011 8:47 AM
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  • Friday, April 08, 2011 9:54 PM
     
     

    Very strange! Who can fathom the mysteries of Windows based computers?? :-)

    I'm glad you were able to sort it out.


    Steve
  • Monday, April 11, 2011 10:42 AM
    Moderator
     
     

    Hi,

     

    The issue could be incorrect theme when remote into the box. The theme-unknown will change the icon onto your desktop. You can check the Desktop Icon Setting. The four icons are the default icons. If you check the option below, it will allow the theme to change the desktop icon.

     

    Right click desktop -> Personalization -> Change desktop icons in the left pane.

     

    Regards,

    Niki


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  • Monday, April 11, 2011 10:50 PM
     
     

    That could be what happened.  But do you know of any reason why it would spontaneously change settings?  I doubt anyone changed the settings on the box and it was set to show the classic background.

     

     

  • Wednesday, April 13, 2011 3:02 AM
    Moderator
     
     

    Hi,

     

    That could be the reason. Please check if the issue occurs after setting the box correctly.

     

     

    Regards

    Niki


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  • Friday, April 15, 2011 12:17 PM
     
     

    May i know the same black screen u can see in safe mode and other users mode ?

    This issue could be caused by a virus or some drivers application get corrupted!!!

    when u log in remotely try to use this steps and see if u r able to see other 13 icons

    1.     Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc on the keyboard to bring up Task Manager.

    2.     Click File -> New Task (Run…)

    3.     Type explorer.exe and then press Enter.

     

    or try to clean the pc using any system cleaner..

     



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  • Tuesday, January 22, 2013 10:36 PM
     
     

    This is definitely NOT a remote-access issue. Out of literally No-where, I just had this happen to me on a laptop im trying to fix many registry errors on.

    The only thing I can think of is that virus fragments are still causing random ill effects to harm the computer as I removed a boat load of virii from the machine and now am dealing with the effects of a registry FUBAR'd from complete virus dessimation.


    Edit: I'd like to add that the symptoms of this are JUSt as you described, a black wall paper, with windows classic theme followed by misc. (3-4) irrelevent icons with all regular icons still in the C:\Users\Name\Desktop Folder.
    • Edited by drwmbt Tuesday, January 22, 2013 10:37 PM addt`L info.
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