Task bar and start button freeze on Windows 7

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Hi,

While trying to open a Word 2010 document this morning on Windows 7, Windows shut down automatically and a blue DOS screen with a warning popped up (not long enough for me to read).

Now, when trying to reboot, I see my desktop and am able to click on items but nothing launches. Furthermore, my entire task bar and start button are not responding – all I get is a ”working” turning disk but it never boots up task bar. All I can do is force a reboot – I have access to nothing.

I also got an error message from Toshiba Service Station:

Unhandled program exception!
Source: System, Windows, Forms
Message: External component has thrown an exception
Target: Boolean get_OwnerDraw()
Inner Exception: NONE

I can hit CTRL+ALT+Delete and I get the choice of opening task manager, etc but whatever I choose just never launches.

Any ideas??????

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Can you boot in safe mode and does the computer respond in such case?

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See if you can boot into Safe Mode. If so, try a System Restore to a point prior to the problem.

Jerry

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I can run in safe mode but Windows says there is no restore point – there was one before because I restored it 4 weeks ago.

MY laptop came with Windows 7 and office installed on it and I don’t have disks. Its 2 years old and the stickers with serial numbers is long gone. Is there a way I can retreave my serial numbers in safe mode? Is there a way I can repair Windows 7 without disks?

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In safe mode, run MSConfig and disable everything listed in the startup tab. also, go to the services tab, check the hide all Microsoft services box and disable what’s left. Reboot and see if you can run now.

Jerry

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In safe mode, run MSConfig and disable everything listed in the startup tab. also, go to the services tab, check the hide all Microsoft services box and disable what’s left. Reboot and see if you can run now.

Jerry

Still getting same result after disabling aal in General and Services tab. Once I get to my regular desktop after reboot from safe mode, the only option I have is to do a hard reboot with start button because everything freezes up.

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toshiba laptop?

still got the hidden recovery partition???

if you got your data out, reboot and hit F10 (I think F10) and it’ll start to restore the computer from the recovery partition.

you may or may not get an option to preserve your data.
you may or may not be warned before losing all your data.

if this option is available to you, you won’t need to worry about losing your Windows Key, the recovery process will place it for you.

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toshiba laptop?

still got the hidden recovery partition???

if you got your data out, reboot and hit F10 (I think F10) and it’ll start to restore the computer from the recovery partition.

you may or may not get an option to preserve your data.
you may or may not be warned before losing all your data.

if this option is available to you, you won’t need to worry about losing your Windows Key, the recovery process will place it for you.

Yes Toshiba Laptop.

Tried F10 but nothing really happened differently with same result as before – all is frozen

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Boot back into Safe Mode and try re enabling all services via MSConfig and leave all the startup items disabled.

Jerry

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Boot back into Safe Mode and try re enabling all services via MSConfig and leave all the startup items disabled.

Jerry

Tryed that and still not working.

I fixed my problem. I found on the web that by pressing 0 (zero) and the start button on power-up with Toshiba laptops, you enter a restore menu. Inside this menu, you can restore from disk or restore to out-of-the-box status. I restored to out-of-the-box, this keeps your Windows and licence, then reinstalled Ofiice and my backed up files.

Was having so many problems with this laptop that it was the option I was looking for.

Thx for trying to help and your quick responses.

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Is there a way I can make a recovery disk from safe mode? If yes, will it include the problems I’m having now? I am backing up data from safe mode to an external drive so don’t care about the data. I would just like to return it to factory default.

Its a Toshiba C650D FSX

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You could try:
Start > All Programs > Toshiba > Support and Recovery > Recovery Media Creator.

Jerry

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Glad to hear you found a solution. Thanks for sharing.

Jerry

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Wow, that’s something to remember… Toshiba restore menu -> Hold ZERO and push power button…

Thank you for the tip, and congrats on restoring!

There are utilities that can pull your M$ keys out of your installed programs, but to be honest I’m not sure if they are permitted on this forum.

If we are permitted to discuss these types of tools, perhaps others could post tools they know are legitimate and safe to use…?

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Wow, that’s something to remember… Toshiba restore menu -> Hold ZERO and push power button…

Thank you for the tip, and congrats on restoring!

There are utilities that can pull your M$ keys out of your installed programs, but to be honest I’m not sure if they are permitted on this forum.

If we are permitted to discuss these types of tools, perhaps others could post tools they know are legitimate and safe to use…?

Magical Jelly Bean will give you your Windows and MS Office keys. I don’t think there’s anything unethical or illegal about this program. It just gives you the reinstall info you need for programs you have legitimately installed on your computer.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Belarc will tell you all you want to know. http://belarc.com/free_download.html

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