So... I am not sure what the fuck happened.

[10sun]

Instead of the Windows XP login screen(you know, the blue one with the clickable icons for users), I get the old Win2k style prompt for username/password.
It takes roughly 3 minutes for explorer.exe to fully load when I log into windows.
My taskbar never shows up fully, instead it is just a grey line at the bottom that I can right click on, but I cannot resize it so that I can see it.
I cannot copy or paste.
When I minimize a window, it drops down to the bottom of the screen and just shows the title bar & buttons instead of potentially going to the taskbar.
When I try to play an MP3 it says: Bad DirectSound driver.
My MP3 player comes as not having the proper driver when I plug it in via USB connection.
I can alt-tab & alt-ctrl-delete.
I cannot restore to a safepoint.

This is after I uninstalled my Catalyst software utility.

Any clues or ideas?

[10sun]

oh and apparently Internet Explorer doesn't work anymore.
Windows key does nothing.
Let me see what other problems I can come across while trying to do something.

[10sun]

able to resize the taskbar now, not sure why.

[10sun]

Going to volume controls says there is no audio device on my PC.

[Tossica]

Registry blown up sir.

[10sun]

fuck.
I can't remember if I made a backup recently or not =\

[Tossica]

Do a repair from the Windows disk and it should fix you right up, NP.

[10sun]

Windows Disk is 45 miles away in a box somewhere. All I have with me is external HD & image files on it. External HD doesn't want to work... so I'll have to see what I can arrange tomorrow sometime.

[Lyion]

I had the same problem with the new Catalyst software. They install a piece of spyware called mom.exe and for some reason it ate my registry.

I suggest backtracking to a previous version

[Arlos]

Catalyst being Cisco Catalyst? Or something else?

-Arlos

[10sun]

ATI Catalyst, baseline video drivers & software suite.

[Martrae]

ATI's software is called Catalyst.

The mom.exe installed with Catalyst isn't spyware, though, it's just what they called the repackaged cli.exe and the other crap they put on your system. It's unfortunate they picked the name of a known keylogger.

[Arlos]

Ahhhh. Well, I wouldn't get ATI video cards on a bet, so I've not used the catalyst drivers.

-Arlos

[Lyion]

ATI's software is called Catalyst.

The mom.exe installed with Catalyst isn't spyware, though, it's just what they called the repackaged cli.exe and the other crap they put on your system. It's unfortunate they picked the name of a known keylogger.

It doesn't matter what it is, it's a steaming pile of shit. It ate my registry and fucked up my XP Pro second PC with the X1950Pro in it.

The new Catalyst suite DOES have spyware like functions and installs a bunch of unneeded worthless crap.

[Martrae]

I didn't say it was GOOD. Just that it wasn't spyware per se.

I quit installing the software suite a long time time ago. Just gimme the drivers and I'm happy.

[10sun]

going to go shopping and see about picking up an external HD enclosure & a new 500gb HD to go with it...
then I'm grabbing a Utility CD & WinXP Pro CD from my friend's place and see what I can manage to do.

-Adam

[ClakarEQ]

I don't feel like going into details, so sorry :\, but you should just role back to a prior system state.

The catch is, the default install of XP (iirc) doesn't have this "on". So if you have no clue about what "system state" is, then odds are you've got it off.

HOWEVER, if it was "on", all you do is check what prior system state you want to role back to, be it a day, week, month ago, boom, problems gone (in many many cases).

EDIT

System State = System Restore (brain fart there, sorry)

[10sun]

I had that enabled, but I can't roll back because of all the problems my OS has right now. It happens I guess =\

-Adam