blank blue screen, cursor only

I'm working on a Windows XP Home computer that was having problems with the USB ports not working. I tried several things like reinstalling drivers, removing/adding USB items in device manager, and resetting/updating the BIOS. After looking around on the web, I found a suggestion to try an OS repair.

When I did that, I ran into problems with the installation not finding some files (even though I could clearly see them listed on the installation disk). There ended up being a couple dozen files 'not found'. Not knowing better, I just hit the 'Cancel' button to get through the installation procedure, figuring I could install them later. That's when I started getting nothing but a blank blue screen with nothing but my mouse pointer showing. It seems that the explorer.exe shell isn't working to show my desktop, I think. All of the following ideas were tried with no change in the result:

repairing using the original I386 files off the c: drive when needed
repairing using different memory
repairing using the I386 files copied to the c: drive from the installation disk
using a different installation disk
performing chkdsk & scandisk - found & fixed some errors
running virus scans by removing the disk & connecting to a different PC - none found
using system restore (via Safe Mode) going back to a time before all this happened

Each time I ran the OS repair procedure, it called for the same files. I managed to find 2 of the original I386 files from the c: drive to avoid hitting the 'cancel' button for everything. I can't recall the names right now, but it happened at 34 & 18 minutes remaining. It SEEMED to work. When it finishes it tells me I need to activate Windows before I can log on. That's when I get the blank blue screen. If requested, I can post the names of these files here.

I'd really like to avoid reformatting & reinstalling fresh, because it's not my PC. Any help ASAP is greatly appreciated!

 

After much anguish & frustration, I decided to reinstall the OS. This seems to be a problem with Windows from time to time, but with no way to fix it outside of a full reinstall. Occasionally it turns out to be a virus or rootkit but not always. Damn. Hopefully, someone will discover a fix for this soon.

:cry :confused