sys32 folder opens at boot up

Hi Guys when I boot my laptop it displays the sys32 folder and a smaller msn window. I've tried the M/S fix of checking registry and despite clearing 3 x "..." there's no improvement. I'm not confident to delve deeper into the registry. I've tried downloading and running AMUST registry cleaner, but still no improvement. Closing the sys32 folder returns to the desktop, so all is not lost but its a bit tedious and obviously not right. I,m not sure what I did when the problem first appeared, but was ok when new.

System is Toshiba Tecra Celeron M 1.6 GHz 768Mb and win XP. Could anybody please offer any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Greetings and salutations! Welcome to MajorGeeks. Hopefully someone here will help you in this matter, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

I know you are not confident in delving into the registry, but here is an article from MS, that might help:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;170086

Or, you can simply:

Click START, then RUN, then type in msconfig (press enter).

Next select the startup tab and either list the items here, or uncheck the ones you deem not necessary.

 

Hi and thanks for reply. I already tried that article from MS but with no success (I found a couple of "" s but I wouldn't know what other NULL ENTRIES to look for. I just looked at msconfig > start up but it doesn't have any sys 32 reference there (unles it goes by a different name). Any other suggestions please?

 

Well, on a troubleshooting aspect, go to msconfig and the startup tab. Uncheck everything. Reboot, after it asks you to.

Does the sys32 still show up? If no, then check the items that you need, like AV or firewall.

 

Hi, I tried that and still boots to sys 32 folder! That has got rid of the msn window however (it wasn't the normal msn sign in window but a folder with 1 file in it). Any other thoughts, and thanks anyway for your help.

 

It's certainly possible that a poorly written setup program could have had a problem and left an incomplete or corrupt entry. If you've installed or tried to install anything recently, and the problem began then, that's a likely scenario.

The other scenario is a possible virus.
The viruses that have been making the news are all fairly sophisticated and apparently well written. But of course not all of them are.
It's quite possible that a problematic virus either has infected, or has tried to infect your machine. Again, viruses also like to make things happen at start-up, so if they have a problem, or a bug, when writing that startup-entry, this type of problem can result.

Only a speculation though, and further investigation is certainly warranted!

Regards...

 

Thanks for that nitecrawler. The problem's been around for a while, unfortunately I can't remember doing anything at the time which might have initiated it. It does not actually cause any problem once I close the sys32 folder down, it just bugs me! As for a virus, I've got Norton Internet Security cos it came with the laptop, I think its ok but it does slow things down a lot! I run manual scans regularly, I also use ad aware, spybot, ccleaner, xcleaner, sophos anti root kit and amust registry cleaner and update and scan regularly with them all so it would have to be something else to get through that lot! Also I don't have any other symptoms that I'm aware of, and no one has ever come back suggesting I have sent them a virus by email (I send and receive quite a few).
The MS article that theefool suggested refers to the registry errors causing the problem. Perhaps I'll try MS and see if they have any other ideas. I think you could be right about a corrupt programme affecting the registry, but its strange that the registry cleaner doesn't find it. Thanks for your thoughts anyway.