Help! start menu disappeared after sp2 install

Ok, I'm fixing my friends computer... (I wonder how many threads start like that...) Oh, what an idiot I am...

Compaq Presario, 2400+ XP SP1
1 gig ram freshly install, up from 128 (with 16 going to graphics, UGH!)

Anyway, it needed the RAM and an update to SP2 in order to run Sibelius music notation software. RAM install went great, runs 5934 times faster. Then went for the SP2 install. Boots back up no problem, but the start button/menu is missing. If I hit CTRL-ESC, it brings up the four "most used" programs at the top of the screen, but nothing else of the start menu. Which means I can't even get to the control panel to uninstall SP2!!! Now, I'm thinking reinstall windows fresh (I got all his documents off onto a flash drive), but I'm just certain my 76 year old friend won't have the install disk from 5-6 years ago when he bought it, assuming it came with one at all. What am I going to do? And WHEN am I going to stop helping friends!?!?

--Bill

 

I got it, somehow, by a most amazing stroke of luck! I thought maybe I could bring the menu down and see the rest of it, so I put my cursor up there and sorta dragged down, and it didn't work, but guess what happened? The install/remove screen came up!!!!!!! Just the one thing on the computer I really needed to come, does, by total accident!!! What the hell are the odds of that? Absolutely bizarre. I took the hint and immediately uninstalled sp2. Ran virus check, clean, spyware, 2 items, uninstalled some useless crap programs and startups, tried sp2 again, and viola! works just fine. Whew! --Bill