I have been looking after a home desktop running Windows XP Home Service Pack 2 that has started to display bizaar behaviour. I have run spy-ware and virus scans without avail, cleaned up the registry, and stripped down start up programs to the absolute minimum (anti-virus and wireless tools). I even tried re-installing Service Pack 2 under the affected user’s account in case that was the problem. The symptoms are as follows-
*Internet Explorer (v6 for SP 2) no longer allows redirects, nor web buttons to be clicked on. This renders a large part of the internet completely useless on internet explorer. Strangely this affects some users and not others.
*USB keys not recognised- the computer makes a sound, but doesn’t pop up for the device. Although the device is listed under the System/Hardware menu, and the computer lists it as a USB flash drive, it can’t find drivers for it either on the system or using the much-vaunted web service. The same devices work fine on Linux running on the same desktop, and on XP systems at work.
These two problems aren’t in themselves major problems, but are majorly annoying, and I am at a loss to explain them. Has anyone seen anything like this before, and can anyone suggest anything else I can do to try and fix it?
