Taskbar in XP missing

jlhill17 · Post by **jlhill17** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:37 am

A bit of back story may help understand the problem:
My cousin recently purchased a used computer which had been restored to factory settings. He bought and installed a nVidia GeForce video card (not sure which one) and installed it, but it didn't work when he plugged his monitor into it. He disabled the integrated graphics in Device Manager (a stupid move) so the computer would have to use the video card, but the monitor just lost all signal. He pulled out the battery from the motherboard to reset it, then put it back in and it was fine again, his monitor worked again. When he tried again to plug the monitor into the video card it worked this time, but there was no longer a start button or a taskbar at the bottom. On top of that ctrl+alt+del didn't do anything. The task manager only works when he opens the program manually from the system32 folder. The taskbar is not hidden. The windows key and ctrl+esc do nothing. The icons on the desktop all work fine. He can minimize and maximize programs (using alt+tab) and they seem to go somewhere just above the lower right corner of the screen. When the computer is in safe mode the taskbar is there.

Does anyone know how to fix his taskbar?

Storm90 · Post by **Storm90** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:30 pm

Try system restore or a windows repair. This might solve the problem

RaisinCain · Post by **RaisinCain** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 2:03 pm

"The windows key and ctrl+esc do nothing."

It's CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. Also it sounds like the video is setup for 2 monitors or there may be some resolution problem.