Aston is killing my machine, please help!

aaron shen · Guest

hey everyone. Has anyone here ever had their aston crash and the desktop turns blank, and there's no start menu? I'm sure it's happened to everyone. Now, I decided I was sick of that happening so I'll go back to normal, so I unisntalled Aston, but whenever i booted up i got that blank screen with nothing but a cursor. Does anyone know what I should do to make my pc normal again, like BEFORE i got aston?

admin · Site Admin Joined: 27 Dec 2002 Posts: 46

Please read:
http://www.astonshell.com/aston/faq.htm#5
and
http://www.astonshell.com/aston/utilit.htm

eerde · Joined: 04 Aug 2002 Posts: 91

Hi,
I'm sure that not every one has had this....... Aston is more stable than anything else. Also after uninstalling you seem to have the same problem ! Sounds like some other cause... Like Billy G.

As you do not give any other info like op.sys, recently installed progs, specific -other- errors, people might think you are directing your anger at Aston for 'other' reasons.

But maybe you should "go back to normal", or at least your version of 'nornal' and leave us, happy 'Astonians' wil our crash-proof shell !

Eerde

Alarick · Joined: 28 Sep 2002 Posts: 8

not sure what happening to your system but u can try this and see if it works

scanreg /restore to a previous system setup that have no problems

use eru to restore to a save system setting if u have it

use sfc in run command and search for corrupt or missing files

reinstall window Smile

when trying a new program its best to alway do backups
not that i need it for aston,its more stable and crash free compare to bill gates version ;D

yoshy · Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 16

i never had that black screen thingie..... i sometimes get : BSOD ;D

rositalil · Joined: 04 Oct 2002 Posts: 4

I've got the same problem mate! Thought that might increase your credibility somewhat... Wink

To be serious, what you have described is exactly what happened to me. After installing Aston my computer took quite a bit longer to boot, which is why I un-installed Aston. When I rebooted afterwards, my desktop icons were gone, as well as the start menu, taskbar and system tray. All I could see was the cursor and an explorer window displaying my desktop shortcuts. I could not even use the keyboard shortcut (Window + E) to open up Explorer. I was left with no choice but to install Aston again, and guess what? Everything was back to normal.
To Eerde:
Going back to normal mode does work, but you should always be able to uninstall a program if you want and expect the computer to work normally, right? I am sure there are a lot of happy "astonians" out there, but the fact is, like aaron shen and now myself have described, this is a real problem, whether you like it or not. Hopefully someone who knows what they are talking about can get back to us with a working solution to the problem. I've read Admin's post, but that does not really help.
I must admit, I am a bit miffed since after my trial version runs out, I will be stuck with a program and uninstalling it will only cause a headache. The only solution would be to re-install Windows.

E-Motion · Joined: 27 Aug 2002 Posts: 42

After owning Aston for about a month I must say that I have never had any problems with Aston, none at all.. I did uninstall a few times to try out the new versions of Talisman and after uninstalling aston I still had no problems..

However, the way I uninstalled it was that I used the Shell Swapper to switch to Explorer first.. Then I went to add/remove programs and removed Aston.. That seems to be the sure fire way to uninstall Aston with no problems.

rositalil · Joined: 04 Oct 2002 Posts: 4

thanks for the tip E-Motion... that's how I did it in the first place tho Sad

and unfortuneatley that didn't work... don't know how to solve it

E-Motion · Joined: 27 Aug 2002 Posts: 42

Hmm.. That's really odd.. Have you e-mailed support@astonshell.com yet? This appears to be a rare, but serious problem..

PhiliBob

What OS are you two running???

I got Windows 98SE and Windows XP, and both have run fine with Aston. I was wondering if this was OS related. Who knows, it is probably some service that you have running that guards from having any other shell than Explorer from running! It really wouldn't surprize me!

- K DEN

rositalil · Joined: 04 Oct 2002 Posts: 4

I'm using Win2k. I emailed Astons's support yesterday, haven't heard from them yet.
PhiliBob, what service were you thinking of?

Atreides · Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 66

I'm not sure if it's relevant, but it's just a suggestion ...

I encountered a similar problem on my WinXP system while I was using StyleXP. It happened when I uninstalled StyleXP and couldn't get my default desktop back. The problem was eventually traced to a service called "Themes" which I had unknowingly or accidentally disabled.

Of course, that was on my WinXP system. I'm not sure if Win2k has a service called "Themes" or works similarly to it. But maybe you should check out your services for something similar to my WinXP's "Themes" service.

Anyway, it's just a suggestion. Good luck. Smile

PhiliBob · Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 7:13 pm Post subject: Let's see if this works!

That's great that you have Windows 2k, hopefully this might help you!

First, boot your machine, now you should arrive to the black screen with your mouse cursor and nothing else, correct?! Okay, here we go...

1. hit the Ctrl+Alt+Delete Keys
2. click the Processes tab
3. Look for anything that says explorer or aston, if you can't find it then all is well and proceed to the next step, if not, skip to the Uh Oh! :-/
4. Click the Applications Tab
5. Click the New Task Button on the bottom
6. type in explorer

Now you should see Explorer load up. If this is the case it means that Aston was not properly setup in the registry. Contact Aston notifying them of the steps you did and they should be able to help you Very Happy

Now for the Uh-Oh part!
1. If aston shows up in the process, go ahead and highlight aston and click end process
2. Now goto step four on the directions above and everything should be about back to normal
3. If explorer shows up in the process, then I definitly suggest a system restore! Crying or Very sad

Hope this helps a little!

- K Den

P.S. I left a link for you if you were curious of what services are. Think of them of more little programs that run on your computer, you can research and figure out what services you don't need or want to definitly disable. Here is a micrsoft link below, and you can always find out more about these services by searching on Yahoo!

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/management/w2kservices.asp
-Windows 2000 Services

DragonLord · Joined: 19 Oct 2002 Posts: 1

I'm using Win2K Pro, and there are no problem with install or uninstall Aston 1.7

rositalil · Joined: 04 Oct 2002 Posts: 4

good people, thank you for trying to help me sort this out.
right... i have tried your suggestions, but none of them worked. i received an email from aston suggesting something, which did not really have anything to do with the problem, but i tried that out anyway.
however, it is working fine now! Cool

simply because i've formatted my hard drive and installed windows again. needless to say i will NEVER install aston again!
thanks again to all of you who tried to help me.
take care,
rosi