"display" select in Control panel not responding

Greetings:
I'm getting no response to a double click on "Display" in Control Panel - Win XP Home, SP2. All other icons are responding properly in Control Panel, so this problem is specific to the Display icon. I've had this problem for a few weeks now, but have been occupied with other more pressing issues in this machine, but this is getting old...I can't think of any changes to the system I might have effected which might have led to this situation, and so far I've tried such things as System Restore and Scannow to no avail. At present I'm booting the system from a floppy as I seem to have lost either the MBR or such like, as I was getting the dreaded NTLDR error on startup, but that's for another thread. The Display problem cropped up before the boot situation developed, and I've just included it here as a self-reminder that some of the remedies suggested might not get past the boot hiccup. Any ideas? I've included system details in my CP, if that's any help.
Thanks.
Garth.

 

No activity with Start>Run> control desk.cpl - just the hourglass for a second, then nothing. Did I miss something with the "typo" message? Here's something I've noticed, which might be a clue: I'm not a touch-typist, but sometimes I can get some speed up on the keyboard. Recently I've found that occasionally the first few letters in a sequence haven't made it from the keyboard to the screen. I'm using a Logitech officePro 'board feeding through a Belkin F1DS104T KVM: there hasn't been any real problem with that setup, save for the rare mouse drop-off, but that's been happening for the past 3+ years. I think that I'll take a closer look at this keyboard - could there be any connection with my original problem?
Thanks.
Garth

 

System File Checker run as suggested - no indication of problems. I've seen this utility in action before, but I'm not certain what to look for: is there a message to indicate that it's located a corrupt file, and if so, will it be replaced from the system disk, and a message to that effect shown on screen? I'm also wondering if an earlier attempt to refresh the desk.cpl file was successful, in that I expanded the desk.cp_ from the CD as directed in another troubleshooting session. Will this technique overwrite a hidden file, or must such a file first be removed from the boot directory?
My learning curve is going ballistic. Thanks again to all.
Garth

 

Hi gus boy,

It's been a few days and I'm not sure if you've found your fix yet but I did run across this link recently and your problem came to mind. You may want to give this a shot:
http://www.dougknox.com/security/scripts_desc/displayapplet.htm

 

Greetings, Ann:
Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately this one hasn't corrected the issue either. I've been distracted by other things for the past few days, for which I apologize, as I know that these fora(sp) survive on the posters keeping up to date, but, as I mentioned earlier, I'm right on the verge of slapping a new drive into this box and am in the process of gathering up the software necessary to bring a new operation on stream without too much delay. As well, I'm trying to sort out the various mini-solutions I've already applied AND to which drives: Primary, Clone, the other one, etc, and of course, I'm booting courtesy of a floppy...
But please keep the suggestions coming - I appreciate any and all help offered. How about ThemeUI.dll - where does it fall in the hierarchy Snakes and Ladders? Anyone?
Thanks,
Garth

 

Pete:
Thanks much for the heads-up regarding Event Viewer. After just a brief look I can see that there's a lot to learn about - and from - this utility, so I have a lot of catching-up to do. I'm reeaaaly looking forward to being able to post some news of progress with these glitches, and will do so as soon as such happens.
Regards,
Garth.