Hi, i'm wondering if anyone can help me. A few months back my computer started acting up...the icons next to the start button at the bottom of the screen were turning all white...after that more problems arose and last week i couldn't even turn the computer on. Was told the hard drive was corrupted, got a completely new hard drive put in in order to start from scratch and not have any more problems. Windows ME was installed first, worked fine on monday, but by tuesday suddenly the icons at the bottom next to the start button turned white, and now the icons on the desktop turn black when i click on them, and the icons next to the names of the programs on the start menu all look the same, some are just black squares, some are black and white plaid squares...they are all completely messed up. I'm not sure what to do. The hard drive is new, just installed. I've run a virus scan and it doesn't find anything. I don’t know what is causing this. If anyone can help i'd appreciate it. Thanks, Victoria

Hi Victoria,Sounds like you have eliminated a virus possibility, I would next go to start-search-files and folders,look in the local hard drive C: and search for Shelliconcache,when found right click and delete it,restart your computer and windows will build new icons.you may need to increase the icon cach size so if this does not work post back.

Have you checked the icon settings in display of the control panel. What firewall and antivirus programs(does it have latest virus definitions installed) do you have installed? Have you checked for a possible trojan? Try the PC Flank website and use their trojan scan.

Well, I deleted the ShellIconCache file, restarted my computer, and the icons were normal for about 2 minutes, and now again they are all messed up (black, white, some are even missing). I also went to the PC Flank website and ran the trojan scan and nothing was found. So, i'm not sure what to try next. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You may simply need to to increaser the size of the shelliconcache from the default of 500; Open Regedit (Start/Run/regedit) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer Create a new string called Max Cached Icons Give it a value of 1024 Reboot