Solved icons dissapear on some sort of random basis

Hi all,

Iam running a Win7 Home Premium 32bit and since 2 days all file/image Thumbnails and some of the folder icons dissapear on some sort of random basis and its driving me nuts as every attempt to fix this failed until now. So I registered here as some sort of last hope. Ive read a lot on the net about the thumbnail problem which seems to plague Win7 however my problem seems to be even more annoying....
Here is what I have done so far
-I run a scandisk which turned out all ok
-Virus/Malware check with Avira/Malwarebytes/Microsoft Malware Removal Tool/RootkitTDSS Killer -------all negative
-I have thumbnails enabled in any possible option window
-While unable to delete the thumbcaches_32 to 1024 in the AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Explorer I renamed them all as ".....Old" promting Windows to create new ones
-I deprived ALL users and SYSTEM of access to delete files and subfiles in AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Explorer to avoid Win7 to reset or delete the thumnbs
-System restore which promted a message that it failed
-Installed a Registry Backup from before the problem started but it didnt help at all

Nothing seems to work..Iam really deeply frustrated...
In order to illustrate the problem I add some screens...
Btw...Its doesnt make a difference if switching between small,medium or big icons but the list view would display the default filetype icons.
After a system reboot all icons and thumbs are initially displayed correctly but after a while they are all gone...DESKTOP SEEMS UNAFFECTED BY THIS CAUSE ALL SHORTCUTS AND ICONS ARE DISPLAYED
RANDOM FOLDER CONTAINING SOME FOLDERS AND JPEGS

AFTER A WHILE THE SAME FOLDER LOOKS LIKE THAT.NO FOLDER ICON,NO THUMBNAIL,NEITHER A FILE ICON...THE FILES LITERALLY BECAME INVISIBLE BUT CAN BE OPEND WHILE TEXTFILES A SHOWN WITH A SHEET OF PAPER

CONTROL PANEL

AFTER A WHILE ALL ICONS ARE GONE

HERE MY USER FOLDER...EVEN ICONS ON THE TASKBAR ARE MISSING WHILE SOME FOLDER ICONS ARE DISPLAYED AND OTHERS NOT.
THIS ISSUE KEEPS COMING AND GOING DURING A SESSION SO ICONS MAY REAPPEAR AND GO AGAIN AFTER A WHILE

UNAFFECTED DESKTOP EVEN CORRECTLY DISPLAYING IMAGE THUMBNAILS


I use CClenaer every once in a while but when performing registry cleans I never allow it to clean keys which I dont now. So I only use it to remove leftover keys from uninstalled software and alike.
Did anybody ever came across the same problem or has a founded idea what might causing this ?

EDIT:
I found that if I go to MyPC via search command and click on the empty space (without icons) Win7 generates icons and thumbs but this only lasts for seconds and they dissapear again...what da heck is going on with Win7 ?..How can it reset the thumbs when I denied all access to that folder ? And how do the system icons dissapear while the Desktop is all fine ?...

After refreshing all seems fine until open another window containing folders wiht thumbs

Anybody ?

Hello Chris !

I have tried to troubleshoot this issue a few times, but the results I got is not quite satisfactory. Still, I am asking you a few questions ...

1. Is yours a desktop or a laptop ?
2. What is it volume of the RAM ?
3. If you disable thumbnail previews , what happens ? Are they still tend to vanish ?

Arc said:

Hello Chris !

I have tried to troubleshoot this issue a few times, but the results I got is not quite satisfactory. Still, I am asking you a few questions ...

1. Is yours a desktop or a laptop ?
2. What is it volume of the RAM ?
3. If you disable thumbnail previews , what happens ? Are they still tend to vanish ?

Click to expand...

Hey Arc,

thnx for helping out...as for your questions

1. Its a Desktop PC
2. 4GB RAM...System freshly set up 8 months ago...
3. I will do this and see if the file extension icons vanish too

btw Installed a new GPU (GT430-1GB RAM) as somehow I thought It might be related to the graphics-card as since a while I was suffering from BOSDs with following reboot when playing games so the card was slow and caused the TDR delay but after installing the new GPU it just happend again and stuff vanished away.
This is so annoying...

I will proceed with 3. and report back within 24 hours


.

Hello Chris

Really it is very annoying. But most probably it is not related to GPU, but related with the generation of thumbnails by windows.

If thumbnail preview is off, and it is able to show up the icons, not the previews, it is a comparatively better state. Let us know what happens there.

Arc said:

Hello Chris

Really it is very annoying. But most probably it is not related to GPU, but related with the generation of thumbnails by windows.

If thumbnail preview is off, and it is able to show up the icons, not the previews, it is a comparatively better state. Let us know what happens there.

Click to expand...

I disabled thumbnails and checked the box for showing fielextension icons...they vanish the same way...except for those located on the desktop...
I add a screen...the files seen here are jped,bmp,png,gif and so on but instead showing the fileextension icon they show the default txt icon...but as well the taskbar on the left vanished except for 2 entrys...Iam really confused...it doesnt makes any sense...especially cause after booting the system everything is alright..

I add a screen

Hello Chris.

Very unfortunately, i cannot suggest you anything other than a repair install. I guess this is the only way to fix it.

Sorry mate, for suggesting the last resort, but practically there is no other way.

koolkat77 said:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R

Click to expand...

errr...crap...according to the instructions the recovery discs delivered with a PC system are only for a complete reinstall, did I understand this correctly ?

you cannot reinstall or repair install using those recovery disks; but you can do a factory restore using those. Actually factory restore is as good as a new installation.

Arc said:

Actually factory restore is as good as a new installation.

Click to expand...

I could live with having to reinstall all programs but does Factory Restore erase all data,video,musci and stuff by formatting the HD?

ChrisKlein said:

Arc said:

Actually factory restore is as good as a new installation.

Click to expand...

I could live with having to reinstall all programs but does Factory Restore erase all data,video,musci and stuff by formatting the HD?

Click to expand...

That is why a repair install was suggested. As you have a windows activation key, you can download the windows 7 iso from the digital river , the version should be the same.

Before performing the repair install, read the tutorial thoroughly at first.

Before you go through a whole repair install, try launching an elevated command prompt and running "sfc /scannow" to see if it finds any corrupted core Windows files. It could be as simple as some corrupt files that it can fix.

Have you installed any themes, theme modifiers, or windows component modifiers on your machine?

FliGi7 said:

Before you go through a whole repair install, try launching an elevated command prompt and running "sfc /scannow" to see if it finds any corrupted core Windows files. It could be as simple as some corrupt files that it can fix.

Click to expand...

might worth a try,does it? Ill do that straight away

FliGi7 said:

Have you installed any themes, theme modifiers, or windows component modifiers on your machine?

Click to expand...

no..nothing..I always maintain my OS as vanilla as a fresh baby ass

Arc said:

That is why a repair install was suggested. As you have a windows activation key, you can download the windows 7 iso from the digital river , the version should be the same.

Before performing the repair install, read the tutorial thoroughly at first.

Click to expand...

ah..ok...that sounds better now ...one last question if you dont mind...could there be a language issue as my win7 is a german version ?

In that case, you are to search for home premium German. It is available there, I hope.

Edit : about http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html , it works nice, and solves a large number number of issues. You must have a try.

But, previously I have experienced that usually there is no such fix for your current issue

Chris,
Language will make not difference.

What can cause your problem is the use of one of those super-duper cleanup and speed up your computer programs.

Think back--When did this problem begin to appear? Here the idea is that when you first started using your computer, before you ever installed any software then your system was working. This means you have, either directly or indirectly, caused this problem.

With all of the "corrective measures' that you took, I'm not surprised that you have problems.

Let's see if we can get you back a working system without having to do a factory restore.

Win 7 automatically, without you doing anything, creates System Restore Points.

The idea now is to choose a restore point before this problem started appearing and see if the problem can easily be fixed.

As stated, you have System Restore Points UNLESS you have used a super-duper cleanup,speedup your computer program that did you the "favor" of deleting them.

Here is how to restore using a System Restore Point:

RESTORE TO A PREVIOUS SYSTEM RESTORE POINT
1) WIN | type SYSTEM RESTORE | ENTER | NEXT
| Choose a different restore point radio button | NEXT
2) Show more restore points checkbox (lower left)
3) Highlight the desired restore point
4) Scan for affected programs (lower right)make a note of affected programs
5) CLOSE | NEXT | FINISH


WIN = key with the wavy Microsoft flag on top.
==============================================

Arc said:

you cannot reinstall or repair install using those recovery disks;

Click to expand...

Turns out that you can
However this highly depends on the manufacturer of the PC.
The german MEDION AG delivers a so called "Recovery Disk" with Desktop PCs but the naming is misleading cause these discs are full fledged Win7 discs.
Once I figured this out it was just a question of throwing the disk in. I was even given the option of RepairInstall but I used the chance to make everything new and fresh...so I clicked Install instead.
An automatic backup of all my data was stored in WindowsOld and after 20 minutes I had a fresh Win7 Install...No hardware check, no serial and no activation hassle...everything automaticly activated while the PC was plugged into internet during install.
This was the quickest and most painless system restore/reinstall I ever witnessed.
Now I laugh about myself cause I thought this would going to be a pain in the ass as often in the past but as I say. It really depends on how customer friendly and restricitve the PC builder is and these germans are exemplary.
Anyway,thnx for bothering with this thing. It really turned out unfixable and it doesnt seem to be related to the registry as I reverted back to a registry file long before the problem started...

karlsnooks said:

Win 7 automatically, without you doing anything, creates System Restore Points.

Click to expand...

I stated clearly that I tried system restore but it gave an error on each of the existing restoration points and the action was never finished..so I reverted back to an older registry file but to no avail either...

anyway...fixed with complete reinstall