Windows 7 Pro x64: Change in desktop, browser, shortcuts for no reason

[BrotherBaffled]

Yesterday, my laptop was working fine. Today, everything seems to have gone haywire. My user and password were working fine, but after I logged on, a message popped up saying that windows switched everything back to default settings. The pinned programs at on my taskbar are gone. The my documents folder was empty at first glance (and I keep tons of work stuff in it), but turns out its linking to the wrong folders now. My desktop background has been swapped for the default. My browser settings have all gone back to default and my favourites folder is empty. My touchpad which used to be turned off can no longer be turned off. Some of my games no longer work. My antivirus softwares and other programs that used to run on launch no longer do so. I'm using an ASUS G53J laptop so I have some buttons that change basic system settings like screen brightness and things like that but when I press them the graphic that pops up looks totally different. A host of other innumerable things have changed and I don't know what to do.

I have tried resetting the computer, system restore, and scanning for viruses but to no avail. I did not install anything or notice any change made to my computer last night. Can anyone help me find out what was wrong cuz this is really frustrating?

 

[mitchell65]

Hi and welcome to the Forum
Hate to say it but it looks to me as if you have been quite badly infected with a nastie!

What happened when you tried to do a System Restore? Did it complete? What date did you restore to?

 

[alphanumeric]

"I have tried resetting the computer" < What exactly did you do to reset it? If you reset it back to the factory state you may have lost all your documents and pictures etc?

 

[BrotherBaffled]

When I did a system restore, after the computer restarted once, the errors were all still there. On second restart, a message pops up and says that system restore did not complete fully due to error code: 0x80070005. When I say restart the computer I just mean the restart next to shutdown. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling some programs that were not working - for some of them (league of legends as an example) I encountered problems: Uninstalling is fine, but when I try to reinstall, a message says: C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\Riot Games\League of Legends 3.0.0\install\LoL.NA.msi is missing. I note that a lot of my files which are missing at first glance are in my C:\Users\MyName folder, and my missing bookmarks, themes, settings have folders in C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming , could it be that Windows is reading from the wrong folder?
Also, I have tried to reinstall drivers for my touchpad. Every 2nd restart of the computer or so, a message pops up saying the driver is wrong, and the touchpad stops working again.

 

[alphanumeric]

Ok, you originally said reset but what you meant was you restarted it. I think it might be a good idea to run some diagnostics on the hard drive. If you know the make and model you can get them from the hard drive manufacturers web site. If the hard drive checks out OK then we can work on fixing your file system errors. If the hard drive is failing you'll want to back up your data to an external device as soon as possible. Another possibility for these problems is a bad RAM module. A program like memtest can check that. If it's not a hardware problem then your looking at a file corruption issue. Running sfcscannow may be an option or even doing a repair install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html?ltr=S
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R

 

[BrotherBaffled]

Thx for the help so far guys. I have checked the hdd, ram, and system file checker found nothing. I guess my only option is to do a repair install, its going to take some time to download the iso file and do this thing. Especially because I'm in Australia and my downloads get interrupted by bad connections all the time.Wish me luck!