The other day my computer went into it's little energy save setting where the screen goes black. When I touched the mouse to get the screen back on(like always) nothing happened. I heard the computer running but no screen. So I rebooted the computer. When it came back online, desktop icons were gone as well as the files that went with them. I could not even do a restore to get them back.

Any ideas what went wrong?
Any ideas on how I avoid this from happening again?

This actually happened to my dad the other day- his computer went into the "safe mode" and then died all together. He took some memory from an old dead computer and installed it in his computer, and his computer started up again and worked even faster. Perhaps you do not have enough memory on your computer and need an upgrade. That is why my dad's freaked out and shut down until it was fed more memory. I hope this helps.

Hmmm...
I had the same thing happen to me....
But I also had to redue my whole system...as i found out I had some kind of virus/spyware on my comp that not even any anti-virus or spyware removal would get rid of.....
I lost all Icons on desktop....and sat at my computer for 3 days trying to figure out the problem....I came across some info on Microsoft website...that stated by other users about WINXP-SP2 causing this after installing...but if thats not your prob (Meaning: if your not running XP) then nevermind this statement...)
So anyways tell me more about this ...like where you downloading anything, or websurfing?....

Because theres acouple of things I can think of that would cause this...

Let me know...ttyl

That's a good point, it very well could be a virus. Do you have an anti-virus program on your computer to help stop viruses from infecting your computer? Norton Anti-Virus is a good program for Windows and I use Virex, which works very well.

I had the same experience with my dads computer I spent 2 days on it. What happend was a virus had got in and it replaced the background to the computer and disabled all icons on the desktop. It also disabled the "task manager" (ctrl + alt + del), and the "display properties". The system restore had no restore dates in it eather. so what i did was went to aol.com and downloaded and installed the aol safty and security center also i downloaded and installed varius trial versions of anti-virus and virus cleaners but most didn't help but the most effective programs was "aol ssc" which helped me find all the files in the
-- C:/windows/ and ers
-- C:/windows/system32/

alot of the programs (virus) had the permissions set to adminastor access only so I had to boot up in safe mode and clear them off I also fixed the task manager from safe mode. but I had to find a regestry fix for the display properties from a site on the internet.

all of it was fixed and working without reinstalling windows
------------------------------------------------------- theking648 --------------------------------------------------------

just restart your computer again (forcibly, don't run thru the regular shutdown process), and then it should come back since you didn't have enough memory to sleep your machine.

xboxrulz

Windows Sux

try installing linux

That's very rude a comment. Even I was and am of the opinion that Linux is better than Windows. In fact it is in many ways. But never forget, there's no linux version which is as user friendly as Windows. I had a real tough time installing Linux and there weren't enough softwares available for my needs. There are Umpteen number of Linux flavors, choosing one itself is a big thing...

As far as the problem of desktop icons disappearing is concerned, I agree with other guys that there could be a virus. I don't think you need a memory upgrade or something. (It was running fine till then. Why suddenly the problem?). But if you were hibernating, then check the hard disk free space. Deleting some files might help.

I suggest installing a good Anti spyware/ Antivirus like AOL/ Norton and try scanning the HDD once. Make sure you have the latest virus definitions updated!

If you're only going to post that in Windows topics as support, I'm inclined to classify you as a troll.
This was a bad troll even. 1/10


Had it for a while too. What I did was merely change the power options in Control Panel to never go in standby. Although it still does go in standby; it allows me to regain the PC in merely second. Have a little fun with those options.