New Problems...

[Obstacle2]

Ok so I reinstalled Win 98SE, and everything is working, slightly. Upon starting up I get my first error message that says:

"Rundll32

This program performed an illegal operation.

It caused an invalid page fault at 0000:4f444e49"

Next, upon trying to access my C:\ drive through Windows Explorer, another message pops up:

"Explorer

This program performed an illegal operation.

It caused an invalid instruction at 0000:00770030"

I can close them both and it will continue to run, but the Rundll one comes up again and the explorer one comes up anytime i go into Windows Explorer. If I go into Internet Explorer, another one comes up with a different memory address: 0000:72676f72

Any thoughts? Is there any way to determine what is messed up by looking at the memory address?

EDIT: the explorer error causes the taskbar to go away and windows to stop working. It's at the point that I have to restart.

[edfair]

I've found that "over the top" reloads sometimes end up with niggling little problems that another install to the same place may resolve. My worst case issue took 4 reloads to get everything sorted out.
Would have been faster, even with reloading off the hard drive, to do a total wipeout and restart but I was dealing with some customer programs and data that absolutely kept me from doing it.

[pam123]

Or you're back to slaving the drive.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

I suppose my first question is = were you able to save the pictures and all the personal files off to removable media already? (or to another computer's hard drive)

My next question is = have you tried running diagnostics on the memory ( http://www.memtest.org ) and hard drive (make a bootable floppy diskette containing the diagnostics - such downloads are available from the hard drive manufacturer's website - DataLifeGuard for Western Digitals, Powermax for Maxtors, etc.).

My third question is = if you can save all your personal data off to removable media, do you want to consider the option of a clean install? [erasing the drive & starting over - this has to be considered carefully, since procedures can be a lot different depending on whether you have a full version Windows Installation CD or a Recovery Disk set]. . . . and there's the work of re-installing things & re-applying Security Patches (you have to have an antivirus and firewall running before going to get the updates, too). . .

If you are getting data corruption causing errors to system files, all sorts of errors can pop up. Such errors can be caused by anything from trouble with the hard drive, memory, optical drive, cpu, faulty Bios settings, . . . even weak CMOS batteries.

If you try a few more reinstalls, and keep getting the same errors, you could be looking at hardware failure somewhere along the line.

Time will tell! . . . and you're gathering repair experience.
. . . Gary

[Obstacle2]

1. Ok, well I wasn't able to get the pictures off the computer elsewhere , it doesn't have a burner, it wouldn't connect to the internet (which I'm not concerned with at the moment), and my flash drive needs the drivers installed, which requires an internet connection, but I have a solution to that. I also ran out of time to mess with it more, so I'll have to do it later on.

2. Haven't tried any diagnostics, but it probably wouldn't hurt.

3. Yeah if I can get these pictures off, I'll do a full clean install off a Windows 2000 CD i have, we can discuss that when I come to that, because I'm sure that I'll have problems. When it comes to me and fixing computers, it's rarely smooth.

Thanks for all your help

[GaryRouth]

The easiest way to copy the files is to pull the hard drive, and either connect it as a slave to a host computer's IDE cable, or use an external USB 2.0 enclosure. If you tend to have several repairs of this sort, and want to be ready for quick-and-easy hard drive repairs - an external enclosure with both IDE and SATA connectors is handy (of course, your main host machine needs to have a USB 2.0 port). The only problem with having one of these is that you will probably be very popular with folks whose hard drives are full of pests :)

Below are a few links for examples of external enclosures:

USB 2.0 hard drive external enclosure with only IDE connector $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817388001

USB 2.0 hard drive external enclosure with both SATA and IDE connectors $36
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817366004

Good luck, hope things turn out OK.
. . . Gary

[Obstacle2]

Can I connect it to a computer running Windows XP with a USB cable and pull the information off of it that way? I've thought about it, but I'm not sure if that would work or not

[glc]

You are going to have to physically remove the hard drive to get the information off it. You can install the drive into a XP machine as an additional drive or put it in a USB housing.

[Obstacle2]

Ok, good enough. Thanks for your help people.