illegal operation problem

[gascat]

Hi.
i was surfing a skiing web site with some web cams on it. The machine crashed with:

Illegal operation
explora invalid page fault
WDMGN.DLL at 0167:61C 05319.

This apears with the blue screen when i boot up. Cant seem to shift it. Boots into safe mode and i am trying to use the config utility with no sucess.

Is it a terminal problem or can i get the machine back.

Win 98se running.

Thanks.

[GaryRouth]

Can't hurt to scan for viruses & spyware (with recent versions/definitions for both)

Also - if you see that error again, could you copy it exactly? I think you have a typo or two in your first post - there isn't a file wdmgn.dll, as far as I can tell

If you have no current antivirus or spyware, the following have free-for-personal-use versions:
AdAware - http://www.lavasoft.de
SpyBot Search & Destroy - http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
AVG Antivirus - http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[diver203_98]

I had Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware 6. I downloaded them and installed and ran them. I wasn't impressed with either. They actually did less than Evidence Eliminator does.

www.evidence-eliminator.com

When I used their uninstall program for Adaware and Spybot it also took some files along with it. Was it because they were MS products? That I don't know. They were MS Money, MS Works, MS Picture It Publishing, MS Word, MS Streets And Trips, and MS Clip Art Gallery.

What I did was go to My computer, HiLite "C" drive and run Evidence Eliminator on Safe Restart, It will give you 2 messages and ask if you really want to do this. So it safe deleted (overwrote with zeros), wiped out "C" drive completely and I started from scratch. It took care of everything, and even fixed a few problems I didn't even know I had. Moral of the story. Get a good zero write utility, just incase, and becareful of what you uninstall. If I run into a problem llike this I will almost always use Evidence Eliminator to sanitize the disk and start over. It is time consuming to say the least, 8 - 10 hours to run the full program the first time, if you run the full program. It will also secure the free space and run a Magnetic Reminance Underwrite which will totally eliminate any and all traces of magnetics from previous programs. I wouldn't be without Evidence Eliminator.

[gascat]

Thanks for the replys.
I did type in the correct dll. I found it in windows\system folder.
Could not do anythig with it but found out it has a connection to win95 and nt. I deleted it. the back up is on the boot disc so i rebooted. windows said something was missing and opened up the system folder automatically. I closed this and carried on working. On a second reboot no warning or error occurred. The machine is due for a wipe so i have removed all info and data to my laptop via fastlynx in readiness.

Thanks

[GaryRouth]

What OS are you running?

If you do decide to zero-write the drive, consider that if this is an OEM machine, you may lose any proprietary or hidden partitions. This is generally more important the older the machine is. Is this an older Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM, or Gateway? (etc.)

The disk utilities available for download from the manufacturer's site of your drive may likely have a free zero-write utility included. DataLifeGuard (Western Digital) does, as do many others. These tools might also be a good idea for an older drive that you are considering doing a lot of work on, since they could warn you if the drive is failing, and keep you from wasting a lot of time and effort on a dying drive.

If the drive tests OK, and you don't have time for a full clean install, plus the following reinstall of all software & data, you could try the over-the-top method. You'd do this only after you're pretty certain the drive is OK mechanically, and clean from unwanted visitors. Here's the guide: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70846 . . . and here's Hal's tip for a common over-the-top error: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38140

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[gascat]

Thanks very much for the help.
The reinstall info will be very useful. It is running win 98se.