Windows 98/Explorer Crashing

[TheJackal]

I have a bit of a problem... Windows 98 and Internet Explorer keep crashing, every program that has anything to do with Internet Explorer crashes. This includes MSN messenger, Internet Explorer, any folder I open, MSCONFIG, the desktop even crashes for no reason at all.

It gives me a message that says that the program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. When you click ok it gives another message box that says if the problem persists please restart the computer. Anyway. When the machine is restarted the problem is still there. If I ignore the message box then windows crashes.

I dont know if this will help but here are the specs for my system.

Packard Bell Intel Celeron 600mhz
192mb Ram
32mb PCI Video Card
13gb Quantum Fireball HDD
8x4x32x LG CDRW

Any help is greatly aprreciated.

[andyms18a]

hi Jackal
witch version of internet explorer are you using ?
have you tryed sfc start run sfc ?
if that dont work try reinstaling internet explorer

[TheJackal]

I'm running the latest version of IE6. And no I haven't tried SFC. What does SFC do?

[Kubie]

TheJackal,
My first thought would be is that you may have picked up a nasty virus and maybe more then one. Do what you can to run a scan as soon as you can.

The other thing you can do is go to Ctrl Panel>Add/Remove Programs and do a repair on IE6.

Carl

[andyms18a]

sfc =system file checker checkes and repairs damaged system files

[TheJackal]

Ok...

I did a virus scan and it all looks normal. No viruses. I repaired Internet Explorer, it did its thing, restarted, and the problem wa still there. SFC shows that the setupx.dll file is corrupted.

Problem is, I can't repair this file because I dont have a windows 98SE CD. I only have the recovery CDs that came with my computer. I do have a Windows 98FE CD, could I repair the file with that, and do you think that it would solve my problem?

[GaryRouth]

Did you add any memory lately?

. . . or any other hardware changes?
. . . or install a new program? change a configuration? ISP?

[by the way, the corrupt setupx file is rather a non-issue. You can safely click the "Update Verification" button in sfc and not worry: http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;231793] It's a common occurance for sfc when run the 1st time.

Have you checked your system temps lately? (if you've got a Windows-based program to do this, great. You can also just enter Bios Setup at bootup and look in the Bios temperature readings, under a menu called something like "Hardware Monitor" or "PC Health")

You could try blowing out dust from the heatsink, your fans, your power supply. Do you know the brand of power supply in your system?

To test your system memory http://www.simmtester.com
To test your hard drive http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

If your error message has a "Details" button, click that & post the details message.

You can't use the 1st edition Win98 to repair the 2nd edition Win98.

The Packard Bell recovery disks would probably reformat your hard drive & set everything back to how your hard drive was on the day your computer arrived. Look in on whatever instructions you have (should have some in a menu right there on your hard drive) and see what options your version of the recovery set has. Make backups of whatever files are critical to you before much more time has gone by, and scan those backups with antivirus from another computer with up-to-date virus definitions, since the one on your system may itself have been compromised by a virus.

Look in on your startup files, too. . . . and check to see what's running with ctrl-alt-del & look at the tasklist - anything there look uninvited?

Boot into Safe Mode & run a few programs. If everything is suddenly normal, it's probably a software/driver issue. If the system is still unstable, it's probably hardware.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[hmmm. . . one more thing -- did you install any Security patches or system updates just before this happened?]

[TheJackal]

I'm going to try putting it into safemode. I have made no hardware changes in ages. The only change in the software was that I removed the RealONE player, and replaced it with an older version of Real Player.

I believe that the only option for recovery with the recovery disks because I cannot access the contents of anything in My Computer, for long enough to make use of the reinstall programs before explorer performs an illegal operation. Same goes for making a backup copy. It doesn't give me enough time to access anything and make the couple of CDs that I would need to backup my stuff before it would crash.

Everything I do performs an illegal operation. MSCONFIG performs an illegal operation and shuts down just as you open it. The desktop performs an illegal operation. It is just sitting there doing nothing and the menu pops up. I didn't know it was possible, but the "Restore My Active Desktop" button performs an illegal operation as well...

To answer your questions regarding hardware... The information CD that came from Packard Bell wasn't much help. None of the motherboard manuals on it matched the motherboard that was in my system. I believe that the power supply is a generic brand Micro 150watt power supply. I dont believe that the problem would be with temps as I just replaced the CPU fan with a brand new one a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway... I will try starting in safe mode and I will look in the programs list.

Oh... To answer your last question I didn't install any patches... I never trust content from Microsoft.

[TheJackal]

Well, I think I may have fixed the problem. It started in safe mode just fine, no porblems... So I went into MSCONFIG and disabled the Real Player, Real Tray at startup and that seemed to fix the problem, I haven't expieranced any crashes so far, and have been able to open every program that had crashed before, which is certainly a good sign...

I took some screenshots and have some questions. The first screen shot which is attached to this post is of the Close Program manager, the thing that happens when I push Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The following programs I do not know what they are for, maybe someone could shed some light on this...
Navapw32
Em_exec
Loadqm

[TheJackal]

The second screenshot is of the startup items under MSCONFIG. The one thing that doesn't look right is an item called nwiz, anyone know what this does?

[TheJackal]

One last thing, to all the folks who gave info on this little problem, thanks... You saved me a fair chunk of cash in 'puter repair costs.

[TheJackal]

Well, guess I'm not done yet... The only thing that still crashes is my Kazaa Media Desktop... Should I just get rid of Kazaa and forget it?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Sounds like software, rattles like KaZaa.

I usually recommend that folks try to find some other alternative to KaZaa. Becoming part of a clandestine "Brilliant Digital" network which is allowed to report on you and share your system resources for unspecified purposes (it's all in the license agreement - yep, you agreed to become part of a network, & let it use your computer when you're not there) --- all this just doesn't seem like a good idea under any circumstances. Add in that the livelihood of folks who depend on income from their work is in jeopardy from pirating, and it's downright criminal. Not just impolite.

Here are the other processes & their functions:
Dap . . . . . your Download Accelerator program. Sure, this can cause IE troubles. Get rid of it.
Em_exec. . . your Logitech mouse driver. You might well be able to live without it if your Logitech is nothing special. (not wireless, for example)
Loadqm . . . loads the MSN "Queue Manager"
Navapw32. . Norton AntiVirus -this one's a keeper.
Nwiz . . . . nVidia desktop Wizard - fancy layout prefs - you can choose not to run it if you're not using it
Sentry . . . spyware. It reports your demographic information to websites you visit. Blocked by most firewalls. Get rid of it.

Sorry if I get stern about KaZaa: part of my job here at the lab is systems management, and KaZaa showing up on PCs here causes no end of mischief. Not to mention that it's completely against all our policies. It's a virtual conduit of viruses, too. I'm a little surprised you didn't find any. [ I wonder if a double-check scan with TrendMicro's HouseCall might pop up a few http://www.trendmicro.com]

Looks like you should be OK & sailing smoothly soon. When you are all done with background jobs, you might try downloading and installing the latest Service Pack for IE - that will refresh quite a few files.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[p.s. ...somehow I missed one of your posts (it's late here & I'm getting tired again) - I'm thinking that the RealPlayer software didn't uninstall cleanly & left unhappy remnants - just to complicate things a little more. To clean up that mess, you can try uninstalling as much RealPlayer as you can from Add/Remove, then from Wndows Explorer delete any Real folders from your hard drive, clean out your Internet temporary files, cookies, caches - clean out your Windows Temp files, and then try a run of RegClean http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=list . . . THEN you should be done! ]

[bailey]

yes, and never use it again, as it will cause you a lot of grief

[RayH]

I'd recommend getting rid of Kazaa and the SHARE files before the RIAA targets you!!!

But one of the things to note when you start getting messages from left field and constantly crashing computers is to check for dust on the processor, heat sink, and heat sink fan!

[TheJackal]

Thanks again for all of your help...

One last question, GaryRouth mentioned that Sentry was spyware, would ad-aware be able to get rid of it? And, whats wrong with DAP?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Sentry is identified as spyware by the pacs-portal list of startups http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup.../startup_s.php

Not the worst offender. I think the recent version of AdAware would toss it (if it's in your Add/Remove Programs, that might do - AdAware would probably be more thorough)

nVidia recommends against using any download managers when downloading their drivers. I figure if nVidia doesn't like 'em, there's something to it. Basically, with the compression/decompression of files you risk some data loss/corruption. With a video driver, that's a real problem. I figure it's a problem for any file. If you have broadband, download accelerators aren't necessary & can cause further problems due to timing issues. You can use Dap if it doesn't cause you any problems - but since your system's been unstable, I'd leave it off for a while & see how things go before trying it again.

If you're using a modem, the best way to speed things up is to use a phone line no more than 15 feet long, let the PC be the 1st in line (put any phones or fax machines farther down the daisy-chain), & keep the cord away from stereos and microwaves. If it's a "software modem", these can be extremely sensitive to noise on the line - sometimes with these it's best to have just the computer on the phone line when using such modems [unattach the others from the daisy-chain while you're online, then reattach them to the "Phone" connector when you're done (the PC will use the "Line" connection on the modem)]

. . . Gary

[TheJackal]

Thanks.