Computer won't do anything

[pwag]

Hi there,
My older PC (running Windows 98 SE) gets stuck shortly after it starts. It brings up the desktop background picture and then an error message comes up (which says, Explorer -This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down). That's it. No start menu -no nothing. The only thing to do is turn it off with Control/Alt/delete. Any ideas what's going wrong or what can be done?
Thanks
Pwag
P.S. It was running just fine -slowly of course, but handled the internet, even surfing, pretty decently for an old machine.
P.S.S. The Windows explorer message did give details (which mean nothing to me) which I will include in this post:
[indent]Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module EXPLORER.EXE at 0167:00401f31
Registers:
[/indent][indent]EAX=00000000 CS=0167
EFLGS=00010246 EIP=00401f31
EBX=00000001 SS=016f ESP=0080 feec
EBP=0080fef4 ECX=d0494850 DS=016f ESI=00000000 FS=2bff
EDX=0080 fefc ES=016f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS: EIP:
8b 08 50 ff 11 8b 45 08 50 8b 08 ff 51 08 8b 45
Stack dump:
00401ee0 0080fefc 0080ff34 00405cac 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000
[/indent]

[guestolo]

Are you able to boot this computer in safe mode?

[pwag]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'430502\' date=\'Jun 7 2008, 10:27 AM\']Are you able to boot this computer in safe mode?[/quote]

I don't know. How does one do that?

[guestolo]

You may not be able to enter Safe mode, but if you can, we can try some searching for a file

Start the computer, after the single Post beep you should hear, before Windows loads
Start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard
This should bring up some startup options
Select Safe mode from the list

[pwag]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'430507\' date=\'Jun 7 2008, 11:14 AM\']You may not be able to enter Safe mode, but if you can, we can try some searching for a file

Start the computer, after the single Post beep you should hear, before Windows loads
Start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard
This should bring up some startup options
Select Safe mode from the list[/quote]
Ok, I've selected Safe Mode and it brings me to the beginning desktop where I immediately get a message titled Windows Mouse Support -it says "Windows did not detect a mouse attached to the computer. You can safely attact a serial mouse now. To attach a mouse to a PS/2 mouse port, you must first turn the computer off."
Once you click "OK" you get another pop-up box titled Desktop - it says "Windows is running in safe mode. This special diagnostic mode of windows enables you to fix the problem that is keeping you from starting windows normally. The problem could be caused by your network, or hardware settings. Make sure these settings are correct in Control Panel, and then try starting Windows again. For more information, see the troubleshooting section in Help. While in safe mode some of your devices may not be available." When you hit the enter key, you get another pop-up box titled Explorer -it says "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down".
Hmmmm, now what?

[guestolo]

Ok, that's ok, onto the next step

Reboot the computer again, after the post beep, tap the F8 key
to bring you to the startup options

This time, don't select Safe Mode, but instead select "Command Prompt Only"
The should bring you to the prompt of

C:\>

I'm assuming your operating drive letter is C:
If your not at the C:\> prompt
Type in
cd C:\
Then hit ENTER on your keyboard

At the C:\> prompt type in Exactly the following as posted in bold
below

attrib /s explorer.*

Then hit ENTER on your keyboard
This will scan your computer for all instances the file explorer.
It may take a couple of minutes
Notice the single space after attrib and after the s
and don't forget the asterik (*) after the period.

Post back the finding of the file and the file paths
As egs..
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
C:\explorer.exe

Remain in the command prompt
Let's search for another file

type exactly
attrib /s browseui.dll
Hit ENTER on keyboard, post the location of this file

It may be important you post back soon
Did this problem just start happening?
We may be able to restore to a previous date and fix a corrupt registry

[pwag]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'430624\' date=\'Jun 7 2008, 08:46 PM\']Ok, that's ok, onto the next step

Reboot the computer again, after the post beep, tap the F8 key
to bring you to the startup options

This time, don't select Safe Mode, but instead select "Command Prompt Only"
The should bring you to the prompt of

C:\>

I'm assuming your operating drive letter is C:
If your not at the C:\> prompt
Type in
cd C:\
Then hit ENTER on your keyboard

At the C:\> prompt type in Exactly the following as posted in bold
below

attrib /s explorer.*

Then hit ENTER on your keyboard
This will scan your computer for all instances the file explorer.
It may take a couple of minutes
Notice the single space after attrib and after the s
and don't forget the asterik (*) after the period.

Post back the finding of the file and the file paths
As egs..
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
C:\explorer.exe

Remain in the command prompt
Let's search for another file

type exactly
attrib /s browseui.dll
Hit ENTER on keyboard, post the location of this file

It may be important you post back soon
Did this problem just start happening?
We may be able to restore to a previous date and fix a corrupt registry[/quote]
Ok, I followed your instructions and here are the results:
(also, this problem did just start late last week, Thurs night I believe)
after typing in attrib /s explorer.*  the computer responded with:
C:\WINDOWS\APPLOG\EXPLORER.LGC
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER\.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.SCF
C:\PROGRA~1\HEWLET~2\INTERA~1\RESOUR~1\TOPICS\IMAGES\_VTI_CNF\EXPLORER.GIF
C:\PROGRA~1\HEWLET~2\INTERA~1\RESOUR~1\TOPICS\IMAGES\EXPLORER.GIF


Then after I typed in attrib /s browseui.dll
it responded with:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\BROWSEUI.DLL

That was it.

[guestolo]

Did you type that out exactly as you seen on the screen?

I noticed the following
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER\.EXE

Did you mean to say
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE

Note the backslash (\)is removed from after the R?

If that's what you meant to post back

Can you try the following

(also, this problem did just start late last week, Thurs night I believe)

Try the following
Go back to Command Prompt Only

At the C:\> prompt
Type exactly the following

scanreg /restore
Hit ENTER on keyboard, registry checker will begin
Notice the single space after the g, before the /

Select a date, if you have one, from before Thurs. night to restore

See if that's any help

[pwag]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'430756\' date=\'Jun 8 2008, 04:17 PM\']Did you type that out exactly as you seen on the screen?

I noticed the following
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER\.EXE

Did you mean to say
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE

Note the backslash (\)is removed from after the R?

If that's what you meant to post back

Can you try the following


Try the following
Go back to Command Prompt Only

At the C:\> prompt
Type exactly the following

scanreg /restore
Hit ENTER on keyboard, registry checker will begin
Notice the single space after the g, before the /

Select a date, if you have one, from before Thurs. night to restore

See if that's any help[/quote]
Hello again,
Thank you, yes - I did mean to type:
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
I will follow your directions and let you know what happens!
Thanks.

[guestolo]

If this get's you back in Windows
It may be important that you post a Hijackthis log

Here's the instructions
Download Hijackthis Installer from [color=\"#FF0000\"]HERE[/color]
For an alternate download location, you can try HERE
SAVE it to your desktop
Double click on HJTInstall.exe to run it
Choose Install

Hijackthis v2.0.2 will open

Under Main Menu, Select
Do a system scan and save a Log file
A log will open in Notepad
Copy and Paste the Whole log back here to the forum----It is all important!

[pwag]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'430791\' date=\'Jun 8 2008, 08:17 PM\']If this get's you back in Windows
It may be important that you post a Hijackthis log

Here's the instructions
Download Hijackthis Installer from [color=\"#ff0000\"]HERE[/color]
For an alternate download location, you can try HERE
SAVE it to your desktop
Double click on HJTInstall.exe to run it
Choose Install

Hijackthis v2.0.2 will open

Under Main Menu, Select
Do a system scan and save a Log file
A log will open in Notepad
Copy and Paste the Whole log back here to the forum----It is all important![/quote]

Hooray! I did get Windows back -thank you somuch. However, we have other computer troubles (our router is malfunctioning) so the now fixed computer doesn't have access to the internet just yet, thusly I can't download anything on it until our router is fixed or replaced.
By the way -do you know why that happened to that computer?

[guestolo]

Is there anyway you can tranfer Hijackthis from a working Internet computer
save to desktop of computer with no Internet, run the scan then transfer the log and post it back here?

Don't wait too long, remember, you only have so many restore points

[pwag]

We are trying to figure out how to save the Hijackthis program to a flash drive to then load onto the other computer. However what do you mean by restore points?

[guestolo]

Well, there not really like System Restore points, but registry backups done on a successful boot

Why not do the following, when you have this computer back online
Post a hijackthis log from it then, and we'll see if it's all clear

[pwag]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'431375\' date=\'Jun 11 2008, 09:56 PM\']Well, there not really like System Restore points, but registry backups done on a successful boot

Why not do the following, when you have this computer back online
Post a hijackthis log from it then, and we'll see if it's all clear[/quote]
Okey-dokey,
Thanks again and I will try that when I have things back online.
You guys are great!!
Thanks again.