Windows explorer stops responding

Hi. I have a problem with a computer i am trying to fix. Windows
explorer stops responding when i try to open things like c drive, d
drive and so on. I get no error message and i do not see anything odd
in the hijackthis log of the computer. IE is working fine. The machine
is win98 SE. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be causing this
and how i can stop it?

(1) "START button, Find, F/F, Autorun.inf".
I guess one of those can do it, if in a root directory, such as
"C:\" or "D:\". They do not belong there.

(2) As cquirke once said, "Control Panel, System, Performance tab". Are
you in "compatibility" mode? Then, try his site...
http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/doscompat.htm

Also...
http://support.microsoft.com/default...79&Product=w98
Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks
(130179) - The Performance tab in System properties shows that one or
more of the hard disks in your computer is using MS-DOS Compatibility
mode. MS-DOS compatibility mode may be in use either for the file system
or for virtual memory. You may receive the...


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"BW~Merlin" wrote in message
...
| Hi. I have a problem with a computer i am trying to fix. Windows
| explorer stops responding when i try to open things like c drive, d
| drive and so on. I get no error message and i do not see anything odd
| in the hijackthis log of the computer. IE is working fine. The
machine
| is win98 SE. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be causing this
| and how i can stop it?

Hi. I have had another look at the computer today and i think i have
found what might be causing the problems. There are two hdd's on the
computer and both appear to have a working OS on them. When i go into
add and remove only the programs installed on c show up while those on d
dont. Is there some problem in that windows doesnt quite know what
files to use which would be causing explorer to not work. I can veiw
and work on the computer by using the exploring window (the one you get
when us press the windows key and e at the same time). It also appears
that there is a norton ghost image on the secound hdd so im guessing
that image has been used. Norton ghost is on the secound hdd and it
works but like i said it doesnt show up in add and remove. Anyone got
any other ideas?

It is OK to have two HDD, each with Windows installed. That is my setup
too. One is a clone of the other. Both are visible when I boot. The one
that is boot becomes C:\. (I actually haven't boot my clone ever, except
as a test. Even then, it wasn't a dual boot situation, but I moved
it/jumpered it & let BIOS boot it.)

But ONLY ONE of them may boot at a time. What you see in Add/Remove
Programs will be whatever has been installed to the one that you boot.
The other one has it's own stuff in it's own Add/Remove, which you may
see when you boot that one.

In order to preserve sanity & to avoid Registry confusion, I think one
should NEVER install a program across those drives, certainly NOT into a
partition that has it's own OS.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"BW~Merlin" wrote in message
...
| Hi. I have had another look at the computer today and i think i have
| found what might be causing the problems. There are two hdd's on the
| computer and both appear to have a working OS on them. When i go into
| add and remove only the programs installed on c show up while those on
d
| dont. Is there some problem in that windows doesnt quite know what
| files to use which would be causing explorer to not work. I can veiw
| and work on the computer by using the exploring window (the one you
get
| when us press the windows key and e at the same time). It also
appears
| that there is a norton ghost image on the secound hdd so im guessing
| that image has been used. Norton ghost is on the secound hdd and it
| works but like i said it doesnt show up in add and remove. Anyone got
| any other ideas?

Ok. So do you have any other ideas as to why expolorer keeps not
responding. Those link you gave me didn't help as the drives weren't
running in compatability mode and there were no problems with the
drivers ocording to device manager.

(0) Does it happen in Safe Mode? If not, I have a grueling procedure for
you to do.

(1) Did you search for an Autorun.inf?
....First...
"START, Settings, Folder Options, View tab", & bolt "Show all
files"; may as well uncheck "Hide file extensions..." too.
....Then...
"START button, Find, F/F, Autorun.inf".
I guess one of those can do it, if in a root directory, such as
"C:\" or "D:\". They do not belong there.

(2) "START, Run, MSInfo32, Tools menu, IE Repair Tool"
It produces a rather large "Fix IE Log.txt" in C:\Windows. IE & E
are basically one & the same. If this crashes, an over-install of IE is
indicated. (I have instructions for that.)

(3) Did you post your HiJack This report to one of the proper NGs...?...
......Quote...................
....snip
What may help is this -
Download, unzip, and run Hijack This from one of these locations:
http://computercops.biz/downloads-cat-14.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads...HijackThis.exe
Unzip to a folder other than your Desktop or the Temp folder,
doubleclick
HijackThis.exe, and hit "Scan".

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save
Log"
button.
Press that, save the log somewhere you can find it (Desktop, My
Documents, or
similar).
Most of what it lists will be harmless or even required, so do NOT fix
anything yet.

Copy the log files and paste them into a new post at one of these
forums:
http://forums.net-integration.net/
http://computercops.biz/forums.html
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showforum=30
http://tomcoyote.org/forums/
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com
http://boards.cexx.org/

The folks there will tell you what to remove.
Please also post back here with the log file, so we may see what is
happening.

A tutorial for using Hijack This is located he
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/
and an in-depth tutorial is he
http://aumha.org/a/hjttutor.htm
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
.......End of quote of Glee...............


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"BW~Merlin" wrote in message
...
| Ok. So do you have any other ideas as to why expolorer keeps not
| responding. Those link you gave me didn't help as the drives weren't
| running in compatability mode and there were no problems with the
| drivers ocording to device manager.

"BW~Merlin" wrote in message
...
| Hi. I have a problem with a computer i am trying to fix. Windows
| explorer stops responding when i try to open things like c drive, d
| drive and so on. I get no error message and i do not see anything odd
| in the hijackthis log of the computer. IE is working fine. The
machine
| is win98 SE. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be causing this
| and how i can stop it?

Ok in response to your questions and suggestions.

The problem does not occure in safe mode.

Autorun.inf is no where present on any of the hdd's

Internet explorer repair would not work because scrrun.dll was missing

Here's what i did.

I used sfc to load scrrun.dll into the c:\windows\system folder and that
would allow me to open both c and d drive but i could not navigate to
any subfolders. I tried to use the internet explorer repair function
agian but the file version was to old. I then went to the windows
update site and downloaded all the criticl updates and service packs and
hay presto the problem was gone. i cant belive i didn't think of doing
that earlier (that is normaly the first thing i do but i think i though
i had already done them so that may be way i didn't think of doing the
windows updates). So its all fixed now and it only took me a couple of
days Thx for all your help PCR and ill try to think of windows
update earlier next time.

You are welcome. Lucky you figured it out, 'cause next up was the
grueling procedure!

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"BW~Merlin" wrote in message
...
| Ok in response to your questions and suggestions.
|
| The problem does not occure in safe mode.
|
| Autorun.inf is no where present on any of the hdd's
|
| Internet explorer repair would not work because scrrun.dll was missing
|
| Here's what i did.
|
| I used sfc to load scrrun.dll into the c:\windows\system folder and
that
| would allow me to open both c and d drive but i could not navigate to
| any subfolders. I tried to use the internet explorer repair function
| agian but the file version was to old. I then went to the windows
| update site and downloaded all the criticl updates and service packs
and
| hay presto the problem was gone. i cant belive i didn't think of
doing
| that earlier (that is normaly the first thing i do but i think i
though
| i had already done them so that may be way i didn't think of doing the
| windows updates). So its all fixed now and it only took me a couple
of
| days Thx for all your help PCR and ill try to think of windows
| update earlier next time.

Hi. Bad news. The problem is back. The owner said they weren't doing
anything and all of a sudden it just stop working. I went to try and do
the IE repair but there was a problem with file versions. The file that
i extracted was to old and it needs version 5.1.0.5010 of SCRRUN.DLL.
I think i might have to do the grulling proceduer. One the + side i
can now get into c and d drive but still cant get into any of the sub
folders.

Well, before the grueling MSConfig procedure, SCRRUN.DLL is an IE file,
inside VBSCRIPT.CAB of "C:\WINDOWS\Windows Update Setup Files". It has a
Mod date in there of 6/26/01 & is 151,601 bytes, acc. to WinZip.
HOWEVER, this is my current Win98SE scrrun.dll...

scrrun.dll
Desc: Microsoft (r) Script Runtime
Loc: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
Size: 147,456 bytes
Mod: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 01:18:30 PM
Ver: 5.6.0.8515

Although the file has been updated since IE6 SP1, when an IE Repair
fails, it is advisable to overinstall IE...

Over-install IE. Try first without, but I believe it will request an
internet connection. Perhaps it is best to let it connect, actually. If
you don't care to get this fancy, just skip to step (c).

(a) Turn off interfering programs. Use http://www.pcmag.com/ 's
"StartupCop" or "EndItAll2". Or "START, Run, MSConfig, Startup tab".
Note what is unchecked, if anything. Then, go to the General tab &
disable the entire Startup Group, by clicking "Selective.." & unchecking
"Load Startup...". Reboot.

(b) Perhaps, if you haven't got EndItAll2, then "Ctrl-Alt-Del" & end
task all but Explorer & Systray. If this goes badly, start again from
top, & skip it next time.

(c) "START, Find, F/F, IE6Setup.exe". Click it in the Find window.

NOTE: If you are IE5, then it's "IE5Setup.exe". If there are more
than one (I have two each), click the one in "C:\WINDOWS\Windows
Update Setup Files" or "C:\Windows Update Setup Files", as applicable.

(d) Re-enable the Startup Group. That will automatically check all
items. Go to the Startup tab & uncheck any noted in step (a). Reboot.

(e) Perhaps go to Windows Update, to see whether it now offers
criticals.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"BW~Merlin" wrote in message
...
| Hi. Bad news. The problem is back. The owner said they weren't
doing
| anything and all of a sudden it just stop working. I went to try and
do
| the IE repair but there was a problem with file versions. The file
that
| i extracted was to old and it needs version 5.1.0.5010 of SCRRUN.DLL.
| I think i might have to do the grulling proceduer. One the + side i
| can now get into c and d drive but still cant get into any of the sub
| folders.