Big problem, and I don't want to reinstall win98 SE. pls read.

When trying to open mydocuments an error said: "Error loding Explorer.EXE.
you have to reinstall windows. And "I" don't want to do thar, I want to avoid
that and fix the the problem. And I do have another win98SE PC, do you think
I'm able to replace Explorer.EXE on here with the one on the other, Coz all I
have is a floppy drive in the other on and a CD burner won't wont work with
it coz it only has 16MB of RAM. So how do I fix this prob with out
reinstalling windows on here.

And I use Firefox so thats how I can be online still.

And task manager does not work. Whats the deal with the probs. And I can use
win 2000 to change files and folders on here, this PC has 2 OS's.

"C" wrote:

When trying to open mydocuments an error said: "Error loding Explorer.EXE.
you have to reinstall windows. And "I" don't want to do thar, I want to avoid
that and fix the the problem. And I do have another win98SE PC, do you think
I'm able to replace Explorer.EXE on here with the one on the other, Coz all I
have is a floppy drive in the other on and a CD burner won't wont work with
it coz it only has 16MB of RAM. So how do I fix this prob with out
reinstalling windows on here.

And I use Firefox so thats how I can be online still.

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:15:02 -0800, "C"
wrote:

When trying to open mydocuments an error said: "Error loding Explorer.EXE.
you have to reinstall windows. And "I" don't want to do thar, I want to avoid
that and fix the the problem. And I do have another win98SE PC, do you think
I'm able to replace Explorer.EXE on here with the one on the other, Coz all I
have is a floppy drive in the other on and a CD burner won't wont work with
it coz it only has 16MB of RAM. So how do I fix this prob with out
reinstalling windows on here.

And I use Firefox so thats how I can be online still.

This may not apply exactly but try it. Use the procedure in the
Win98 section.
Error Message: Error Loading Explorer.exe You Must Reinstall Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299296

Hang in there, you should not need to re-install.

Happy Holidays Everyone,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.epix.net/~bwatt/

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:15:02 -0800, "C"

When trying to open mydocuments an error said: "Error loding Explorer.EXE.
you have to reinstall windows. And "I" don't want to do that

Yes, I'd react to the same way to a broken OS telling me I "must"
re-install it. Too much collateral damage to take at face value.

And I do have another win98SE PC, do you think I'm able to replace
Explorer.EXE on here with the one on the other

Yes; maintain an Undo path, tho; i.e.
- rename away the old one, don't delete it
- make sure DOS mode (F8 at boot) works

Bad Explorer.exe may be:
- active malware, including fake Explorer.exe
- shell integration at the CLSID level
- corrupted file (Scandisk "fix", av "clean")
- version soup, e.g. OS over newer IE install, etc.

So, I'd start with this "before you think" stuff *first*:

http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bthink.htm

Commercial malware can cause problems here as well, so scan for that
using free Spybot and AdAware, after the formal virus scan.




---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
On the 'net, *everyone* can hear you scream
---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Well, I replased Explorer.EXE with the same from the other PC and it works,
but, as always, sometimes has and Illegel operation, But, at lest it works.

But, sometimes windows frezzes and I turn it off by the power butten, would
that ciz the problem, turning it off like that?

"cquirke (MVP Win9x)" wrote:

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:15:02 -0800, "C"

When trying to open mydocuments an error said: "Error loding Explorer.EXE.
you have to reinstall windows. And "I" don't want to do that

Yes, I'd react to the same way to a broken OS telling me I "must"
re-install it. Too much collateral damage to take at face value.

And I do have another win98SE PC, do you think I'm able to replace
Explorer.EXE on here with the one on the other

Yes; maintain an Undo path, tho; i.e.
- rename away the old one, don't delete it
- make sure DOS mode (F8 at boot) works

Bad Explorer.exe may be:
- active malware, including fake Explorer.exe
- shell integration at the CLSID level
- corrupted file (Scandisk "fix", av "clean")
- version soup, e.g. OS over newer IE install, etc.

So, I'd start with this "before you think" stuff *first*:

http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bthink.htm

Commercial malware can cause problems here as well, so scan for that
using free Spybot and AdAware, after the formal virus scan.




---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
On the 'net, *everyone* can hear you scream
---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:05:02 -0800, "C"

Well, I replased Explorer.EXE with the same from the other PC and it works,
but, as always, sometimes has and Illegel operation, But, at lest it works.

Let's do a bit of forensics:

Compare the Version tabs of the two; are they the same?
- if not, you may have had some "version soup" issues.

If so, compare the file lengths; are they the same?

If same size, do an FC /B and see if there are differences:
- massive differences from one cluster start to end? Crosslink.
- solid 512-byte slab of junk? Wild write at hware level.
- patchy differences, odd numbers of bytes? Intrafile virus/av-fix
- patchy differences, 2 or 4 bytes, aligned? Bad RAM vs. defrag

If not, is "bad" truncated to a round multiple of cluster size?
- if so, probably Scandisk "fix" damage

If not, is "bad" larger by an odd number of bytes?
- if so, intrafile infector, which may have been av'd.

Do your av logs note "cleaning" of Explorer.exe?

Does C:\SCANDISK.LOG note "fixing" of Explorer.exe?

But, sometimes windows frezzes and I turn it off by the power butten, would
that ciz the problem, turning it off like that?

Yes, that can be expected to damage the file system and files on that
file system. When Scandisk "fixes" this, the file system will be OK
but damaged files will still be damaged - just no longer detectable as
such by Scandisk. That's why it's important to Append to Scandisk's
log, as that log is the only clue as to which files may be bent.

Details on this here...

http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/scandisk.htm

....and the level above will have other links of FATxx file system
damage patterns and how to fix these, if you have an interest.


Bad exits can be expected to produce certain types of file system
corruption, but not others. You'd expect incorrect file lengths (when
an atomic file operation is interrupted, e.g. between adding data
clusters to the chain but before updating the dir entry's file
length), lost cluster chains, and incorrect free space.

You would not expect cross-linked files, unless subsequent file write
operations are done on an unfixed file system (that's what
auto-Scandisk aims to avoid).

In theory, you could get mismatched FAT, but that seems rare in
practice. Or rather, the mismatched FAT I have seen doing data
recovery etc. for the last decade have usually been due to insanity,
rather than the interruption of sane file operations.

You wouldn't expect heavily corrupted dirs or botched boot sectors
("invalid media type byte") from simple bad exits.


Then again, bad exits can be caused by crashes that have had a primary
effect on the file system. Let's say your crashes are due to bad RAM
that corrupts not only what is written to HD, but exactly where it is
written, at the raw sector address level. That can cause profound
file system corruption that won't be limited to the files you were
using, because it's beneath that level of abstraction.

Hence http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bthink.htm



-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.
-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

"cquirke (MVP Win9x)" wrote:

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:05:02 -0800, "C"

Well, I replased Explorer.EXE with the same from the other PC and it works,
but, as always, sometimes has and Illegel operation, But, at lest it works.

Let's do a bit of forensics:

Compare the Version tabs of the two; are they the same?
- if not, you may have had some "version soup" issues.

If so, compare the file lengths; are they the same?

If same size, do an FC /B and see if there are differences:
- massive differences from one cluster start to end? Crosslink.
- solid 512-byte slab of junk? Wild write at hware level.
- patchy differences, odd numbers of bytes? Intrafile virus/av-fix
- patchy differences, 2 or 4 bytes, aligned? Bad RAM vs. defrag

If not, is "bad" truncated to a round multiple of cluster size?
- if so, probably Scandisk "fix" damage

If not, is "bad" larger by an odd number of bytes?
- if so, intrafile infector, which may have been av'd.

Do your av logs note "cleaning" of Explorer.exe?

Does C:\SCANDISK.LOG note "fixing" of Explorer.exe?

But, sometimes windows frezzes and I turn it off by the power butten, would
that ciz the problem, turning it off like that?

Yes, that can be expected to damage the file system and files on that
file system. When Scandisk "fixes" this, the file system will be OK
but damaged files will still be damaged - just no longer detectable as
such by Scandisk. That's why it's important to Append to Scandisk's
log, as that log is the only clue as to which files may be bent.

Details on this here...

http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/scandisk.htm

....and the level above will have other links of FATxx file system
damage patterns and how to fix these, if you have an interest.


Bad exits can be expected to produce certain types of file system
corruption, but not others. You'd expect incorrect file lengths (when
an atomic file operation is interrupted, e.g. between adding data
clusters to the chain but before updating the dir entry's file
length), lost cluster chains, and incorrect free space.

You would not expect cross-linked files, unless subsequent file write
operations are done on an unfixed file system (that's what
auto-Scandisk aims to avoid).

In theory, you could get mismatched FAT, but that seems rare in
practice. Or rather, the mismatched FAT I have seen doing data
recovery etc. for the last decade have usually been due to insanity,
rather than the interruption of sane file operations.

You wouldn't expect heavily corrupted dirs or botched boot sectors
("invalid media type byte") from simple bad exits.


Then again, bad exits can be caused by crashes that have had a primary
effect on the file system. Let's say your crashes are due to bad RAM
that corrupts not only what is written to HD, but exactly where it is
written, at the raw sector address level. That can cause profound
file system corruption that won't be limited to the files you were
using, because it's beneath that level of abstraction.

Hence http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bthink.htm



-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.
-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -



Ok, 1. I don't know what a computer crash is like.

2.my defrag has been saying theirs errors and I need to use scandisk which I
haven't done yet, so I'll try that and look up what you said.

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 15:01:01 -0800, "C"

Ok, 1. I don't know what a computer crash is like.

If the system "stops responding" so that you are unable to shutdown
properly, or resets itself, then that I would refer to as a "crash".

2.my defrag has been saying theirs errors and I need to use scandisk which I
haven't done yet, so I'll try that and look up what you said.

Take that advice very seriously indeed, as it may be warning you about
surface defects, i.e. a HD that has started to die.

Do Scandisk from DOS mode, not Windows, and say Yes to Surface scan.

Unlike the Windows Scandisk "thourough" test, this scan will show you
when the HD surface is poor enough to need repeated attempts to read
it, even though Scandisk still thinks it's "OK" (you'd see the cluster
counter slow down or pause).

Plus you can see previous B(ad) cluster blocks, that Scandisk will not
re-test once they are marked as bad. Bad clusters (i.e. clusters
containing bad sectors) are signs of a failing HD in almost all cases.

The exception is where these markings are carried over from a bad HD
to a good replacement as part of a disk imaging process.

Don't run Windows, and especially do DO defrag, until you know the HD
is free of defects and retry latency (i.e. "slow" clusters in DOS mode
Scandisk surface scan test).



--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Tech Support: The guys who follow the
'Parade of New Products' with a shovel.
--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

(gulp) My PC Rebooted 2 times on me today so, I guess I'll check it out.

That older PC Has the same OS as this but have not found any probs with it
so I'll do scand disk is Dos like you said.

"cquirke (MVP Win9x)" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 15:01:01 -0800, "C"

Ok, 1. I don't know what a computer crash is like.

If the system "stops responding" so that you are unable to shutdown
properly, or resets itself, then that I would refer to as a "crash".

2.my defrag has been saying theirs errors and I need to use scandisk which I
haven't done yet, so I'll try that and look up what you said.

Take that advice very seriously indeed, as it may be warning you about
surface defects, i.e. a HD that has started to die.

Do Scandisk from DOS mode, not Windows, and say Yes to Surface scan.

Unlike the Windows Scandisk "thourough" test, this scan will show you
when the HD surface is poor enough to need repeated attempts to read
it, even though Scandisk still thinks it's "OK" (you'd see the cluster
counter slow down or pause).

Plus you can see previous B(ad) cluster blocks, that Scandisk will not
re-test once they are marked as bad. Bad clusters (i.e. clusters
containing bad sectors) are signs of a failing HD in almost all cases.

The exception is where these markings are carried over from a bad HD
to a good replacement as part of a disk imaging process.

Don't run Windows, and especially do DO defrag, until you know the HD
is free of defects and retry latency (i.e. "slow" clusters in DOS mode
Scandisk surface scan test).



--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Tech Support: The guys who follow the
'Parade of New Products' with a shovel.
--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -