explorer immediate "illegal operation" dialog at s

[sy0n]

my computer is being dumb, I was using it last night, and it was acting totally normal. The sound stopped working later, so then I continued chatting and normal stuff. I didn't really think anything of my sound stopping because it's happened to my computer before, stopping when I restart. So, then I notice all my icons on my start bar and on my quicklaunch (I don't have icons on my desktop) turn into that little piece of paper with the windows logo on it, I'm assuming that means that the file or program or whatnot associated with the icon can't be found, is that right? so anyways, nothing will open, so I restart my computer. after I press okay on the little login dialog in the beginning, it makes that startup noise that it does, and then an "Explorer has performed an illegal operation" dialog pops up, asks me to close it, and then no matter what I do with that box it just shows my desktop picture and nothing loads at all. not even the driver to my ethernet card or something. Sorry I don't know that much about computers so if that is confusing... well then let's just say I'm more confused than you. But, anyways does anyone know what I can do to fix this or could help me fix it by guiding me through AIM (I'm using my dad's computer). If you can help me I might be on my screen name recyclingsounds

[Mister Xiado]

Windows 9X, right? Do a dirty reinstall, something majorly fuxxored it over. You won't lose any data,

[sy0n]

Raijin Z

Windows 9X, right? Do a dirty reinstall, something majorly fuxxored it over. You won't lose any data,

windows 98 is 9X right? I didn't know if the X was a variable or actually stood for something. but yeah, what in the world is a "dirty install"

[Mister Xiado]

Yeah, 95, 98, and ME are all Win9X. A dirty reinstall is when you just install something on top of the original without removing it. Like painting over old paint, only less disasterous. Win2K and XP don't take to dirty reinstalls well.

[sy0n]

Raijin Z

Yeah, 95, 98, and ME are all Win9X. A dirty reinstall is when you just install something on top of the original without removing it. Like painting over old paint, only less disasterous. Win2K and XP don't take to dirty reinstalls well.

I know but how do I do it! haha sorry I'm not so good with crap.

[Mister Xiado]

Hmm. If you're running WIn98SE or WinME, their installation CDs are bootable. Start your system with the CD in the drive, and access BIOS by pressing [whichever key the systems asks for, F1, delete, whatever]. There will be an option or even a page for determining the boot order. Set the CD drive before the hdd, and if you have a bootable CD in the drive at boot, the system will prompt you to "press any key to boot from CD". Anyway, when you have the system set to boot from CD, do so. Run the setup program as usual, install on top of the broken version of Windows, and when you get everything in working order again, you'll have the fun task of reinstalling everything ahead of you. Well, many programs don't b***h too much if you just RUN them, not everything puts DLL files in System32. Bleah...

If you can't boot from CD, or you're running plain Win98, copy all the files on the Win98 CD to a temporary directory, like say, C:\winsetup. When you reboot with a boot disk, go to that directory and run setup. After Windows is installed, you can delete the directory and all the files in it, since you'll still have your CD to use if Windows ever needs it.

There's a third item, booting with a boot disk that has CDROM support.... Hit bootdisk.com and download the Windows ME with CD support bootdisk image, insert a blank diskette, run the program, and you'll have a diskette you can boot from that will give you access to your CD drive. Whee.

[sy0n]

Raijin Z

Hmm. If you're running WIn98SE or WinME, their installation CDs are bootable. Start your system with the CD in the drive, and access BIOS by pressing [whichever key the systems asks for, F1, delete, whatever]. There will be an option or even a page for determining the boot order. Set the CD drive before the hdd, and if you have a bootable CD in the drive at boot, the system will prompt you to "press any key to boot from CD". Anyway, when you have the system set to boot from CD, do so. Run the setup program as usual, install on top of the broken version of Windows, and when you get everything in working order again, you'll have the fun task of reinstalling everything ahead of you. Well, many programs don't b***h too much if you just RUN them, not everything puts DLL files in System32. Bleah...

If you can't boot from CD, or you're running plain Win98, copy all the files on the Win98 CD to a temporary directory, like say, C:\winsetup. When you reboot with a boot disk, go to that directory and run setup. After Windows is installed, you can delete the directory and all the files in it, since you'll still have your CD to use if Windows ever needs it.

There's a third item, booting with a boot disk that has CDROM support.... Hit bootdisk.com and download the Windows ME with CD support bootdisk image, insert a blank diskette, run the program, and you'll have a diskette you can boot from that will give you access to your CD drive. Whee.

okay thanks, I'll try that :]