Computer Problem

[84GNTTYPE]

My mom called me tonight and said she is having problems with her their computer. My younger brother tried to install some new AOL software that they got in the mail and now when the computer starts all you see is the background wallpaper and then a Invalid Page Fault Error pops up saying that module Explorer.exe has a problem. Their choices are either Close or Details. Clicking close just closes the box, but nothing new happens, you just see the wallpaper.

I am three hours away, but have a fair amount of computer knowledge. I tried to get them to restart it in safe mode, but they couldn't get that to work. It's hard to know exactly what is going on over the phone.

They are running Windows 98.

I may go home this weekend just to try and work this out . . . or pronounce it dead and finally convince them to get a new one.


Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[lp2]

Sounds like the explorer.exe shell is corrupted.. it sounds wierd, but windows uses explorer as both a file manager and the shell (ie start menu, desktop icons, etc).

I've never had it happen to me, but there is probably a repair method somewhere. Sounds like a format would probably be a good idea, after backing up all important data of course.

Good luck.

 

[JoeNational]

Tell them to boot into safe mode, and un-install aol 9.0 (if thats the version he installed) and watch it work,ive bumped into problems with windows me where would cause you not to be able to defragg, so tell them to try that.