explorer blocks out system

[moanytor]

I'm using 95/98 on a gateway g6-350. Initialisation seems normal until the windows 98 screen comes up then a window gives:
"This program has performed an ilegal operation & will be shut down.
If the problem persists contact the program vendor"

clicking on detail gives the following:

EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in module EXPLORER.EXE at 015f:00401f31.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=015f EIP=00401f31
EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=0167 ESP=0080feec
EBP=0080fef4
ECX=c1603bf0 DS=0167 ESI=00000000 FS=28d7
EDX=0080fefc ES=0167 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
000000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000

Clearing this window leaves the screen blank,and only the mouse operative. there is no way of getting an instruction into the thing that I can find. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Tony Moore

 

[xkjdhdg]

. In Windows 98, boot the computer to the Startup menu and then click Command Prompt Only.

For more information about how to boot your computer to safe mode, please see the following article.
180902 (

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/180902/)

How to start a Windows 98-based computer in Safe mode
2. Type the following at the prompt: ren c:\explorer.exe explorer.old, and then press ENTER.
3. Restart the computer.

 

[bubarooni]

I have a friends computer sitting in front of me right now with the exact same problem as described by moantyor.

I tried mrfixit's ideal but got a 'no file found' message.

Is there a file I can edit in DOS mode that holds all the startup programs that are being loaded, just like you can uncheck them in MSCONFIG?

I read about someone else having a similar problem to this and it was caused by ZoneAlarm and I know that is loaded on the computer.

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

moanytor and/or bubarooni

You can start the computer up in dos mode and change into the C:\windows directory. Edit the system.ini file under the [boot] heading. Change the line that reads shell=explorer.exe to read shell=progman.exe. File>Save this change and then restart the computer. It should start up without explorer running and you will have full access to everything in order to correct whatever problem you're having. Windows will look and feel like 3.1. When you are finished reverse the above directions to get back to 95/98.

Chuck