explorer.exe application error: memory can not be "read"

[kalicopat]

1 gig PIII, 256 meg ram, SP2+hotfixes level

When I open explorer.exe I receive the following:
Application popup: Explorer.EXE - Application Error : The instruction at "0xnnnnnnnn" referenced memory at "0xnnnnnnnn". The memory could not be "read".

The nnnnnnnn varies depending on what's loaded and the trace is an access violation in ntdll.dll. I've looked at virtually every site imaginable, tweaked registry keys, disabled McAfee, installed/reinstalled SP2, and I'm totally lost. The problem rarely occurs in the 'my computer' access, but occurs in explorer.exe after the SECOND invocation ... whether from the office taskbar or a desktop icon. It appears to happen as explorer is refreshing the drive list when it hits the CD-RW drive and/or the DVD drive.

Any suggestions would be MUCH appreciated.

Tia

Pete

(kalicopat)

 

[SpecSys]

I have seen this error very often when trying to bring up games that are dos based, or should I say operate outside of windows. It got to the point where I had to reformat and still I saw the error. I have also seen the error in the XP home bootup. (dual boot with 2000)

I'd love to hear of a fix!

 

[pweegar]

Sounds like explorer.exe may have become corrupt. You can try copying it from the install cd (I *BELIEVE* it's an expanded file.) Just copy it to where ever explorer is.

I think what is happening is thatexplorer is trying to read a line of code at a certain memory location and it's either not there or is in some form ("corrupt&quot that explorer can understand.

 

[kalicopat]

Well ... a couple of things here ... first, this is a problem specific to explorer.exe/ntdll.dll ... access violations can happen for any number of reasons ... second, explorer.exe is a packed file (although ntdll.dll is not) ... and there is a slight problem copying it ... it's in use by windows ... and you can't alter either the file or it's name ... and if you stop the process, the computer goes down the tubes ... but thanks for the suggestions. I have a known good copy of both explorer.exe and ntdll.dll that I'm going to attempt to install via the command boot ... I'll let you know what happens ...

 

[kalicopat]

the saga continues ... I booted to the command prompt, renamed explorer and ntdll, and installed the known good ones from SP1 ... same result on the second invocation of explorer ... memory could not be read, etc. For you assembler language gurus out there, ntdll goes to execute interrupt 2E when the access violation occurs.