IE 5.5 and 6 quit

[mosesk]

All of a sudden I am unable to use either IE 5.5 or 6.
I have to downgrade to 5.0 to get a stable usable version of IE.
I use W2000, service pack 3.
Pretty lean system, not too many extras.
Not sure how it started.
IE 6 worked and then all of a sudden started quitting. The error message notes something about 'wininet.dll".
And I have investigated that and tried to replace the file, btu the system wont let me.
IE 5.5 wont work either.
I have to go back to 5.
Any ideas??

 

[gargouille]

This usually means either the Internet Explorer cache or history cache are bad and need to be deleted...

Boot into command prompt and type:

deltree history (enter)
deltree tempor~1 (enter) - this one could take a while
Also, do a search for wininet.dll on your system, note the version number. Then go to the link noted below and make sure you have the latest appropriate version for your system.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q226/5/50.asp

 

[mosesk]

I appreciate your attempt to help me out.
I cannot get far with your suggestion.
I am not an experienced windows user.
Here is how I understand your suggestions and what i am doing.
Your suggestion to "Boot into command prompt"
I go to start-run, then type cmd and am presented with a window that shows C:\>
after which I type "deltree history" (without quotes) hit enter and then receive the message that "'deltree' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." (without quotes)

As far as your second suggestion, I previously did a search for "wininet.dll" and found 2 instances of it:
one at C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386, and the version there is 5.00.3502.4619

and the second was found at C:\WINNT\system32, and the version there is 5.0.3506.1000.

I did notice that when I had IE 5.5 or 6 installed, one of the versions (or perhaps even both- dont recall) went to 5.5.xxxxx or 6.0xxxx based on which IE was installed. I actually tried to replace the wininet.dll file with another that is on another computer that I have that is set up similarly and it does not have this issue. But I was not able to replace the file because the system says "Cannot create or replace wininet: The specified file is being used by windows."

Please note I am using windows 2000.

Any other ideas?

 

[gargouille]

I just did the commands in a dosprompt window in Win98...but you may be NTFS?

(gotta get 2K on a system here!)

Understand the complexity of this (I may be making this harder than it is)...and apologize for not being able to tell you in words you follow. This is not a failure on your end...it's on mine.

What I should have said is choose F8 when your system is the POST routine and it should offer you the boot menu, which includes a command prompt...

OR

get one of the downloadable bootdiscs (with CD support since you may use it later)OR *make one on your computer to use as a boot...then restart the computer with it in the a: drive and it will dump you off in a black screen with the a: prompt...

(*go to Add/RemovePrograms and choose the startup disc tab and have a floppy ready)

Then try the commands...

Even more complex, maybe is a trick you do with regsvr32.exe to unregister and register .dlls. (when just SLAMMING doesn't work)
[slamming is just putting it where it is expected to be found to see if it fixes things...sometimes it works...sometimes the regsvr32.exe commands work]

If you get thru the deltree stuff, post back and there'll be help on it.
JUst to be sure we're on the same page the commands are
deltree(space)history(enter)y(enter)
deltree(space)tempor~1(enter)y(enter)

To see if you're communicating, too, you can test with
deltree(space)/?(enter)

 

[mosesk]

sorry- cant get any of it to work.
is it possible w2000 if quite different than w98?

 

[gargouille]

Well, it's exactly what's happening...
just got back from dinner w/the wife and she tells me in
Windows 2000 to log in as Administrator to be able to delete the folders in question directly from within Windows Explorer.

cmd.exe would work, but this is simpler...

 

[mosesk]

which folders exactly are we talking about?

 

[mosesk]

one other thing i should have added.
the problem i originally described only happened when i logged on under my personal identity, which has full administrative privileges. If I logged on as Administrator, I could launch IE 6 or 5.5 for that matter and not have a problem.
And i realized I could have copied all my files over to the Administrator "profile".
However I figured something was in fact wrong and reverted to downgrading to IE 5.
Another thing i should mention is that I have had 2 instances now in the past month where the "explorer" function failed with the "explorer.exe has quit and windows blah blah..." error message, rendering the machine virtually unusable. Both times I ended up clean installing w2000. I would have reformatted the hard drive but I honestly dont know how to do that under w2000, even though I have read many articles on how to do it. I am a long time mac user and only in the last year have i gained familiarity with the windows world. I dont mind it, but there are some basic things that I can do in my sleep on a mac that i cant do on a windows. However, Mac OS X can be befuddling to an old macster like myself

 

[gargouille]

Well, that puts the problem in a different light.
The problem was with the profile?
You could have copied the successful profile to a new name and deleted the corrupt one.
So, on the 26th you were quite happy to have the problem fixed and it came back somehow on the 28th?

We're to the point, Mose, where you're gonna' have to help yourself...I can't come over and fix the problem. It's gonna' have to happen on your end. I'm tryin' to help, but you're making me feel like Yossarian in Catch 22.

The directories (folders) in question are the ones that house the Temporary Internet files and the History on your computer. From inside Internet Explorer, choose Tools/Internet Options...that should come up with a dialog box.

In the middle of it (as long as the General tab is picked)there's a section noted as Temporary Internet Files...click on settings and that opens another dialog box. In the middle of this one...is listed the path of the Temporary Internet Files. Write that down.
Close out and open Windows Explorer...and navigate to where the folder is. Delete it. Back out to where you can see the History folder...delete it, too.
Now, how did you GO BACK to 5.0?
Your term "something about wininet.dll" lacks some clarity.
Windows is very specific about it's cryptic error messages, but you need to quote them correctly if you expect to find resolutions.
Anyway, if you do the deletions, chances are a little better that you may be able to install 6.0 or 5.5.

If you have an administrator profile that has no problems...and a user profile that has problems...you can migrate the good one (admin) to a user profile and delete the kersplunked one.
Then again, maybe not.

 

[mosesk]

hey garg-
think of it this way:
life is just one big catch-22

and of course the subplots have more convolusions than we can imagine.

and Yossarian was my, and many people's hero.

but lo and behold- you managed to give me the clue to get over this problem and myself.

and now, in this very moment i am running IE 5.5 and will bump to 6 momentarily

it was probably somewhere in the eradication of the tempopary internet and history files that has solved, at least for the moment.

as far as your question about how did i go back to 5.0- i did that by control panel- add/remove program-and then removing first 6 and then 5.5.

the reason i could not be more specific about the error message when IE 6 or 5.5 crashed is because i was presented with the feedback dialog box back to microsoft where they ask whether you want to e-mail the log to them. In looking into details- they dont really say much, unless you can decipher the very long log, but they mention some sketchy thing about the wininet.dll. if you've ever seen this particular dialog box you will know what i mean.
One thing i will venture is that w2000 is different than w98. i am in now way qualified to say more about this, but when i read accounts of problems and solutions that people offer in 98, they sometimes do not act the same way in 2000

anyway- again thanks for your help and gentle goading to find the solution and all's well that ends well until the next ne'er do well raises it's lovely head

 

[mosesk]

by the way i am also of the opinion that the same "corruptions" if i may call them that were also the cause of the "explorer.exe" quits and crashes which lead to my 2 previous w2000 clean installs, since there were some tangential similarities to these issues- the primary one being that one particular profile was problematic, but not the Administrator profile. Now i have a sense of what can get corrupted under 1 profile, but leave others intact, although i realize it is more complicated than i am currently able to grok.

The nasty thing is that while macs have been so simple to deal with all these years, their new unix underpinning may require the same level of sophistication to troubleshoot that windows/dos requires to do well