Win98 Explorer causes OLE32 & Kernel32.DLL invalid page faults

[leftengine]

My windows 98 machine developed the following problem. Occassionally when booting, Explorer will cause invalid page faults in the files OLE32 and Kernel32.DLL, and the entire GUI will fail, (although I can still pull up task manager and shutdown safely). If the machine boots (which is about 50% of the time) the same thing will happen when I select random folders or applications. I have run scanndisk, reinstalled windows, FORMATTED THE DRIVE, reinstalled windows again (which incidentally returns about 100 errors during installation regarding those DLLs plus several others), performed the troubleshooting routine offered by microsoft and have still not solved the problem. I've read related threads and have not found something I haven't already tried. My next step is to upgrade the BIOS/ install LINUX / or trash it. What else can I do?

 

[sharper]

If you are still getting errors even after a fresh install on a formatted drive then your problems may be hardware related. It sounds like a memory error as it is intermittant. If you have more than one memory module then boot the machine with only one module, trying each one seperatly. If you can't do this try and get your hands on some "known good" memory and swap out the lot.
A good idea in this sort of case is to reseat hardware and try booting with only the minimum hardware (CPU MEM HDD VIDEO).

If none of this helps, swap out the Video card as it may have a faulty memory chip.

hope this helps

sharper

Please let Tek-Tips members know if their posts are helpful

 

[Guest_imported]

Sharper, you are a GOD!!! I inspected the MB and found one of the RAM chip arrays was loose. I reseated it, Started up with no errors and reinstalled windows without a single error. Now all I have to do is reinstall all my hardware drivers that windows couldn't find and I should be in great shape. The simplest solutions sometimes get overlooked. Thanks a lot.

 

[sharper]

Glad to help left_engine.