Need help with 3 Win ME problems – 2581 days old

[Pilgrim]

I'm trying to resolve a few errors that are occurring on a Windows ME machine I'm trying to repair:

1. "Explorer has caused an error in KERNEL32.DLL"
- This happens whenever you double-click on a Desktop shortcut icon, e.g., My Computer, Recycle Bin, etc. OR especially if you right-click on one of those shortcuts and choose anything in the context menu, e.g., "Properties" or "Explore". When the error pops up I click OK and it pops up again on which I click OK. Then whatever function was clicked on, e.g. "Explore" it works just fine thereafter. Explorer does not crash nor close.

2. "The initialization of the Help Center failed.
Please report the following error number to Microsoft support: 2147467261."
- Obviously, this occurs when trying to open "Help" from the Start Menu or trying to access "System Information" from various links.

3. The CD ROM draw will not open either. I checked the BIOS and everything looks fine there. Thinking that the drive was bad, I physically disconnected it, rebooted but still got the #1 and #2 errors. So it doesn't appear that the CD drive is causing these errors.

I've searched for resolutions on these problems on Google until I was simply exhausted without success.

Specs and fixes tried:
Windows ME (all critical and security updates)
128 megs RAM
Complete system scan with Spybot S&D
All trash, temp files, etc., cleaned out
Chkdsk run
Symantec AV Corp 8 scan was clean
Disk Clean run
Disk defrag done
Dust bunnies removed from inside the case

[Grogan]

You probably have broken spyware/malware/addons on your computer causing your explorer problem. Scanners don't find everything. Sorry, I don't know what to tell you offhand. It could also be caused by broken antivirus or security software.

2. Is probably related to 1.

Your CDROM drive tray is likely a physical problem with the drive. Boot with a bootdisk or something (i.e. not running Windows) and see if it will open. I'll bet it doesn't.

[RacerX]

As Grogan said i would go into the bios and while the bios screen is open try to open the CD tray, before windows starts up. If it opens then drive probably ok, corrupted windows likely the problem.

WinME is not a very good product, most of my suppliers stopped selling it months after it was released due to all the service calls they got steming from WinME so I don't have much knowledge about issues from using it.

My best advice would be to re-install it ( probably faster than trying to figure out the problem ). Leave off Norton AV untill the very last, testing things out between installations.

Good Luck

Johnb15

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for replying guys!

Now, these problems were already present when the machine was dropped off for me to fix. There were no antispyware applications installed. I installed them (Spybot S&D and SpywareBlaster) after it arrived in order to purge the system of crap and there was quite a bit of it. The only application installed which had anything to do with security was Symantec AV Corp. 8.xx. Yeh, yeh..... I know all about Norton and the problems it can cause. What I have done is exit Symantec AV and stop its processes but that didn't resolve the problem. Unfortunately, uninstalling it isn't an option at this time.

As for the CD ROM issue, I have a spare burner I can temporarily install to see if that confirms a physical problem with her drive.

What about the "Help and Support" problem? Any thoughts on that one? When I try to access it there is a message something to the affect that it is the first time it has been run and then the Error message is displayed.

Lastly..... I am in 100% agreement with the undesirability of Windows ME. Every time I have to work on a machine with it installed I cringe.

[Grogan]

Exiting something like Norton does not necessarily mitigate its interference. At most, you could terminate the programs and services. Drivers will still be loaded. Shell hooks will still be there etc.

This is what you likely have... some "addon" that interacts with the Windows shell that is broken. A registry cleaner may help (e.g. I solved a similar problem once by removing invalid activex/com entries with the "Issues" applet in Crap Cleaner (CCleaner).

[Pilgrim]

Thanks Grogan!! BTDT and got the T-shirt too, hehe. I ran CCleaner then jv16PowerTools "Registry Cleaner" in "Standard" mode, ran CCleaner "Issues" again and then jv16Powertools "Registry Cleaner" again but in "Aggressive" mode, and finally CCleaner "Issues" once again. Still no go.

Now, before I put the horse in the barn, would I be right in assuming that if I did a repair install of Windows ME (install it over itself) this probably wouldn't resolve the issue? Or do you think it is worth a try? The only drawback is that I would have to redo all the Critical and Security updates.

BTW.... threw a working CD-RW drive into the box and it worked fine. So, the CD ROM is definitely toast.

[RacerX]

As Grogan allready said, just killing the main Norton service will not stop it from loading stuff silently in the background. Thats why Norton offers on their website uninstall programs cause even when you add/remove Norton it still leaves drivers, reg entries and stuff behind.

From what you were saying that the system was very corrupted when u got it, i doubt you will be able to clean up. I'm not saying that you can't do it but sometimes all the antivirus, adaware, spybot and crapcleaners still will not clean up Windoze. W98 and WinME are much more prone to not booting if some minor thing in the registry is changed or removed.

My advice would be to backup whatever is important on the system, that way if it all goes to hell in a handbag your friend won't be left high and dry.

I allways stress heavilly my customers back up there stuff daily, no computer is 100% reliable. even if they just email a spreadsheet to themselfs or backup quickbooks to a flash drive. I use a flashdrive to backup my own stuff now.

I hope you don't spend your weekend messing around with this system and not getting working correctly. It is a good learning experience.

Johnb15

[RacerX]

Pilgrim

You could try the install over the old stuff, thats 50/50 most of the time.

I know this system has WinME but for those of us that use XP here is a link to a site that offers a way to slipstream all the service packs and other programs into your own WinXP cd, essentially creating a new WinXP cd with your serial number and all the most recent updates all integrated, you can even add Firefox, Startup Monitor, Java, dotnet and many others to your cd and save yourself hours of installing and re booting.

http://ryanvm.net/msfn/

Its a sweet setup and i highly recommend it, if your like me where you install all the time.

Johnb15

[Pilgrim]

RacerX,

Thanks for offering your advice. Myself, I already have a slipstreamed CD with my XP SP-2 burned on it. And I always have at least one copy of a full backup of my system, thanks to True Image.

Yep, I could try and do the repair install with the Win ME CD and see what happens. I'm now just putting together a set of options to present to this person and she'll have to make the decision on what to do. Of course, the way things are now, with the exception of the two remaining problems, the machine works great. Perhaps she will just decide to live with it??? Who knows? My personal preference would be to format the drive and install W2K which would work marvelously well with the hardware she currently has. If it was a newer unit, I would of course unhesitatingly recommend Win XP.

So, the horse has been put in the barn and I'm not going to play with this one further. I've had great success in the past resurrecting some incredibly trashed systems. But this one appears to be a lost cause as far as trying to track down whatever ails it. hehe

THANKS again guys!

[Grogan]

If there's a broken addon or something in the explorer shell, reinstalling Windows will not fix it. That would be considered a registry setting, not corruption. If it did that, reinstalling Windows would break most all applications... it can't return the registry to defaults.

[Grongle]

I am in 100% agreement with the undesirability of Windows ME. Every time I have to work on a machine with it installed I cringe.

Well, me too, if I had to do a commercial repair. But it depends on the system. The year 2000 began with CPUs of 300 or maybe 500 MHz, on which ME earned its horrendous reputation. Later that same year, power jumped to 1.2 and 1.3. But by then XP was coming on strong, and ME was considered everything bad.

Put ME on one of those newer systems, and it could be a beautiful OS. With the power, it was Windows 98se fixed up superbly, with System Restore thrown in for all the folk who were new or nervous. But it needed to run on the newer systems, so it didn't get a fair chance. I suspected that might be the case, so I tried the very same ME hard drive in a 1.7. It had been just terrible for crashes before, but now it could be tweaked silky smooth.

If I were repairing MEs, I would not know what to do with an older system. I'd probably tell the people they'd be better to spend their money on an upgrade than on my fixing things—haha! But I admit I'm not good at making money! If it were on a better computer, though, I'd consider it something like a very nice 98se or better. Just my 2 bits.