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OT: Windows Disaster Time

I've got a blue screen issue...

All of a sudden I acquired a "Search results" icon on my desktop.

Where it came from I have no idea, sometimes my sloppy mouse movements get things on the desktop that don't belong.

I right-clicked in an attempt to delete it... no dice, no delete option.

So, like a dummy, I drug it onto the toolbar, figuring it to be a copy of Explorer.

No dice.

So I re-booted.

So I get an error message, "Explorer (no surprise) has committed an illegal" something or other, then I get a blue screen.

Turns out the machine still "talks", I'm running this message right now by loading Agent using Task Manager.

OS is Win2K.

Any ideas on how to fix?

No smart-ass remarks about Linux, PLEASE ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson
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I run a scan weekly, and Norton sits there scanning anything inbound, so I don't _think_ it's a virus.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

I also have a HW firewall (Barricade). I have Norton configured with NO "blessings", all downloads must ask for my OK.

I've verified that Windows Explorer is indeed the culprit.

I'm really not OS-savvy, so here goes the dumb question: Does an OS re-install destroy all my installed programs? :-(

I can easily back-up everything, the network is working, and I have ample drive space on other machines.

But I'd rather not have to re-install all the programs I own :-(

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

That's a good idea, all 4 of my machines run Win2K.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

Yep, I can boot into safe mode, but what will that buy me?

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

While they are installing, (except for very tiny apps) Windoze-compatible software makes changes to the Registry. This is why you can't just drag & drop an application directory from a backup disk onto a HDD and get the app to work.

In short the answer is: After an OS reinstall, you have to reinstall apps.

Larkin was talking about this a while back. When his installs are still quite young, he uses something like Norton Ghost to "clone" the drive by making an image of the HDD onto another HDD.

At a time when you have a stable system, CLONE IT. Hard drives are so cheap now that clone backups for mission-critical stuff (even rotating backups) seems like a no-brainer.

WARNING: Here comes the Linux crack.

Saying "mission-critical" while talking about Windoze just seems absurd.

Reply to
JeffM

during the boot phase.

In Safe Mode I'm getting the same blank screen as in normal mode. yet I can load any program via Task Manager.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

This is really a misleading statement. When you go to install Windows, it'll ask you if you want to perform a "fresh" installation or just "re-install" it. In the later case, it attempts to keep all your old programs working. Unfortunately, what this effectively means is that it doesn't completely "clean" the registry, and there are plenty of scenarios where re-installing the OS doesn't help and you end up having to do a "clean" install anyway (and re-install all your apps).

Yeah, not a bad idea!

Windows isn't, at its core, any less stable or usable than Linux. The kernel is actually somewhat more sophisticated that Linux's, which I suspect is why Microsoft's IIS typically beats Linux's Apache for throughput.

---Joel

Reply to
Joel Kolstad

Can you start in safe mode (F8 on boot)? There's also last known good in that menu, but IIRC, you might trash some recent installations with that choice.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

IME, an install over the previous version wipes out nothing (but may not fix your problem). An install in a new Win directory wipes out all the installations of all programs (but generally leaves all your data intact).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

"Stable" (or "unstable") wasn't what I was thinking. The word that cames to my mind when I think of M$ products (yeah, out of context for this thread) is "insecure". (think: fragile)

WRT Internet Information Server, 70% of webmasters agree with me:

formatting link

Apparently, 21% (IIS users) think that "fast" trumps "secure".

Reply to
JeffM

Have you loaded the new Msn 'toolbar'?. In this, under 'search', there is an option 'desktop', which puts a search icon on the desktop. Now if this is what has generated it, you may be able to get rid of it by going to Msn search on the web, and selecting 'restore defaults'. It is normally removable using the options in the toolbar. However I can't see why an icon on the desktop, should cause an explorer crash on boot, so I'd be incined to look in the 'startup' folder (or use regedit to look here manually), and see if it is actually launching something. Have you rebooted more than once?. Otherwise 'last known good' from F8 at bootup, might get you back to a working machine.

Best Wishes

Reply to
Roger Hamlett

In Win XP there is 'SFC' System File Checker. I heard this from Leo LaPorte's radio show. checks system files and repairs as needed. I just checked the Microsoft site and it does exist for Win 2K. They also say it may overwrite hotfixes. But, it might restore the broken explorer. Good luck. GG

Reply to
Glenn Gundlach

In Win XP there is 'SFC' System File Checker. I heard this from Leo LaPorte's radio show. checks system files and repairs as needed. I just checked the Microsoft site and it does exist for Win 2K. They also say it may overwrite hotfixes. But, it might restore the broken explorer. Good luck. GG

Reply to
Glenn Gundlach

Hello Jim,

Did you (or rather, can you still) run a newer virus checker program on that PC? If it's too shot to do that I am afraid you might be looking at a complete Windows re-install :-(

Hopefully you don't have to...

Regards, Joerg

formatting link

Reply to
Joerg

Hey Linux isnt much better you can easily screw that up too. And it'll take longer to repair unless you know a guru.

I would try to run a chkdsk /f and see what comes up. Since you can run TaskMgr, run 'cmd'

You might have a corrupted file.

Can you run Explorer from TaskMgr?

Record the Dll name that caused the crash, sometimes replacing the DLL (delete and copy a fresh one) solves the problem.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Jim,

Have you tried booting from the W2K distribution CD and selecting the Repair option? Repair has two options - one takes you to a command prompt and the other is an automatic mode that should reinstall all the critical OS executable files but leaves the registry intact. Take the automatic repair mode.

Good luck.

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James T. White
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Reply to
James T. White

Hello Jim,

That should be a pretty good protection. It depends on the settings, IOW what you are allowing Norton to bless WRT downloads etc. I also have a HW firewall between the biz network and anything outside.

The reason I am thinking a re-install may be in the cards is that you mentioned that Explorer crashes the system. Assuming that is Windows Explorer and not IE that can be serious because it is a fairly integral part of Windows. A SW engineer at a client once told me that a broken Windows Explorer is like driving around with a frayed timing belt.

Regards, Joerg

formatting link

Reply to
Joerg

Hello Jim,

That's the way to go. I am also running with the SMC Barricade. Nice solid design.

Not a good sign :-(

I am not either. Have to leave that to the OS gurus. AFAIK it works like this: While the OS re-install may not destroy the actual folders and subdirectories of your applications you could end up with a blank registry and other blank settings. So most likely they need to be re-installed. But I am not an expert on that. I had just seen an IT guy do exactly that when it happened on a machine at a client. Next to the OS CD he brought all the others that were registered as being on the system.

Regards, Joerg

formatting link

Reply to
Joerg

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:30:31 -0700, Jim Thompson wroth:

With an operating system like Windows, who needs virii?

When confronted with problems like that, I usually wipe and format the boot drive, re-install the OS, and re-install applications I've recently used along with saved data files from my latest backup.

Jim

Reply to
jmeyer

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