I need some serious help

[Wolfe Tone]

Over the last two days I've been having some difficulties with my machine. Every time I go to connect to the internet, Explorer crashes The thing is I'm not even using IE, I use opera. But once Explorer crashes it takes everything with it. Also I've been having some problems with the pointer. Sometimes it will just just stop dead, I can still use the keyboard but the mouse won't respond at all. Or more recently the mouse keeps on getting very jumpy and barely responsive. It will move about two inches when ever I just move it slightly and clicking takes some time to respond. This is really annoying me. I am using Windows 98, if there is any other information I can provide just tell me.

 

[Zelig]

Have you installed any new software in the last two days? If you have there's a good chance that it is somehow causing it. Try uninstalling and see if it fixes the problems.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Nope, I havn't installed anything new for the last while..

 

[Jeratain]

Do you have a lot of programs running in your taskbar? You know, like having AIM, MSN Messnger, Zone Alarm, and other programs running that appear next to the clock.

If you have too many programs running, it can be using up a lot of your memory and cause you to lag a lot. I suggest going to "start", "run" then type in "msconfig" and click on the tab that says "startup". If you know what some of the programs listed are, deslect the ones that you know you don't need to load up with. This can help to prevent you from running too many programs and using up all your programs.

I also suggest running adaware to make sure you haven't downloaded any spyware, and then run a virus scan to make sure you have no viruses (though it is highly unlikely you do.)

Also, defrag your harddrive, run scandisk on it, and make sure that there isn't anything wrong with your file system.

If you could provide more info, then maybe we can all be of more help.

 

[smalltalk]

1) Try to set up an internet connection without opening a browser.
2) start Opera and browse local html-pages without opening an internet connection.

Which one crashes Explorer?

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Originally posted by Jeratain
Do you have a lot of programs running in your taskbar? You know, like having AIM, MSN Messnger, Zone Alarm, and other programs running that appear next to the clock.

Nope, only essential programs are running

If you have too many programs running, it can be using up a lot of your memory and cause you to lag a lot. I suggest going to "start", "run" then type in "msconfig" and click on the tab that says "startup". If you know what some of the programs listed are, deslect the ones that you know you don't need to load up with. This can help to prevent you from running too many programs and using up all your programs.

I also suggest running adaware to make sure you haven't downloaded any spyware, and then run a virus scan to make sure you have no viruses (though it is highly unlikely you do.)

Done already, nothing to report

Also, defrag your harddrive, run scandisk on it, and make sure that there isn't anything wrong with your file system.

I'll do that next, I forgot about it

If you could provide more info, then maybe we can all be of more help.

Like what?

Thanks for the help, this time when I connected to the internet explorer didn't crash. However Zone Alarm is completely F'ed up. It says something about a corrupt .dll file. I would put down the name of the file but the last time I went to reinstall ZA again it locked me out of the internet and I had to restart.

 

[Plutonium239]

I'd rip&restore communications. fyi, Explorer is not the same as Internet Explorer. Explorer is your file manager.

 

[Zelig]

Originally posted by Plutonium239
I'd rip&restore communications. fyi, Explorer is not the same as Internet Explorer. Explorer is your file manager.

Explorer is also your basic Windows running task.

 

[damunzy]

With Windows XP, and 2000 somewhat, you can kill explorer and restart it and that sometimes stabilizes the OS. Hint - upgrade.

 

[GenghisK]

Not totally true PH.
Under 2000, if you kill explorer.exe it will (indeed) restart the exporer but you'll loose a lot of taskbar icons, including the ATI CP, ICQ, and even DC icon! They're still running but there will be no way to gain access to it again and you'll have to kill them and restart them. Which can be quite annoying, especially for DC when you are downloading.

 

[Zelig]

Originally posted by munzy
With Windows XP, and 2000 somewhat, you can kill explorer and restart it and that sometimes stabilizes the OS. Hint - upgrade.

I can do this with Windows 98se. What's up with that?

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Explorer doesn't seem to be crashing on connecting to the internet anymore. I don't know what fixed it but it now running reasonably well. I still have a dreadful time with my mouse either freezing out right while everything else is running or it getting extremely jumpy.

 

[dowski]

Originally posted by Wolfe Tone
Explorer doesn't seem to be crashing on connecting to the internet anymore. I don't know what fixed it but it now running reasonably well. I still have a dreadful time with my mouse either freezing out right while everything else is running or it getting extremely jumpy.

Well, I am going to guess that this problem might be hardware related. The freezing mouse in conjuction with explorer crashes leads me to believe that - if you haven't installed any software recently that might account for the problems, something inside your case might be going. You don't overclock your processor or vid card, do you? You might check to see if the processor, ram, or any expansion cards need to be reseated. Also, check your BIOS to see what temp your CPU is running at. Of course, if you don't feel comfortable opening the case and doing any of this, contact a "professional"

dowski