explorer.exe issue

[Guest thethinker_001]

I have an old (6+ years) Dell desktop with Win 2000 Pro. I think it was fully

updated to about a 2 years ago, so I'm guessing SP4 is installed. It's just

been too long to remember and I can't find out because of the "Problem".

Haven't a clue where the install disks are or even if I had any - you know

Dell.

It has worked flawlessly always

 

This computer is a stand-alone and used by my wife in our business. I've

tended to ignore it for a while now, as all she uses it for is to check her

emails and read the news. It is protected by Norton AV (currently out of

date), Spyware Doctor (same), and Spybot. I have it set up with rather

draconian settings in IE6 and OE. The office discipline is to never open any

email attachemnets if there is any suspicion of their origin, and never to go

"wilding" when surfing the net. This computer has never had an infection by

either virus or spyware.

 

She came to me and told me that the Spybot Teatimer popped up with a notice

that the registry was going to change - she doesn't remember why.

I told her to dis-allow and that I would check it out later. She said that

it didn't seem to properly boot-up so I told her to reboot. She did and it

still didn't fully launch everything in the system tray. I then looked at it

and the Teatimer alert came up for me while I was investigating. I also

dis-allowed, but forgot to note what was being changed. I checked the task

manager but didn't see anything untoward. I ran a scan w/NAV but it found

nothing. I had left the room to do something else while the scan was in

progress and my wife went back to her office, reported the results of the

scan, and then told me there was a warning screen about explorer.exe.

 

I came back to check it out. The screen was white with a notice that the

desktop was "off" and needed to be restarted. I pressed the button, the

screen relaunched, but everything except the speaker icon was missing from

the system tray. The quick launch tray was normal. But everytime I tried to

do anything, the "Explorer.exe has encountered... etc." warning screen popped

up and the desktop would go back to the white screen. I can get into the task

manager & the run screens up but I can't do anything. I tried to launch sfc,

end processes, launch the CP, you name it - I keep getting the "explorer.exe"

bit. I tried booting in safe mode - same result. Diagnostic mode - same.

 

I can get into the Safe Mode Command Prompt.

 

Bottom line, I can't launch anything, get into anything, nothing. Any

suggestions or is this FUBAR?

[Guest DL]

Re: explorer.exe issue

 

What about Safe mode......last good etc?

 

"thethinker_001" <thethinker_001@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:5A788CC3-4241-4AF9-A025-0C805CC79046@microsoft.com...

>I have an old (6+ years) Dell desktop with Win 2000 Pro. I think it was

>fully

> updated to about a 2 years ago, so I'm guessing SP4 is installed. It's

> just

> been too long to remember and I can't find out because of the "Problem".

> Haven't a clue where the install disks are or even if I had any - you know

> Dell.

> It has worked flawlessly always

>

> This computer is a stand-alone and used by my wife in our business. I've

> tended to ignore it for a while now, as all she uses it for is to check

> her

> emails and read the news. It is protected by Norton AV (currently out of

> date), Spyware Doctor (same), and Spybot. I have it set up with rather

> draconian settings in IE6 and OE. The office discipline is to never open

> any

> email attachemnets if there is any suspicion of their origin, and never to

> go

> "wilding" when surfing the net. This computer has never had an infection

> by

> either virus or spyware.

>

> She came to me and told me that the Spybot Teatimer popped up with a

> notice

> that the registry was going to change - she doesn't remember why.

> I told her to dis-allow and that I would check it out later. She said that

> it didn't seem to properly boot-up so I told her to reboot. She did and it

> still didn't fully launch everything in the system tray. I then looked at

> it

> and the Teatimer alert came up for me while I was investigating. I also

> dis-allowed, but forgot to note what was being changed. I checked the task

> manager but didn't see anything untoward. I ran a scan w/NAV but it found

> nothing. I had left the room to do something else while the scan was in

> progress and my wife went back to her office, reported the results of the

> scan, and then told me there was a warning screen about explorer.exe.

>

> I came back to check it out. The screen was white with a notice that the

> desktop was "off" and needed to be restarted. I pressed the button, the

> screen relaunched, but everything except the speaker icon was missing from

> the system tray. The quick launch tray was normal. But everytime I tried

> to

> do anything, the "Explorer.exe has encountered... etc." warning screen

> popped

> up and the desktop would go back to the white screen. I can get into the

> task

> manager & the run screens up but I can't do anything. I tried to launch

> sfc,

> end processes, launch the CP, you name it - I keep getting the

> "explorer.exe"

> bit. I tried booting in safe mode - same result. Diagnostic mode - same.

>

> I can get into the Safe Mode Command Prompt.

>

> Bottom line, I can't launch anything, get into anything, nothing. Any

> suggestions or is this FUBAR?