Kernel32.dll system error

Hi, I got a new laptop about a month ago and everything was running perfectly fine until one day skype crashed, giving me an error in the Event Viewer saying

"Faulting application Skype.exe, version 5.5.59.124, time stamp 0x4e96c098, faulting module kernel32.dll, version 6.0.6002.18449, time stamp 0x4da47a32, exception code 0x0eedfade, fault offset 0x0001c83b, process id 0x2198, application start time 0x01cce4351c308820."

I first went to the skype support forums for help, but they didnt know what was wrong with it. I later noticed that a bunch of other programs such as Microsoft Word, Notepad, Internet Explorer (I use Chrome and that works perfectly fine for some reason), and iTunes weren't able to open. I open them and they shut down immediately on start up, not even giving me an error message. I also cant hook up any mobile devices to the computer for syncing, which is quite annoying e.e

I dont know what to do at this point anymore, can someone please help me with my problem? I can provide additional information if needed.

 

Hi my friend , welcome to MG's

firstly : you should uninstall skype completely , try re install skype , this tool is useful

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

secondly : use msconfig to release your startup , go to Start - Run msconfig - startup tab - untick boxes except for antivirus - Apply - ok - reboot your machine !! :wave

 

Yes i saw this !! :confused

 

Once your up to date as MA suggested, I would probably do a file system check. Because it's a month old machine, I will assume you are running Win7. Open Computer from the desktop and right click the C: drive, probably called "Local Disk (C)". Go to Properties and left click. In the new window click on the Tools tab. In Error Checking, you'll see a button "Check Now". Click it and another small window will open. It should have the first box checked. Click start. Another window will open. Click the "Schedule Disk Check" button. The next time you start your machine, it should run the file system check and then boot. It may take a while to run depending on the size and condition of the drive.

 

Thank you all for replying. I tried updating my laptop (it's running vista, by the way) but once all the updates finished I still received the same problems. I also did a disk check, as was suggested in the skype forums, but that didnt show any positive results either

 

A "new" month old computer and it is running Vista. That's unusual. Tell us the make and model. Is it refurbed? Did you change the OS?

 

It's new as in, I just recently got it. It was a present for my birthday and I dont know everything about it. Just that it's an HP, running Vista, and that something is wrong with the kernel files. No, I did not change the OS. I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware related issue, so I dont think knowing the model of it would be much help.

The most likely issue is going to be with the kernel32.dll file mentioned in the Event Viewer error I posted earlier. I just want some information on how to fix it, if at all possible.

 

It may not be a problem with Kernel32.dll at all, just where the error was manifested. Then again....

Suggest running SFC to check for corruption/deletion of system files. Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
for details of how to run it. It may take a while. After it's done, check the log to make sure there were no errors fixing anything. The link explains how to check the log.

Hope it works for you! Let us know, please.

 

I went through the steps all the way down to the point where it said "Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"

I did that, but I forgot that notepad, wordpad, microsoft office, and all of those programs aren't working, so I have no way of knowing which files that I need to insert into the command prompt to be fixed...

 

OK, did you reboot after running SFC /scannow? Wouldn't hurt if you did. I suggest a full shutdown rather than a restart, to make sure all the RAM gets cleared.

After it reboots see if any of your Windows programs work (Notepad, WordPad, etc.). SFC should have fixed those if there was something wrong with their files. If it did fix them, you should be able to open the txt file you made. If you can't open the txt file, it either couldn't fix them for some reason or the problem must lie elsewhere. There are good clues in that log file, though. Maybe you can copy it off to a memory stick and read it on another computer?

You might also boot into safe mode or safe mode with networking and see if the affected Windows programs work then.

 

I did all that, and when I rebooted it in safe mode, notepad was working. Should I go back onto safe mode with networking and post the files that couldnt be repaired here to see if that would indicate anything? Or I could attach the file if you tell me how to do it (I've only been using this site for about a day)

 

Good show about NotePad! You're making a bit of progress, perhaps. That is, as long as nothing has really changed and your ability to use Notepad now was just because you were in safe mode rather than normal mode. That's an important distinction in itself. Now that you've run SFC have you tried the problem programs in normal mode versus safe mode and seen any differences? I think we should concentrate on getting the Windows system programs working first if we can; Word, iTunes and the like may require reinstalls so I wouldn't worry about those just yet, though it would be useful to know if they work in one boot mode versus another. Also, if Notepad works in normal boot mode now, you won't have to boot into safe mode with networking to post the log file. Does Windows Explorer work OK in safe and normal modes?

Before answering your question about attaching a file, did you open the SFC log file and take a look at it? Does it contain typical log-file lines of text or was it all gibberish? If the latter then there's no need to attach the file. I'm asking just to save you some trouble in case the file got garbled for some reason.

To attach a file to a post see http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=230398. Note that there are file-size limitations (escapes me at the moment what the limit is) so you may have to zip the log file before you attach it. I haven't viewed the video, so maybe it's covered in there. I know that 470KB zipped works, so if the log file is less than that, you're covered without having to zip it. And by all means attach the file; do not copy it into your post.

So, attach your log file and answer the questions in the first paragraph above about what works in normal mode versus safe mode and the one about Windows Explorer and we'll go from there. If you have any questions about attaching files, file size limitations, etc., make a quick post in the Welcome Center. I suspect a moderator will answer your questions more quickly than if you posted the question back here.

Keep plugging away! Perhaps something definitive will be known soon, we hope. Have any new issues come to your attention since your first post?

 

Hi again, sorry for being so late to respond. I haven't tried running anything else but the SFC file when I booted it in safe mode, but I'll be trying it right after I post this. The file is the typical log file (it's not in complete gibberish), so I'll attach it with this post and tell you the results after I come back.

EDIT: Okay, I'm back and this time I'm on safe mode. All the programs that weren't working before are working completely fine, unlike on normal mode. What should I do now?

 

No need to be sorry for "being so late." We all have to eat, sleep and have other things to do besides computers! No worries.

I'm checking out some things in your SFC log. In the meantime, can you tell me if Windows Explorer works in either safe or normal modes?

 

Windows Explorer as in My Computer? Yes, that is working in both

 

"All the programs that weren't working before are working completely fine, unlike on normal mode."

Does that include Word, iTunes and IE, or just NotePad and WordPad? Did you try other programs besides any of those I just mentioned?

Thanks for the info on Explorer...that helps

Very important: Take a look at the Sidebar Programs/Gadgets in safe and normal modes and see if they all appear fine and are working. SFC was having a big problem with one file from Sidebar. It may be corrupted or on a bad spot on the hard drive, so the more you can tell me about the things in Sidebar---in both modes---the better.

Depending on what you tell me about all the above, we may back off and do a little maintenance to make sure there are no problems with the hard disk. We'll see.

 

The sidebar that has the calendar on it and the clock? I keep that disabled. How do you turn it back on? (Im more familiar with windows XP lol)

And also, I did try the other programs, like word, iTunes, and IE and they worked fine too.

 

Yes, that Sidebar. How long has it been disabled? And since it's been disabled ignore my request about seeing how it's working. But, try enabling Sidebar and see if your other programs (Word, Wordpad, etc.) come back to life in normal mode. If the problems continue with Sidebar enabled, then you can disable it again. At least we can then eliminate it as a possible variable. I'm not sure why SFC was having such a problem with one of its files.

And it's good to know that all your other programs seem to be working in safe mode. That helps narrow things down some and maybe reinstalls won't be necessary for them.

Let me know about Sidebar enabled and various programs while in normal mode and we'll go from there.

 

No, that didn't help. I tried Skype, Notepad, and IE and got the same results

 

OK...I understand that with Sidebar enabled your problems still exist in normal mode.

Let's take a different tack. You said in an earlier post that you did a disk check. Was that chkdsk /f, or chkdsk /r or what? Did it at the end say anything about having fixed bad sectors or trying to move files or anything like that?

Going on from that let's try to find the bad file that SFC found (one would think SFC would have told us, but it didn't).

I don't have a Vista machine available but see if you can follow this (from XP) in Vista.

In Safe Mode open Windows Explorer. Click Tools>Folder Options>View and click the "Show hidden files and folders" radio button. Also UNcheck "Hide extensions for known file types." Click OK. Now show the folder tree in the left pane if it isn't already showing. Highlight Local Disk (C: ) Now instigate a search for the file "settings.ini" and have it search for hidden files and for files in all subdirectories (Explorer setting, advanced search). Press enter and see what it comes up with. There may be several files of that name on your hard drive. One of them is the one we want, but I don't know where it will be.

Click on each one of them in turn and try opening it in Notepad. I'm not interested in what's in the file, only if it opens or not. If you can't open one of them and you get a read error, make note of the path to that file.

Let us know what you find out.

 

I dont exactly remember whether I used chkdsk /f of chkdsk /r, but I can do the disk check again if you wish. I did all you asked about the settings.ini file and I got only 2 files, and each of them I was able to open perfectly fine

 

OK. It's very strange that you were able to open the two files you found---I was expecting that one couldn't be read due to a bad spot on the HD. I'm not sure why SFC couldn't write to that file.

Be that as it may, it now appears that there's something in your Startups that may be leading to the problem. We'll work on that next, but beforehand let's do another chkdsk /r and make sure things are still fine with the disk. As you know it takes a while to run and that it can happen only at boot, so start the process when you don't need the PC for a while and let it run. Disconnect any external hard drives or USB sticks you may have connected before starting the chkdsk.

I'll get something for checking your Startups. Do you know how to disable Startups using MSConfig? Can you even get to MSConfig from Normal Mode?

 

Okay, I'll go ahead and run the chkdsk /r right now. I do know how to change the startup programs via MSConfig.

Also, I'm having another issue, this time with Google Chrome. Whenever i open a webpage in it, it just gives me a blank page with the URL About:blank. Do you think this could be a related issue, or something else entirely? Im having to use my phone right now just to respond to you, and it's pretty annoying

 

Hmmm...don't know about your Chrome problem. You've obviously lost your home page setting. Doesn't look like a hijack because what would be the point of hijacking to about:blank (although there is an old virus out there with just that name)? At this point I'm not sure if it's related or not to the other problems. Please keep me posted if other strange things like this happen.

After chkdsk has finished note anything it says about bad sectors, recovered files, etc. (if any), and reboot back into safe mode with networking. Download from MG SuperAntiSpyware (SAS) and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) and install both if you can. Open SAS and click Preferences. On the first screen UNcheck (if they're not already) all the checkboxes in the left column. In the right column make sure the top radio button is selected. Uncheck the bottom box, right column.

Now go to the Updates tab and uncheck all those boxes for now, if any are checked. Close SAS.

Open MBAM and select the Settings tab. Under General Settings uncheck everything except the 3rd and 4th checkboxes. Now select the Updater Settings Tab. Uncheck all boxes on that page if any are checked. Close MBAM.

Don't run scans with either just yet. I just want to have them ready in case we need them and in case you can no longer get to the internet from your PC. The reason we're changing the settings on both is so SAS doesn't load at startup, and so that neither call home for updates until requested. There's enough going on already as it is, so we don't need those two adding to it! This all, of course, assumes that you can install them at all.

Re: Your other problems, I think there's a good possibility of a software conflict causing the problems. After you're done with chkdsk we'll zero in on your startups and see if we can find it.

Let me know how the chkdsk went when it's done.

 

I ran the disk check and I dont think I got any results from it. I came back about two hours later to find it sitting at the Account screen, with no logs or anything to be found. I cant download the Antispyware one in safemode but I downloaded the malware one like you said.

Im really confused as to why my browser isn't working correctly anymore. I was on a website I visit often and it just randomly goes to about:blank, which usually shows up when a page is loading for chrome, but it didn't do anything after that.

 

OK, we won't worry about chkdsk results right now. Sounds as if you might have some nasties going on.

Re: SAS, try downloading it again, but this time when you click "save file" try to save it to a different name than the default, like SAS123.exe or whatever. If that works and it downloads, I highly suspect an infection that's now blocking you from downloading things that can root it out, like SAS, MBAM and AVs. Your new browser problem is another clue.

If you are successful downloading SAS this time, just double-click to install it. If it doesn't install, let me know.

Did you install MBAM? If not, install it, too.

Whether one or both of them installed, go ahead and set the Settings per my last post.

Sending this now so you can get started. Next post will be about how to run scans in SAS and MBAM...they're easy. I think we'll do scans next, just to see if any nasties are lurking.

 

Try running the below in Normal Mode if you can. If not, use Safe Mode.

Run SAS first. Just set it to run a Full Scan and let it go. This could take 30-60 minutes depending on how much is on your hard drive. It will fix everything that it finds. Once it's done it will show a log file in NotePad. The file will automatically be saved in a SAS folder but we want to save another copy to desktop, so do a "save as" and call it "SASfirstscan.txt" and save it to your desktop. Close SAS.

Now run MBAM, Full Scan. When it gets done it will show you everything it found as being suspect. At this point you have to tell it to fix what it found, otherwise it won't. After it's done it will show a log file in NotePad like SAS did, and it will save a log in a MBAM folder. Do the same "save as" as with SAS and save it to your desktop. Call it "MBAMfirstscan.txt"

Attach those files to the next post and we'll see what was found. If the situation appears shaky I'll send you off to the Malware Forum...but we'll see. No need to panic yet; plenty of time to do it later

If you are unable to run scans with either program, please let me know.

Forgot to ask in my last post: Do you have another browser installed besides Chrome that works?

 

SAS wasnt letting me install it because it was in safe mode, that's what it was telling me at least. I just went ahead and installed it on normal mode. I downloaded and installed MBAM perfectly fine on safemode though. I went ahead and set the options like you told me to. What next?

 

Okay, I'll go head and get started on that. And no, i dont have another browser that works. It's starting to frustrate me too, it's one problem after the other and NONE of them seem to be fixable. I'm half tempted to just do a system restore, but I dont really want to lose all my stuff

 

If your computer is badly infected, it's entirely possible that all or most of the problems are inter-related. Give the scans a go and let's see. You always have System Restore as a fallback, but the trouble is, if you don't restore back far enough, you may just restore an initial infection and it will grow again (if that's what it is). There's nothing definitive one way or the other yet, though, hence a couple of scans should tell us something. Malware has a way of affecting many different things and I know how frustrating it can be trying to find answers to problems. Most of us have been there at one time or another.

After you post your scan results, see if you can download another browser and get it working. If another one starts acting flaky, too, that's a pretty good sign of malware at work.

Hang in there; we should know something tomorrow.

 

Okay I ran both of the scans, and both of them said there werent any viruses. I also ran a scan on my McAfee virus protection and it said the same thing, so I think viruses are out of the equation. What should I do now?

 

You could try a deepest scan with it

http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=82163

you must create this from clean machine !! :wave

 

OK, that's good about the scans. I just hope there's nothing that was missed by all three scanners. Unlikely, but possible.

But those scan results point even more to a software conflict causing your problems, which is where we were headed next.

Go to Control Panel > Performance Information and Tools, and then click on Manage Startup Programs. There you will see the programs that load when your computer starts. I can't tell you what your list looks like, but many entries will be familiar to you.

Now comes the tedious bit, and I suggest you make a list to keep track of where you are and what you've done. Disable all startup programs known to you. If you don't know what something is, don't disable it. Leave windows programs/processes alone if any show up on the list. It's been a while since I've been there in Vista so I don't recall exactly what you'll see.

Now boot into Normal Mode and try your problem programs. If everything you've had problems with now works, we know that one of the disabled programs is causing the problem. To find out which one it is, enable one program at a time and reboot into Normal Mode again, then check your programs' operations again. Keep doing that enable-one/reboot process until your symptoms return. The last program/process you enabled is the culprit. If you get back to where you started (all enabled again), then it must be one of the other programs that you did not disable.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Okay, I tried to do what you told me, about going into the control panel and to the manage start up programs area, but it wasn't letting me go into it at all. It just gave me some dialog box saying "windows defender is not activated herp derp". Is it just me, or does my computer NOT want to have its problems solved? It's getting ridiculous.

I also tried disabling the programs from opening at the start via msconfig, but that didn't do anything.

 

Let me make sure I'm understanding you. Was "herp derp" literally part of the message, or were you just saying that and you got the quotation mark in the wrong place????

When you went into Manage Startup Programs did you do it as an Administrator?

When you say you tried MSConfig, "but that didn't do anything," does that mean that the problems you've been having still happened in Normal Boot with the programs deselected, or that you weren't able to deselect them? I assumed that you knew to reboot after changing things in MSConfig.

And no, the problems you are having don't have anything to do with you. The computer is an inanimate object and eventually must respond to reason. You have some strange things happening, but everything is solvable with enough information and effort. I'm still not convinced that you don't have a bug despite the three scans saying that you don't.

If you still can't get into Manage Startup Programs, and you can't get into MSConfig, or get MSConfig to do anything, in light of the above, please let me know.

Do you have data files backed up just in case your computer starts getting even worse? Might be a good idea.

 

Haha, no it didnt litterally say herp derp. I would be suspecting something fishy from my computer by then.

I tried opening Manage startup programs as administrator, but there wasn't an option to (i am on an administative account, just in case you were wondering). And when i went and disabled the startup programs in MSConfig, the programs that i disabled just opened up anyways when i restarted my computer. I'm beginning to think that windows defender might be behind all of this, because when i try and open it, i get the same error that i got from managing startup programs. I'll go ahead and scan it for viruses to see if there's anything hiding in there. I'll post the results if anything shows up

 

Turn UAC off for the time being. That could be interfering with MSConfig changes.

Defender should be on unless you have installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), in which case MSE should have turned off Defender during the MSE installation process.

Have you tried running any on-line scans like HouseCall or ESET? I'm surprised that SAS and MBAM didn't even find tracking cookies. That strikes me as very odd unless you keep your computer well cleaned out.

Have you tried changing your home page back to what you prefer or was that impossible? If you did change it, did it revert to about:blank after a while? Have you seen any pop-up ads or redirects?

 

While you're in the scanning mode it wouldn't hurt to run SAS and MBAM again, but update the definitions first. Quick Scans are OK this time since Full Scans recently done found nothing. Let me know if the definition updates fail.

Also, I just found out that McAfee also turns off Defender, so Defender being off is normal.

 

Do you think we could add eachother on skype or something? I'm using the mobile version on my iPod and i think that would be much more efficiant than this haha

 

Yeah, I agree that this has its inefficiencies, but I don't have Skype. Let me know how the scans turn out.

 

Alright, i've got it scanning right now.

Do you have MSN, YIM, or any IM service? Cause i've got pretty much all of them lol

 

Sorry, I don't. One efficiency in doing it this way is that it gives me some 'think' time while I'm waiting on your results.

Once you're done with all the scans see what you can do about MSConfig startups and let me know their results (scans and startups). I'll check back later.

 

The scans didn't pick anything up, and I have literally all of my startup programs disabled now but it didn't do anything. Some programs still run on startup, like Steam and Hamachi

 

Well, that's most distressing that with startups disabled that nothing has changed. We're running out of options.

The next thing I'd try is disabling Services for known programs (not Windows-specific programs). I think there's a service for Steam and there are probably others loaded that you know of. Check your services list and stop and disable them one at a time and reboot each time into Normal Mode and see. Keep track of what you're doing or you may get lost when you go back to enable them.

If nothing happens with disabling Services, then I'd start uninstalling the programs loaded since I got the computer, and cleaning the registry of the programs settings upon each uninstall. To do this use RevoUninstaller or IOBitUninstaller from MG. If you want to find out which program is causing the problem---and it could very well be a clash between two programs---uninstall one at a time and see if things are back to normal. Or do a mass uninstall of them all and if the problems go away you could reinstall them one at a time checking for the recurrence of the problem each time. The better choice is probably to uninstall half the programs, choosing the most recent half at first, then choosing the other half if the problems weren't fixed by uninstalling the first half. All of this is a PITB, but like I say we're running out of options.

Another thing I can think of is, on the screen where you can choose Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Normal Boot, etc., is there a choice "Last Known Good Configuration"? If there is, that is an option, too, though it's a shot in the dark as to what Windows thinks is "good." But if all else fails, that might work shy of reloading Windows.

Doing a System Restore is an option, too, as you mentioned before. I'd go back as far as I could even if that meant reinstalling several programs.

The only other thing that could be done is to reinstall Windows. Then you'd have to reinstall all your programs but this option might be faster than going through the uninstalling, too, but that might not even solve the problems. It's just really hard to say. If I got to this point I'd also reformat the hard drive if you have that option during the reinstall. If you elect to go this route, research the best way of doing a reinstall first or the process might bite you. If there's a menu choice in Programs, or a choice during one of the boot screens, that's the choice to make for a reinstall. You likely have a Recovery Partition on your hard drive and you access it during boot, like "Press X key for Emergency Recovery." Don't forget to backup all your data files first, just in case. In fact, I'd do that before going farther with any fix.

I think what your problems boil down to is either malware (despite the scans done) or conflicts between programs, and with the latter it's almost impossible to say what is conflicting with what. If you want to pursue the malware route, then you need to read the Read and Run Me Sticky in the Malware-Removal Forum and post all the logs it requests in that forum. If you want to pursue the conflicting-programs possibility, then your options are, in order, disabling program services and seeing if that fixed things, uninstalling programs one at a time and seeing if that fixed things, rebooting to last known good and seeing if that fixed things, system restore and seeing if that fixed things, reinstalling Windows. If reinstalling Windows doesn't fix things, then the only option then is a visit to the Malware-Removal forum.

I'm sorry, but I just can't think of anything else to do at this point. If you want to continue pursuing program conflicts I'm happy to help as best I can, but all I can do is comment on procedures as I certainly don't know everything there is to know about many programs. If you have any questions about the above, I'll do my best to answer them.

By the way and FYI, it's been bugging me that SFC was barfing on the one file "settings.ini" of Sidebar, so I did some sleuthing. Microsoft admits there is a conflict between SFC and Sidebar and that SFC wrongly reports that settings.ini could not be repaired.

And if this makes you feel better, you're not alone with computer problems. I have for weeks been battling a problem with losing Restore Points on one of my computers, many times spending several hours per day on it. The reason it has taken weeks is because every time I think I've solved it I have to wait 3-5 days to see if it's working properly. Several times all looked good for 3-5 days then, poof, the Restore Points were gone again. I think I have it now, but time will tell. And if this fix works for me the problem was so obscure that I couldn't find that it ever happened to anyone else. Always something...