Various problems recovering from a crash...

All right. first, my stats.

WinXP home, SP2
AMD Duron, 1.1ghz, 256mgRAM

My problem history: One stormy night, about a year ago, I shut down my computer normally, and unplugged it from the wall, knowing that lightning can be a bad thing. Everything shut down fine, and I had no reason to worry. The next day I plugged it back in, started it up.... and it froze up in mid boot. More specifically, it froze up just before it should have brought up the welcome screen. It refused to successfully boot in either safe mode or normal mode. So I sent it to the computer doctor (the local computer store that I bought it from 2 years before). They messed with it, and fussed with it, and fiddled with it, and basically scratched their heads for 3 months trying to figure this thing out. Finally, they came to the conclusion that it was a software error, and reformated my hard drive. (boo hoo, no backups. Silly me.)

When I got it back, it worked for about 2 days. Then it started the same old song and dance, with one exception: I could now boot in safe mode. I called them back, and they insisted it must be a virus. (I hadn't gotten anything but OpenOffice reinstalled before the second crash. Silly me, no antivirus or firewall.) I didn't bother messing with it for the next six months cause I was sick of looking at the thing. Also, my wife had just bought a new laptop, so I just used her computer.

However, now I'm sick of looking at a nonfunctional computer, so I've been trying to resurrect it from limbo. I think I've almost got it licked. Based on an educated guess, I removed the graphics card driver, and VOALA! It will boot normally again.

But I still have some problems. One is that I no longer have a graphics driver, so my monitor is set on pretty basic settings. It's enough for me to do most of my tasks, but it's not very pretty, and it's not good enough for the couple of games I've got. I know it's an Nvidia graphics card, but I don't know what kind. TNT, I think...... Anyway, I went to the Nvidia website and downloaded the driver for the TNT card. But when I tried to install it, I get the following error (right at the end of the autoinstall process):

Error Number 0x80040706
Description: Object Reference not set
Setup will now terminate.

And, of coarse, the driver fails to install.

Now for problem number 2. I reinstalled firefox 1.0. It runs, but every time I run it, I get the following error:

This application has failed to start because OLEPRO32.DLL was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem. (it didn't, by the way)

The strange thing is that firefox loads anyway. Maybe file this under Hmph.

I've got a couple of other problems, but I haven't fully explored them yet. However, I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give me...

Thanx in advance.

 

uhhhh... how do I edit my messages???

Anyway, (and oddly enough), the firefox error vanished after I installed the firewall and antivirus (zone alarm and AVG, btw). The video driver installation still won't run, though.

edit: odd, the edit button showed up on my reply, but not on my original post.....

 

er, thanx. However, I seem to have accidentally fixed that problem.... But I appreciate the thought, none the less.

 

heh. Edit seems to be gone again. And that OLEPRO32.DLL error is back... but on a different program now...... VB, here I come...

 

Well, Things are starting to get a little clearer. I downloaded the VB, and got it installed. (thanx major! ) Not only did it get rid of my missing dll error, but apparently that missing dll was the reason my video driver install was crashing. So now I got my video driver installed.... and now I've got new crash problems. Any time I try to use the display controls that came with the driver, the Blue Screen of Death flashes up for an instant, and then the computer reboots. I send my error report to Microsponge, and everything is ok... until the next time I try to change my monitor settings with the nvidia controls. (Of note is that I can still use the standard Microsponge controls to change my settings).

I did some investigating, and sure enough I did get the right driver. I've got an Nvidia Ge-Force 2 MX-200, and I'm running the latest driver off the Nvidia site.

One other odd thing... now when the computer reboots after the BSoD, it boots up in normal mode instead of Safe mode. Before, when it was just freezing up, it would boot in safe mode....

Now, if my inexperienced mind is reading this correctly, I've got either a graphics driver problem, or a graphics card problem. Am I right, Teacher?

P.S. Thanx again for the VB fix, Major Attitude.

 

A quick side note: I'm not so sure it isn't the monitor now. I was telling my wife about my adventures last night in computer diagnostics, and she told me about problems someone else had with our monitor. We loaned it out during those six months I wasn't trying to fix the computer, and the guy we loaned it to started having mysterious crash problems, too. So..... uh.... Now what do I do? (/me blushes) How do I find out whether it's my monitor, my graphics card, or the graphics card driver that's causing the problem?

Or should I just tell the computer doctor what I've discovered, and let him figure it out? After all, he'll be the one replacing the errant hardware....

 

Hmm... Teacher seems to be eating turkey....

So, is there any way for me to narrow the search field for my faulty hardware/software?

 

Hi, You could borrow a monitor to test your whether your cards are working. I fthe new monito worked then maybe your old one is stuffed.

You could roll back the driver and see what happens. You could always restore the new one if you have a copy.

At the moment I am using an IBM monitor that I just plugged in and the computer think it is a Samsung but every thing is working alright as far as I can see. The only problem is I don't play games so don't need a gaming setup which can be prone to trouble.

 

I have yet to send the computer to the computer doctor (waiting on my wife to backup her data). However, I have run into another little problem. I don't think that Windows Update is running. When I try to open it from the help and support center, I get the following error:

This application has failed to start because ScrRun.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

Uhhhh, any idea where I can find this one?

 

heh. found it on the Microsoft website.... sorta.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;836936

In short, it tells me to register the .dll. However, when I try to do that, I get the following error message:

LoadLibrary("ScrRun.dll") failed - The specified module could not be found.

uhhhh.... help?

 

Anybody know what ScrRun.dll is, and where I can get it?

 

scrrun.dll is a Mi¢ro$oft runtime file. You can download and find out more about it at this site: http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?scrrun

 

Thanx, Ragnarok. That seems to have fixed the problem... till I find another one.....

 

Well, the computer is off at the computer doctor, where hopefully the graphics problems get fixed. Thanx to everyone who has helped me.