Win98 startup crash

Hi
I've been having a minor problem -- off and on -- with Win98 for a while now. Every now and than Windows Explorer will crash my rig on startup. Usually I have to do a hard re-boot (ie slap the "off" button) and put up with the "scandisk is now checking your drive for damage" screen -- there never is any damage.
The trouble msg. reads: "Explorer caused a kernal fault in module . . . " etc and gives me the option of closing explorer via the "close" button within the box. The result of closing Explorer from the trouble box is that my ActiveX desktop doesn't come up.

I was wondering if this is a usual problem for Win98 (1st. edition) with a usual fix or if it's "just generally a 98 thing that happens to everyone, so live with it." event. Like I said, the hard re-boot fixes the problem and there's no damage to my drives so it's not a big deal, but I'd just as soon not have to deal with it every three weeks or so.

I'm running a PentiumII 333mmx puter with W.D.5.7 gig. hd.

Thanks for any info. you might have to pass on to me.
Bill

 

Hi Bill and welcome to Major Geeks.

Typically crashes like this are caused from programs starting up that cause a problem. If you reboot your machine and hold the left shift button down when the splash screen comes up and keep holding it until the desktop is fully loaded, this will prevent anything from loading up. If this "fixes" the problem you are having then you need to find the offending program that is starting up with your computer.

 

Thanks Kodo,
I'll give it a try tomorrow. Thanks for the welcome also. I only recently found this place and it's everything a . . . well . . . geek like me could ask for. Yaw'll seem like a very nice bunch of folks.
Bill

 

Have a look at your error message or one similar to it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/windows/topics/errormsg/emresctr.asp

or kernel specific messages here:

http://support.microsoft.com/common...r=&DU=&SD=GN&LN=EN-US&CND=1&VR=&CAT=&VRL=&SG=

There are a number that give a message similar to yours.

 

to elabourate slightly on Kodos answer, you could try specifying diagnostic startup in MSCONFIG, restart a few times and see if it still happens.

have you ran av progs recently? fully updated, of course.

 

Thanks Maxwell and Goldfish

Thanks Maxwell and Goldfish,
I'll try the msconfig suggestion and the trouble message sites.
And I'd sure tell you about av programs running . . . if I knew wnat an av program was that is.
Thanks again,
Bill

 

Ummmmm . . . DOH!

I wasn't too bushed last night Yep I have run my currently updated anti-virus proggie (avast -- latest edition) and everything is checks out there -- no li'l buggies hiding out in my hd. Sorry for being so dense.
Bill