Windows Explorer help!!!!

I am trying to fix a friends Win98se machine.

I have removed over 300 pieces of Spyware, Adware and Malware.
I also reloaded the op system and now I am unable to access either Internet Explorer or AOL without getting a Windows Explorer error. Everytime I click on either the error comes up and the software closes.
I've checked all hardware configurations and all seems to be ok.
I thought the Net card might be the problem so I removed it and still had the same problems. All other software seems fine yet I cannot access the Internet whatsoever. Prior to reinstallation of the op system I was able to access thru AdAware and Spybots "update" feature but now I am not able to access at all.

I am also unable to access the A drive. EVERY disc I try to open comes up as unformatted yet it will operate on boot-up.

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

DrumGuy

 

Did you reformat the hard drive when you reloaded Win98?

Also, is this 98SE? <---- Nevermind, I don't pay attention sometimes. lol

 

krazykrl,

I have tried everything but reformatting the drive. I figured I do that as a last resort.

I'd like to try and get this thing running before having undertake the reformatting option.
If I HAVE to I will reformat and reload but I'm not even sure my buddy still has all the necessary software and drivers to reload everything so I'm a little apprehensive about a full reformat. Any suggestions?

DrumGuy

 

this is important- 'dirty' installs of se, when you reinstall the os on top of itself without wiping the hdd clean, often only make bigger problems. so always fdisk (or, if you are super thorough, debug all partitions first, the script is easy to find on google), format, then reinstall and everything should be golden. i hope that was the problem!

 

I have just experienced a similar problem. My daughter's computer was a mess (an old Compaq, AMD 500, Win 98). I used the rescue discs and it reformatted everything. I reinstalled 98 SE. Everything was fine. I got critical update messages for IE6. As soon as I loaded SP1, I got the same problems. If I go to AOL or any other site, I get a message that "Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. If I remove SP1 and revert to the original IE6, things are cool again.

What's up with that???? Any ideas?
Thank you!