Help on the computer: One more time-Part II

[Bushwacker]

I saw all the great advise everyone gave about the last computer problem and thought wow, if I ever have a problem I know where to go first. Well, less than a week later and I can't get my computer to start completely. When I turn it on it goes to the scan disk and at the end of the scanning it gives a message that "Explorer has a dynamic error in a .dll file". When I cancel scandisk it still gives the same message. about the dynamic error. It is running Windows ME and I have the disk, but I can't figure out how to even get to a point where I can get into the disk. When I put the Compaq system restore disk in it goes to the DOS screen and gives me the option of resetting the computer to its factory settings, which would be a last resort because I haven't back up my digital pictures for a couple of months. Is there a way to make the computer start in SAFE mode or anything like that? Any ideas would be great. Thanks in advance.

[JP Z]

Bushwacker,

When you are starting up your computer hold F8.....or F9 I don't remember so hold them both. This will boot it up and give you the option to select Safe Mode. But I don't believe safe mode usually offers CD-Rom support. You may need to get into your setup right at the beginning of your boot so you can make sure it boots your Cd-Rom this way you can have your Win ME disc in the drive and it will boot it on the startup.

Just a thought.

------------------
Tight Lines,
JP Z

[Guest]

Bushwacker;
What you need to do is:

1. Upon bootup of the computer, right when the "ME" logo is about to appear, press the F8 button. That will give you an option to start the PC in SAFE MODE, DOS, ETC.
Once you get the PC booted in safe mode, run your anti-virus software. Do a complete scan to make sure that it's not infected with a virus and your boot partition on your HD is ok. After that, do you have a ZIP drive? Zip drives have DOS drivers on there and can be loaded in DOS. You can save your pictures that way. A Zip drives holds 100mb which equals to about 300+ pictures depending on the size of the pictures.

2. After you've backed up your pictures, try running "scandisk" or "defrag". You can usually find this by clicking on "Start --> Program Files --> Accessories --> System tools".

3. Reboot.

If that still doesn't solve your PC problems, and youv'e saved all your important stuff, just restore it. That way you have a nice clean boot partition and no spywares, viruses, trojans etc.

let me know if that helps.

-web

[Guest]

I had nothing but troubles like the one you are having when I ran ME. After I installed XP full version not the upgrade it has been running smooth for over a year now.
DLL files are direct link library files that can create a lot of problems if they are deleted or mis-directed.
Also partition the HD so windows runs on its own side of the drive from all of your other files then if something does go wrong with windows it can be loaded without losing all of the other files pics etc..

[sawtooth2]

Was that the exact text of the error message you received? I couldn't find any reference to that specific error on Google. If it specifies which DLL is corrupt then maybe you can replace that file with a non-corrupt version.

[Guest]

El,
I doubt that that was the error message he received. I think he was just giving us a general idea but the error message should be more specific.

He can check on microsofts tech net also.

[Bushwacker]

Thanks for the info guys. I can get it to run in safe mode, but safe mode is not recognizing my E:\ CD Drive- Does anyone know if there is a way to run the cd drive to install Windows XP or should I just resign myself to losing everything and starting from scratch?

[fuzzyray]

I wouldn't give up all hope yet. I was wondering if you had had any problems recently with adware/spyware or viruses? If so the .dll it is refering to might be related to something of this nature. One thing that might be worth trying is booting up in SAFEMODE and running spybot, adaware, and your antivirus program. There is a chance that this might help you out. Another thing I would definitely try when in safemode is to check what is starting at Startup. Go to the START>RUN and type MSCONFIG, go to the startup tab and uncheck anything that isn't absolutely necessary safe these setting and restart your computer. Some program you don't need (or don't even know is running) might be accessing the corupt .dll file. I think doing these few things would definitely be worth your time. They won't take long and if they don't work you aren't out anything. As a last ditch effort to save your pics and other data (if all else fails) then you could always pull your HardDrive from your PC and put it into a friend or family members PC as a 2nd HD and transfer the data over to their hard drive. It really isn't that hard or a thing to do if you have questions about this or anything else you should feel free to e-mail me...

ben_ray (at) yahoo.com

good luck

fuzzyray

[Bushwacker]

Thank you very much for the advice. I will try the msconfig tonight and see what happens. I picked up Windows XP and hopefully that will be a little better than Windows ME.

[This message has been edited by Bushwacker (edited 07-13-2004).]

[woodyjdh]

Bushwacker, I too had windows ME, and after numerous problems, I dumped it for windows XP. I can honestly say I haven't had a single problem since. A added bonus, XP is easier to navigate through, and for someone like me (a pc novice), that means alot.

[Piker]

If you hooked your hard drive up to another PC you could pull that data across to the other PC's hard drive. You wouldn't have to boot the OS in that scenario. It's not easy, but it would work. Your hard drive might be dying, on HP/Compaq's I've seen some bad drives. Some have a Quantum Bigfoot drive and they leave a little to be desired. Hopefully it's not bad and you're able to recover your data.

[Bushwacker]

I made some real progress last night. The "msconfig" brought up all the programs that I was getting errors from and I closed them down and I was able to put all my photos on a CD. We have to do more backing up tonight and then I am going to try to load XP. Thanks for all the advice guys.

[upnorth]

Bushwacker, if you have all your data backed up and the install disks for the applications that you want to use, do a clean install of XP. That does mean that you will loose all your present applications and you will need to re-install them. But you will have a fresh copy of XP and your applications. If you upgrade you will possibly bring some problems along from the old install.

I work on computers for a living and all I can say is that Bill Gates should have done a recall on ME. That is the worst POS that I have seen.