My computer is broken - Help me!

[attrill]

No other way to describe this, but my coomputers is broken. Yesterday I tried to install MSN messenger (for my friends) and whilst installing it said I also needed to upgrade IE to 6.0. After it finished downloading that it said I needed to restart my computer. After the usual updating settings on start up, it comes up with the message 'Error loading Explorer.exe. You must reinstall Windows' I click on OK and it says 'Error Starting Program' 'A required .DLL file C:\\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHLWAPI.DLL was not found' I try to click OK on this but nothing happens. You cannot believe how annoyed I am by this, as I have only recently got it working (3 days ago). I Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart the laptop, but these same messages always come up.

The laptop is a Sony VAIO and I am Windows ME, can someone please either give an answer as to how this problem has been caused and how it can be fixed. Any advice much appreciated. Cheers, James

[GX1_Man]

The file was overwritten by a newer version during the MSN Messenger install.

shlwapi.dll is installed as a tied component of Internet Explorer, and the version should always match that of the installed version of Internet Explorer

Do you have System Restore enabled on that machine? If so, try restoring to a date BEFORE you did this. That seems the easiest road right now.

[attrill]

Yeah that would work fine, but as I said, I can't do ANYTHING on the machine. When I turn on the power it comes up with all the usual loaidng screens, but before it gets to the login screen these messages come up and I can't click off them and hence am unable to do anything whatsoever. Maybe if I could get to some sort of menu before it initialises starting windows then i could system restore it this way? I don't know an awful lot about computers, anyone care to enlighten me?

[Apollyon]

personally I'd restore an older version of the registry. youll need to restart into dos mode (if its pre-XP).

type the following into DOS.

Code: [Select]

scanreg /restore
select a date before when the problem started and that should work

*EDIT* I've looked it up and seems you can do it in Safe Mode by going to Start > Run in ME.

[GX1_Man]

Pressing F8 several times during boot (before the Windows logo) should get you to Safe Mode where you can make these changes.

[attrill]

Again, thanks for your advice but when I start it in safe mode (after pressing f8 lots) I get excatly the same messages come up, just on a lightly smaller screen.

Appollyon - How do I 'type into DOS' as whenever I select safe made it just starts the same (albeit with 'Safe Mode written in the 4 corners of the screen) and I can't see anywhere where I could type somehtng into it.

I think this is a more serious problem than everyone here suggests, but why has it happened? All I did was install a new msn and IE, surely it can't cause all this?

[GX1_Man]

I think this is a more serious problem than everyone here suggests, but why has it happened? All I did was install a new msn and IE, surely it can't cause all this?

Oh yes it can! Any install program has the potential to FUBAR your system. In this case, I believe it was because an elderly version of IE was installed and MSN didn't know how to cope with it.

If you are in safe mode, can you open command prompt through the Start Menu system? That is as close as you will get to DOS in WinME.

[attrill]

I've said this once, and I'll say it again - I can't do ANYTHING on the computer. Whenever i turn it on it displays the two messages that I have mentioned previously and that is all it can do.

Usually after starting up the laptop it displays the login screen (where I type in my password) then it will load the desktop. At the moment my computer doesn't even reach the login stage, and all it does is display my wallpaper and has these two messages. When I click 'OK' on the first message (no other options are given) it brings up the second one and when I click 'OK' on this (the only choice) the screen freezes and I have to restart the laptop. I can press Ctrl+Alt+Del which brings up the 'Close Program' which displays no programs (usually has loads) and the only options are 'End Task' (Useless), 'Shut Down' and 'Cancel' If I choose cancel, then it does that weird thing where you can still see half the 'Close Program' window in the shape of the second message box.

There must be something that can be done, surely? Even a complete factory settings restore would suit me, anything to get the bloody thing working again. If a computer can be rendered useless due to installing IE 6.0 then it is an absolute joke, and I will have wasted hundreds of pounds. Please tell em what can be done...

[Apollyon]

First thing, although I've used ME in the distant past I can't remember what the safe mode start up screen looks like. When you hit F8 (albeit repeatedly) and the options come up is there an option on there to enter MS-DOS mode (it might be displayed as command line interface or similar). This should send your computer straight into the CLI no problem and then type "scanreg /restore" and select a date from the day before you installed IE 6.

If the option isn't there you might need to get hold of a boot disk to do this (preferably ME or 98, im not sure about the others).  

For the record I had a similar problem after installing IE 6 on 98SE (because of this I now use Trillian) Instead this corrupted the registry so this option might not solve your problem. Formatting may be the only answer. (unless you feel confident enough to create partitions on your drive)

If you can access your laptop hard drive through connecting it up to another machine as a slave then you will be able to transfer what stuff you've got and you wont lose everything.

I had ME at one point but got rid of it straight away when I installed to find a serious registry fault in the installation (different to the IE 6 one).  

[GX1_Man]

Free bootdisk download at www.bootdisk.com

Maybe this will help. If not, then you can at least format the hard drive and reinstall from your WinME CD. Do you have one of those, or a restore CD?