Just "Reloading Windows" with a system that has an unresolved software issue is like putting a bandage over a boil. You tried all known software troubleshoots to treat the presumed cause and failed; at this stage, in my opinion, a radical treatment of REFORMAT & REINSTALL is what is appropriate. Anything less than that is inviting trouble sooner or later. That's my 2¢ If you want to Format, please make a backup of files you need to keep, using appropriate external media like CD-R or CD-RW, make sure you have the Device drivers ESPECIALLY the Video card, Sound Card, Modem. NIC, etc in appropriate media. Keep a hard copy of your Device Manager for any reference in the future. You might be able to make the Print out of the images of the opened Device Manager with its Device Clusters Expanded [cliking their + (plus). You can use the ALT+Print Screen keys> Pasting on Paint> Cut out what is relevant> Paste on an Editor (Example MS Word) and repeat this until you get the images of all the required Device Manager entries on Word and then Print.]

0

maahurimn, I agree with what you are saying. I think that my next step might be to reformat the drive and do a complete win 98 se install. I honesetly do think that the interference might have something to do with my video card. Win 98 se did not have the correct video drivers. I was able to find the correct one from compaq site but am second guessing that one with other devices on that motherboard. i don't have the restore disk or anything like that. wish i did since compaq drivers are a pain in the butt to find and work correctly. i have already taken "snapshots" of the device managers and current drivers before the last format. I think i will reformat it this weekend when i have time and let you know how it went. again, thanks for your help.

0

Good Luck with your Reformat & Reinstall. What Compaq PC you have? Family & series [Example: Presario 5012 US ] There may be Forum members who could help you with the Drivers or to their source.

0

Because the original error message was pointing to an IE problem rather than the .dll I wonder if overlaying FULL IE6 SP1 might do the trick. I have done this sort of thing before (my golden rule is to either match the IE version or go higher, never lower). It rests with whether you kept the download or can get it from a freebie CD, such as a sever disk. Without doubt reformat is the only certain solution but my feeling is that IF you have the time to do this (or even overlay Windows) then there is nothing lost. You can still reformat if these ideas fail. maahurimn Please don't think I am trying to undermine your advice, I've seen the quality of your responses on computing.net and you have my greatest respect. Just throwing my 2c in here also. Derek

0

... ooops typo, for sever read server Derek

0

Hi Derek, I too share your dictum: if a minor surgery can cure a problem why go for a Radical procedure! Go from the simplest and least expensive to the more complex and expensive troubleshoot in a sequential and methodical manner.

0

thanks to the both of you for the great advice. i would like to solve the problem first with IE rather than having to reformat. everything else seems to be working fine with no errors or crashes, ie seems to be the only problem. the reason for my going back to ie5 was to see if it was an ie6 issue but guess it was not ie6. i installed ie6 by using the windows update and the installation went fine with no error messages or any of that type so i assume ie6 was working fine. i think i will do a full install of ie6 again by windows update as a last attempt to fix ie before i reformat and start from scratch. i also found out a way to save the ie6sp1 install and i have burned that onto a disk. i will try that method also. if all else fails, i guess i have no choice but to reformat and do clean install of windows 98 se. once again, thanks to the both of you for sharing your knowledge on computers. if no one has thanked the both of you, let me be the first to say thank you and it is much appreciated, you two are a great asset to this forum. :) i'll let you know in the next few days on how this all turns out.

0

If that fails you could still "try" Windows overlay (though I have less faith in that curing the problem). After that I reckon it's the reformat. Thx for kind words. Derek

0

Not to necessarily negate my #10 and #14 BUT.... Going right back to the start where spyware was suspected, I've been watching another posting which has similarities. The progys given in #1 had been applied yet the spyware remained. The trick was to download "HiJack This" run it then copy/paste the log on here. It's a matter of wading through the detail it gives. MaadhuriMN & I could have a stab it deciphering it. I'm not proud, if I get out of my depth I will see if I can get Tom41 to pop in and help - he has shown himself to be expert in this spyware stuff. Derek

0

i finally had a chance to try to fix this pc. i did a full reinstall of ie6, uninstalled it, reinstalled it, but still got error message. next, i reinstalled win98se on top of existing win98se ("overlay" like derek suggested?), error message popped up after a few messages on internet. so, i decided to fdisk and start all over. so far so good. internet has been running smooth with no msafd.dll error messages. i wish i had a possible solution for this problem other than reformating and reinstalling os. anyway, many thanks for all the help.

0

Yes, pity you had to go that way but glad to hear you got it fixed. I expect your computer will be grateful..... Derek

0

dude, Thank you for posting all the steps you took to finally solve the problem of iexplore caused an invalid page fault in module msafd.dll error message. I hope, some day, this thread may help someone else with this same error message searching the archives of Computing.net for a solution.

0

Sorry, Dude, sounds like I'm a little late, but this may help someone else in the future. It seems as if the TCP/IP, the Communications package, or the Winsock and/or Winsock2 registry keys have become damaged or corrupt. This is what worked for me: - Uninstall TCP/IP - Uninstall Communications Package - Remove Winsock and Winsock2 keys from registry - Reinstall TCP/IP - Reinstall Communications Package I'm not very familiar with these sites and I don't know if it would be appropriate to post the address of the page with the specific, step-by-step instructions on how to do all of the above, but if you need it, let me know.

0

yeah, i didn't really want to do the reformat, reinstall 98 stuff but I guess it was a last option for me. Opie C, i did think about winsock(2)possibly being damaged and all. I used the lsp fix option that Maadhurimn had suggested but that didn't help. although, maybe i should have manually removed and install the communication packages that you suggested. i do agree with you that something with the internet communication was not working correctly. Like i said, everything else was working perfect except for IE. Anyway, if you don't mind, please post the address of sites with tutorials and step by step instructions from your post. i think you can post sites here. i may need it in the future and the sites could be of use. thanks again.

0

Here's the link to that page: Support Center Hope it helps.

0