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Win Me on my HP 8755c hangs during boot up. It stops with message "Explorer caused an error in SHELL32.DLL". Using Alt-D for detail I see "Explorer caused an invalid page fault module SHELL32.DLL at 016f:7bd3a7f". Sometimes this is followed by "Helpctr caused an error in SHLWAPI.DLL". Closing the mesaage windows causes the system to hang. This is repeated as many times as you care to follow the instructions to reboot.
What I think caused the problem was uninstalling IE 6.0 and reinstalling IE 5.5.
I have tried restoring from CD ROM and boot diskette but nothing so far has worked. These recovery methods seem to assume a working windows me. Am I missing something?
Howcan I recover my system without destroying my data?
How can I recover my system without losing
wow...same exact error that happened to me...no1 replied to my post so i enede up reinstalling windows and losing most of my data...
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Check does your system.ini file have the line shell=explorer.exe There may be an HP shell line in there instead.
To resolve the issue, change the Shell= line in the System.ini file to Shell=explorer.exe . To do this, use the following steps:
Click Start , point to Programs , point to Accessories , and then click Notepad .
On the File menu, click Open .
In the File name box, type c:\windows\system.ini , and then click Open .
Click Search , and then click Find .
In the Find what box, type shell= , and then click Find Next .
Type a semi-colon (;) at the beginning of the Shell= line, and then create a new line.
On the new line, type shell=explorer.exe , click Save on the File menu.
Restart your computer. Click No if you receive a prompt asking you if you want to retain an HP shell or keep special HP software working.
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You could also look here at this page which is designed to troubleshoot this type of error
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q276393
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I'm going through the same s--- right now. Can't do what you say Trev cause can't get Windows fully booted. Windows throws the Shell error right as the desktop wallpaper is visible, but no startbutton, menu bar or desktop icon. Just a blank screen with my wallpaper image showing. After the error, Windows hangs till you reset your PC.
Can't find anything about this on MS site. But I have found a s---load of people who went through the same thing.
Starts out with IE 6.0 acting up on Win ME. Couldn't download files or save images as anything but bitmap. So I foolishly try to restore IE to 5.5. Upon reboot, Shell32 error and I'm dead in the water.
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After talking to my buddy here, it seems that one option for us is to go buy another harddrive. If you get a maxtor or Western digital they're pretty easy to install. Set the new hd up as master and your old one as slave. After you go through the tedium of reinstalling windows, drivers and software again, you can retreive all of your data off of the old drive, which you set up as a slave to the new one. Just a thought. It's my only option because I've got about 15 GB of mp3's and word files and s--- that I must find a way to recover
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Another failed attempt.
I tried to boot to safe mode by holding shift during boot. still hung in the same spot, but after orig error, it threw a second error:"Helpctr has caused an error in SHLWAPI.DLL. Helpctr will now close"
this is really starting to piss me off.
am i totally f---ed just because i tried to go from IE 6 back to IE 5.5???How f---ed is that???
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I found a solution to this problem that uses the system boot disk. However, I didn't already have a boot disk. I found this website that has the Windows ME boot disk files. It was a little frustrating to get a disk that worked because I had problems extracting the files once I had downloaded the .exe file. If you click on the .exe file that you downloaded for the boot disk and you don't get the option to write to disk or extract files to a folder on your hard drive then try one of the other disks (red, green, or orange.) You might be able to extract the files to a folder on your hard drive and then copy them to a disk if you can't write directly to disk. The website for the boot disk is (click on boot disks in the upper lefthand corner and then scroll down): http://www.drd.dyndns.org/index2.html
Once you make the boot disk, follow the instructions that Microsoft gives. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q279736 .
When you get to step 9 on Microsoft's instructions you will get an error or nothing will happen (when you click launch system restore). You need to reinstall Internet Explorer 6 to get the files back that the reinstall deleted in order to use system restore. Don't worry, once you use system restore, Internet Explorer 6 will be gone and you will be back to a time when your computer worked (and your data will not be lost as it would if you reinstalled Windows). You need to click on "Expand File" (lower right of Program Manager). Then click "Browse File" and locate the Internet Explorer 6 setup files. This is most likely in the my download folder (or wherever you decided to put it.) Once you lauch this Internet Explorer 6 will be reinstalled. You will need to restart. I think I had to restart two times to get to the program manager again. Once you get back to the program manager click on "Launch System Restore." Choose the day before you installed Internet Explorer 6 for the first time. This should get your system back to normal with a minimum of data loss.
Rcrats@aol.com if my directions don't make sense.
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By the way, I wasn't getting this error.
"Helpctr caused an error in SHLWAPI.DLL" The problem occurred on a Dell. Don't know if that will make a difference.
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I had the exact same error!! I uninstalled IE 6.0 and after restarting, the computer would not boot. It would get all the way to setting up the desktop and the "Explorer caused an error in Shell32.dll. Explorer will now close" error would pop up. Then the computer would freeze.
I tried going into safe mode and step-by-step startup. Those let me to the same error.
I found a solution. I used my Windows ME Startup Disk that I created during installation. You should be able to create one of these from any working Windows ME system, or you may be able to download the files.
Choose to start windows with cd-rom support.
Put your Windows ME disk in the cd-rom.
You will have to go through setting up Windows ME again on your computer. When it asks you if you want to save your data on your drive, click YES! ( like I have to tell you that).
Go through all the steps to install Windows ME. It will take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete.
When Windows ME had finally been installed, my PC looked exactly how it looked before crashing. The wallpaper was the same, and all of my programs were functioning normally. IE 6.0 was gone and IE 5.5 was the version now.
Another possible solution is to forego the complete Windows ME setup and let ScanDisk fix the error for you.
When I ran Scandisk prior to re-installing Windows ME, there was an error found. It said that my main drive was reporting the true amount of available memory incorrectly.
After allowing Scandisk to fix this error, the PC might start up correctly, however -- I did not check this.
Good Luck!! I hope this helps!!
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