Explorer Causing illegal operation and will not allow Win98 to boot

[wncads]

Can't get the computer to boot in win98 or safe mode. Getting and illegal operation error window that explorer has caused and error and then the system just stops and will not load any further. the only software loaded just prior to the message was from Netgear for a router configuration. their tech support claimed they had never heard of this before but i personally have had the same problem with them on one other occassion but can't remember the fix, i have reloaded windows 98 over top of itself with no luck, same error and have renamed user.dat and system.dat files in hopes that SCANREG would get a backup copy that functioned but no luck, please help this system is needed back up asap.... thanks,
Keith Buchanan
AplusNetworking.com
Commercial I.T. Networking & Wiring Specialist
keith@aplusnetworking.com

 

[wncads]

also, fyi, the problem is an invalid page fault caused by explorer.exe itself... Keith Buchanan
AplusNetworking.com
Commercial I.T. Networking & Wiring Specialist
keith@aplusnetworking.com

 

[reghakr]

Keith,

Hit F8 on startup, and choose Command Prompt. Type edit c:\windows\system.ini Under
[boot] Change
shell=;Explorer.exe
shell=progman.exe

If Program manager loads go to File>Run, type msconfig, go to the Startup tab and uncheck everything.

Either go back and change system.ini to the original or if you're comfortable using File manager, you can type Winfile under the File>Run and check your configuration files.
To open autoexec.bat, you go to the root of C: drive, highlight it, choose Run from the file menu and type notepad autoexec.bat

Hopefully this will get you back in.

reghakr