Stumped on IE6/Windows 98 issue 1

[dthayer]

I've been tearing my hair out for two days on this issue that just popped up. I'm running Windows 98 and IE6 and get constant errors saying "Microsoft Internet Explorer - There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using will be shgut down. Restart, etc." I get this when I try to access the control panel, open Windows Explorer, start my browser, etc, so I can't do much. I've reinstalled Windows twice, reloaded an older version of Explorer and I still get the error. I installed Netscape and it runs fine. SOmething is conflicting somewhere but I don't know where to start. Any ideas??

 

[carrr]

Please check out this KB article...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=259096

 

[dthayer]

Close, Carrr, but I can't even get into Windows Explorer, Control Panel or IE6 and probably others. The message is the same, but I get the error as soon as I click on the icon for any of these.

 

[carrr]

When you get this message, is there a details dutton to click on? If so, please click it and post the text you get.

 

[carrr]

ALso, try this. Make sure win386.exe hasn't been changed to read only.

Select Start > Find > Files or Folders
In the Named box, type win386.swp
In the Look in box, select drive C, and then click Find Now (the box Include subfolders should be checked)
Right-click the Win386.swp file, click Properties, and then click to clear the Read-only check box
Click Apply, and then click Close

 

[dthayer]

Nope, no details offered. Just says to save work and restart Windows.

 

[carrr]

I guess I should drop back a little. This "just popped up"?
Any installs/uninstalls coincide with this? Browse a lot on this pc? Running virus prot?

 

[dthayer]

No luck on the WIN386 file. It is nt "read only". This machine is always connected to the internet but there were no installs done recently as far as I know. I have an updated Norton Virus check running and ran it again when the problem started. Didn't find anything.

 

[carrr]

Okay...this is long shotting it, but let's get it out of the way...download SpyBot (

http://spybot.safer-networking.de/)

and run it. Sweep anything it finds off your pc.

 

[dthayer]

This is getting worse all the time. I can't download SpyBot on the machine in question. I get to the site okay and hit the download button and just get a flash of the page on my screen and then it goes back to the download page. No errors or anything. I go to the site on my laptop and have no problems. Just the challenge you wanted so early in the morning, huh?

 

[carrr]

This happened running Netscape?
Drop me an email at xcrackerboy@fastmail.fmx, I'll send you the prog. (Delete the leading and trailing x's from my email address first...anti-spam harvesting tactic...)

 

[dthayer]

IT WORKED!! SpyBot took care of the problem. Thanks and have a star!

 

[carrr]

Rock on...SpyBot scores again. If you would please, post what it was that Spybot cleaned off that was causing your problems...just for future reference.