[sadcomp]

Error loading explorer.exe
You must reinstall windows

a required .dll file c:\windows\system\msvcrt.dll was not found

that is as far as it goes....
i have a cd drive and a dvd drive on my old compaq presario 7000 desktop. the cd drive is broken, will not work at all
the dvd drive does work.
i put the recovery cd that i received with my computer in and rebooted it, but nothing happened.
i have used the recovery cd before (probably 2 times) before the cd drive broke
Now i only have the recovery cd (for compaq) and the dvd drive.

help please?!

[Essexboy]

You can run a cd from the DVD drive without a problem. Use that drive.

Is it just explorer and msvcrt.dll or does windows fail to boot ?

[sadcomp]

Thanks for a reply Essexboy.
when i start the computer, the desktop background appears, but no start button, no icons, etc... just an error message saying that windows needs to be reinstalled. I tried using the recovery cd in the dvd drive, but no luck. The last time i used the recovery cd, i put it in the cd drive and restarted my computer. I tried the same thing this time, but in the dvd drive, no luck.
Any ideas on what i should do next?
thanks!

[Essexboy]

There should be a spare copy of explorer on your system - possibly in c;\windows\system32\dllcache

Or you could let me find a copy for you and replace it

To do it my way :
Using control+Alt+delete call up taskmanager
Under the Applications tab
Select new task and type in Iexplore.exe
press OK

This will open internet explorer for you

Then download the following programme

Download OTL to your Desktop

• Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted. (or use taskmanager to run OTL.exe)
  
• Select All Users
  
• Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
  
  
  /md5start
  explorer.exe
  /md5stop
  
  
  
• Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
  
  • When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.

This should give me the location of the spares, once I have that I will use OTL to copy the file to the correct location

[sadcomp]

thanks for the reply.
only problem is that i am running windows 98 SE, so the task manager only has three options: End Task, Shutdown or cancel. it does not have the tabs like on the newer windows operating systems.

[Essexboy]

OK now that is going to be a task for me, as 98 is a tad old. Does your computer (the 98 one ) support USB drives ?

[sadcomp]

i tried plugging in my usb drive once, i don't think it worked, it did try to find the new hardware, but i never got to actually use the flash drive to transfer files. the computer does have multiple usb ports, so i suppose it could work.

[Essexboy]

OK I have found an explorer replacement file which is win98 compatible. However, it must be transfered to the dead system to work. If you can get it to the desktop and run from there it will enable you to find the replacement file you need


Unzip the file and extract 2xExplorer.exe this is the programme file. Once run it will give you an explorer interface
[attachment=46717:2xex1412.zip]

[sadcomp]

alright now how would i happen to do that? i can't really do anything with the desktop after the background screen appears. I just get the error messages and nothing else. So i don't think that i would be able to unzip it and run it. could i do this from ms dos? i know that when i boot the computer up, i can go to boot options and pull up ms dos with the c: drive.

[Essexboy]

OK long time no 98 - so I forgot dos

I will need now to do some research - on you c drive do you have a folder called i386?

To find out at the c prompt type DIR /p and press enter

[sadcomp]

lets see....i typed that in.. and got:
volume in drive C has no label
volume serial number is 3910-0625
Directory of C:\

then it started to list a bunch of folders
i didnt see a i386 anywhere :/

[Essexboy]

At the c prompt type

copy c:\windows\system32\dllcache\explorer.exe c:\windows

[sadcomp]

so i tried that:
didn't work. it couldn't find the file, so it could not copy the file

[Essexboy]

Alas as far as I am aware that is the only other location of the file within windows 98

It looks like you may have to borrow and external cd drive, as that is the only option I can see unless someone know different - but I will check around

[Amlak]

sadcomp, on 19 December 2010 - 01:22 PM, said:

Thanks for a reply Essexboy.
when i start the computer, the desktop background appears, but no start button, no icons, etc... just an error message saying that windows needs to be reinstalled. I tried using the recovery cd in the dvd drive, but no luck. The last time i used the recovery cd, i put it in the cd drive and restarted my computer. I tried the same thing this time, but in the dvd drive, no luck.
Any ideas on what i should do next?
thanks!

Try to get to the BIOS (if you can). Tap either F1, F2, F10, F12, or even the Delete key and see if the BIOS Configuration Screen appears. Then try to find out what the Boot Order is through that screen. If the DVD drive is after the Hard Drive, have it appear before it.