Can anyone help?

My PC wont start up

The following message pops up everytime its loading up and i cant get past it, as it just freezes once the message has popped up.

Error message:

Scandskw has caused an error in KERNEL32.DLL

Scandskw will now close

If you continue to experience problems, try restarting your computer

I have tried restarting and i keep getting the same message then the pc freezes

Any ideas what the problem could be???

Paul

Well, its with scandisk, which usually tries to scan after a crash.

Might be worth going into your setup (usually holding down Delete key on bootup) and restoring the factory defaults, maybe starting up in safe mode? I'm no techie so my advice stops there (shy of kicking the f***ing thing a few times and dropping it out of a window )

Also when I had a problem with my computer throwing up a bootstrap error, I removed the CMOS battery, and it solved the problem.

But as above I'm not expert and someone will be along with a better answer no doubt!

Scandisk will mean the O/S is either 95/98 or ME. if its 95/98, then when the pc says "Starting Windows 95" or "Starting Windows 98" or, just after the Bios tests quickly press F8 a few times and a menu will appear. From the menu select Command Prompt Only. Now type scandisk and press enter, wait for it to finish and reboot. All should be well. For ME you need to have a startup disk, as access to Dos is tricky.

Just two things that might be useful from the little I know:

1. In safe mode you can only use keyboard strokes, not mouse clicks, so it's not a problem if your mouse doesn't work. (It's the sort of thing that's only obvious if you were brought up in both DOS and Windows environments, so apols if stating the obvious.)

2. A lot of underlying errors can cause Kernel32.DLL errors. However, Kernel32.DLL is an integral part of your computer's operating system, so don't delete or tamper with this - i.e. it's not a virus or trojan whatever. IOW You need to find out what's causing that error, Kernel32.DLL is not an error in itself.

There are pages and pages on help sites written on this subject. It is better to think what you might have done recently, eg new prog downloads etc. and restore to an earlier point if you can.

Mo

For 9x/ME just go into the BIOS (hit del when it POSTs) and change first boot device to CDROM (second should be IDE-0) - bung in the Win9x/ME CD, save & exit the BIOS (F10 normally) and install straight over the top - it'll fix Windows errors without affecting your data or programs - used this myself a few times over the years.

This won't help but I wouldn't waste my time with Windows 98/ME. It goes without saying that you should stay away from 95 as it' a complete waste of time. Do yourself a favour once you are up and running again by switching to XP. If you can't afford it or your pc won't run it why not try Windows 2000. You can pick copies for buttons these days and it's got most of the functionality of XP if a little more unstable/buggy.

This won't help but I wouldn't waste my time with Windows 98/ME. It goes without saying that you should stay away from 95 as it' a complete waste of time. Do yourself a favour once you are up and running again by switching to XP. If you can't afford it or your pc won't run it why not try Windows 2000. You can pick copies for buttons these days and it's got most of the functionality of XP if a little more unstable/buggy.

Having built and installed around 520 PCs since 1998, I can honestly say that I consider Windows 2000 a more stable and less easily upset operating system that XP. Machines in service with XP are often having problems, while machines running 800MHz Athlons seem to keep plugging away on their 5 year old installations. XP sp2 is more secure than 2000 however. Cheap hardware firewall and a good antivirus program should keep a 2000 system sweet though.

Ragarding 95/98/Me, a clean install will give you the opportunity to remove all those performance killing scrap bits that get left behind when stuff is used then uninstalled.

Chris

If trying the above dosn't help you could always create another partition, load windows onto that and then you will be able to gain access to any files you have on the problematic OS (C:drive) you have, back them up, format and install a decent OS;). Much quicker than scouring the net looking for a 'temporary' solution. I say temporary becuase you will still not know what caused your PC to crash and want to use scandisk in the first place. Better to start fresh if you can access and backup your personal files.

Thanks for all your help and replies. I will try and see if i can fix the problem tonight when i get home.

Will let u know how i get on.

btw, yes i'm running ME and yes ive tried safe mode but had the same problem

Thanks Paul

Reinstall over the top, DO NOT partition the disk while there's data on it - you will lose it (Partition Magic aside).

Then burn to CD/copy across network your data and fdisk the whole thing and start again. 9x/ME realistically neeeds rebuilding every quarter to run smoothly. Also, don't go online with it - you're a sitting duck.

The best option is to create a second partition which you keep your data on, say 1gb or so, then you can format and reinstall with impunity and lose no data.

Update! bit of a nightmare really, i have no 'ME' cd or back up/boot disk.

I ran my pc again in safe mode and pressed enter when the error message came up, 2 more similar error messages came up then a big white screen saying problem with explorer.exe you need to reinstall windows!!

I obviously need to get a copy of windows whatever i do. Should i stick with ME or get windows 2000? my pc is a few years old and a low spec, would upgrading to 2000 be a problem?

Im thinking just get the whole thing formatted and windows reinstalled, but before that, is it possible to take the hard drive out and have it installed on another pc as an additional drive and then copy my files over? hence saving all my files etc.

Paul

you might find that your installation files are on a hidden partition on your drive but i'd avoid reinstalling ME at all cost. The best way to install Win 2000 or XP is from the ground up. In order for 2000 to run properly you will need to let 2000 re-format your hard drive to convert the filesystem from FAT32 to NTFS. From that point of view it would be worthwhile pulling out the HD and installing it in a friends pc to recover anything you want first or you could just buy another hard drive. The upgrade is definately worth it. To run Win 2000 you preferably need at least a P500 with 64Mb (128Mb is better) Ram and a couple of Gb's of free disk space. You'll have a PM soon.