G
Guest
Hello. Could a knowledgeable person please assist? Thanks.
System
OS: XP SP2, all updates as of late August 2005
CPU: P4 2.4 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Hard drive: Western Digital 320 GB, only 2 months old, very fast drive
Key words
startup programs
wsock32.dll
16 bit apps
poor hard drive performance
lack of IE popups
unable to open Excel
erratic behaviour in Word
Symptoms
These are the symptoms that I have noticed, probably others exist, possibly
all related to a single or small number of causes.
- Upon boot, there are two types of error messages. The first set are all
“The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSOCK32.dll is not a valid
Windows image. Please check against your installation diskette.â€. The window
title of the error message is the name of the startup program such as
“Symantec AntiVirus: VPTray.exeâ€. Only startup programs display this error
message. The second is “16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem…<filepath of the 16 bit app
in question>…The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.â€. To
resolve the first set of error messages, I copied wsock32.dll from another XP
installation. The original wsock32 is 22 KB dated Aug 4 2004. The replacement
is 21 KB dated March 24 2003. I have not found a way to suppress the second
set of error messages.
-The rest of the following refers to problems noticed with the wsock32
replaced. Without the wsock32 replaced, internet applications such as the
browser and email do not work as if there is no internet although IPCONFIG
indicates there is a valid IP.
- With IE6 SP2, cannot save webpages. Popups are permanently blocked even if
you allow them. Cannot use the Open in New Window either.
- Windows Explorer crashes and autocloses if a folder containing video files
is opened. It is okay if a folder containing other kinds of files is opened.
- Cannot open Excel 2003. Error message says insufficient memory. Can open,
edit and save Word documents. But when exiting Word, there is a delay,
followed by an error message. For a large document with imbedded graphics,
there is a “not responding†error. For smaller documents, it is “encountered
problems…recovery†problem.
- Task Manager/Performance indicates no unusual CPU nor PF Usage.
- Booting and shutdown takes noticeably longer. Any hard drive operation
such as opening a file or starting a software takes noticeably longer. New
software installations, although eventually completes, take forever.
Problem History
The problems happened upon reboot. Had to reboot because of very sluggish
performance which is usually solved by a reboot. Computer had been on for
nearly a week and diminishing performance is not unusual if left on for long
time. At the time of reboot, there were only browsers open. There were around
4 instances of IE and 2 Firefox. The Firefox browsers had a large number of
tabs open, about 25 for one and around 10 for the other. All browsers, IE and
Firefox, had been left like that for 2 days. That’s the only unusual
circumstance.
Questions
1. Any thoughts on what is the problem?
2. Is there a fix or is it time to do a complete reinstall? And if the
latter, are there preventative measures so it doesn’t happen again?
System
OS: XP SP2, all updates as of late August 2005
CPU: P4 2.4 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Hard drive: Western Digital 320 GB, only 2 months old, very fast drive
Key words
startup programs
wsock32.dll
16 bit apps
poor hard drive performance
lack of IE popups
unable to open Excel
erratic behaviour in Word
Symptoms
These are the symptoms that I have noticed, probably others exist, possibly
all related to a single or small number of causes.
- Upon boot, there are two types of error messages. The first set are all
“The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSOCK32.dll is not a valid
Windows image. Please check against your installation diskette.â€. The window
title of the error message is the name of the startup program such as
“Symantec AntiVirus: VPTray.exeâ€. Only startup programs display this error
message. The second is “16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem…<filepath of the 16 bit app
in question>…The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.â€. To
resolve the first set of error messages, I copied wsock32.dll from another XP
installation. The original wsock32 is 22 KB dated Aug 4 2004. The replacement
is 21 KB dated March 24 2003. I have not found a way to suppress the second
set of error messages.
-The rest of the following refers to problems noticed with the wsock32
replaced. Without the wsock32 replaced, internet applications such as the
browser and email do not work as if there is no internet although IPCONFIG
indicates there is a valid IP.
- With IE6 SP2, cannot save webpages. Popups are permanently blocked even if
you allow them. Cannot use the Open in New Window either.
- Windows Explorer crashes and autocloses if a folder containing video files
is opened. It is okay if a folder containing other kinds of files is opened.
- Cannot open Excel 2003. Error message says insufficient memory. Can open,
edit and save Word documents. But when exiting Word, there is a delay,
followed by an error message. For a large document with imbedded graphics,
there is a “not responding†error. For smaller documents, it is “encountered
problems…recovery†problem.
- Task Manager/Performance indicates no unusual CPU nor PF Usage.
- Booting and shutdown takes noticeably longer. Any hard drive operation
such as opening a file or starting a software takes noticeably longer. New
software installations, although eventually completes, take forever.
Problem History
The problems happened upon reboot. Had to reboot because of very sluggish
performance which is usually solved by a reboot. Computer had been on for
nearly a week and diminishing performance is not unusual if left on for long
time. At the time of reboot, there were only browsers open. There were around
4 instances of IE and 2 Firefox. The Firefox browsers had a large number of
tabs open, about 25 for one and around 10 for the other. All browsers, IE and
Firefox, had been left like that for 2 days. That’s the only unusual
circumstance.
Questions
1. Any thoughts on what is the problem?
2. Is there a fix or is it time to do a complete reinstall? And if the
latter, are there preventative measures so it doesn’t happen again?