OLE / HTML Foul-Up - IE Won't Stay Open, Outlook Won't Do HTML

[JTeagle]

I have been plagued with blue-screens for some time now (to be honest I
beieve they are caused by some incompatible DLLs from MS, but let's not
get into politics here), but my machine always recovered successfully
after a reboot. I can live with that, for now.

But when it came back from a crash this morning, all was not well.
Sometimes I get a warning that it had to recover a copy of the
registry; it did that this morning too, but normally there's no harm.
This time, however, IE closes as soon as it tries to display a page (it
does the DNS lookup and downloads the page - I see that much on the
status bar before it closes). Netscape, however, remains open and works
as well as it ever did.

At the same time, while Outlook (2000) runs, and can read plain text
messages, it can no longer display HTML messages, and trying to force
it to open such a mail, or trying to set the compose style to HTML,
makes it crash.

At some point it gave a message about there being an OLE problem. Since
NS works but IE and Outlook do not, I'm guessing that it's the HTML
rendering engine that is part of Windows that has gone AWOL.

I've tried reinstalling Office; no change. I tried to re-install IE
SP1, but it refused saying I have a newer version (I'm XP SP2). I tried
re-installing MDAC 2.8 (to correct OLE), but it said a newer version
was already part of the system. I tried reinstalling SP2, but it only
allows you to do so through Windows Update, which of course it won't
because I already have it.

There seems to be no way to try and repair my system - any ideas? I'm
looking at starting over if I can't repair it.

 

[David Candy]

Dlls can't cause blue screens. No user program can cause blue screens. User mode problems give you a nice dialog (if you're lucky). Blue screens are caused by drivers and other Kernel mode code. Windows decides to blue screen if an error occurs and the driver doesn't trap it. This is because windows knows an error occured and the driver didn't catch it so it shuts down so the driver doesn't run wild corrupting your data.

Try typing these in Start Run

regsvr32 /i shell32
regsvr32 /i shdocvw
regsvr32 ole32
regsvr32 mshtml
regsvr32 urlmon
sfc /scannow

 

[JTeagle]

I should point out that my system and all its drivers worked 99%
perfectly until a Windows update at some point, and then it did not...
so while I accept that they can't cause BSODs directly, I believe they
may be able to do so indirectly by, for example, the updated versions
considering more items to be 'error conditions' than the previous
version did - security issues, for example. But, it does not matter; I
accept them as they are, as long as they don't keep damaging my system
{:v)

I want to thank you for your suggested fix; it worked perfectly -
Outlook now displays HTML, and IE stays open. It seems the registry
recovery may have corrupted registration of one of those items - but
anyway, I am truly grateful!

 

[David Candy]

For Blue Screens (technically known as a Bug Check Code but the UI and KB call it a Stop Error)

Type verifier in Start Run, follow the wizard but choose All Drivers. This will slow down your computer and cause more blue screen crashes but will pinpoint what is causing the crash (if the original error message didn't). Once you fix it you rerun verifier and turn it off.

If you can't start after enabling verifier
choose Last Known Good Configuration at the Failed Boot menu (which will
start without verifier).


You will be creating a crash dump file in c:\windows\minidump every blue screen. Make sure you are set to record minidumps (Small Memory Dumps) - type it in Help to see how.

Then

If you have the XP SP2 Security Update CD (else see
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/­devtools/debugging/symbolpkg.m­spx
)


Install symbols from <CD Drive Letter>:\SUPPORT\SYMBOLS

Download
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx

Load the crash dump file into windbg
and read what it says. You may need to tell it where the symbols are. Read it.
Type
!Analyze -v
into Windbg's command line.
(this will hopefully tell you the faulty component)

If the above is too technical then email the crash dump files to david @ mvps.org. Don't send me lots of them. Just the one from your last crash after you turn verifier on. And only one per mail.

You can look up specific details here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d..._ea8b9fd0-2d81-4a04-a7ed-c1c6a80bd501.xml.asp

If it indicates faulty memory might be the cause you can get a memory tester
here
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/wi­ndiag.asp


If it mentions a core windows system file, meaning it a MS fix is required,
upload a minidump to

http://oca.microsoft.com

Also try typing the main error code in Help while online (ie,
Stop 0x50
and also try in the 8 digit form
stop 0x00000050)
and if there are too many hits use a filename if available. Generally memory
addresses are different for each computer (as each computer has a different
mix of drivers) so parameters that are memory addresses aren't that useful for searching, but NTStatus codes are (plus you can look them up here http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/mingw/w32api/include/ddk/ntstatus.h?rev=1.2).

If this doesn't work try

Get your XP CD and install Windows Support Tools.


Type in start run after installing and rebooting


pstat > "%userprofile%\desktop\driverl­ist.txt"


The last table in this file is a list of loaded drivers. Other things apart
from hardware uses drivers. Post the list of drivers (the last table only -
REPEAT THE LAST TABLE O N L Y ) or match the fault address to the driver.

This will allow you to match memory addresses to a driver.

 

[JTeagle]

Wow! This is comprehensive... I will try it as soon as I can - I have
to get on with some work now <grin>

I'm not sure if it helps, but I can tell you this much about my BSODs:

* Using Media Player 10 appears to accelerate the chance of a crash.
* Since this is my work machine (I work from home) and so I can't
afford it to go wrong too much, I only do Windows updates once in a
blue moon (blue screen? <grin>) - so when they started happening too
often to be acceptable, I uninstalled all of the previous batch of
updates bar one that said it could not be uninstalled... and although I
can't prove it, I swear my machine blue-screened LESS often...

But here's the weird thing: it often does it during the night. The only
thing that runs overnight are the backups, and the virus scan in the
early hours of the morning. Both had been running for so long before
the blue screens started, so I'm not convinced either one of those
could be responsible...

 

[David Candy]

Verifier slows things down but can usually find a filename. Even without verifier the filename may appear in the error message. The error message is important. You should be able to find it in the Event Log.