No programs will open in Win2k

M

muskyfins

Suddenly, no programs will open in windows 2000 professional sp4. If I click
an icon or open the program from the start menu, I get the "(insert program
here) has generated errors and will be closed by windows" message. I
rebooted several times and all the startup programs do the same thing. I can
click the cancel button, and that removes the dialogue box. Windows explorer
seems to be the exception. Even the command prompt opens, but it won't allow
me to type anything. The machine is an older HP Pentium 3, 128 Mb ram, 20 Gb
HD.
 
D

Dave Patrick

You might try unloading any unknown extensions.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html


Failing that these might help.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=292175

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=306952

Be sure to apply these to your repair install before connecting to any
network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en
and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS08-067.mspx



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
M

muskyfins

I can't run the shexview since it is an exe file. It just comes up "...will
be closed by windows" I guess i will have to do the in lace upgrade or
simply reinstall the OS. Problem is I don't have the disc. How do I obtain
a new one? I have my product key, s/n, etc.

Dave Patrick said:
You might try unloading any unknown extensions.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html


Failing that these might help.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=292175

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=306952

Be sure to apply these to your repair install before connecting to any
network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en
and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS08-067.mspx



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

muskyfins said:
Suddenly, no programs will open in windows 2000 professional sp4. If I
click
an icon or open the program from the start menu, I get the "(insert
program
here) has generated errors and will be closed by windows" message. I
rebooted several times and all the startup programs do the same thing. I
can
click the cancel button, and that removes the dialogue box. Windows
explorer
seems to be the exception. Even the command prompt opens, but it won't
allow
me to type anything. The machine is an older HP Pentium 3, 128 Mb ram, 20
Gb
HD.

.
 
B

Buffalo

muskyfins said:
Suddenly, no programs will open in windows 2000 professional sp4. If
I click an icon or open the program from the start menu, I get the
"(insert program here) has generated errors and will be closed by
windows" message. I rebooted several times and all the startup
programs do the same thing. I can click the cancel button, and that
removes the dialogue box. Windows explorer seems to be the
exception. Even the command prompt opens, but it won't allow me to
type anything. The machine is an older HP Pentium 3, 128 Mb ram, 20
Gb HD.

Perhaps put that HDD into another machine and save anything important before
you attemp a reinstall or repair.
If you do that and get your data saved, try running a mfg HDD scan to see if
the HDD is still OK. If so, then run a virus scan and a malware scan (free
MalwareBytes AntiMalware and the free SuperAntiSpyware).
Hopefully things will work out for you.
Buffalo
PS:How much free space is left on that HDD?
 
M

muskyfins

Already saved all my files to a flash drive, but thanks for the suggestion.
This is abviously an older machine with a 20 Gb HD. Believe it or not, I run
my company from it with the exception of AutoCad. The HD works ok. It runs,
starts up, adds my active desktop wallpaper. (jpeg from the HD). I can also
get windows explorer to run. Just no exe files which is every other program
on the machine. I am at the point of just reintalling the OS, but lost the
disc years ago. I have the recovery discs for my XP machine. Can I install
that OS?
 
B

Buffalo

muskyfins said:
Sorry, i didnt answer your question-13 Gb available.
Thanks, I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't full.
If you can put that HDD in another PC as a slave (may have to change the
jumpers on your HDD) you can run virus and malware scans to see if one of
those is causing the problems and perhaps avoid reinstalling the OS.
While in there, you could also make another copy of what you want to save.
Two very good and free anti-malware programs are MalwareBytes AntiMalware
(MBAM) and SuperAntiSpyware (SAS).
The free versions of these programs will detect and remove the malware they
find just as good as their paid versions.
If you use them, make sure you have the latest versions and the latest
updates.
Some malware will prevent you from running any .exe files.
Buffalo
 
A

Andrew Rossmann

Suddenly, no programs will open in windows 2000 professional sp4. If I click
an icon or open the program from the start menu, I get the "(insert program
here) has generated errors and will be closed by windows" message. I
rebooted several times and all the startup programs do the same thing. I can
click the cancel button, and that removes the dialogue box. Windows explorer
seems to be the exception. Even the command prompt opens, but it won't allow
me to type anything. The machine is an older HP Pentium 3, 128 Mb ram, 20 Gb
HD.

Have you tried booting into safe mode and was it able to run programs?
 
M

muskyfins

Tried the in place upgrade with a friend's installation cd. Got all the way
to copying files and got the following error message:

cannot copy ntdll.dll............

press enter to retry or esc to continue.

of course retrying does nothing so I continued and got the same error for
about 50 files-mostly .dll and a few .exe.

When setup continued I got:

stop: c0000221 unkown hard error
\systemroot\system32\ntdll.dll

and have gone into an endless loop of the same stop error. I will next try
a complete re-install, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance and thanks to all who have already helped.

Dave Patrick said:
You might try unloading any unknown extensions.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html


Failing that these might help.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=292175

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=306952

Be sure to apply these to your repair install before connecting to any
network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en
and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS08-067.mspx



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

muskyfins said:
Suddenly, no programs will open in windows 2000 professional sp4. If I
click
an icon or open the program from the start menu, I get the "(insert
program
here) has generated errors and will be closed by windows" message. I
rebooted several times and all the startup programs do the same thing. I
can
click the cancel button, and that removes the dialogue box. Windows
explorer
seems to be the exception. Even the command prompt opens, but it won't
allow
me to type anything. The machine is an older HP Pentium 3, 128 Mb ram, 20
Gb
HD.

.
 
D

Dave Patrick

The cd-rom drive may be failing. My standard boilerplate on reinstallation
follows.

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

(Note: If your drive controller is not natively supported then you'll want
to boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom. Then *F6* very early and very
important (at setup is inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive
controller detection, and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later
you'll be prompted to insert the manufacturer supplied Windows 2000 driver
for your drive controller in drive "A")

Setup inspects your computer's hardware configuration and then begins to
install the Setup and driver files. When the Windows 2000 Professional
screen appears, press ENTER to set up Windows 2000 Professional.

Read the license agreement, and then press the F8 key to accept the terms of
the license agreement and continue the installation.

When the Windows 2000 Professional Setup screen appears, all the existing
partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard
disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partitions Press D to delete an
existing partition, If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must
then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System
partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this
step for each of the existing partitions When all the partitions are deleted
press F3 to exit setup, (to avoid unexpected drive letter assignments with
your new install) then restart the pc then when you get to this point in
setup again select the unpartitioned space, and then press C to create a new
partition and specify the size (if required). Windows will by default use
all available space.

Be sure to apply SP4 and these two below to your new install before
connecting to any network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx


Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en
and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS08-067.mspx


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 

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