windows xp upgrade error

[John]

I just upgraded a computer to xp from win98. As soon as
I log on, I get an error message saying "Windows Explorer
has encountered a problem and needs to close. ..." My
network settings are gone. I do not have a start menu.
I can get to the "run" command by hitting alt-ctrl-del
and then getting Windows Task Manager to come up. I
cannot get to control panel. I also cannot run most
programs. Please help.
..

 

[Malke]

I just upgraded a computer to xp from win98. As soon as
I log on, I get an error message saying "Windows Explorer
has encountered a problem and needs to close. ..." My
network settings are gone. I do not have a start menu.
I can get to the "run" command by hitting alt-ctrl-del
and then getting Windows Task Manager to come up. I
cannot get to control panel. I also cannot run most
programs. Please help.
.

It sounds like your installation didn't go well. There are two ways of
installing XP - a clean install where the hard drive is formatted first
and an upgrade install where the new operating system is installed "on
top" of the old operating system. If you are doing the latter, try a
clean install instead. Formatting the drive will wipe all current data,
so you would expect to reinstall programs from cd and restore data from
backups. Be sure all peripherals (printers, scanners, cameras) are
disconnected and any BIOS-level antivirus is disabled. If you are
already doing a clean install and the installation is failing, you
probably have bad hardware. Start with a RAM test - I like Memtest86
from www.memtest86.com - and let the test run for an extended time,
like overnight (unless you get errors immediately). If the RAM is good,
then run a hard drive diagnostic utility, which you can get from the
drive mftr.'s website.

Malke