BleepingComputer.com: Win 98 Boot Up Problem

I'm running windows 98 and my computer won't boot up. The desktop comes up empty no icons, nothing and after being on for about ten minutes i get the dreaded "this program has performed and illegal operation...." error message.

When i read the details it says spool 32 error has caused invalid page fault, or something along those lines.
I don't know exactly what i says because when i turned it on this morning of course the message would not come up.

I thought it may be a virus but last weekend when the machine was running i ran several different virus/spyware programs and came up empty.
So could this be a hard drive issue?

I'll take a wild guess. Go into Start>Run and type in msconfig. Uncheck anything to do with printers or that spool32 if its in there under the Startup tab.

The exact error message would help a lot.

i can't even get to the start menu.
i did take a screen shot of the message but it's on my desktop and i can't get to it.

Have you tried to get into Safe Mode?

How to start Windows in Safe Mode

no i haven't tried safe mode yet. will try that tonight.

Thanx

Safe mode didn't work either.

I did get the message to pop up again here she is:

Spool 32 caused an invalid page fault in module <unknown> at 0000:018112cb.

Registers:
EAX=00000001 CS=015f EIP=018112cb EFLGS=00010216
EBX=0000c164 SS=0167 ESP=01e6ff44 EBP=bff850e2
ECX=00000018 DS=0167 ESI=00000000 FS=27df
EDX=018112cb ES=0167 EDI=bff55731 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:

Stack dump:
81922180 8190bd42 ole6ffcc 000000ac 00000010 00000000
00000040 000000f0 00000200 00000000 00000008
0000c164 00000000 0003cc56 01811330 00000000

That's it anyone have any clue what this means?

Thanx

That spool32 is a virus according to the Startup Database we have here (see the top of this page).

Alright, lets try a diagnostic startup. Go to the screen where you pick Safe Mode and instead select Step by Step Confirmation. This will ask you to say yes or no to loading each file during the boot. Say yes to everything that wants to load except spool32 which you would say no to and see if you can boot that way. If that works do a virus scan, and/or find and delete spool32.

In any case do at least one scan and clean out your temp files. What anti-virus are you using?

i use Macafee that i downloaded for free from Comcast, and i also use Spyware Doctor once a week.
everytime those programs fins a virus they put it into quarantine, is there anyway the virus could have gotten out of quarantine?

Thanx for the help btw.

Quote

No, but sometimes the file that triggers the infection isn't found by a virus scanner and it then can regenerate itself. First download and run Ccleaner. Only use the Cleanup utility, not the Issues tab. Try these scanners if you can get online:

A Squared Free is the first one I'd try if I was in your situation.

Spybot

AdAware SE Personal Edition

Online scans
Trendmicro's Housecall
Panda's ActiveScan
F-Secure Virus Scan
SyGate's Trojan scan

Do you have a Windows 98 CD?

yes i have the win 98 cd.

could his have wiped out the driver for my printer btw?
when my machine was running i opened up my printer icon and there was nothing in there but add printer.

Yes, your printer driver could have become corrupted. Thats why my first response was disable spool32 at startup. That is still a valid option as spool32.exe is present in C:\Windows\System. If you can boot using Step by Step confirmation make sure you look for that in the startups (msconfig>startup tab). Certainly disconnect the printer for diagnostic purposes before you boot. You can replace spool32.exe from the 98 CD once we get you booted.

A third option is to go to the screen where you pick Safe Mode and pick Command Prompt only. When you get to C:\> type in the following, exactly as shown:

del C:\windows\system\spool32.exe

and press enter. Reboot. This will delete that file and it can be replaced from the CD using the Extract function in sfc. To do that, go to Start>Run and type in sfc. Click the radio button next to "Extract one file....." and type spool32.exe in the box. In the next screen type C:\windows\system in the "Extract to" box and browse to your CD drive with the 98 CD in it for the "Extract from" box. The next box will ask about backing up the current spool32.exe and it makes little difference if you do or not. Easiest just to go with the defaults. The file will be extracted to the proper place. Reboot.

This post has been edited by Leurgy: 04 January 2006 - 03:55 PM

ok i deleted spool32.exe from command prompt and the machine rebooted ok.
i then restored the file from the win98 cd and when i went to reboot same problem;nothing.
so i went back and deleted the file again and here i am now.
will not restoring this file keep me from using my printer or any other program?

As far as I know its only associated with printing, but it is a normal background process in 98. Your printer driver may contain a substitute file so if your printer won't install without spool32 then try the manufacturers driver.

Download SeaTools Desktop Edition or use the SeaTools Online Edition if you want to check to see if you have a problem with your hard drive. MemTest will test your Ram.

i actually tried to load the printer driver back on last night and everything seemed to go good until i got a message in the backround that said the computer is not recognizing my printer port. (this was done with the spool32 file still deleted.) i did not want to continue until i checked here first.

Perhaps that is what spool32 does, manage your printer port as well as the printing. Since the extracted spool32 wouldn't load either we have elimated a corrupted file. I would try those tests as the original error mentioned a "page fault" which is a memory error, either in the swap file on the hard drive or in the ram (hopefully).