Explorer crash on startup. XP CD ignored at boot

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lakehaze

Posts: 16   +0
Toshiba Satellite A55-s108 XP Home, SP2
Explorer crashes on startup, and again with media file management.
Won't recognize XP CD.

It started with Photoshop6.0; it would crash in the 'save-as' dialogue box with a certain file. Then, a few hours later, it happened in Firefox3.0.9. I uninstalled Photoshop. I read about sfc/scannow, the system file checker and it couldn't find the CD (of course). So I tried to find the DLLcache folder as rumored online using Windows search. While typing into the search box, explorer froze and I had to hard-reboot. After rebooting, explorer always crashes on startup.

I installed RealPlayer just before Photoshop began going screwy. I've always hated them, and I like thinking that it's just RealPlayers shoddy, selfish, proprietary-style setup process that corrupted a media related system file.

I've also got Adobe Flash CS3 installed. Some people complain about problems that have been resolved by upgrading certain Adobe products, but I say humbug. I've been using Photoshop 6 with various Flash versions since 2004 and never had any issues.

I tried using an XP CD to repair/reinstall, but the machine won't recognize either of my disks and boots normally. I tried running in SafeMode, but the same thing happens.

While rebooting to find a solution (checking BIOS boot order, safemode, and CD changes), I found that if I ignore the 'Send Error Report' dialogue box and move it to the side without choosing 'send'/'don't send', explorer will continue to run fine, as long as I don't select an image/movie file (At the moment, 'Windows explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.' I've got it tucked away to the right of the screen). This was handy, so I could move some files over to my external hard-drive.

I think my only option is to focus on hardware:
A) Find a verified functioning XP CD,
B) replace the questionable CD drive,
C) install a new HD.

Can the CD issue be malware? Can malware stop a PC from reading an XP CD on boot? Or is it obviously an inconvenient hardware malfunction? Quite a coincidence...

Any ideas on limp-mode repair procedures before I go swapping a CD drive?
 
I'm not going to say it CAN'T be malware, because lord knows there is enough of it out there these days.

You said you tried booting in safe mode, have you tried to boot directly from the disc via the boot menu? What was the result there?
 
Resolved...I guess.

Thanks for the reply.

I took the computer into my local shop. The first CD didn't run, but the second did and I left it with them to just reinstall. I think my CD drive is just a bit loopy. It occasionally won't read some DVD's (1/20).

Boot menu? You mean F8, where safe mode and all those options are? I couldn't see any 'boot from CD' option. I imagine that if it doesn't see a Windows CD in the drive, it doesn't display the option.

Lucky for me, my computer went into the shop with a 60 gig harddrive, and came out with a 30gig. That's Asia for you. And I've been a loyal customer for over a year...

Asside from novelty, I suppose this issue is resolved, but I'd like to nominate it as more odd than usual.
 
Sounds like things are working, then? Or, at the least, they're on their way to working.

Yeah, most times you won't get the boot from CD option unless it reads the CD in the drive as a bootable CD.

Hope things are working well now.

Take care.

Cheers
 
You didn't make it clean whether you did access the BIOS and set the boot order to CD first, Had Drive second.

If you did not, the CD would not have been read.
 
...Turns out they partitioned my drive and forgot to 'turn on' the other half... simple fix and we are still on speaking terms :)
 
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