We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

as a start you could see if it is a known issue. see these Microsoft articles:

Err Msg: Explorer Caused an Invalid Page Fault in Module Shell32.dll (Q237888)

Err Msg: Explorer Caused an Invalid Page Fault in Shell32.dll at 015f:7fce85c0 (Q222952)

Burn It and Key Disk Programs Not Compatible with Windows 98 (Q222460)

Invalid Page Fault Errors Occur in Windows (Q286180)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Delete these registry keys, or all values under these keys if you just like to waste time (it is much quicker just to delete the keys): Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streamMRU and Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streams no adverse effects will be noted, and no more invalid page fault caused by explorer in module shell32.dll. This problem has nothing to do with Compaq or burn it, it can happen to any machine running 98, or 98SE . Cheers! Jackie PS I *AM* the guy Bill Gates calls when his machine crashes. Joe wrote:
>
>We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer
>Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have
>a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had the same problem of June & Joe ("Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module Shell32.dll" - Win98). After looking for suggestions in the web, I found this by Dawgass Tech, quite similar to the MS Knowledge Base Article Q259096 (even if the Symptoms are NOT the same: I had the problem at the startup, before loading the desktop icons). I tried. And it worked! Many thanks Dawgass! ft

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

After looking for suggestions in the web, I found this by
>Dawgass Tech, quite similar to the MS Knowledge Base Article Q259096 I thought I had found the saving grace when I ran across Dawgass's suggestion but when I deleted the 2 registry keys and rebooted the keys just got recreated and the same problem is occurring. Just trying to move a shortcut on my desktop to a folder on my desktop (or moving any of the Program groups around under START/PROGRAMS). Any suggestions? Am I missing a step here? This is driving me absolutely bonkers! It's a fresh installation of Win98 SE.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi I read your answer with interest as I have the same problem , That is the error and lock up before the icons appear. But if you have no icons (my page is totally blank except for the backgroung colour) How do you get to the registry to delete the Keys ? Trev


On Friday, September 20, 2002 at 1:46 am, Frankie Tomato wrote:
>I had the same problem of June & Joe ("Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module
>Shell32.dll" - Win98). After looking for suggestions in the web, I found this by
>Dawgass Tech, quite similar to the MS Knowledge Base Article Q259096 (even if the
>Symptoms are NOT the same: I had the problem at the startup, before loading the desktop
>icons). I tried. And it worked! Many thanks Dawgass! ft

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Trev, it happened to me several months ago, but... I think I could see at least the Start button and that I did the following: Start > Run > type "regedit" > OK. I hope you too can see the Start button, even if you have no icons on the desktop. FT

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Not sure if this is appropriate here, but I have recently had a very 
similar problem to Trev's, except as follows:

Windows 98 (NOT second edition) 256Mb RAM.
Boot computer either in full windows or safe mode.
As soon as the desktop (background) screen shows up and the 
mouse arrow comes alive, the startup wave file plays okay, but
less than 1 second passes and I get "Explorer caused an invalid
page fault in kernel32.dll at 015f:bff711be" with nothing else
on the screen.  No taskbar, no start box, NOTHING.  I am able
to shutdown by CTRL-ALT-DEL and selecting shutdown, although 
it does take considerably longer than normal.  

This symptom is the same for both normal boot and safemode,
with the only screen difference being the "safemode" boxes
in each corner during safemode boot.  

What I have done:

- scandisk thorough
- defrag
- scanreg /fix
- scanreg /restore (to a working copy of the reg)
- deleted all the "pwl" files
- deleted the win386.swp file 
all from safe mode command prompt.

I have editted the system.ini file and changed the line
"shell=explorer.exe" to "shell=winfile.exe" to see if the
the GUI would run with the filemanager instead of the
explorer.  Okay!  
Upon exit of filemanager, windows dutifully shutdown,
albeit somewhat slower than normal.

I have also done a selective startup by confirming each
startup option and watching all responses.  I have also
done the same thing as safemode boot by only selecting
HIMEM and nothing else with the same symptoms.

Also have tested the memory chips and hard drive,
system board and i/o controller.

I have read just about every single web page regarding "015f"
and "explorer caused ... kernel32.dll" and tried everything that
I have read but with no success.  

Getting very close to replacing the "98" explorer with "95" and
seeing if it will at least boot. 

Relunctantly getting close to a new install to Win98-SE but I
am afraid I will lose everything on the machine.

Just cannot get it to work!  Am I chasing a ghost or is this
problem correctable?  Help greatly appreciated.

------------------------------------------------------





On Monday, February 24, 2003 at 12:28 am, Frankie Tomato wrote:
>Hi Trev,
>it happened to me several months ago, but... I think I could see at least the Start 
>button and that I did the following:
>   Start > Run > type "regedit" > OK.
>I hope you too can see the Start button, even if you have no icons on the desktop.
>FT

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Did you ever get this problem resolved? I have similar problem. I do get icons. etc. , but get this error as soon as they load. It will eventually stop after I successfully open a file, which may take 1-20 attempts. If you reboot or logoff, it starts over again. None of the solutions work and I have done all that I can find. For some crazy reason, I think it is video-related. By updating drivers, the address in the error changed. Just wondering if you found a fix other than replacing the PC. I may just replace the vido card.


On Sunday, March 2, 2003 at 1:39 am, Ed Xavier wrote:

>Not sure if this is appropriate here, but I have recently had a very 
>similar problem to Trev's, except as follows:
>
>Windows 98 (NOT second edition) 256Mb RAM.
>Boot computer either in full windows or safe mode.
>As soon as the desktop (background) screen shows up and the 
>mouse arrow comes alive, the startup wave file plays okay, but
>less than 1 second passes and I get "Explorer caused an invalid
>page fault in kernel32.dll at 015f:bff711be" with nothing else
>on the screen.  No taskbar, no start box, NOTHING.  I am able
>to shutdown by CTRL-ALT-DEL and selecting shutdown, although 
>it does take considerably longer than normal.  
>
>This symptom is the same for both normal boot and safemode,
>with the only screen difference being the "safemode" boxes
>in each corner during safemode boot.  
>
>What I have done:
>
>- scandisk thorough
>- defrag
>- scanreg /fix
>- scanreg /restore (to a working copy of the reg)
>- deleted all the "pwl" files
>- deleted the win386.swp file 
>all from safe mode command prompt.
>
>I have editted the system.ini file and changed the line
>"shell=explorer.exe" to "shell=winfile.exe" to see if the
>the GUI would run with the filemanager instead of the
>explorer.  Okay!  
>Upon exit of filemanager, windows dutifully shutdown,
>albeit somewhat slower than normal.
>
>I have also done a selective startup by confirming each
>startup option and watching all responses.  I have also
>done the same thing as safemode boot by only selecting
>HIMEM and nothing else with the same symptoms.
>
>Also have tested the memory chips and hard drive,
>system board and i/o controller.
>
>I have read just about every single web page regarding "015f"
>and "explorer caused ... kernel32.dll" and tried everything that
>I have read but with no success.  
>
>Getting very close to replacing the "98" explorer with "95" and
>seeing if it will at least boot. 
>
>Relunctantly getting close to a new install to Win98-SE but I
>am afraid I will lose everything on the machine.
>
>Just cannot get it to work!  Am I chasing a ghost or is this
>problem correctable?  Help greatly appreciated.
>
>------------------------------------------------------
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I deleted the 2 hotkeys mentioned below. Thanks for the tip. Now I can open all folders in explorer without "EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in module SHELL32.DLL........." appearing...... Tommy


On Saturday, July 6, 2002 at 9:36 pm, Dawgass Tech wrote:
>
>Delete these registry keys, or all values under these keys if you just like to waste
>time (it is much quicker just to delete the keys):
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streamMRU
>and
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streams
>no adverse effects will be noted, and no more invalid page fault caused by explorer
>in module shell32.dll.
>This problem has nothing to do with Compaq or burn it, it can happen to any machine
>running 98, or 98SE .
>Cheers!
>Jackie
>PS
>I *AM* the guy Bill Gates calls when his machine crashes.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Joe wrote:
>
>We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer
>Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have
>a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I too have had the same prob, but if u install "advpack and some earlier direct x packs" , the system is stabilising. But if you execute a big program which requires more memory as the present day programs , the trouble starts again. Its something to do with memory management, video drivers as per those days requirements and the design of windows 98. As long as present day memory hogging programs are not run, or some of the earlier .dlls are not replaced during instalation , everything runs cooly. Best suggession is to retain old drivers and not install newer ones and take care that during installations new drivers and dlls dont replace the old ones. Have a complete backup of all your old drivers and dlls. Replace whenever and wherever you feel something has got corrupted or changed.


On Thursday, June 19, 2003 at 11:43 am, Ann Lee wrote:
>Did you ever get this problem resolved? I have similar problem. I do get icons.
>etc. , but get this error as soon as they load. It will eventually stop after I
>successfully open a file, which may take 1-20 attempts. If you reboot or logoff,
>it starts over again. None of the solutions work and I have done all that I can
>find. For some crazy reason, I think it is video-related. By updating drivers,
>the address in the error changed. Just wondering if you found a fix other than replacing
>the PC. I may just replace the vido card.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks, I will look into installing those files and respond if they help.


On Wednesday, July 9, 2003 at 1:26 am, sunil rao wrote:
>I too have had the same prob, but if u install "advpack and some earlier direct x
>packs" , the system is stabilising. But if you execute a big program which requires
>more memory as the present day programs , the trouble starts again. Its something
>to do with memory management, video drivers as per those days requirements and the
>design of windows 98. As long as present day memory hogging programs are not run,
>or some of the earlier .dlls are not replaced during instalation , everything runs
>cooly.
>Best suggession is to retain old drivers and not install newer ones and take care
>that during installations new drivers and dlls dont replace the old ones. Have a
>complete backup of all your old drivers and dlls. Replace whenever and wherever you
>feel something has got corrupted or changed.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

JACKIE, have the same problem withSHELL 32.DLL so how do you DELETE KEYS ? Step by Step please, this is not Bill Gates.


On Monday, June 23, 2003 at 3:31 pm, Tommy wrote:
>I deleted the 2 hotkeys mentioned below.
>
>Thanks for the tip. Now I can open all folders in explorer
>without "EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in
>module SHELL32.DLL........." appearing......
>
>Tommy
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I don't suppose there was a solution to this found was there? My friend appears to be having the same problem.


On Sunday, March 2, 2003 at 1:39 am, Ed Xavier wrote:

>Not sure if this is appropriate here, but I have recently had a very 
>similar problem to Trev's, except as follows:
>
>Windows 98 (NOT second edition) 256Mb RAM.
>Boot computer either in full windows or safe mode.
>As soon as the desktop (background) screen shows up and the 
>mouse arrow comes alive, the startup wave file plays okay, but
>less than 1 second passes and I get "Explorer caused an invalid
>page fault in kernel32.dll at 015f:bff711be" with nothing else
>on the screen.  No taskbar, no start box, NOTHING.  I am able
>to shutdown by CTRL-ALT-DEL and selecting shutdown, although 
>it does take considerably longer than normal.  
>
>This symptom is the same for both normal boot and safemode,
>with the only screen difference being the "safemode" boxes
>in each corner during safemode boot.  
>
>What I have done:
>
>- scandisk thorough
>- defrag
>- scanreg /fix
>- scanreg /restore (to a working copy of the reg)
>- deleted all the "pwl" files
>- deleted the win386.swp file 
>all from safe mode command prompt.
>
>I have editted the system.ini file and changed the line
>"shell=explorer.exe" to "shell=winfile.exe" to see if the
>the GUI would run with the filemanager instead of the
>explorer.  Okay!  
>Upon exit of filemanager, windows dutifully shutdown,
>albeit somewhat slower than normal.
>
>I have also done a selective startup by confirming each
>startup option and watching all responses.  I have also
>done the same thing as safemode boot by only selecting
>HIMEM and nothing else with the same symptoms.
>
>Also have tested the memory chips and hard drive,
>system board and i/o controller.
>
>I have read just about every single web page regarding "015f"
>and "explorer caused ... kernel32.dll" and tried everything that
>I have read but with no success.  
>
>Getting very close to replacing the "98" explorer with "95" and
>seeing if it will at least boot. 
>
>Relunctantly getting close to a new install to Win98-SE but I
>am afraid I will lose everything on the machine.
>
>Just cannot get it to work!  Am I chasing a ghost or is this
>problem correctable?  Help greatly appreciated.
>
>------------------------------------------------------
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Annoyances.org just trashed my carefully typed message since I had overlooked entering my e-mail address! So this version is short. Firstly, remove the capital X's from my email address to use it. Secondly: Download a free program from the 'net called "regmon" and run it. Then do whatever causes your problem and look up the listing from the end; looking for HKRC and error messages like "Not Found". Go into your registry and remove the entry. In my case, removing an entry in HKRC under .dll solved the problem immediately. I think it was caused by a badly written piece of spyware. Good luck!


On Sunday, January 20, 2002 at 12:37 pm, June & Joe wrote:
>
>We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer
>Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have
>a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Did you ever find an solution to your problem, becasue I have a similar problem. I have been told to just reformat, but i dont want to lose eveything i have stored on my hard drive. Any suggetions you have would be greatly appriciated. Thanks- Adam


On Saturday, February 22, 2003 at 11:07 pm, Trev wrote:
>Hi I read your answer with interest as I have the same problem , That is the error
>and lock up before the icons appear.
>But if you have no icons (my page is totally blank except for the backgroung colour)
> How do you get to the registry to delete the Keys ?
>Trev
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I got this page fault error in SHELL32.DLL 0187:7fcb1946 very often within the explorer. After playing around a couple of hours ( I am a IT-prof) I found your hint with deleting the keys Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streamMRU and Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streams. This works for me very well. Before I also deleted some files inside the windows-folder: the *.pwl - files, the applog folder (windows), the content of the temp folder, the content of temporary internet files inside the folder local settings, the history folder and so on. Thank you very much for helping me and may be some more people Roland


On Saturday, July 6, 2002 at 9:36 pm, Dawgass Tech wrote:
>
>Delete these registry keys, or all values under these keys if you just like to waste
>time (it is much quicker just to delete the keys):
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streamMRU
>and
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streams
>no adverse effects will be noted, and no more invalid page fault caused by explorer
>in module shell32.dll.
>This problem has nothing to do with Compaq or burn it, it can happen to any machine
>running 98, or 98SE .
>Cheers!
>Jackie
>PS
>I *AM* the guy Bill Gates calls when his machine crashes.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Joe wrote:
>
>We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer
>Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have
>a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Dawgass Tech / Jackie..tried your post of July 6 2002 after MANY (!!!!!) hours of messing around in the registry, with restores, regfixes, you name it !!! and guess what??....your tip worked P E R F E C T L Y !!!!!!!!!!!...you're MAGIC !!!!


On Saturday, July 6, 2002 at 9:36 pm, Dawgass Tech wrote:
>
>Delete these registry keys, or all values under these keys if you just like to waste
>time (it is much quicker just to delete the keys):
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streamMRU
>and
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streams
>no adverse effects will be noted, and no more invalid page fault caused by explorer
>in module shell32.dll.
>This problem has nothing to do with Compaq or burn it, it can happen to any machine
>running 98, or 98SE .
>Cheers!
>Jackie
>PS
>I *AM* the guy Bill Gates calls when his machine crashes.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Joe wrote:
>>
>>We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer
>>Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have
>>a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?
>>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

" DAWGASS TECH " You sure are " DEF " when it comes to PCs , this shit you told me here did not only solve this problem but seems like it also solved a few others that I had that now no longer exist , so much for Bill Gates , maybe he knows his shit too but if something go`s wrong with my box again I`m a com`in look`in for YOU ! THANKS DAWGASS TECH ,YOU ! my "DAWG " for life stay down . P.S : One of those problems " You Solved "was my nagging wife YOU ! sure helped me put the shut-up on her , cant Thank You enough , Thanksssssssssss !


On Saturday, July 6, 2002 at 9:36 pm, Dawgass Tech wrote:
>
>Delete these registry keys, or all values under these keys if you just like to waste
>time (it is much quicker just to delete the keys):
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streamMRU
>and
>Hkey_users\default\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\streams
>no adverse effects will be noted, and no more invalid page fault caused by explorer
>in module shell32.dll.
>This problem has nothing to do with Compaq or burn it, it can happen to any machine
>running 98, or 98SE .
>Cheers!
>Jackie
>PS
>I *AM* the guy Bill Gates calls when his machine crashes.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Joe wrote:
>>
>>We have windows 98. At least once a day we will receive the invalid page fault Explorer
>>Shell 32.DLL at 0187:fcb1946 or fcbcf19 or ffcbcf14 0r ffcb1946. Does anyone have
>>a clue what this all means and how we begin to correct?
>>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do you get to the page that will let you delete those keys? My computer boots to the explorer will shut down window and load the background only. no icon's, no start button, no task bar. just a back ground. what do i do? please help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


On Monday, June 23, 2003 at 3:31 pm, Tommy wrote:
>I deleted the 2 hotkeys mentioned below.
>
>Thanks for the tip. Now I can open all folders in explorer
>without "EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in
>module SHELL32.DLL........." appearing......
>
>Tommy
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Kim........try booting into "safe" mode (your computer's manual should tell you how to do that.....usually holding down a particular key or key combination at the boot up splash screen), to let you get to your desktop. At least then you can edit the registry per the suggestions in the email thread, save and exit, then reboot and hopefully you'll be back in business !.....hope that helps. Alan


On Sunday, June 12, 2005 at 6:27 pm, kim r wrote:
>Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do you get to the page that will let you
>delete those keys? My computer boots to the explorer will shut down window and load
>the background only. no icon's, no start button, no task bar. just a back ground.
>what do i do? please help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Okay, I went into the regedit and opened all the folders and deleted all the entries that it allowed me to delete. I'm still getting the *CTFMON KERNEL32 DLL * window. Any more ideas?? I'm not comp. literate so please make the directions kindergarten level if possible. You may feel free to email me with any answers.


On Friday, October 8, 2004 at 2:38 am, Johnny wrote:
>" DAWGASS TECH " You sure are " DEF " when it comes to PCs , this shit you told me
>here did not only solve this problem but seems like it also solved a few others that
>I had that now no longer exist , so much for Bill Gates , maybe he knows his shit
>too but if something go`s wrong with my box again I`m a com`in look`in for YOU !
>THANKS DAWGASS TECH ,YOU ! my "DAWG " for life stay down . P.S : One of those problems
>" You Solved "was my nagging wife YOU ! sure helped me put the shut-up on her ,
>cant Thank You enough , Thanksssssssssss !
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

OMG! Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!!!! All of a sudden, my Win98se PC crashed. Yeah, I know. Win98se still in use this late in 2005? I use it for some development and backward compatibility testing. But all of a sudden, I would boot and get an explorer crash just before the desktop loaded. The error was is "Shell32.dll" or so the message said. I searched and searched but couldn't find anything like this. Until I found this message and it pointed me to the Microsoft article, which I had seen before, but my problem was different. Thanks to someone else having this problem and stating that this article, even though the symptoms were different, fix it. I tried it and VOILA! It worked! Thanks for posting and I hope this helps any other person looking for a fix to this problem.


On Friday, September 20, 2002 at 1:46 am, Frankie Tomato wrote:
>I had the same problem of June & Joe ("Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module
>Shell32.dll" - Win98). After looking for suggestions in the web, I found this by
>Dawgass Tech, quite similar to the MS Knowledge Base Article Q259096 (even if the
>Symptoms are NOT the same: I had the problem at the startup, before loading the desktop
>icons). I tried. And it worked! Many thanks Dawgass! ft

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had exactly the same problem, and the advice here solved a problem that I coulnd't solve for about a week! Thanks!


On Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at 8:44 am, Alan wrote:
>Hi Dawgass Tech / Jackie..tried your post of July 6 2002 after MANY (!!!!!) hours
>of messing around in the registry, with restores, regfixes, you name it !!! and
>guess what??....your tip worked P E R F E C T L Y !!!!!!!!!!!...you're MAGIC !!!!
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

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