No clipboard, no Document registration, no linking and embedding

I am using Win 2K Pro on a P600 machine at home, networked with one other computer. I have a dial-up connection to the internet.

I have not recently installed anything, but yesterday I found that I get an error message that each Word doc I open cannot be registered and that I will not be able to use linking to any other document. Same in Excel, and in Excel I get a message that "Drag and Drop" could not be registered (or words to that effect.) Cut and Paste does not work in any application, including Windows Explorer. I cannot use Windows Explorer to move files.

The fact that Windows Explorer is affected makes me think this is an OS problem, not an MS Office problem. (I use Office 2000 Pro.)

I have rebooted several times. I think that when I reboot cut and paste works briefly. The effects seem slightly different each time I reboot, but the basic ones are the same, as described above.

When I boot up in Safe Mode everything seems to work normally. However, I don't know what to do next to get rid of the problem. I have searched the Microsoft site without finding anything that applies. I do not think these symptoms match those of the recent virus attack, but I will search for the msblast.exe as soon as I get home.

Thanks for any advice you may have.

John Holderness

 

It sounds very much like you have an OLE (object linking and embedding) file or two that aren't properly registered. It happens.

Easy enough to fix using regsvr32 but only if you can figure out exactly which to register.

Take a look in your event logs for errors or warnings that relate to the failures you are having and see if any files are specified. If so, post what you find. Problem files are most likely xxx.dll or xxx.ocx.

If nothing shows up there, then you may have a bad system file so
start~run~sfc /scannow might be your fix.

 

Newt,

I'm more backward than you thought; I don't know what you meant by "start~run~sfc /scannow." I know what you mean by "Start~run" but not what "sfc" or "scannow" are. I searched for "scannow" without success. When I searched for "sfc," I found sfc.dll, sfc.exe, and sfcfiles.dll (in fact I found all three in several places). When I double-click sfc.exe, a DOS window flashes and is gone.

A little more explanation, please, and I'll give it a try.

Thanks,

John Holderness

 

Do start~run~cmd to open a DOS window. That way things will stick around for you to see them.

Then sfc /? to see the various options.

For more details take a look at Description of the Windows 2000 System File Checker (Sfc.exe)

 

Blaster?

Soundlike youve got the "Blaster Worm "
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

Fixes Available here
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823980