Hangs up at start up, and "lexplorer error -

(1) Even after reloading Win ME twice in one month, and updating it, my PC still hangs up at start up:
Shortly after the opening window, the hourglass starts to blink about once per second, and that is my signal for the next step: Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to delete a task with a name such as Jwolh, or R8zes, cfgwiz, wrb4gu, or something similar - just random letters and numbers. It usually takes 6 to 8 Ctrl-Alt-Del to stop that task, and then everything is OK.

If I search for, find, and delete that file, a sibling will be created at the next start up, and nothing is resolved.

This has been happening for the last two months!

What is creating the problem? What file is creating those other files?
-------------------------
(2) This started today after I reloaded and updated Win ME:
Shortly after start Internet Explorer, a window pops up saying that lexplorer has casued an error in REGSVRAC32.DLL and I have to stop running the Explorer. I have rebooted the PC several times, as recommended, (and stopping the task, per 1 above) but the lexplorer error persists.

How can I get rid of the lexplorer error?
------------------------
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

Alex

 

Download HijackThis from the CWShredder link in my signature. Place it in a permanent folder(I create a new folder in C:\ named HJT). Open and hit scan, then save log. Once it is saved it will open in notepad. Select all from the edit button, copy and paste the results here. Don't fix anything with it yet! Someone experienced with the logs will tell you what/how to fix.

 

Arie:
I had run AdAware, and it had removed the 'adware' pests. This lasted for a few days. Then, I set my options to accept download programs (a no-no with my system) for the Win ME updated, forgot to set it back to block downloads, and I got re-infected.

I reset my options again to block downloads, ran AdAware again (twice*), and it cleaned it up, so now I can run the Explorer again.

However, the PC still gets hung up at start up.

Noahdfear:
I will try your suggestion this evening.

New question:
* When I ran AdAware, it reported 27 Running Processes and it cleaned up a bunch of junk except for one. Then, when I ran it the second time to get rid of the remaning 'offender', AdAware reported 13 Running Processes. Where can I see what these processes are? (Not Ctrl-Alt-Del for tasks, as this only shows eight or so whether there were 27 or 13.)

Thanks to you both!

Alex

 

Provided you have Ad-aware in the Program Files, navigate to C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-aware6\logs and open the last 2 by date.

 

noahdfear -

I looked at those log files and they indeed listed the processes, including the bad one, which, bad the way, Ad-Aware already had removed.

There are others running that were not removed by Ad-Aware, as for example 'realsched.exe' by RealNetworks, which I may want to remove (delete the file) but can't because 'windows is using it', what can I do? Ctrl-Alt-Del does not list it as a task....

Thanks again,

Alex

(Still hangs up upon start up with the randomly-created named file...)

 

Do this.

 

Yep! That executable will be addressed when diagnosing your log.