error at startup, then freezes

Hi there,
I am having a problem all of a sudden, that when I start up the computer (PIII), It does its thing, but then when the desktop appears, I get an explorer error that says
Ddhelp Illegal operation error.. this program will shut down.... if problem persists, please contact your vendor.
Then it freezes, I can't hit details to get the error, ... I can't control/alt/delete... the hourglass is still going... the only thing I can do is turn it off, restart, and it does the exact same thing over again.
Help
thanks

 

Hi...

Welcome to the board ....

DDHelp is part of a Directx installation ....seems it most frequently occurs when a game or something else installs a conflicting version ...or the original installation get's clobbered...

Have you tryed to boot into safe mode? (hold down the control key when booting and a menu should appear with the option to boot in safe mode)

If you can get that far.....right click on "My Computer" and select properties ....under the "Device Manager " tab look to see if your display adapter is correctly Identified and that there is only one instance of it...

Let us know .....

Cheers
Jake

 

Thanks,
I did what you said. I opened in safe mode,and checkedfor dupes. None.
I don't think its a directx issue, as now I am having the same thing happen, but the error is
EXPLORE
Illegal Operation,.... program will shut down..
I can't hit detail to get the exact error, because its frozen, I can't do anything but shut down.
Can anyone help me? I know its an old computer, but my daughter keeps downloading IM plus, and I think that's the issue??
thanks

 

Hi...

Don't panic, just need to work through this ...

Need you to restart in safe mode again....then click

Start | Run and type in "msconfig" without the quotes ...click Ok

click the tab marked startup ......in the list uncheck everything except ..

"Systray" and "Scanregistry" ........click apply , then Ok

you will be prompted to reboot ...click ok.....then see if the computer will start normally....

Let us know

Jake

 

Jake,
You are awesome! It worked. I opened in safe mode, went to msconfig and unclicked all but the 2 you said, and it worked!! Thank you soooo much.
since I'm such a techy wannabe, can you tell me what I just did?
I understand that in safe mode, it allows you to open, but I don't know exactly what it does...
Then going into msconfig, what does that do?
I have a wireless network, so after everything was working again,I couldnt' see my icon in the lower right hand corner, so I went into msconfig again, and clicked that on, and I can see it now. What does all that do?
thanks again for your help.
Rene

 

Happy Day...

Hi Rene...

So happy for you .....computers can be exasperating.....

By way of short explanation ....Safe Mode is literally troubleshooting mode, Windows will start with nothing but the absolute bare essentials needed to run the computer...bypassing corrupted drivers, added programs and controls etc etc....

Msconfig is a handy tool to control what happens when you start your computer....virtually everything in that list except systray, scanregistry and PowerProfile have been added since the original Windows installation...

That said.....you can now start putting checkmarks back one at a time till you find the rascal that caused all the grief...reboot after each one making sure everything operates as expected...let us know when you find it...(by the way, you need not start in safe mode now to run msconfig)

Then will talk about some things you can do to help keep things running smoothly .....

Cheers
Jake