Connections Tab Disappears - IE 5

hi people
i've got a really wierd problem here and i can't find any information about it anywhere, so i'm hoping someone here can help me out.

i'm running IE5.00 on Win98.

fron IE, if i go to Internet Options then click the connections tab, i get a general protection fault (KRNL36.EXE?) which crashes and closes the browser. but most of the time, the connections tab completely disappears - like it is no longer there at all. other tabs are still there just fine - they close up to cover where the connections tab should be.

i have other problems too - the IE6 upgrade fails completely so there is no way to upgrade. some javascript (mouseover image swaps) cause the folowing error in IE:
IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in
module MSWSOSP.DLL at 0187:794c1945.
Registers:
EAX=794c1945 CS=0187 EIP=794c1945 EFLGS=00010a82
EBX=8169796c SS=018f ESP=0277f64c EBP=0277f810
ECX=cecfb790 DS=018f ESI=794c0000 FS=3a77
EDX=c00309cc ES=018f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Stack dump:
bff7ddd6 794c0000 00000001 00000000 00000000 794c0000 8169796c 81697928 8169fe6c 8169fe80 cecfb790 70e2bee0 016fed00 00000000 70cbd92b 016fed0c

although the error box appears, clicking close does not close IE

outlook crashed on me a long time ago and cannot be reinstalled

i'm not worried about outlook and i can live with the mouseover errors for now, but is the connections tab error fixable without a format / reinstall of windows 98? is there any other way to access internet options? i don't really want to format / reinstall right now, but if there is no other way then i guess i'll have to.

any help will be much appreciated.

 

What happens when you open "Dial up networking folder" via my computer?

What happens when you type bolded text onto the run line:
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL inetcpl.cpl,,4

Have you tried IE repair:
http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/ie50-11.shtml

Interesting that mswsosp.dll is part of "DUN ":
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;ES-ES;q181599
NOTE*IMPORTANCE of statement:
Record the configuration information for each connection in the Dial-Up Networking folder. To do so, use the following steps:

Double-click My Computer, and then double-click Dial-Up Networking.

Right-click a connection, click Properties, and then record all of the settings including the TCP/IP information. Repeat this process with another connection until you have recorded all of your connection's configuration information. You'll need this nfo when setting up connections again.

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Did you try running SFC.exe to check for file corruption. I'm only interested in those flagged as "corrupted" others can be ignored. I mention SFC because it may well be that the focused file "mswsosp.dll" may be corrupted and replacing this will correct current problem. [at least this one]

Virus scan.....

Sounds like an uninstall/reinstall of Office may be called for. Don't know what your past problem with Outlook may have been or is, as you did not include any details but allowing problems to go on without remedy tends to snowball into other areas.
NOTE* Depending on version if 2000 or newer, a repair function may be available to you.

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Don't know what your computer maintainance habits are but do you visit MScom and applicable support sites for hardware/software updates and or patches . Phew.....You may need more than a few!!!

You are aware that are numerous known bugs in older ie 5.0 and deffinitely older msoffice versions.

 

hi goddez, thanks for your reply

>>Have you tried IE repair:
>>http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/ie50-11.shtml

i didnt even know it existed! repairing the current installation failed due to missing DLLs, but the uninstall / reinstall option seems to have worked fine!

thanks goddez, you're an angel

 

Glad to have helped and your most welcome. Thank you back at ya' for sharing the final outcome.