General Protection Fault for both Internet Explorer and "Windows" Explorer

Help!

I am encountering a General Protection Fault whenever I try to open Internet Explorer or the Windows Explorer. I am running Windows 98.

The following is the error message that I get when I try to open up Internet Explorer:

IEXPLORE caused a general protection fault
in module USER.EXE at 000a:00002730.
Registers:
EAX=00025178 CS=176f EIP=00002730 EFLGS=00000206
EBX=00020308 SS=38a7 ESP=00008a2e EBP=00648a42
ECX=00027aa4 DS=38c7 ESI=00005178 FS=115f
EDX=81670000 ES=0837 EDI=00027a4c GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
66 83 7c 75 00 74 53 9a ba 05 97 17 8b d8 8e c2
Stack dump:
00068ac0 8ac00064 8a5c0167 7a4c1d5e 51780002 0cdf8a54 00000000 05640000 036c0030 8a7038a7 17a710d0 00000000 05640000 036c0030 00640006 00008ac0

The following is the error message that I get when I try to open up the Windows Explorer:

EXPLORER caused a general protection fault
in module USER.EXE at 000a:00002730.
Registers:
EAX=00024a04 CS=176f EIP=00002730 EFLGS=00000202
EBX=00020308 SS=38bf ESP=00008a2e EBP=04408a42
ECX=00022f90 DS=2897 ESI=00004a04 FS=138f
EDX=81670000 ES=0837 EDI=00022f38 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
66 83 7c 75 00 74 53 9a ba 05 97 17 8b d8 8e c2
Stack dump:
00068ac0 8ac00440 8a5c0167 2f381d5e 4a040002 0cdf8a54 00000000 09640000 04840030 8a7038bf 17a710d0 00000000 09640000 04840030 04400006 00008ac0

Thanks!

 

Have you made any hardware/software changes recently? If so, please post details; if not, try the following (in order):-

1) Scan with your anti-virus program (update it first);

2) Run the IE Repair Tool;

3) Clear your TIF folder using the deltree c:\windows\tempor~1 command (assuming that your TIF folder is located in the Windows directory);

4) Update your video drivers and make sure that you have the most recent version of DirectX installed;

5) Use SFC to replace user.exe (if you are running 98 rather than 98SE be very cautious when doing this. See this article).