Missing or corrupted HIMEm.SYS file

Hi, I am very new to the computer and recently when I tried to shut down my computer I received an error that read:

a fatal exception OE has occurred at 018F:BFF9DFFF. The current application will be terminated.

I tried pressing any key as it said and it did nothing. I had to shut the computer off by the power key. Now a few times since when I start up the computer I receive a message at the black screen (after the windows screen) that says:

The following file is missing or corrupted:C\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
HIMEM.SYS is missing
Make sure that the file is in your windows directory.

I have found the file in my windows directory. I have no idea what to do. The computer will eventually start though if I hit the restart key.
Can someone help me?!?!
Sherry

 

You can try using system file checker to extract a new one. Here's how.

 

Windows 9x absolutly cannot start without HiMem.Sys.

If it is eratically actually starting then in that case it is finding himem.sys and himem.sys is OK!

You have another problem!

Do you not have other symtoms when you are up. Freezes or extreme slowdowns?

A virus or disk error!

I suggest that you do what you need to do and get it up.

Then do a scandisk, then a defrag (a severly fragmented disk can cause this).

Then update your virus scanner and do a full scan.

Report back!

mike

 

Thanks for all the replies. So far I can not get the error to come back up. I think you may be right that there is another problem as I do have the freezing up (especially trying to start up the computer) and the computer gets very slow. I have not tried your solution yet though as I do not know how to do a defrag. Is this something I can do myself?

 

Thanks so much for all the help everybody. It took quite awhile to do, but I have run the disk defragmenter and things seem to be better! Thanks again everyone!