Resolving Windows DLL Problems and Crashes

HELP!!!
I have a Toshiba Satellite Laptop with an Intel Celeron M processor. It came with Windows XP OS w/ SP2 installed. I have always kept up with the updates for XP and have updated to SP 3. Also, I have always had (I feel) a pretty good security setup (Avast Anti-virus; SpyBot (Spyware, Malware, Adware); Windows Defender Firewall; as well as the firewall that comes with Windows installation) to prevent unwanted intrusions from the outside. These applications are residental (on 24/7) and I also run them straight up from time to time. I also am really concerned about junk on the system, so I clean my files on a regular basis. On December 23, 2008, my backlight on my laptop went out and so it took some time until I got around to getting it fixed. When the light went out, I had quit using my laptop (which was running perfectly) and put it up. On February 4, 2009, I managed to get everything back together and when I went to turn it back on, it logged on with a error box stating "cannot find fldrclnr.dll; Wizard_RUNDLL ". I hit the "OK" button and it continued to load out. When I went to open my Windows Explorer, I then received a box stating "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close ". When I hit the "OK" button, I then received basically the same message about Dr, Watson Postmortem DeBugging has encountered a problem as well. The system then froze up and I had to shut off the laptop and restart it. When it came back up, I tried to go out on the Internet and try to run down the problem and see what I might be able to do for this. I found all kinds of sites that referred to this kind of problem. I found all kinds of suggestions from missing DLL's and registry problems to installing 3rd party software installs that overwrite registry parimeters and shell conflicts/problems. I have used quite a few registry cleaners and shell view programs and my system basically came up clean. I have also run a variety of security software and (as far as I know) I have no viral, malware, spyware, adware, and/or any other kind of outside problem in my files. After trying several OS files such as Windows Explorer, Control Panel and such, the majority of the error messages refer to the problem being in the "shell32.exe" module (one listed the kernel32.exe module). I have downloaded both the shell and kernel files and rewrote them into the system to no avail. Also the same thing with the explorer.exe file as well. It seems that if I try to pull up the file system and/or settings directly, the messages come and the system freezes.

As far as the rest of my software, it works just fine. I am able to open any program up either from the Start Menu and/or the Desktop with no problems but if I try to access a program that addresses the file system (i.e. My Computer or move a shortcut to the Recycle Bin), then it would freeze up.

I have spent several days and nights on this and I am looking for some advise and/or maybe some other option to try. It seems that I am missing it somewhere but I am at my wits end. What confuses me most is the fact that it went from working great to problems by just sitting. I even gave some thought that the year changed while I had it off. Anyone who can contribute to this set of problems would be welcomed and greatly appreciated.

 

I’m not on an XP machine at the moment but there should be a copy of fldrclnr.dll in another of the system folders. Do a search for it and copy it to the \Windows\System32\ folder.

If that doesn’t work, run the system file checker, as follows:
Start > Run and type ‘sfc /scannow’ (not the quotes but the space) and press Enter. This may take some time and, depending upon your installation of XP, you may have to put the XP CD in the drive. If the XP CD loads the main Windows set-up menu and covers the progress bar, just close it. SFC will exit with no closing dialogue. To see which files, if any, were replaced look in Event Viewer > System.