Memory crash during XP update, won't boot XP

I have been fighting ever increasing instances of BSOD, most of them pointing
towards memory overloads. Following various messages about checking Event
Logs, it consistently failed due to Symantec Automatic LiveUpdate not loading
correctly, although I did an Add/Remove Programs uninstall months ago. I
finally cleared out all the instances of Symantec I could find and did not
have that error for 3-4 hours, but still had a BSOD issue. Last night I tried
to update Windows through Microsoft Update, had 6 updates downloaded and I
beleive I saw the first 4 installed when I got a BSOD.

Now when I reboot, XP appears to load and the desktop picture is displayed,
but there are no menus, toolbars, etc... There is an error message stating
Explorer.exe failed to initialize properly with a code of 0xC0150002, and
click OK to close. Nothing else happens, ctrl-alt-del has no effect, the
mouse pointer does not change. The mouse does work.

I cannot boot to cd, the BIOS does not recognize the DVD burner. The BIOS
will let me boot to a USB drive, and I have tried booting to a USB flashdrive
but cannot seem to format it as a bootable drive.

Can someone PLEASE help? This is my wife's computer so I can only touch it
at night, everything from memory during the day today. I will be bringing my
laptop home tonight so I can at least access the web while trouble-shooting.

Dell Inspiron 5150, 1GB RAM, 3 GB processor, single Sony DRU-720A DVD
burner, Toshiba (I think) OEM 160GB hard drive, second Western Digital 250GB
hard drive.
--
Speed Safely!
David

I have the same problem. I recently updated XP Home from SP1 to SP2, and
installed IE 7.0 and Windows Defender. Everything seemed to be working
normal. I left the computer on to autoupdate last night. When I got up this
morning, I was suffering from the symptoms described in this thread.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1061853506

I am unable to log on. The machine goes through a NT type log on screen
asking for a password, which it never did before. It then goes to the
desktop, but will not load any icons, nor am I able to call up the task
manager with ctrl-alt-delete. Instead I get the following error message:

"explorer.exe application error the application failed to initialize
properly 0xc0150002 error code"

I can boot in safe mode, but same results. I can boot in safe mode with the
cmd prompt and I have tried all of the fixes listed in the above referenced
thread with no success. Here is what happened:

1. Used system restore from the cmd prompt, but it did not help, no change
to the activity
2. Tried to uninstall SP2 from the add/remove panel called up via appwiz.cpl
while in safe mode cmd prompt screen. It fails with the message "windows
could not load the installer for disk drive"
3. I tried to rename the files in the C:\winnt\system32 directory, but when
I enter that in the command prompt it says the path is invalid
4. I do not have the Google desktop, but I do have the Google toolbar
installed. However, when I try to remove it via the add/remove programs
panel, it does nothing. Screen flashes, but no activity occurs.
5. I can call up the windows directory and it shows the KB923191 update was
installed. When I tried to run the commands suggested relative to
$ntuninstallerkb923191$, I get various messages that the path is not valid or
the file can not be found.

According to the log in the win directory, KB923191 was installed last night
when I did all of the remaining updates after the install of SP2. The
machine was running fine at that time and I left it on to be sure Windows
Defender would getting updates. Auto update was also engaged. When I got up
this morning and checked the machine, I found it in the state discribed above.

When I boot up in safe mode with cmd prompt, the prompt reads as follows:
C:\Documents & Settings\Mary Brown.Mary> where Mary Brown is the users name.
I am assuming that I enter all commands after the > in this string. I try to
enter them with the C:\ prefix followed by the command, and with just the
command alone, but they all fail except for the two related to the add/remove
panel and the restore commands.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I read the posting at andrewsworld about
replacing two files

http://www.andrewsworld.org/manual/s...s/c0150002.htm

but I am not sure how to do this, I would need more detailed instructions.
thanks


"Valkaru" wrote:

> I have been fighting ever increasing instances of BSOD, most of them pointing
> towards memory overloads. Following various messages about checking Event
> Logs, it consistently failed due to Symantec Automatic LiveUpdate not loading
> correctly, although I did an Add/Remove Programs uninstall months ago. I
> finally cleared out all the instances of Symantec I could find and did not
> have that error for 3-4 hours, but still had a BSOD issue. Last night I tried
> to update Windows through Microsoft Update, had 6 updates downloaded and I
> beleive I saw the first 4 installed when I got a BSOD.
>
> Now when I reboot, XP appears to load and the desktop picture is displayed,
> but there are no menus, toolbars, etc... There is an error message stating
> Explorer.exe failed to initialize properly with a code of 0xC0150002, and
> click OK to close. Nothing else happens, ctrl-alt-del has no effect, the
> mouse pointer does not change. The mouse does work.
>
> I cannot boot to cd, the BIOS does not recognize the DVD burner. The BIOS
> will let me boot to a USB drive, and I have tried booting to a USB flashdrive
> but cannot seem to format it as a bootable drive.
>
> Can someone PLEASE help? This is my wife's computer so I can only touch it
> at night, everything from memory during the day today. I will be bringing my
> laptop home tonight so I can at least access the web while trouble-shooting.
>
> Dell Inspiron 5150, 1GB RAM, 3 GB processor, single Sony DRU-720A DVD
> burner, Toshiba (I think) OEM 160GB hard drive, second Western Digital 250GB
> hard drive.
> --
> Speed Safely!
> David