Missing WS2_32.DLL File?

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A few days ago, I began getting an error message before opening any programs. It says, “Error Starting Program. A required .DLL file, WS2_32.DLL, was not found.” If I click OK (twice), the error message goes away, and I seem to operate normally. I have three questions: (1) Why would this suddenly appear, after years of using W95? (2) Is it something I should fix? (3) If so, how? KKG

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Hi, KKG ~

1) It didn’t really suddenly appear but kinda built up over a long period of time. Running IE which opens/closes a large number of ‘winsock’ connections over a long period of time can cause the your swapfile to grow very large, overall deterioration of performance and system instability.

2) Yes, especially if you haven’t updated and applied all the patches available for 95.

3) You will need to update your winsock2 file. Click here and download the Windows Socket 2 Update while this site is still up. You may also need to download and install the Winsock2 Year 2000 update after that.

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Thank you, Bruce. I did what you said, including the subsequent download of the Winsock2 Year 2000 update. And it all worked; I’ve lost the original error message — subject of my first post. However, I’ve gained a new one! This one is very similar. It pops up at the same time — after the desktop is fully open, but before I open up any programs. When I click OK to it — twice — it goes away, and I seem to be functioning all right. However, I’d like to get rid of this one, too, preferably without trading it in for yet another! Here’s what this message says: “Error Starting Program — The SCHOOLCASHREMINDERSERVICE.EXE file is linked to missing export USER32.DLL:SetWinEventHook.” (By the way, I don’t care if I lose the School Cash Reminder Service.) Can you help again? Thanks! KKG

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Hi, KKG ~

I am sorry about the new error message. I am sure ‘SCHOOLCASHREMINDERSERVICE.EXE’ is not a system file. If you don’t need it, then click ‘Start’ > ‘Settings’, ‘Control Panel’ > ‘Add/Remove Programs’ and see if you can find and uninstall the related program.

Then, if you would please, ‘Start’ > ‘Settings’, ‘Control Panel’ > then double-click ‘System’ and please post back with the version number of Windows 95.

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Bruce: Sorry for the delay. I followed your instructions, and my computer will not allow me to uninstall School Cash Reminder Service. I select it, hit Add/Remove, and nothing happens. After a few moments, School Cash Reminder Service is unselected, and still there. I did uninstall another program, with no problem, so this seems to be unique. As to the version # of Windows 95, I believe (if I’ve copied the right set of numbers) that it is 4.00.950 B. Hope that helps you in some way! Thanks — I really appreciate this. KKG

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Hi, KKG ~

I thought you might need to install the Kernel32 update, but your system is a 95 OEM OSR 2 version which already contains that fix. So, on to the ‘School Cash Reminder Service’. Sometimes the uninstall file to which the ‘Add/Remove’ panel points is either missing or corrupt. See if you can find the ‘School Cash Reminder Service’ program, reinstall it, then try uninstalling it again.

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Bruce, I’ve finally had time today to pursue the latest fix you suggested. I reinstalled School Cash Reminder Service, returned to Add/Remove Programs and — darn it — I still can’t get rid of the thing. Plus, I’m still getting the same error message. In fact, the error message popped up immediately after I reinstalled. Any other ideas, or do I just learn to live with this? I really appreciate your time! KKG

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Hmmmm…when you say the same error message, do you mean “Error Starting Program — The SCHOOLCASHREMINDERSERVICE.EXE file is linked to missing export USER32.DLL:SetWinEventHook”?

Well, anyway, that is no longer important – here is the good news….

This is what I did: I downloaded and installed the ‘School Cash Reminder Service’ program from http://www.schoolcash.com. This program is not very invasive and easy to remove. There was no proper un-installation for this app, so I navigated to ‘C:Program Files‘ and deleted the entire ‘School Cash Reminder‘ folder. It only wrote two keys to registry and one executable (‘wjview.exe‘) outside the program files location. You can remove these by hand, but I found that the Spybot 1.1 spy & adware program conveniently identified and removed those items. I am confident that this will at least annihilate the conflict between that program and ‘user32.dll’.

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O Long-Suffering Bruce, here’s what I’ve done now. Yesterday, I deleted the entire School Cash Reminder folder, but didn’t have time to follow your Spybot advice. So, when I opened up the computer this morning, I had a NEW error message, as follows: “WJView Error — ERROR: Could not execute Main: The system cannot find the file specified.” This morning, I downloaded the Spybot software and took a LOT of stuff off my computer — including what looked like the three items you mentioned. After doing that, I shut down my computer completely, unplugged it, the whole works. When I started it up again, guess what happened? The same message came up: WJView Error, etc. (as noted above). I only need to click OK on this once to get rid of it (the old error messages required twice – progress!), and nothing I need to do seems to be affected. However, I’d still love to be able to turn on my computer without dealing with an error message at all. Do you have any more suggestions? Thank you so much, to you and all those others who provide this service to the rest of us! KKG

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Hi, KKG ~

You are almost there!

Make sure you click on the ‘Online‘ button in the lower left-hand corner once you open SpyBot. Once you have the ‘Update‘ window open, click the ‘Search for updates‘ button near the top. Once that is finished, select the updates (but skip all the skins) and then click ‘Download updates‘ to insure you have the latest.

Then run SpyBot again. It took me two attempts to remove the ‘WJView Error’ – once to dump the ‘.exe’ and then once to remove the run key in the registry.

It does work….I did it twice successfully as I described above. Good luck!

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Blessings on you, Bruce! I did what you said, step-by-step, and today I turned on my computer — WITHOUT AN ERROR MESSAGE! I truly am grateful. KKG

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Hi, KKG ~

Well, blow me down! Fantastic! I am glad you got rid of that beast once and for all. I would like to gently urge you to continue using and periodically updating SpyBot – it will be your friend!

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Bruce, Point taken (and I’ve kept your instructions). SpyBot — and Woody’s Lounge — my friends! KKG

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