any time I try to open either Synaptin or the update Mgr. 's they briefly open then close. This was after I tried to install Dropbox. I eventually had to re-install LXLE,and thats when the problem commenced.
Thanking you.
katosan
Acer 2800 cpu 1gb ram 80gb HD

You might try
and when it finishes run
It sounds silly, but it might give you a cleaner installation than you have right now.

I tried the suggestion ,but it said that I was locked out

Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

Since I had this problem ,my PC went on the Fritz ,but my wifes pc ,with mint 13 is having similar problems. ,inability to update software or access Synaptic or even update flash plugin from Firefox.

Yes I was "Root"

open a terminal, type
when prompted for your user password, enter it.
then, after synpatic closes, post the complete content of the terminal window here.
please use code tags (go advanced => '#') for that

synaptic:2090): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set_data: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
go advanced => '#'quotejoe@joe-A7S8X-MX ~ $ udo synaptic
The program 'udo' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install udo
joe@joe-A7S8X-MX ~ $ sudo synaptic
[sudo] password for joe:

(synaptic:2090): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set_data: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(synaptic:2090): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(synaptic:2090): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
joe@joe-A7S8X-MX ~ $

ok, nothing interesting in terminal output.

did it still open only briefly, as described previously, and display the same error message?