Help! Windows 98SE hangs repeatedly on me!

[Lysimachus]

I cannot figure out what the problem is. I have never had this problem before.

I have Windows98SE, 1.4Ghz T-bird, 512DDR PC2100 RAM, 30Gig Maxtor 7200rpm HD, Gainward Geforce3 64, Iomega 100 zipdrive, CD-RW, and CD rom.

Also, I have the latest Intellimouse Explorer connected to the USB ports.

As I move my mouse around, everything freezes (or hangs) on me. Sometimes I have to wait a while before I can move the mouse again, other times I have to restart. But it is happening more and more.

I checked up on support.microsoft.com and was overwhelmed with issues that could be the cause. I tried several of them. 1st, I downloaded the latest Windows Updates, second, I reflashed my Bios, 3rd I am downloading the latest zipdrive software. (reason for this being, according to support.microsoft.com, zip drives could be a factor, and it recommended installing the latest drivers for it.

But I still feel like there's something missing here. Even though I'm not done installing it, I would like some more input on this matter. Do you think it could be because of my CPU temp? I doubt it, because the highest it usually gets is 54c (after comp has been running for a while). Is that too hot?

I would greatly appreciate your help on this matter, thanx.

 

[Lysimachus]

Also, I forgot to mention that I ran defragment disk of the entire HD, I did thorough scandisk of the entire HD, and I updated and then ran Norton Antivirus on the entire HD and found no viruses (since I thought that maybe it was because I had a virus). So as you can see, there is a lot I've tried, but I will still hang up periodically.

(Note: it can't be my mouse (so I would think) because if it were my mouse hanging up, and not Windows, I would be able to use the keys on my keyboard to control the buttons and icons I click. I can't even do that...sometimes after doing Ctrl+Alt+Delete, it freezes again and can do nothing but restart.

(another note: At one time it said "Explorer not responding", another time it said "Msgsrv32 not responding", and mostly other times it doesn't say anything of the sort. (Just shows them all as working). So as you can see, occuring problems arn't being very helpful in narrowing down to the cause.

 

[Lysimachus]

Hello? anybody?

 

[Lysimachus]

Thank you Lysimachus for providing the info of your system, and the problems you are encountering. As you can see, I'm probably the only person available on this forum who is willing to help you with and support your needs.

So far, the only thing I can figure out is that it is your zipdrive drivers that need to be updated. I too once had this problem, and when I installed the latest Iomega software, the hang ups tended to subside.

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.

 

[jmatt]

Go back to a good copy of the registry .

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press
Ctrl during bootup , depends on your computor .

Select , Command prompt only .

After the C prompt , type , scanreg /restore

Follow the prompts and select a registry dated prior to the problems .

This article describes how to restore a backup copy of the Windows 98
or Windows Millennium Edition (Me) registry

scanreg /restore
http://support.microsoft.com/suppor... restore&rnk=3&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=W98

Restore Operation Failed (Q220878)
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q220878

--------------------------------------------

To improve on the 5 days MS have on registry backups , use the Cabrest system below & get 14 days .
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/regback1.html

For those that find the above site confusing , here is what to do .

Alter MaxBackupCopies from 5 to 14 as per instructions at above site .

Download the zipped copy of the Batch file from ,
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/downloads/cabrest.zip

Unzip , copy & paste cabrest onto the top of C: in Windows Explorer .

Delete zip file , or save it on floppy , if you want it for others or the
future .

Print the instructions below & stick on your comp in front of you , so
when you have to go back to a good copy of the registry , you don't
need to search for them .

------------------------------------

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press Ctrl
during bootup .

Select , Command prompt only .

Type in cabrest & press Enter , keep answering y & you will see a
table , which will allow you to select which CAB file to restore from .
So , for example , to restore from rb009 cab , you look at the table &
see 09 corresponds to the letter j . You type j & Not the number .
Follow instructions .

Type win & press Enter to exit .

If after following the instructions to Restore , things arn't
working , go to an earlier date & try again .

 

[Abzstrak]

your overwhelmed with the possible causes to this problem because win98 is crap. U can spend a great deal of time troubleshooting but considering the thousands of known bugs in it that MS has no plans to fix, it can mostly be a waste of time.

The effort is also difficult because win98 doesn't keep any kind of logs as to what is going on in the system.... so most of the time you simply have to guess.

the easiest and fastest thing usually is to reformat and reload.

Also, if you want help with your system, dont be an @ss and dont expect immediate responses. U may need a week or more of troubleshooting to narrow down the problem, not the six hours you waited before reposting to yourself multiple times.