Highly Unstable Win 98 System

[Tugend]

My girlfriend's computer is Pentium 500 Mhz, with 192mb ram, and Win98. recently, its been getting the blue screen of death a lot, and/or will run out of memory quite quickly and need restarting.

Here are the HijackThis logs:

Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7
Scan saved at 1:44:20 PM, on 4/11/04
Platform: Windows 98 SE (Win9x 4.10.2222A)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSGSRV32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SPOOL32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MPREXE.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\NORTON ANTIVIRUS\RTVSCN95.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\NORTON ANTIVIRUS\DEFWATCH.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mmtask.tsk
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\TASKMON.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\NORTON ANTIVIRUS\VPTRAY.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SYSTRAY.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSWHEEL.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\MK9805.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\WT\UPDATER\WCMDMGR.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WMIEXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDHELP.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\HPZSTATX.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PSTORES.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\SIMEON\SIMEON.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\ADOBE\ACROBAT 5.0\READER\ACRORD32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP\HIJACKTHIS.EXE

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.virginia.edu/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://home.netscape.com/home/winsearch200.html
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL,(Default) = http://keyword.netscape.com/keyword/%s
F1 - win.ini: run=hpfsched
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\PROGRAM FILES\ADOBE\ACROBAT 5.0\READER\ACTIVEX\ACROIEHELPER.OCX
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSDXM.OCX
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [POINTER] C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\point32.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TaskMonitor] c:\windows\taskmon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ScanRegistry] c:\windows\scanregw.exe /autorun
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [vptray] C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\vptray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SystemTray] SysTray.Exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VortexTray] C:\WINDOWS\au30setp.exe 3
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CHotKey] mk9805.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\QTTASK.EXE" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [wcmdmgr] C:\WINDOWS\wt\updater\wcmdmgrl.exe -launch
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [rtvscn95] C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\rtvscn95.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [defwatch] C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\defwatch.exe
O9 - Extra button: Messenger (HKLM)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: MSN Messenger Service (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: AIM (HKLM)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console (HKLM)
O12 - Plugin for .3dml: C:\Program Files\Flatland\NProver.dll
O12 - Plugin for .edu/cgi-local/tk/UVa_CLAS_2001_Spring_PSYC210-1/displaysyllabus/SESSION:98778143628771:39062500000000: C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\COMMUNICATOR\PROGRAM\PLUGINS\nppdf32.dll
O12 - Plugin for .swf: C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\COMMUNICATOR\PROGRAM\PLUGINS\npswf32.dll
O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
O16 - DPF: {AE1C01E3-0283-11D3-9B3F-00C04F8EF466} (HeartbeatCtl Class) - http://fdl.msn.com/zone/datafiles/heartbeat.cab
O16 - DPF: {ABD85B93-9BF9-11D1-B08B-0040953108D6} (UKsysctrl.UKsystem) - file://C:\Program Files\Quantex\UKsysctrl.CAB
O16 - DPF: {928626A3-6B98-11CF-90B4-00AA00A4011F} (SurroundVideoCtrl Object) - http://autoshow2000.carpoint.msn.com/components/ocx/survid/MSSurVid.cab
O16 - DPF: {BB47CA33-8B4D-11D0-9511-00C04FD9152D} (ExteriorSurround Object) - http://carpoint.msn.com/components/ocx/exterior/Outside.cab
O16 - DPF: {74D05D43-3236-11D4-BDCD-00C04F9A3B61} (HouseCall Control) - http://a840.g.akamai.net/7/840/537/00000008/housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/xscan53.cab
O16 - DPF: {02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B} (QuickTime Object) - http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab
O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab
O16 - DPF: {9F1C11AA-197B-4942-BA54-47A8489BB47F} (Update Class) - http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/CAB/x86/ansi/iuctl.CAB?37876.6598148148
O16 - DPF: Yahoo! MahJong - http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/ot0_x.cab
O16 - DPF: Yahoo! Chinese Checkers - http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/cct0_x.cab
O16 - DPF: Yahoo! Poker - http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/pt0_x.cab
O16 - DPF: {E4DFABBD-F5F6-11D3-8421-0080C6F79C42} (SpeechControl Class) - http://www.directxtras.com/speaksforitself/download/speechplugin.cab
O16 - DPF: {018B7EC3-EECA-11D3-8E71-0000E82C6C0D} - http://www.negativebeats.com/mp3.plugin.exe


What should i get rid of?

Also these are the current programs running on her computer at startup, anything bad/missing here?

Explorer
Hpzstatx
MK9805
Mswheel
Systray
Vptray

Should there be anything else? the computer hasn't been defragged in over 289 days, which is probably the reason. except it wont defrag till i finish a scan and the scan never completes claiming some program keeps accessing and therefore interrupting the scan.

Any ideas? My idea is that the computer is a piece of crap and the HD/memory are on the blink.

Any input is extremely helpful!

 

[HappyPuppy]

Back up her data, format and reinstall. Win98 generally isn't good for much longer than 6 months before getting buggy.

 

[johnjkr1]

He's right, it is the best way to solve 98 issues. If your worried about the hard drive, run the diagnostic from the manufacturer on it.

Before the format, you can try to go through her add/remove for her and take out all the unnecessary programs. Then reboot, then go through msconfig and disable anything and everything other than scanreg and load power profile. Then run a full virus and adaware scan.

 

[Tugend]

What exactly is the diagnostic for the hard drive and where would I usually find it?

Also scandisk is really annoying, because it resets when doing a thorough search every 20-40 seconds or so, although it reaches the point where it reset in the cluster scan e.g. resets at 26530 of 1,453,021 it would restart 26530 when rescanning, but it still takes a lot longer than it should. any reason for these constant restarts?

 

[amdskip]

Find the diagnostic test at the manufacturer's website of the hard drive. You may have some bad sectors.

 

[johnjkr1]

You need to run scandisk in safe mode, you probably have a program conflicting, like norton. And like AMDskip said, check with your drive makers website for the diagnostic.

 

[Tugend]

Thanks a lot to everyone, will do as advised. Hopefully will clear up the problems... not very keen on formatting her computer - her father might eat me.

 

[gwd]

Sounds like you've got a virus scanner running,which can cause defrag etc to continually run,one see's the other as a problem and both keep writing reports or whatever.Also goto Run and type in HWIN-FO, see if that brings up the windows hardware info program,a little known program but a very helpful little critter.