Oh dear god, I think I messed up big time!!!

[gamble11]

Ok, I was trying to install a Logitech Quickcam, and instead of RTFM like I should have, I plugged in the camera to a USB port and started the plug and play install process. I installed the driver disc, and continued the install normally until the very end when it said I will be promted to plug in the camera after a restart. Oops, the camera is already plugged in. So I go ahead and restart, and sure enough it prompts me to plug in the camera. Since it is already plugged in I hit Next, and then the install procedure just stopped responding. After several minutes, I ctl-alt-del and close the install program. Then I ctl-alt-del again and double check that none of the camera software is still running, it's not so I proceed to the control panel and remove the software so I can start over.

After that I check the device mangager and find that an unknown device is listed (the camera) so I removed the hardware profile and reboot. Then it all falls apart. Upon reboot I get a BSOD message stating the the (can't remember exact wording) volume removed was still full, and to not remove something like this again before checking to be sure it is ready to be removed. Then a series of fatal exception errors start happening and I have to reboot.

After rebooting I can get 98SE loaded, and internet explorer works, but none of my other games will load. I check msconfig and fing that a still image capture program is still loading a boot up, so I disable that, reboot, and do not get the error messages as before.

What can I do to fix this. This is my first homebuilt computer, and all has been running excellent since August until this. Can somebody please help me out. I don't know what to do to find out the extent of the problems I've caused or how to fix them. Please tell me I don't have to format and reinstall Win98SE!!!!! HELP!!!!

Athlon Tbird 850
Asus A7V
Win98SE
IBM Deskstar 75 GXP 30 GB
256 Mb ram

Gamble

 

[Barrak]

You can Just reinstall 98, you should not have to format, just reinstall. You will not loose any driver info,files, or anything else. You might have to reset some personal settings (like wallpaper) but thats it. Reinstalling should fix you up

 

[kfan]

You could try running "scanreg /restore" from DOS and pick a date before you tried to install the camera.

 

[HotWire]

Keep in mind the Asus A7V may have a bug with one of it's USB ports....only one out of two runs in alot of systems

 

[Timothy]

Let me guess, you're running a Promise Ultra100 (or similiar) ATA/100 or ATA/66 card?

The message you are getting is exactly what I got after installing my Promise card on one system. (I had to upgrade to Windows ME or do a clean Windows 98 install (not install over, didn't work)) to resolve the problem.

From what I have been able to read, it's a drive load timing problem, possibly interaction between drivers. Very messy. Look here for some info->
Click here

 

[wnied]

Try going into windows and doing this:

Start > Run > Then type msconfig

once the window opens, click on the "startup" tab.

Check inside the list it shows you, of the programs that startup with your computer, for the logitech program that came with your camera. Once you see it, un-check the box next to it, then exit out of the window, and save the changes made by clicking ok. It will prompt you to restart the computer...say yes, and upon the next bootup the computer wont look for the offending program "that isnt there anymore" at startup.

Hope this helps!
wnied

 

[gamble11]

Ok, first of all thanks to everyone that has replied with helpful suggestions. It appears that it may not be as bad as I first thought. The reason the games weren't loading was because I had not replaced the cd's back into the cd-rom drive (cd-key). I have reloaded the software according to the directions this time, and the camera is working properly, and no more BSOD on bootup.

However, everything is not back to normal just yet. Originally I disabled the still image capture program to stop the BSOD errors at bootup, and it appears to be working. Once I reinstalled the camera software, another installation of the still image capture program was loaded, so now I have two entries for this in the msconfig startup menu, with one (the original install) being disabled from loading. I guess I need to remove the regisrty entries for the bad install version, but I am not quite sure how to do that or how to discern which is which from the registry.

Secondly, I have rebooted and shutdown several times since last night, and occasionally the computer will just hang at shutdown (and bootup once). I am going to defragment my hard drive right now, in the hopes that this will fix everything. But if it doesn't what should I try next. I have heard something about the regfix command, and will look this up after defragmenting. Is it worth a try, or would that be barking up the wrong tree.

Anyway, thanks again and I will (hopefully) update this thread tonight after work.

Gamble

 

[gamble11]

Update: It looks like the camera software is not running properly after all. It ran great last night, but just before starting to defrag I opened the quickcam software, and it was indicating that the camera was already in use by another program.

 

[gamble11]

Ok, TOTAL MELTDOWN AT THIS POINT! Now when I try to bootup, it says that my sytem.ini file is missing, press any key to continue. When I do it just shuts down the computer!!! Any suggestions?

Craig

 

[Timothy]

Sounds like it's time for a Windows re-load over the existing install.