You can try a couple of things before reinstalling.
Scanreg /restore lets you replace the registry with a saved copy..I think the default is 5 days.
SFC System File Checker... will replace changed system files back to the originals off of the cd or cab files
Reinstall windows on top of itself (overlay)
Scanreg /restore lets you replace the registry with a saved copy..I think the default is 5 days.
SFC System File Checker... will replace changed system files back to the originals off of the cd or cab files
Reinstall windows on top of itself (overlay)
Did you try restoring explorer.exe from the cab files? On run line, type in SFC. Click "extract one file from installation disk" and type in explorer.exe. Click START and type in the location of your cab files (on cd most likely). Then restart the computer. If it was truely a software problem, this may work. But you may also have to check out your memory modules as others have said.
I dunno why all this 98 bashing is going on. Looks like the XP/2000 fan boys are in today
MrCodeDude What background programs are running when this happens? Press Alt-Con-Del and find out.
MrCodeDude What background programs are running when this happens? Press Alt-Con-Del and find out.
What Willoughbyva said in his first post. Try to install windows over the old one. Always worked for me. Only takes 15 minutes or so.
MrCodeDude -- Win98 SE has its quirks, but if you know how to maintain it, it runs fine for the most part (regardless of what others may think). If you aren't afraid of the DOS prompt, you can also fix a lot of stuff from "under the hood." If you want to clean it up:
1. Get ahold of a spare drive or partition with enough space to hold everything on your dad's drive.
2. Get Norton System Works and Ghost. If you can find an old copy of System Works 2000 (or maybe 2001), Ghost is included. They replaced it with Go Back in 2002.
3. Ghost the drive. Now, no matter what you screw up while trying to fix it, you can always go back to where you were.
4. Run Norton System Check and WinDoctor, and let it fix everything it finds. The details will tell you a lot about what is/was wrong. If it finds stuff it can't fix, write down all the file names it mentions. You can search for them, and their related applications, later.
5. Run the Norton Optimization Wizard. It will update your registry. You might also get RegClean ver. 4.1a, a genuine Micro$oft registry cleaner that really works.
6. Get Ad-Aware, along with the latest reference file, and run it. Before you run it, use the Configuration button to change the default to Mark all references by default. If you find 200+ pieces of spyware, checking them one by one is a PITA. It will give you the option to make a backup of everything it deletes, but I've never needed to use it.
7. There are things you can delete from pure DOS that Windoze will not allow, once it has loaded. If you really want to keep the system clean, call the batch file, below, from AUTOEXEC.BAT, before Windoze launches. It will nuke a bunch of temp files on every reboot and Windoze will reconstruct all the deleted directories it requries.
Read them over, and decide if you want to use all of them or not. For example, if you need your browser to remember passwords, do not delete the cookies. You can add these lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT, or use them in a separate batch file called from your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5\*.*>NUL
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\COOKIES\*.TXT>NUL
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\*.*>NUL
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\INTERN~1\*.TMP>NUL
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL GOTO NO
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT>NUL
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL
:NO
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*>NUL
IF EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT REM>C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL
* * *
Same listing with comments:
Note: >NUL simply tells the system not to report the action to the screen.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5\*.*>NUL -- These are TEMPORARY FILES, damn it. Believe it, and nuke 'em.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\COOKIES\*.TXT>NUL -- Decide whether you need 'em or not.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\*.*>NUL -- This does NOT kill your IE History.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\INTERN~1\*.TMP>NUL -- These are TEMPORARY FILES, damn it. Believe it, and nuke 'em.
* * *
TMPDELIS.BAT is a batch file created by many Installation Wizards. It tells the system to delete specific files from the TEMP directory that were created during an installation. Usually, it then deletes itself, but sometimes this does not happen. The lines, below, look for TMPDELIS.BAT.
1. If it is not found, it deletes everything in C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, but not the directory, itself.
2. The first time it is found, it writes a zero byte marker file, TMPDEL (with no extension) and does not delete the contents of C:\WINDOWS\TEMP. Without this, when TMPDELIS.BAT ran, you would get a :File Not Found error message. Harmless, but annoying.
3. The second time it is found (because of the marker file), it deletes everything in C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, along with the marker. The result is, C:\WINDOWS\TEMP is cleared on every reboot, except the first time TMPDELIS.BAT appears.
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL GOTO NO -- If the marker is not present, skip the next two steps.
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT>NUL -- Deltete this file
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL -- Deltete this file
:NO
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*>NUL -- If the marker is not present, set phasers on KILL.
IF EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT REM>C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL -- If the marker is present, hold your fire for one round.
1. Get ahold of a spare drive or partition with enough space to hold everything on your dad's drive.
2. Get Norton System Works and Ghost. If you can find an old copy of System Works 2000 (or maybe 2001), Ghost is included. They replaced it with Go Back in 2002.
3. Ghost the drive. Now, no matter what you screw up while trying to fix it, you can always go back to where you were.
4. Run Norton System Check and WinDoctor, and let it fix everything it finds. The details will tell you a lot about what is/was wrong. If it finds stuff it can't fix, write down all the file names it mentions. You can search for them, and their related applications, later.
5. Run the Norton Optimization Wizard. It will update your registry. You might also get RegClean ver. 4.1a, a genuine Micro$oft registry cleaner that really works.
6. Get Ad-Aware, along with the latest reference file, and run it. Before you run it, use the Configuration button to change the default to Mark all references by default. If you find 200+ pieces of spyware, checking them one by one is a PITA. It will give you the option to make a backup of everything it deletes, but I've never needed to use it.
7. There are things you can delete from pure DOS that Windoze will not allow, once it has loaded. If you really want to keep the system clean, call the batch file, below, from AUTOEXEC.BAT, before Windoze launches. It will nuke a bunch of temp files on every reboot and Windoze will reconstruct all the deleted directories it requries.
Read them over, and decide if you want to use all of them or not. For example, if you need your browser to remember passwords, do not delete the cookies. You can add these lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT, or use them in a separate batch file called from your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5\*.*>NUL
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\COOKIES\*.TXT>NUL
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\*.*>NUL
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\INTERN~1\*.TMP>NUL
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL GOTO NO
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT>NUL
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL
:NO
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*>NUL
IF EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT REM>C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL
* * *
Same listing with comments:
Note: >NUL simply tells the system not to report the action to the screen.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5\*.*>NUL -- These are TEMPORARY FILES, damn it. Believe it, and nuke 'em.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\COOKIES\*.TXT>NUL -- Decide whether you need 'em or not.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\*.*>NUL -- This does NOT kill your IE History.
DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\INTERN~1\*.TMP>NUL -- These are TEMPORARY FILES, damn it. Believe it, and nuke 'em.
* * *
TMPDELIS.BAT is a batch file created by many Installation Wizards. It tells the system to delete specific files from the TEMP directory that were created during an installation. Usually, it then deletes itself, but sometimes this does not happen. The lines, below, look for TMPDELIS.BAT.
1. If it is not found, it deletes everything in C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, but not the directory, itself.
2. The first time it is found, it writes a zero byte marker file, TMPDEL (with no extension) and does not delete the contents of C:\WINDOWS\TEMP. Without this, when TMPDELIS.BAT ran, you would get a :File Not Found error message. Harmless, but annoying.
3. The second time it is found (because of the marker file), it deletes everything in C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, along with the marker. The result is, C:\WINDOWS\TEMP is cleared on every reboot, except the first time TMPDELIS.BAT appears.
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL GOTO NO -- If the marker is not present, skip the next two steps.
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT>NUL -- Deltete this file
DEL C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL -- Deltete this file
:NO
IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*>NUL -- If the marker is not present, set phasers on KILL.
IF EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT REM>C:\WINDOWS\TMPDEL>NUL -- If the marker is present, hold your fire for one round.
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