Windows 98 performs illegal functions

I brought my friend's computer home to try to figure out what is wrong with it. He is using Juno as his internet provider. He seems to be able to get on the email but when he opens the internet browser the machine "performs an illegal operation and is shut down.

Is there some FREE pc diagnostics I can run to see what could be the matter. I did try one and it said that it had 100 errors (including ActiveX problem) but to fix them I had to pay for the program. I just want to see what his problem is. So far it hasn't hung up on me once.

Also is ther a way I can reload windows without wiping everything off the system.

I tried scanning his system with the free Panda Scan but when I go to start the scan, nothing happens. I was able to run Housecall and he does not have any viruses there.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Jean

 

Hi Pete,

I already did as you suggested, repaired IE. What would be the next step?

Jean

 

Doing it that way may very well result in more than one install of Windows.

I suggest boot from POWERE OFF difrectly the the Floppy and the run setup as PeteC suggests.


See this post

And it is also better to run setup from the CDROM:\Win98 folder. Gives a cleaner install without a lot of extras.

BillyBob

 

In the case here and the one in the other post I pointed to, Booting to the Command prompt, MSDOS Mode or just shutting down Windows may not work properly either as it MAY NOT allow RAM to clear properly and or completely.

This is the reason for powering down and restarting with a boot direct to the Floppy.

BillyBob

 

I just did some checking on a 98SE machine. No matter how you boot to the HD the path in the Autoexec.bat and config.sys would show an existing version of Windows.

Booting directly to the Floppy from power off the system does not see these files. And does not even know that Windows exists. And will make a much cleaner install or repair install.

BillyBob

 

it had 100 errors (including ActiveX problem) but to fix them I had to pay for the program
That sounds more like a registry cleaner. There are a few available for free.
Easy Cleaner
Regseeker
The above will find hundreds of errors, and not all of them need to be removed.

For a simple fire and forget cleaner, I recommend Regclean.

 

Hi everyone,
Thanks you for all the responses you have provided. I'll try to tell you what I have done so far and ask for suggestions to check the system further, if necessary.

I didn't reload the Windows program as I don't have a Windows SE CD. My friend couldn't find his so I continued on with the suggestons.

I ran, Easy Cleaner, Regseeker and Regclean. There certainly was a lot of stuff that showed up but I backed up the registry and deleted everything and the computer seems to be running OK after doing the three things above.

I also ran a repair again of Internet Explorer. I haven't received any error messages so maybe I should just let me take it home and see what happens when he gets on the internet. What do you think?

I'm open to any other suggestions.

Jean

Oh yes, I have updated AdAware and SpyBot and am running those now.

 

A lesser suggestion than the above, but perhaps Powertoys "Tweakui" can be added to that list of down_loadable goodies. You can enable "Faultlog.txt" or fault logging. That way when a error occurs the faultlog.txt can be opened for a quote of any current one that was able to be caught or history of errors (to help form or see a pattern if any), if needed.

Additional comments----
win98 specific particulars how-to's are a bit foggy for me. I am an XP user. These are general to-do's. You'll have to figure the specifics out via the tabs options.

Faultlog.txt
*must be enabled via a tab.
*can't catch total lockup errors.
*Useful when a user fails to remember the error as quoted by popup warning or fails to click on the "details button" to get those valued specifics. Faultlog.txt will have captured those for easy reference allowing copyNpaste nfo when needed or requested.
*tweakui is just plain handy to have for a varity of reasons.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to write me.

I will follow the suggestions, I will install SpywareBlaster 3.4.

I already have AVG free running on his computer.

I once again tried to run the Panda software and it loads the active scan software but when I click "Hard Disks ", it just sits there and refuses to scan. I also tried clicking on "All My Computer" and others but nothing happens. It just is dead. I'm going to have to give up on that program.

I will load the free Zone Alarm also, that will help with future invaders.

I downloaded Powertoys "Tweakui" and will enable "Faultlog.txt" or fault logging so if he has troubles again we'll have a log.

Thanks again.

Jean

 

Well, I just don't know what the problem is but I can't seem to download Tweakui on this computer. I tried it twice.

To you have any idea why it does not show up in the control panel?

Jean


I downloaded Powertoys "Tweakui" and will enable "Faultlog.txt" or fault logging so if he has troubles again we'll have a log.

 

Download tweakui for win98 version 1.33 known as tweakui 2000
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/download.html

It's an *.exe. Double click on it and a popup offers to extract the file in the temp folder. I suggest you you make your own folder (name of choice) and change this popups default of *\temp to reflect the path to the (name of choice) folder to extract the files to. You'll wind up with 4 files:
tweakui.inf
tweakui.cnt
tweakui.cpl
tweakui.hlp

Right click on tweakui.inf and select install. As Pete said you'll either wind up with the a tweakui icon in the control panel or a starmenu>all programs>powertoys>tweakui icon.

I'd have to reboot into win98 or "google it" to check this out, which I'm willing to do but you should be able to figure this out once tweakui is installed.

 

TweakUi will show up in the 98 control panel, but it does have a different method of installing. After you unzip the files, there are four of them. All of them contain TweakUI in the name, but one of them is actually TweakUI.Inf. Right click on TweakUI.Inf, and select Install.

 

To mark62,
Gotcha'

 

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for all of your excellent help. I will return my friend's computer today and hopefully it will run far better than it did before all the spyware, etc. was removed.

I was able to get TweakUI to load but there was no option to enable "Faultlog.txt" so I just wil forget about that.

Thanks again for everything.

Jean

 

Faultlog.txt enabling option is on the "paranoia" tab. I also see Tweakui icon is in the control panel. I finally booted into win98.