blank "tabs" (no verbage) 98SE

This is a new one on me!

System:

K7VMM+ with VIA KM266 &VT8235
256K SDRAM
AMD XP2000+
Generic floppy
Samsung 40 G HD (slightly used, but working fine)
One combo (dvd/cdrw) drive
One combo (dvd/cd) drive
Fresh load W98SE (4.10.2222A)
Absolutely nothing else (including modem or windows updates... yet).

Here's the problem: You know where it says (in bold letters) "Start" on your lower left Start button? Well not on this system! Most other "tabs" and buttons are blank too. Well, pretty much all of them. Occasionally I see a faint "Apply "... other than that, blank, blank, blank... no "minimize" (-), "maximize (+), or other stuff on tabs (like the 5 tabs on the display properties window when you right click on the desktop).

This happened as I was loading the mobo drivers, part way through (wish I could remember exactly where). After I loaded the drivers (quite a trick, but a good memory helps), I re-installed 98SE over itself, expecting the problem to go away. HA! I was wrong!

Any ideas? I don't even know how to search this site for a problem as weird as this...

Thanks!

 

Uh oh! Don't tell me I've found the ultimate challenge!

I've learned sooooooo much here, I just took it for granted that all my questions had the right answer... right here...

Sure appreciate the folks who have looked at this, tho!

Gimme liberty or gimme WINDOZE (copyright, no kiddin, I did NOT rip that off)!!!

Methinks I might change my signature...

 

The only way to change Start is to hack into Explorer at the binary level so if it was not deliberate then you have a corrupt file and since programmes tend to have button text and so on in one place this may explain why other areas are missing.

 

Hey thanks for the reply ge!

My guess is that I took a left somewhere along the line when I was loading the mobo drivers, and should have taken a right...

No problem, though. I did a format on the hd and CAREFUULY re-loaded everything. Not too surprisingly, it worked fine.

Turns out I hope that's the biggest problem I'll have this week...

Thanks again, and CIAO

 

Hi

What is CIAO?

My acronym finder comes up with:

Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations
Columbia International Affairs Online
Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office

Not one of them is it?

 

Hi again GE,

Nope, methought it was Italian for "bye now, see ya later ".

I'm Danish/English and my wife is only half Italian, though, so I could be wrong...

 

You're obviously into acronyms, calling me GE.

I can never remember what they mean. The first time I saw LOL I thought it a little too forward for my tastes - Lots of love that is - and then I found out it was meant to be read as Lots of Laughs which I have no objection to at all.

Anyway, if that's what you reckon it is then CIAO.

 

Lol indeed

GE, short for GammaEpsilon...

I only went to college two years, but was Delta Chi social affiliate for a while. Guess that's where I picked up the habit of shortening greek house names... like SigEp, etc.

Guess mebbe I should have tried harder to stay in school...

Hasta La Vista

(I think that's indonesian for CIAO LOL)

oh, and don't forget, rotflmao...