Total system reboot after opening IE6

My pc reboots whenever I open IE6. as long as I don't try to use it my pc stays on. I'm running Windows98 on an ancient machine. Have ran my Norton, SpySweeper, DrWatson, defragged and still cant figure it out. I'm computer stupid so I hope you can help. This all started after I got a boot error message that said my I/O port 2F8 had a conflict. I do know the port is for my modem and I still get the error message on the boot. Any ideas how I can fix it?

 

Hi raynebow, welcome to the BBS.

It would seem to be an internal modem, correct? What I would do first is to Control Panel > Modems and write down the details of the modem model (this does not mean that the they neccessarily correct, the wrong drivers may have been installed), this will give you a guide, if and when Windows askes for the drivers for it.
Open the case and take the modem out of it's current PCI slot. While you have it out write down the details of any make/model numbers printed on the card and even the details printed on the main chip. When you replace the modem, put it into a DIFFERENT PCI slot. Modems should be positioned in a PCI slot furthest away from the CPU (the last slot, or next to it if it was already there). The main aim here is to make Windows reallocate the resouces for the card.
When you restart Windows should detect the change and run the "Add New Hardware" wizard. If the previous drivers seem to be correct, you could install those again (when it asks where to look for drivers, uncheck all the boxes for the different drives, this makes Windows search through it's current list of system drivers). If the previous drivers appear to be incorrect, you will need to find the most recent ones at the manufacturer's website.

There may be a possibillity that the modem has been "fried" by a power surge in the phone line and you may not be able to get it working again. This is not uncommon, so don't get frustrated if you cannot get it to work.

By the way, internal modems need to run on COM ports #3 or 4 (external modems run on COM #1 or 2) . Do not try to connect to the internet until you see that it has been allocated to the correct COM port (Windows should reallocate the COM ports after rebooting).

Follow the installation instructions of the modem manufacturer and setup instructions of the ISP.

Post back if you get stuck.

Matt