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Major Startup Issues / Registry Problems! Possibly Bad Mothe

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  • Major Startup Issues / Registry Problems! Possibly Bad Mothe

    Sorry if this post is in the wrong area but it is neither-here-nor-there kind of topic......! I decided to post this here as it seems to be one of the more active forums that I have eno****ered.

    Okay, the problem started a few days ago after my computer crashed and shut down with an illegal operation. So I shut it down and decided to take the chance to install some RAM I obtained off a friend of mine. (2 X 8MB SIMMS to 4 X 16MB SIMMS)

    So I formatted and re-installed Windows 98 to start off fresh again.

    After installing minimal software that I had no problems with before, the computer would shut down with an illegal operation after a few restarts of the computer.

    I immediately thought that it could be a bad stick of RAM so I removed the new RAM and re-installed the old RAM to fix the problem.

    But the problem persisted. No matter if I install Windows 95 or 98, it keeps on giving an illegal operation and if i do finally get it started, most of the time it crashes in Win95 saying it has got a illegal operation in Explorer.exe, or in Win98 it goes to the desktop and says there is problems with the registry, says it fixed errors on reboot, restarts in safe mode, then crashes, unable to be recovered.

    Even after I format and restart with a boot disk, re-plug IDE cables etc, the problem eventuates again after a few restarts.

    I "googled" these keywords but had no real sucess and checked out other sites and forums, including this one for similar symptoms, but with no success.

    My only thoughts are that it HAS to be hardware related as the computer has had all this software installed before with no problem until the last few days.

    My thoughts are that the motherboard has worn out, but interestingly, it seems to work fine when playing DOS games in a pure DOS environment.

    So this is a real pickle I'm in without any money to purchase another motherboard at the moment but I need my computer as it is nearly exam time for me!

    It is also possible, I guess, that the hard disk or another component is at fault. I have defragmented and scandisk surface scanned it but no result. I'm sure that you can imagine that not knowing the actual cause is almost as annoying as the problem itself!

    I know my computer is a dinosaur but as a student it is hard to get money for a new one. Hopefully someone in here may have a solution or diagnosis of this problem of mine.

    Thanks for your time and patience and any help/advice anyone can send my way will be greatly appreciated.

    Yours Sincerely,

    Damon Williams
    ------------------------------
    Pentium 120 mHz
    16MB RAM (trying for 64mb RAM)
    1.2 GB HDD
    LTN 242 CDR

  • #2
    To be honest I didn't read all of that, but as soon as I saw the words "Windows 98" it immediately turned me off...that OS was nothing but problematic for me.

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    • #3
      wow, it's been a while since I delt with SIMMs. It's probably the memory; have you tried to revert back to your old RAM config and see if the same problems persit after a fresh install?

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      • #4
        Yes, I removed the new RAM and replaced it with the old RAM which i have had no probs with, reinstalled it a couple of times and still no luck, keeps on saying stuff about a bad registry in Win98 and still major probs in Win95.

        So that leads me to think that it's gotta be something else than the RAM, cos if I can get it to load it will load stuff into memory alright it seems, but after a few shutdowns / reboots it just packs it in......it's a really weird situation to say the least.

        Anyway, I know it is ancient technology, any other suggestions are greatly appreciated and thanks for replying to my post so quickly, I knew this was the right place to come for help!

        Thanks again tweakers!

        Damon Williams.

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        • #5
          what about the CD-ROM? it could be corrupting data as it installs. Can you get a temp. replacement?

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          • #6
            Yeah Minibubba, although I have two cd drives, I also tried copying the files to hard disk before installing, but with no improvement.

            Someone recommended setting the RAM timing settings in BIOS / CMOS to more conservative settings, so I will try that next.

            I also intend on thoroughly cleaning the RAM slots as it is dusty inside the box, maybe that will help.

            If anyone has any more ideas, please post them, I will try anything at this stage.

            I will also report back on the progress that I make.

            Yours gratefully,

            Damon Williams.

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            • #7
              Have ya installed the missin' .vxd files for Win9x? :?:

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