Geek help urgently needed
May. 11th, 2003 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fluffymarkWho knows how to fix a very ill computer? Windows 98 gurus required urgently.
My housemate![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snow_leopard's computer is not in a good way this morning. Basics of what happened:
She installed some new software (label making package) this morning. Windows 98 then stopped working, complaining certain DLL files were now missing or corrupt. I'm guessing it overwrote some of them with old versions. Safe mode refused to load correctly too. (Explorer crashes upon loading, and we get an empty Windows screen with no menus, icons - just the mouse pointer). The only thing that works is a reboot.
Decided it was bad enough to reinstall Windows 98. This was done, but at the final stages it would not recognize F: (the CD drive) exists and refused to allow it as a valid location to install drivers from. After skipping the drivers, and attempting to run Windows again, there is no improvement.
In fact, things are worse - the CD drive no longer exists according to the computer. I'm using a floppy disk with CD drivers on, which worked the first time I tried reinstalling windows this morning, but now refuses to install any CD drivers on the grounds that it cannot locate a CD drive. Hence I can't even access the Windows install CD anymore.
Damn Windows. Any clues? Its looking as if we're searching for a friendly person with a spare Windows 98 install CD, with CD drivers that work.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Update: It's being random. It's decided the CD drive exists again now. Which is good, but I don't know why it failed to find it before. Am attempting another reinstall.
Further update: Have come to the conclusion the copy of the Win98 CD we have is dead.
My housemate
snow_leopard's computer is not in a good way this morning. Basics of what happened:She installed some new software (label making package) this morning. Windows 98 then stopped working, complaining certain DLL files were now missing or corrupt. I'm guessing it overwrote some of them with old versions. Safe mode refused to load correctly too. (Explorer crashes upon loading, and we get an empty Windows screen with no menus, icons - just the mouse pointer). The only thing that works is a reboot.
Decided it was bad enough to reinstall Windows 98. This was done, but at the final stages it would not recognize F: (the CD drive) exists and refused to allow it as a valid location to install drivers from. After skipping the drivers, and attempting to run Windows again, there is no improvement.
In fact, things are worse - the CD drive no longer exists according to the computer. I'm using a floppy disk with CD drivers on, which worked the first time I tried reinstalling windows this morning, but now refuses to install any CD drivers on the grounds that it cannot locate a CD drive. Hence I can't even access the Windows install CD anymore.
Damn Windows. Any clues? Its looking as if we're searching for a friendly person with a spare Windows 98 install CD, with CD drivers that work.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Update: It's being random. It's decided the CD drive exists again now. Which is good, but I don't know why it failed to find it before. Am attempting another reinstall.
Further update: Have come to the conclusion the copy of the Win98 CD we have is dead.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-11 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-11 08:03 am (UTC)That CD drive has been playing up a bit recently, so you may be correct in your diagnosis. A couple of weeks back Catt's CD drive wouldn't read some photos off a CD which worked perfectly in the CD drive in my machine. I've seen that sort of thing cause all sorts of mayhem in the past, so maybe she needs a new CD drive.