Can you help with missing icons?

[frontrunner]

I can't get my icons to come up when I start up my computer :geek I'll try and explain what happens when I start the computer up as best I can.

The windows 98 page comes up as normal then
Data error reading drive C
Abort,Retry,Ignore,Fail?_ then
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.
I then restart my computer & the microsoft win98 start up menu comes up then while initializing device VK_ comes up on a blank screen.

Can anyone help me? I'm having to use the computer at work at the moment so if anyone can help me out it would be much appreciated.


Frontrunner
:spinning

[piggy]

can you start in safe mode?

[Win2Win]

Maybe your hard drive is either corrupt, or failing, they only theoretically last for 3 years.

[GlosRFC]

Win 98 is hanging at the point where it's trying to load your virtual keyboard device driver (VKD) - because it's hanging it's not showing all of the error message. Have you changed the keyboard or keyboard driver or loaded software to cause the keyboard driver to become corrupt; does the keyboard have a battery and, if so, is it flat; has the keyboard become unplugged?

This might be causing your icons to not display but it could also be caused by corruption in the shelliconcache file. Starting in safe mode will usually rebuild that file.

As Keith says, it could be a bad sector on your HD or it could be virus/software related. Both are easy to solve though - get a Windows 98 installation CD and reinstall 98 over the top. You won't lose anything and it will simply rewrite the missing files. You can then run a virus check in case that was the cause.

[frontrunner]

Thank you all for getting back to me I've got the local nerd looking at it :geek


Frontrunner
:spinning

[frontrunner]

The local nerd managed to fix the computer for me :wiggle: He has replaced the hard drive the cd player and put windows xp on it :)


Frontrunner
:spinning

[eastyorkshireracing]

.....He has replaced the hard drive the cd player and put windows xp on it.....
Wasn't much wrong with it then :laugh

Gordon

[flaming norah]

Just to pick up on something said earlier, is it possible to load windows me over the top of windows me as well? The reason i ask is that i'm also having system halted messages coming up, it's spent the last two days starting only in safe mode, i haven't been able to get near betfair, this is my first time online since sunday. It won't do a system restore before the point it went wrong. I had our local nerd (he's a nice bloke) come and look at it yesterday and my second hard drive was apparently knacked and he disconnected it, pc worked for last night but this morning I was back to square one. I don't know what the hell i've done to it this afternoon but i'm allowed online again, I suspect though that i haven't fixed anything and shortly it will all be going horribly wrong again. I'm tempted to buy a new system on the old buy now pay when it's broken but would prefer to wait till after xmas if possible.

As usual your thoughts are appreciated you brainy lot :spinning

[GlosRFC]

Shouldn't be any problem reloading Windows over an existing version. It will only replace existing files or load files that should be there but are now no longer. The only way you'll get a problem is if you try loading a different version over the top of an existing one.

Most system halted messages are failures to boot properly, and most of these are incompatibilities with system drivers. If you've installed a new piece of hardware, try removing it to see if things improve. Sometimes it can be a result of software you've installed so try the same approach - in safe mode remove any software that you've installed recently and reboot. If the system halted message goes away, you can try reinstalling them each in turn until you identify the culprit.

[flaming norah]

Cheers Glos.

I know exactly whats caused it and it's my own stupid fault. I downloaded a computer program from the computer active website called East tec eraser 2006. I thought if computeractive thought it was good it must be pretty safe. It's supposed to get rid of file slack and internet history etc etc and speed up the pc.

The first time i used it a week ago it worked a treat, pc was loads faster no problems etc etc. On sunday i decided to run scan disk, virus scan defrag etc and I ran this eraser thingy again. It took twice as long as the first time which i thought was strange. When i went to switch the pc on yesterday there were all sorts of system errors popping up and it wouldn't do anything out of safe mode. So i went for the system restore, not realising that to free up space the eraser had done away with that as well. I'm fairly certain my problems are related to this somehow. I used a similar program about 4 years ago which caused similar but not as serious problems and I swore that was the last time i'd use something like that. But I gave in stupidly and now i'm paying the price!!

[frontrunner]

Mrs.Frontrunner got a good deal out of it Gordon.........She's got the telly back :D


Frontrunner
:spinning