Window 98se fixes, tweaks, and cures...

[cosmicB]

For something different, and maybe even "wicked".. use a photo editor's smudge to stretch the pupils of a pix eyes to make them like cat's eyes...

Some pix it only wrecks.. but some pix seem to be jumping-out right at you...

If you don't like the edits, you can go to edit tab, and click undo till the pix is back to original, or just click it off, and don't save...

[cosmicB]

Can't get CD R/W to recognize blank CD's, nor burn CD's..?


Download: "Burn at once"...

[cosmicB]

I just loves this little trick, recently posted by PinkRaya...


To delete the logs files..
Start>Run>type-in %temp%>Enter>Select All>Delete... Poof gone!..

[cosmicB]

One little trick that makes reinstalling a new operating system fast, is I save all my favorite downloads in a file on the desktop, labeled Downloads... and I add all the downloads I might want to try, as I stumble upon them that month... I search all of the downloads in Majorgeeks...

I save that softwares file on the desktop, for a month, then burn it to a CD...
I keep all my notes and pix editing on CD too...
All the new stuff of the day, I copy to floppies at the end of the day, plus SeaMonkey's Bookmarks...

This way when the PC's OS get slammed, and it comes time to format the hard drive because of yet another virus hack hit, it makes reloading a lot easier and faster... I'm getting the 20-hour systems reload down to a few hours... Now I really don't give a dam if this PC gets bully hack attack wrecked... It's just too easy to format and reload.. plus it gives me a clean fresh computer system...


Easy as:

Format C...
Pull the battery for an hour...
Fdisk... Delete partition, Redo partition, Activate it...
Format-C with Scandisk's surface scan...
Install W98 CD...
Install the Tiny Personal Firewall floppy...
Install Internet card and drivers floppy, and get connected...
Install W98se CD...
Install IE6 setup from floppy...
Install the downloaded programs CD...
Install HP 3 in 1 printer/scanner/copier CD...
Install the Pix CD...
Install the Notes CD...
Install the PP8 CD...
Install the Marble Mouse drivers CD...
Install the nexxtech keyboard drivers CD...
Install the Uninstaller CD...
Run: Cacheman Memory Restore, CCleaner, EasyCleaner reg cleaner, CMDiskCleaner reg custom options to kill Macromedia, Shockwave, Flashplayer, Backweb, Showbehind, and Desktopmessenger...
Run Scandisk and Defrag...
Set prefs in: Display and in Desktop Files, SeaMonkey, TweakUI, and PP8..
Add SeaMonkey's Bookmarks to SeaMonkey...
Block IE, OE, HP, SubDesktop, and WinWall.. with Tiny Personal Firewall's settings...
Update Spybot, and run it...
Update Nod32, and run it...
Apply passwords where needed...
Done!

I do that with the drawer full of spare hard drives.. so when the PC takes a hit, getting back onto the Net is easy as pulling one HD, and popping in a spare... No troubles mate..

When I'm loading spare hd's, I use the time to record a few more music CD's, from this absolutely huge collection of collectors gem old 33's and 45's...

Then I do a little websurfing in FemaleFirst's latest links, to see what's new and hot and wild, to order for my princess...

I check out my email accounts.. then switch off the PC, and get outside for some fresh air and sun, doing all the life-things that must get done, like booting winter out of my life... Today the snow is still snow... Winter is dying... By the end of the week that snow will be ice and slush, thawing by day, freezing by night... This is the week to push all that snow off the roofs, and as far away from buildings as possible... It's easy to get rid of snow.. but struggling to get rid of that ice and slush is five times more work, plus all that ice around is dangerous.. This next month is when a lot of people have those nasty slip & fall accidents, because they didn't remove the snow when they had the opportunity... Push away from that computer, and go get some much needed exercise, doing some crucial winter cleanup... You'll be glad you did...

Also it's time to wash all that road-salt from under the car, and the chunks of mud that built up and stuck in the bumpers and in wheel well rims...

[cosmicB]

Got a problem?..

Search it on the Net...

Say it like it is.. I.E.: Windows 98se won't.. "something something something"... Write it like you feel it... chances are that others did that too, and chances are that an expert solved it for them, and it got published as a web page...

[cosmicB]

I dug out one of the spare hard drives, and set 'er up...
It worked super for a couple hours... then everything got real slow and weird glitchy in the PC, with many pop-ups repeating......

I rebooted... and up came the pop-up to run scandisk surface scan...
Scandisk found and repaired 4 more bad clusters in this hd... total nine now...
the little buggers are growing or having babies..?
If bad clusters grow, it's probably corrosion...
If they move around, it's probably a piece of dust or hair...
Maybe a microscopic bug got-in and got squished on the platter..?

If you have a hd with known bad clusters.. maybe you ought to surface scan it every couple weeks... Obviously that hard disk is shot... best you start searching for a new one.. and make daily backups, so you'll have your valuables saved for when it eventually does roll over and die...
When you are leaving the computer for a couple hours, set PowerDefrag to run all its features...

So I finished the surface scans, and fired it up, and clicked defrag, which wouldn't work.. and out of the blue there's another pop-up warning me to run surface scan again.. and it finds yet another bad cluster... total ten now...

After the third surface scan I tried defrag again, and this time it worked proper...

Conclusion: A hard disk that defrag doesn't work on probably has bad clusters... Defrag can't read through a bad cluster, so it's the bad cluster that forces defrag to restart... So if defrag doesn't work, run surface scan...

[cosmicB]

Another source of skilled assistance, and a lot of good hard to find downloads...


http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html

[monosodium]

cosmic - That harddisk is shot. it's never going to get better, new errors will appear all the time.

[cosmicB]

Have you ever just finished a lengthy thesis, and copied it to save it on something on the desktop.. just to have the PC seize up..?

If you spent hours on it, and forgot to save it... and all you've got is it's held in copy.. but the computer is dead in the water... All you've got is to try to recreate it from memory.. which is most likely impossible...

In this case we'll say you were in SeaMonkey's browser.. and you copied your precious post, and clicked SeaMonkey off... While SeaMonkey was shutting down, you clicked to edit the early part of that post.. is when the PC locked up.. causing you a ton of grief...

W98 can't do two big things at once.. like dumping the browser, and loading the browser simultaneously... Think on what you are doing to the computer... Give it time to fulfill the last big command, before slamming it into a new big command... Make it a habit... You'll prevent those horror glitches and lockups from ever destroying your valuable hard work ever again...


Always save your "on a roll" work, every couple minutes...

[cosmicB]

Seems I finally got a handle on preventing bully hackers from destroying my PC's OS every month...
Now every email I don't recognize, I open only in the old iMac.. but it's not a perfect solution.. Yesterday I opened an attachment in the Mac, and it killed the Mac's operating system in a flash... But that system formats and reloads all in one easy quick operation... Just pop in the CD, hit new partition, and a couple more mouse clicks, it formats while reloading... Click the mouse a couple times, and just leave it to do its thang...
Return, and the system is loaded fresh.. needing only a couple minutes two get it Net connected, and the firefox CD loaded...
I don't bother with firewalls nor AVS's with the iMac... If the OS gets slammed.. fixing it is easier than changing a kid's diaper...

If your PC gets hit by viruses a lot.. get yourself a cheapy old iMac, and a CD of OS 10, and update it to 10.1.5... or get a CD of OS 10.2... The rest is smooth sailing...

[cosmicB]

I just got a good tip from Irfan, who wrote the Irfanview software...

If you are having troubles with photo editing software, update the PC's pix drivers.. and maybe even the cards...

[cosmicB]

A high quality reality computer trouble shooting forum, that gets right down to the core of any and every problem, and tells it like it is, like you need to know...


http://www.castlecops.com/f177-Windows_95_98_ME.html

[cosmicB]

I uninstalled an "all in one tools" PC cleaner and tweaking software, with its own uninstaller, after I noticed a spelling error in one of its windows... A pop up said "reboot", so I clicked OK... On reboot I got a pop up, "Explorer caused a invalid page fault in module Explorer.exe.. and will be shut down.".. IEEAAAHH! SCARY!!!... Even "god couldn't fix it, from your spitting a million million prayers into the wind... Reboot always freezes... I'm Screwed!..

_____________


Shut off the power, pop in the boot floppy, and W98se CD, and restart...
At the a: prompt, type in: windows\command\scanreg/restore, and hit Enter...
Up comes choices of backups dates.. Pick an old one down the list, hit Enter... It does its thing, you reboot when it asks, and the computer restarts as it should... oh sigh and yay..

[monosodium]

I uninstalled an "all in one tools" PC cleaner and tweaking software, with its own uninstaller, after I noticed a spelling error in one of its windows... A pop up said "reboot", so I clicked OK... On reboot I got a pop up, "Explorer caused a invalid page fault in module Explorer.exe.. and will be shut down.".. IEEAAAHH! SCARY!!!... Even "god couldn't fix it, from your spitting a million million prayers into the wind... Reboot always freezes... I'm Screwed!..

Let this be a lesson to you.

If you had seen a "helpful" utility to improve performance and realised that they are all without exception a waste of time in the first place (especially when performance gains made by not installing rubbish you don't want in the first place outpace them) then you wouldn't ever have encountered that problem...

Trust me on this - I've seen more broken systems than is really healthy for any one person and I can tell you that as soon as you get one of those "accelerators" or "registry cleaners" on there then you should look for your windows cd.

[cosmicB]

If you are experiencing troubles burning CD's, check this out...


http://www.cdburnerxp.se/features.php