Content area
Full text
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98
Few things in the life of an IT pro are more frustrating than problems with your users' operating systems. Sometimes these problems lurk in the background of your users' machines and can take you several hours (and several cups of coffee) to search out and diagnose, but other times they're right on the surface, preventing the users on your network from operating their computers. While these problems might initially be easier to spot, they're no less frustrating to fix, as they're often configuration problems, and the solutions can often seem to be little more than trial and error. Luckily, we've been doing some research, and we've come up with several key configuration problems Windows 98 users experience and the accompanying solutions you can use to strike back and get your users back to work in no time at all.
Assessing the issues
In this article, we'll look at a variety of Windows 98 configuration problems and the steps to identify and correct them. We'll begin by exploring startup problems and showing you how to troubleshoot a computer that freezes up when booting, displays a "missing or bad file" error message, or contains a device that doesn't work. Then, we'll move on to diagnosing and troubleshooting display-related issues, and we'll finally show you how to address hardware conflicts on your users' 98 machines. Let's get started.
Troubleshooting startup problems
Obviously, startup problems are those problems that prevent the computer from booting properly. A good, general troubleshooting method for startup problems is to try starting Windows 98 in safe mode, and then proceed from there to identify the problem. Let's take a closer look at some common startup problems and the steps you can take to fix them.
Unfreezing Windows 98
If one of your users tries starting Windows 98 but the computer simply freezes up, the first thing to do is determine if you can enter the BIOS setup to check the computer's CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) settings for a virus-protection feature. When the computer first begins to boot, look for an option to press a key to enter startup (this is often the [F8] key). Some computers have a BIOS setting that prevents applications from modifying the boot sector...