My computer had worked perfectly for 2 years. After getting an Illegal operation message on the Explorer application every time I booted up Windows (even in Safe mode), I opted to reinstall Windows 98.
I managed to reinstall the drivers for my Ethernet card & my Sound card. However, the operating system seemed a bit fragile, as I received a message that there was a bad registry, & Windows was going to "fix" it. Well, when it restarted & came back through, I recieved the same Explorer error as stated above. I reinstalled Windows 98 AGAIN, & while getting things set back up, it gave me the same message (about a bad registry). Same thing, Explorer error occured. So, I reinstalled Windows again, backed up the files that I wanted to keep (pictures, music, etc.), & then I opted to do a FDISK in DOS mode. I then reinstalled Windows 98 & knew I was truly starting from scratch.
SO, I managed to get everything pretty much up & running. I was on-line, able to send/recieve e-mails, installed the drivers for my Sound card. Unfortunately, my display adapter (Standard PCI Graphics Adapter - VGA) was only showing 16 colors. I knew that my video card was an ATI Rage 128, but that was it. I also noticed that I had an ATI folder (that I backed up therefore still had) with a setup program for WME_R128_4_13_7192.exe. I assumed that I just had to run this program, & it would work. I ran it, it installed quite a few things, then it popped up a message "Installing Graphic Display Adapters." It stuck here, & after about 10-15 seconds the application was "Not Responding." So, I closed it out with the Task Manager.
So, the massive research project began to try to get my video card to work. It came with my computer, & if I did have a disk (I don't remember getting one), then I don't have it now. ATI.com provided an ATI Inspector, & it detected my video card as an ATI Rage 128 4x AGP. I also found a site that told me to look into the registry to find out the exact type of video card. The chip # proved to be in fact a Rage 128 SM AGP 4x (Chip Description, Rage 128 4x SM AGP 4x).
I thought I had a breakthrough when I selected as my display adapter "ATI Rage/Rage II PCI (ati_m64)" because it installed drivers from my Windows 98 disk, & when I went to change my 16 colors, I could now select 16 bit (which I did). It said I had to restart my computer, then when it came back through, I was still only displaying 16 colors. In my System, under display adapters, it listed the ATI Rage/Rage II PCI (ati_m64) with an exclamation point next to it. It was a code 24 error, stating "This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed. Try upgrading the device drivers for this device."
I do not know what to try next. I have written ATI for support (even asked for an installation disk) & recieved very generic responses (as expected). I have read other similar problems posted on this site & tried to use the advice, but so far, I haven't been able to break through. PLEASE HELP. 16 colors is not enough :)
CPU Type: Intel Celeron 600 MHz
Motherboard (# etched on it): FC GA-GXV7-4X
Any other specs needed, please ask.
Thanks,
Scott
Bristol CT (USA)
