Lost my sound and cd-rom drives...why?
When I start my computer I get a message that windows98 has encountered an error in the registry and will have to shutdown. When I follow the instructiions, a new registry is installed but I lose my sound and cd-rom drives. I tried scandisk/restore...it worked yesterday but today it won't load 3 out of the 4 backups..it says the others aren;t started but they are the ones I pick. Also, in My Computer under Properties there are tqo yellow exclamation marks bedside the following..Primary Ultra ATA controller and Secondary Ultra ATA Controller..but nothing beside the SiS 5513 Dual PCI IDE Controller..I tried to delete the Dual Controller but it came back when I rebooted.
Is my system ready to crash or is there something I can do?
Is my system ready to crash or is there something I can do?
ASKER
I tried that but to no success...eventually had to format the c: drive and reinstall everything...having done that though I still get an error in the registry at start up..where can I check to see what is actually the error?
Can you post as many of the details of the error message as you can. A format and clean installation should obviously have created a brand new registry and it is impossible to even begin to pinpoint this without some more details.
Can you ignore the error message and still boot into Windows, or is this the furthest you can get.
Are you able to boot the computer into safe mode instead?
Can you ignore the error message and still boot into Windows, or is this the furthest you can get.
Are you able to boot the computer into safe mode instead?
ASKER
The message says that Windows has encountered an error in the registry and must restart. When it restarts, the Registry checker screen comes up..checks the registry and loads a good one and Windows will restart...I cannot get past the first error message..I have to restart....I can't ignore it...I can boot in safe mode though...One thing I do note is that my Recycle Bin has something in it but when I go to empty it..there is nothing in it..???
Does this help?
Does this help?
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ASKER
Before I got to try your suggestion, my kids tried to install a game on my C: drive which was being just used for Windows, D: for everything else, and they somehow overloaded it and my computer wentnuts, wouldn't load windows, memory being reported incorrectly, scandisk unable to fix a long filename, you name it...I had to reload Windows again, after much frustration with the cmos, which went nuts itself.reported mhz speed as 333 when it is 500...anyways...all is fixed...but I will keep your answer and award you the points..
Thanks
Thanks
Thank you bullman, although I didn't really solve your problem.
The symptoms you have just described are rather strange. Some games tend to change audio or video settings without asking you, but the fact that the CMOS setup should be reporting your processor incorrectly and memory also being incorrectly reported seem to be symptomatic of something else.
The only thing I can think is that perhaps this game was installed using the DOS "INSTALL.EXE" instead of the more usual "SETUP.EXE" used by Windows. There is a possibility that some element of the game has been configured to load at startup and thinks it should be running DOS when, in fact, you are in Windows. Most puzzling.
I have to suspect a VIRUS here, as these can wreak untold havoc on your machine. I'm not sure if you are aware, but some viruses remain in the Boot Sector or Memory on your computer and, even if you have run a Virus Check and think you have eradicated a virus, it will spring into life again and infect your system the next time it is started.
I would suggest that you should ensure that your AntiVirus software is set to scan both memory AND Boot Sector at system startup, and you should run a full scan of C:\ and D:\ (as well as the games CD) using the most recent update (definition).
A point of note for future reference, and one which I found problematic at times. Some applications which are self contained within their own programme folder will run successfully from another drive, but there are others which just don't thrive too well on another non-system drive. Some DOS-based programmes which can run within the Windows environment often look in specific places for files and, being on another drive, sometimes get confused.
The symptoms you have just described are rather strange. Some games tend to change audio or video settings without asking you, but the fact that the CMOS setup should be reporting your processor incorrectly and memory also being incorrectly reported seem to be symptomatic of something else.
The only thing I can think is that perhaps this game was installed using the DOS "INSTALL.EXE" instead of the more usual "SETUP.EXE" used by Windows. There is a possibility that some element of the game has been configured to load at startup and thinks it should be running DOS when, in fact, you are in Windows. Most puzzling.
I have to suspect a VIRUS here, as these can wreak untold havoc on your machine. I'm not sure if you are aware, but some viruses remain in the Boot Sector or Memory on your computer and, even if you have run a Virus Check and think you have eradicated a virus, it will spring into life again and infect your system the next time it is started.
I would suggest that you should ensure that your AntiVirus software is set to scan both memory AND Boot Sector at system startup, and you should run a full scan of C:\ and D:\ (as well as the games CD) using the most recent update (definition).
A point of note for future reference, and one which I found problematic at times. Some applications which are self contained within their own programme folder will run successfully from another drive, but there are others which just don't thrive too well on another non-system drive. Some DOS-based programmes which can run within the Windows environment often look in specific places for files and, being on another drive, sometimes get confused.
Look in Control Panel > Add Remove Programs and see if there are entries for the Ultra ATA controller drivers installed. If so remove the device in Device Manager then uninstall the drivers from Add/Remove, then reboot.
I hope you have the original motherboard driver CD Rom. Stick it in, let it autorun, and let it go through the motions of detecting and reinstalling the drivers for your Ultra ATA controllers etc.
After deleting the controller from Device Manager, it should always be identified on reboot, but if it sees that the drivers are apparently there, it may show incorrectly.
If this works, then you can concentrate on your audio problems. The more times you mess about with, and restore registry backups after rebooting while the registry is apparently corrupt, the more likely you are to restore a duff one.