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KMuirhead

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Win 98 contantly freezing

I am experienceing regular freezing with my new system. The supplier has replaced the ram, modem and soundcard, and now says the problem is software related. They have twice done a clean install of Windows 98. The last time the problem recurred before I had reinstalled any of the software that had been installed when the problem ocurred originally. It freezes anywhere within Windows or Office (97), but not in games. It is particularly unreliable in Outlook 97 and Explorer 4.0. I have downladed a new graphics driver, and the latest patches for IE 4, but there is no improvement.  When the system freezes I get no error message, and cannot do anything except hit the reset button. I am running a Pentium III 450, with 128 mb sdram, 8 mb Intel 740 AGP, Creative Soundblaster 16  Soundcard and 56k Connextant Voice modem.
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KMuirhead

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Thanks for your very clear instructions.  I have followed them but was interupted while running the system file checker and I think I accepted a file I should have restored - not sure what it was. There were no corrupted files, but lots of old ones. Initially the problem was worse, but it improved after applying the service packs (which I had already had all along).  It was fine for a couple of days, but this evening it would not go on standby, with a message that a device driver or programm would not allow it.  It then froze every time I tried to look at the power management settings.  Any more ideas?
It sounds like a few of the virtual device drivers are still bad. Give this a shot before doing any drastic like a format and reinstall.

1. Make a Windows Startup Disk from the Add/Remove Programs area of Control Panel.

2. Boot to the Windows Startup Disk and then insert your Windows 98 CD into the drive.

3. At the dos prompt, type "setup /p f" without quotes and touch enter. This will cause setup to clean the registry and check for damaged files and replace them if necessary. Watch it closely as it will ask on some files whether you want to replace a newer file with an older one. Always chhose the newer file.

4. After this is done, reboot the system once after it's final reboot and check the devices in device manager to make certain everything is okay.

5. Now log onto the internet and then click Start, Windows Update and update your system files.