My old WIN98 pc keeps locking up on me. Any suggestions on what may be causing it? I installed Super AntiSpyware and started running scan in SAFE mode, but it still locked up.
Thanks.

Is the same computer(?)see here

if not, what do YOU mean by 'locks up'?

can you please say which antivirus program you have on board, when last fully updated and run; also when did you last run a scan disc and defragment on it?

Not the same computer. This WIN 98 is my husband's PC at office. He runs AD-Aware, and Spybot. Just discovered today that AdAware stopped doing updates to WIN98 in January. Last disk fragmentation was last year, probably in July.
Thanks.

Hi; may I start by suggesting you do some basic housekeeping? who owns the PC at the Office ? is is the Works computer or are you allowed to' tinker' with it ?

if you ARE allowed to try these, and neither of these programs have been run for many months, try running scan disc first then disc defragment perhaps, preferably in safe mode

also please let us know what the antivirus program is you have?

I suggest you also remove Adaware se as the Adaware 2007 is NOT compatible with win 98

please see how you manage to get on with that lot?

I can do these on PC since my husband owns the business. But how do I do a scan disc and disc fragment? I cannot find options for them on this PC. Mine has an option for them in the Control Panel, but his does not.

He doesn't have anti-virus programs on his. He used to have Norton AV, but computer repair guy removed it last year because he said it caused the PC to crash. He has been using AdAware and Spybot, that's all.

Thanks.

MY suspicion is that you are infected and am very surprised that your computer guy did not even suggest an alternative antivirus protection for you to use ; do you know what method he used to remove the Norton av program?


You need to get AN antivirus program on baord so I strongly suggest you download
AVG 7.5 antivirus program ; its exe is here

(I am fully aware that this antivirus program will NOT support win 98 after September BUT it WILL get you started WITH antivirus protection)

fully update it

next try


Superantispyware its free exe is HERE

fully update IT
you will know that AVG IS fully updated when you see a coloured icon in your system tray instead of a black and white one

then , reboot and run OFF line on a full deep scan with BOTH these tools ; when you boot up you will get a 'splash' screan which is quite normal; open superantispyware ,navigate to the section that says 'scan your computer'; click on it and see the section that says 'perform complete scan' ;click on 'next' and let the scan run ;


let us know what the scans report?

also; are you on dial up or broadband?

I do not know how he removed Norton AV. I will try to download these two programs, but PC keeps locking up and I have to manually turn it off and back on to get it going again. We are on Birch DSL. I will let you know. Thanks!

can you clarify for us that the Birch DSL does NOT have an anitvirus protection method/package within it?

if it does NOT then I suggest you go ahead with the AVG download ; A method I used on another , what was then a dial up pc, to get the avg exe on IT was to 'cheat' a bit !!


IF you have another 'working' computer that has a CD writer on it(?)that you know to be 'clean' and uninfected, you COULD burn the avg exe on it IT then insert that cd into the bad computer and install the EXE that way ?

save the exe to a loaction where you can readily find it

may I ask what the computer was doing when the computer guy took the Norton off ?

please go to tools/internet options/delete cookies/delete files and press on both tabs to clear out ALL your temporary internet files
please try to take on and run the SMALL but powerful tool of

http://vil.nai.com/vil/averttools.aspx the EXE is
http://download.nai.com/products/mcafee-avert/stinger.exe

when I ran THIS on a BADLY infected computer I found a good option was to drastically reduced the size of the temporary internet files folder to virtually NIL ; you may wish to do the same



do you have the Windows original CD with licence key available?

see how you get on with those tools?

Hello Lori,

Trying installing AutoRuns program. It will show you what programs/services are currently running on your PC and you can check/uncheck (enable/disable) those that you do not recognize or want to load.

Autoruns 9.13 [531 KB zip]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb963902.aspx

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip

I just noticed that you explained that your husband's PC was defragged back in July of 2007?? That is part of of the reason why it is locking up and it will also contribute to poor performance and eventual system slowdown/failure.

You should defrag your older PC *every day*. The defrag program that is on your Win98SE PC is good, but slow. I have read that the WinME defrag program is much better and that is seems to work just fine on Win98 systems, but I have not tried that yet. I repeat...tell your husband that he should defrag his PC every day to gain maximum performance from it, as well as help avoid system problems like locking up, slowdown, etc.

A very good profram for cleaning temp files, et al is CCleaner. It will help to increase his hard drive space and remove the junk files that can quickly clutter an older system.

CCleaner Slim

http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds

I disagree, there is no way a Windows 98 PC needs to be defragged "Every Day". All that would accomplish is to put way more stress and wear on the HD than it needs. Opinions vary, because it really depends on how much usage you put on the machine, ie transferring files, dl files, deleting programs, ect, but as a yardstick, I defrag my 98 machine approx once a month, but at the same time you will find some people that wait longer than once a month before they defrag.

Regards
JPeterman

I will concede that defragging every day is bordering on excessive, but I disagree that waiting for a month or longer is acceptable for keeping your Win98 system in top running condition. An alternative would be to defrag every two weeks.

I find that a good rule of thumb to defrag a Win 98se computer is to run it when you have made a lot of changes or done some downloading or program updates etc; I too disagree with a daily defrag;maybe do a weekly defrag perhaps?

with the computer in question I suggest you try going into safe mode to defrag it ; please be aware that if it has not been defraged for a long time it WILL take a wee tad of time to do so on this occasion

I try to defrag about once a week, I let it go two weeks at most because the longer I wait, the slower the PC gets.

has this computer yet managed to allow a defragment to be run on it?