ActiveWin: Ask AW

Welcome to AskAW! This section of our web site lets you submit questions about any problems/queries that you may have about Windows. Be it from a little icon that annoys you to hardware freezing your PC, we will try and help you out. You can submit your questions by e-mailing us at askaw@activewin.com. You can browse through previous questions over at our Archive Page. Who knows what you might find.

Here are the answered questions for 02-23-2001

Question	Submitted by Ryan
Hi my problem is, whenever I leave my computer (P3 650mhz 20gig 250mbram) for more than 3 hours it completely freezes up and I get the following message fatal Exception 0E at 0167:BFF9DFFF
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
Are you running something like a virus scanner or utility in the background? Also, which version of Windows? Need a few more specifics.

Question	Submitted by Chris
Whenever I'm on the internet for some time and using the slide bar to move the page up or down I get a system lockup. The screen freezes and everything becomes inaccessible, therefore having to restart my computer over again. Please send a few suggestions.
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
Need a few more details - which version of Windows and Internet Explorer. Also, the type of hardware. The first thing that comes to mind is the video card. From prior experience, certain video card manufacturers drivers can cause problems (ATi comes to mind). Also what "plug ins" are installed (i.e. QuickTime, Flash, RealPlayer, etc).

Question	Submitted by Bert
Hello, I wanted to upgrade Windows '98 to Windows 2000 but instead of an upgrade, I did a complete install of Windows 2000. I have now still Windows 98 but also Windows 2000. I want now to uninstall Windows 2000. But I can't manage it. When I'm going to the control panel And chose add/remove programs, there is no option to uninstall W 2000. Can you help me? Thank you very much!! greetings
Solution 1	Answered by Frank Callanan
Bert Sorry to say, but there is no uninstall for windows 2000. It does not allow and upgrade from Win-9x, and does infact set itself up as a side by side Duel boot system. The problem is, if they reside on the same partition, you WILL have major system problems. Reformat reinstall, and if you want to duel boot set up separate partitions for each OS.

Question	Submitted by Jeanette
Can someone recommend a reliable shareware program for syncing PC time? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Matthew Sabean
I use AtomTime : http://atomtime.com/

Question	Submitted by David
Good Morning, I was wondering if you can help me. I have an ASUS P5A motherboard and running Win ME. I would like to update my bios but due to the dos having been taken out of it, how can I update ? Many thanks for your help
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
There's actually a website that has compiled many of the boot disks. For the sake of time, attached is a ZIP file that has the necessary DOS boot disk files. UnZIP and copy to a formatted floppy, then copy your flash BIOS files.
Solution 2	Answered by Mean Drake
BIOS updates have to be done with total planning and an absolutely cool head. It has to be the correct version for your motherboard. See the BIOS String that appears while you boot your computer. You can press the pause/Break button to Let that screen remain there. See your manufacturers website to see if they have a newer version of bios. Read what procedure they recommend and then Boot to dos and go right on.

Question	Submitted by Scott
ftp://We are experiencing performance slowdowns on all of our Win 2k systems (laptops and desktops) after 2-3 months of use. All of them are either PIII 500 or PIII 750 with 128mb RAM. What could I do to increase the performance?
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
Couple of things. First, do some basic housecleaning - delete *.tmp files, run scandisk and defrag, check to see what's running in the background. Also, you might want to increase the RAM from 128 to 256.

Question	Submitted by John
Hello, I'm running Netscape 4.08 on a windows 2000 machine, its works fine logged under the administrator, but once I switch to a user with minimal rights, it gives me errors that "unable able to update the registry. I went into regedt32 and gave permissions to the Netscape folder to full access. Any ideas ? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
Thru the Administrative Tools in Control Panel, amend your user settings to at least that of "power user", if not full administrative rights.

Question	Submitted by Charles
Hi, I just bought a new PC with Windows ME installed. I recently used Windows 98 and prefer that. I upgraded from win 95 to 98 on the old PC. I tried to do a clean install of win 98 on the new PC with the UPGRADE disk but it said it could not find a previous version of Windows. It did not prompt for a product ID. I cannot load my original version of Win 95 because it is on the master CD of the old computer and won't work on the new one. Can I use the upgrade disk for Win 98 to do a clean install on the new PC? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
If you want to go "backwards" from WinMe to Win98, there are several things to do. 1. Make sure you have a boot disk to start the Win98 disk. 2. You should do a clean install vs trying to overwrite WinMe 3. When you are prompted for the prior version, swap out the Win98 disk and put in the Win95 disk and choose the driver letter for the CD ROM. This will qualify. You'll then be prompted to put back in the Win98 disk. Would seriously recommend you stay with WinMe due to the enhancements and bug fixes. Also, you may not have all of the drivers for Win98. Your system probably came with WinMe drivers (some will work with Win98, some won't).

Question	Submitted by Sunshine
To whom it may concern: I accidentally deleted a file and now I have lost the ability to change my screen configurations. The only options I have are 16 color and screen size 640x480. I would really like to know how to get back the ability to change the settings.Thank You
Solution 1	Answered by Frank Callanan
Sunshine you probably just need to reinstall the drivers for your video card. Email me with the info on your video card, and I will find the updated drivers for you.

Question	Submitted by John
Please Help!!!! Every time I right click an icon my floppy drive has to go through all of its gyrations first. I know that there must be a way to fix this, but for the life of me I can't find it. I am running Windows ME on an HP 800mhz PentiumIII. Thank you so much for your help on this!!!!! Sincerely
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
As far as I know, this is just a part of what Windows does. It looks at the drive to make sure that there is a disk in it, and that it is formatted. It does the same for your hard drives and CD-ROM's, but they are so much faster that you don't really notice it.

Question	Submitted by Unknown
Howdy, Thanks for reading my question, I have two problems and will be much grateful if you could solve it for me. 1) I need assistance to download a copy of the office patch files (and the proper instruction to use it) so that I can install it in the other machine that doesn't have internet connection. from, C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\sr1patch\Office 2000 SR-1 Setup(0001), I obtained an url, http://download.microsoft.com/download/office2000prem/Update/3821h/WIN98/EN- US/data1.msp I believe that is the file that I'm suppose to download, but, when I apply the patch, the "Setup" ask for a file call data.msi which is no where to be found, please help... 2) I have a Creative PC-DVD MPEG card with tv-out that I would love to use it with my newly installed win2k professional, unfortunately, Creative only provide driver for win95/98/me, is there anyway I can force the hardware to install in win2k professional? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
1 - Here is how you can get your machine to the latest support pack for Office 2000: * Microsoft recommends that you install the latest version of the Microsoft Installer if you are using Windows 95/98 or NT. It is available at: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q258/4/26.asp * If your copy office doesn't have SR-1a installed, then you either need to download it off of the Internet at http://office.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/O2kSR1DDL.htm , order it on CD from Microsoft, or find someone that has the TechNet or MSDN CD with the files on it. * If you do have SR-1a installed, you can download the newer SR-2 patch from http://office.microsoft.com/2000/downloaddetails/SP2upd.htm Yes, you do have to install both SR-1a and SR-2 (and in that order) so that you are up to date and current. 2 - You can download beta drivers made by Creative Labs to get your Decoder card to work at http://www.creativehelp.com/files/download.asp?OS=Win2k&prod=encore . Make sure that you get the correct version, one is for the Dxr3 card, and the other is for the older Dxr2 card. You can also check the manufacturer's website at http://www.sigmadesigns.com. Creative Labs actually just buys the cards from Sigma Designs and re-labels and re-packages them. I have heard that some people have more success getting their decoder cards to work in Windows 2000 with the drivers from Sigma Designs.

Question	Submitted by Ray
Hi, I can't seem to find out how to change what programs open or load when I boot up my Win98 computer. When I use Control +Alt + Delete, the list seems pretty long and I suspect this may be contributing to my long boot times.
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
The things that load automatically come from all over the place, here is a sampling of where they may be coming from: Anything running in your C:\autoexec.bat and C:\config.sys files C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup In your c:\windows\win.ini file - any command that begins with load or run In the registry in any of the following keys: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices Don't erase something from any of these areas until you know exactly what it does. Don't make any changes to the registry without making a backup first.
Solution 2	Answered by Mean Drake
Just use the msconfig tool to see what the programs are that are loading at startup. Then preferably use the preferences of that program to prevent it from starting with windows. If there is no such option, then you can disable it from loading at start from Msconfig itself.

Question	Submitted by Jari
Hello! I have a serious problem with Win2k. After starting a lot of programs, things start to disappear from the windowses! Buttons disappear or turn black, some pieces of text disappear, windows are painting erratically, background disappears, or even the mouse cursor disappears! This happens every time I start a lot of programs. I have tried several different display adapters and drivers, and came to a conclusion that this is a problem with Win2k itself. I thought there were no resource limitation (like in Win 3.1), but obviously I was wrong?! The problem gets worse when using 32bit colors on the desktop. I have two display adapters, but the problems don't go away if I remove the other adapter. And all my friends have the same problem, although they don't usually try to use as many programs as I do (I asked them to test for me). After searching the Net a while I found out that desktop heap has a size limitation of 48MB and that there is a registry variable which controls the limit or each desktop, but when I change the values the problem still doesn't go away! I have Radeon 32MB DDR as display adapter, system has 320MB of RAM plus a 700MB pagefile. I removed all the fonts I don't need daily, with no help. The problem is reproducible by starting some 50-100 browsers using 32bit colors and 1600x1200 resolution. On my computer the problem occurs if I start more than 10 instances of Internet Explorer, because there are already so many programs running in the background.
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
Even Windows 2000 has it's limits. It sounds like you've got every program on your system open, plus multiple Internet Explorer Browser windows. Sounds like you're pushing the system resources beyond their limit and need to close a few programs and IE windows.
Solution 2	Answered by Ashton Smith
Windows 2000 does have it's limits. You might want to make sure that you are using the most recent BIOS update on your video card as well as the most recent certified drivers for your video card. You also need to reboot and delete temp files to get things cleared out and working correctly.

Question	Submitted by Teresa
Ever since I upgraded to Windows 98 (from 95), I've had problems with programs freezing up & Window fatal error messages. sometimes the computer freezes up as it is shutting down, sometimes when connected to the internet; sometimes only once a day, sometimes 4-5 times in an hour; sometimes after running the computer for hours, sometimes right at startup. The only thing different over the past 6 months has been the addition of McAffe online virus program. I have a cable modem and have heard some folks having problems with Windows 98 and cable modem, but I didn't for the first few months. Today I heard perhaps it is McAfee. My computer guy can't find anything, it doesn't freeze up for him, he uses the same cable connection as I do. He suggested it could be the surge protector -- bought a new one, that wasn't it!! Sure hope you guys have a suggestion, because I'm extremely frustrated with the whole thing!!! :( thanks!!
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
The surge protector is not it. I would make sure that you have all of the critical and suggested components installed under Windows Update. Make sure that you are using IE 5.5 with SP1. Try totally uninstalling your McAfee anti-virus software, and then use your computer for a while to see how it acts. Make sure that you aren't running out of hard drive space, and that you delete the contents of \windows\temp on a regular basis. Do a thorough scandisk and a defrag on all of your hard drives.

Question	Submitted by Mickey
hello there, Few months ago I found instructions how to change the modem flow rate to values greater than 115000. I have an external modem with Rockwell chipset and the speed of the modem became impressively higher. It included registry value change. My computer died with registry change and the address where I found it. I cannot find it anymore. Can you help me with the registry ? Thanks and regards
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
This speed is the speed that the modem communicates to your serial port. You are not going to see significant differences if this serial port speed is significantly higher than the modems actual speed. You are always limited by what ever the slowest speed is (the bottle-neck), and that will always be your modem connection, not the speed that your modem communicates with your external serial port.

Question	Submitted by Michael
Hey Guys, Love your site. The question that I have is to do with creating separate users on a win98se machine. I have already created two users under the control panel under the password section but now I only want these two users to be able to log into the machine. After creating these users they each have there own desktop and preferences. The problem that I have it that someone else can come along and enter a user name and log in to the machine as a default user. I don't want anyone to do this, I only want the two users created to be able to log into the machine and no one else. Is this possible and if so what steps must I do in order to accomplish this. Hope you can understand my question. Thanks for your time. Sincerely
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
You could setup a mandatory policy to do some sort of login enforcement, but you must understand that Windows 95/98/ME are not built with security and a multi-user environment in mind. Have you noticed that you can just click cancel on the login screen and get right in? Tight security is a feature of Windows NT and 2000, not 9x.

Question	Submitted by Unknown
I have Windows 98 SE as well as Office 2000 Premium Edition installed on my computer, which is at home and I am the only person who uses it. In just the past few days, I've been having trouble with my computer freezing while online: I get a message that tells me I do not have enough memory, although I have 128 mgs and "75% resources free". I don't get any response from any of the Windows Support sites, and I have been unable to access Windows Update - I keep getting this message: "Thank you for your interest in Windows Update. Your organization has decided to provide software updates internally rather than through Windows Update." This is crazy, because I am the "organization"!! This is totally new to me - what gives? I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions you can give me!
Solution 1	Answered by Charles Putnam
Start with the basic maintenance stuff 1. Clean out the c:\windows\temp file 2. Run Scandisk 3. Run Defrag 4. Run System File Checker to see if any critical files have been overwritten. 5. If you don't have a virus scanner, go to Symantec's web site and run their online scanner Also, check to see what's loading at startup (in the Startup folder). Delete anything unnecessary. One other thing, if you've made any changes just prior to when these problems started (i.e. added programs, etc.) delete them one by one to see if there is any change.

Question	Submitted by Chris
We just did a 98 upgrade and lost a lot of our programs. The programs did not transfer and now we don't have word for windows that came with our 95. Any ideas? Can we download from a msn site? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Stefan Assmann
It would help if you told me what doesn't work specifically. If you "lost word", maybe some shortcut has been misconfiguredor deleted from your desktop or start menu, as Word DOES migrate flawlessly to 98. If you "got it" with Win 98, you probably got it OEM with your computer. If the supplier did it right, you should find an installation folder on your hard drive (presuming you haven't formatted it). Since the version of WOrd that came with 95 is a bit outdated according to Microsoft, you're better off with Word 2000, which you can buy at any decent computer retailer and/or on the web.

Questio	Submitted by Linda
my daughter & I want to share an internet connection but are clueless where to begin. We both run windows 98. My internet connection is thru a cable modem. She does have an ethernet card from a previous internet connection. Please walk me thru the process
Solution 1	Answered by Stefan Assmann
Enable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on your computer and follow the prompts.

Question	Submitted by Unknown
Can connect to internet but receive the following error when attempt to bring up website.. res://c:\windows\system\shdoclc.dll/dnserror.htm microsoft internet explorer any idea what i can do to correct this?
Solution 1	Answered by Stefan Assmann
It's astounding how many people want a problem solved but give next to no information about it. Are you on a corporate network or LAN? Then you probably forgot to enter the correct proxy server settings. Go to internet options in IE, connections tab, LAN button. Then in the middle you'll see room to enter your proxy server info. If you're not sure, ask your system administrator for the proper settings.

Question	Submitted by Scott
I'm aware that the recommended procedure for any motherboard swap is to start with a fresh install of the OS but I've done it successfully with Win9x on many occasions without a fresh install by creating a new hardware profile. I’ve never run across any procedures on how to do so with Windows 2000 Pro. Any ideas? Thanks for your time
Solution 1	Answered by Stefan Assmann
I've done it several times on Win 2K Pro, even without creating hardware profiles. If it's a decent motherboard, it's fully PnP and Win 2K should detect new devices on bootup. Worked for me each time. Note: I have been using ASUS motherboards only.

Question	Submitted by Linda
Hello, I have a question about windows help files. How do I create one? Where can I find the documentation? I would like to just click somewhere in a GUI and then I want a popup menu to appear with links to a document, where the relevant info is situated. Can I do this? Is there a certain program I can use? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Stefan Assmann
You'll need an editor and a help compiler to create normal help files, both available from Microsoft in their development kits and downloadable for free on their site. There are also a few very nice shareware programs to create help files with. But from your question I think it's handier if you just enable Active Desktop and write some HTML that can act as wallpaper on your desktop.
Solution 2	Answered by Mean Drake
There are two types of windows help files. HTML help that you can compile with HTMLHELP, a program downloadable from Microsoft and hlp help files that you can use any rtf editor even word to right but you need to compile them. HelpPad I believe is a good tool for righting this form of help. But from what you are posting, making the help files might be simpler than implementing them. Are you a developer. What language do you use? VB? VC?

Question	Submitted by Mark
I just did a clean install, using the four boot disks for win2k, clean drive. Everything is just great. One minor problem though, as I loaded my modem drivers (which also has a modem sound device driver) the modem driver loaded but the sound device for the modem didn't. It recognized the drivers, tried to install, then says there is no driver available. Its a Creative Modem Blaster 56k external. Creative doesn't have Win2k drivers out yet but use NT drivers. My question is kind of 2 part : Why would it only recognize the modem driver and not the modem sound device? And is there any workaround to get the driver loaded or does it really matter one way or the other? Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Mean Drake
Unfortunately, NT drivers under 2000 are different and might or might not work. But if Creative has WDM 98 drivers (they MUST be WDM), you can use these ones.

Question	Submitted by Alexander
Hi! I would like to know if you can set up two language versions of Windows 98 on the same computer (in this case, Japanese and English) and how to do this. Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Stefan Assmann
Set up a dual boot system with help from a third-party boot manager utility. I've been using System Commander since it was in version 2 and am very satisfied with it. It's now in version 2000 I believe. Have a look at http://www.vcomm.com. Partition Magic also comes with a boot manager (and is a great utility, BTW).

Question	Submitted by David
Hello, We have an application developed in VB 6.0 - the last stable version was running fine under win98, NT and some 2000 machines. We are piloting the app in a Citrix environment as well - the app is installed on a server running win2000. We are running into a problem with the following rte: (rte -2147319765{8002802b}) - especially in win2000. It has show up in other situations, but mainly in win2000. Don't know whether it is a windows dll issue, vb or....? If you could point me to someone who might have a clue or a potential solution, I would appreciate it. Thanks
Solution 1	Answered by Mean Drake
You will have to be more specific. What controls are being used. In specific are you using database access with ADO?

Question	Submitted by Raúl
Hi there, after installing Real Jukebox over Windows 98 with IE 5.0, when it is launched it crashes generating a gpf on mshtml.dll. Thanks a lot.
Solution 1	Answered by Mean Drake
read the realjukebox documentation about whether it needs a particular minimum version of IE to run. Get all IE updates.

Question	Submitted by Curtis
Hi, I am pretty knowledgeable about Windows but I cant seem to fix this. I am running Win98SE, and the keyboard (not Microsoft brand) that came with my computer had extra buttons on it (volume controls, web controls) broke, so I had to replace it. Since it had installed files to make the extra buttons work, and I didn't need them anymore, I decided to uninstall the program from the add/remove. Well my problem is that my display properties seems to look just like the Win95 Display properties window (no active desktop tab or web tab) and it is because the keyboard program replaced the Win98 one with the Win95 one. I am wondering how I can change it back to the Win98 desktop properties window without having to format and reinstall windows. Thank you for your help.
Solution 1	Answered by Mean Drake
You might have to do a reinstall. Not a format and reinstall. All your settings and Installed programs will remain. Only the directx drivers (if you ever installed higher than 5.0) will need to be reinstalled. worth a try.

Question	Submitted by Unknown
can't figure this one out...can you help?...thanks a fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C150497F in VXD VSERVER(01) + 00004FDF. The current application will be terminated. * Press any key to terminate the current application. * Press CTRL+ALT+DEL again to restart your computer. You will lose any unsaved information in all applications.
Solution 1	Answered by Mean Drake
You will at least have to let us know when it occurs and What OS is it and what version of OE. E-Mail Me

Question	Submitted by Gary
Media player 6 was fast, small, and did the job so well. Media player 7 is big, bloated and seems to stink. I'm trying to get it not to say "Media changing" and wait for 5 to 10 seconds when I play a clip. The previous media player didn't do this. What is it doing that takes so long? I can't believe it is doing anything at all besides a "Wait 10 seconds". Thanks if you can answer.
Solution 1	Answered by Julien Jay
The fact is the Windows Media Player 7 is much more slower than its predecessor. Especially on slow computers like PII 450, etc. There's no way to solve your issue except having a more powerful computer with more memory, and a faster CPU. The only workaround I see for you is to stick to the WMP 6.4!Media player 6 was fast, small, and did the job so well. Media player 7 is big, bloated and seems to stink. I'm trying to get it not to say "Media changing" and wait for 5 to 10 seconds when I play a clip. The previous media player didn't do this. What is it doing that takes so long? I can't believe it is doing anything at all besides a "Wait 10 seconds". Thanks if you can answer.

Question	Submitted by Connie
getting error message missing file when I boot up in window95 - z:vvinesd.386 (that's V V) cannot find a device file that may be needed to run windows or a windows application. The Windows registry or system.ini file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists. If you deleted this file on purpose try uninstalling the associated application using the uninstall or setup program restoring registry. Can you let me know how to repair this - after I get this message I hit my enter key and then my computer continues the boot up process.
Solution 1	Answered by Ashton Smith
I would search for this file in your registry, your win.ini file, or system.ini file. Find out where it is being called from, what program created the entry. Then, either re-install and un-install the program, or delete the entry if you feel brave.

Question	Submitted by Stanley
Hi, I am having problems clearing my auto complete. I have cleared history, cleared forms and options, but ie still remembers all the files I looked at and "some" websites. which is really odd. I was wondering where is the file and register that it is reading this from, because I looked on the registry and it doesn't have any of the values that it is reading it from. My history folder is completely empty.
Solution 1	Answered by Marc Strickland
In this case just place your mouse pointer on the item you want to get rid of and hit the delete key.
Solution 2	Answered by Marc Strickland
Hey In IE go to Tools/Internet Options/Content/Auto Complete and clear forms and passwords.

Question	Submitted by Angelo
1. I'm running Windows 2000 with IE 5.5. Whenever I try to use Outlook Express I get an error that says, " Outlook express could not be started because MSOE.DLL could not be loaded." I've tried the emergency repair utility on the Windows 2000 but that did not repair the problem. Could you perhaps suggest something I could do to repair this problem. 2. I have a Dell 600 mhz Pentium 3 with 256 mb of ram, dvd rom with hardware decode, SoundBlaster live sound card, and nvdia riva tnt2 pro video card. I'm running Windows 2000 as my OS. Whenever I use Real Player 8 (or any version for that matter for the Windows 2000 OS) my computer will at random lock up. I have no idea why this happens, can you offer any suggestions and possible fixes? Because of this I uninstalled Real Player from my pc. thanks for any help you can provide
Solution 1	Answered by Frank Callanan
Angelo Here we go: 1- All you need to do is either extract a copy of the .dll that is corrupt from the Win2000 disk or(as I did) get a copy from someone and overwrite the existing copy. You can also try runninf the system file checker sfc.exe from a command prompt. That may find the corrupt file and prompt you to replace it. 2- your presently out of luck. I have had the same issue on several machines. No explanation from Real as of yet. Uninstall it, and let Windows Media player handle your music files for now.

NOTE: Please note that ActiveWin nor the AskAW staff can take any responsibility for anything that may/may not occur when taking our advice. If you do anything that is included in our advice, you are doing so at your own risk.

If you have any questions pertaining to a particular answer please contact the actual Staff Member who replied.

You can contact anyone of our staff here or email us at askaw@activewin.com