Welcome to a relatively new feature here at ActiveWin. This lets you, the visitors 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.

Here are the questions for: 07-15-2000

Question: I have a problem with getting E-Mail card. When I get a E-mail card it will not play on my computer. A thing comes up and it says that this file can't be found. What is the problem here. I have been told that some of my files has been deleted.

Solution 1: Might need a bit more info on this one mallisa is it a file that you are being sent over email or is it a link to a webpage that you are trying to view. If its a file you have been sent you may be missing the Visual Basic Runtime files that some programers use to help they right their programs. You are looking for Version 6 runtime files all you do is download them double click on the downloaded program follow the on screen instructions and rebbot your computer when prompted. (Im not sure of the location where you can download these from any one remember where M$ hides them??) If you are following a link to a webpage, It is most likely the site is using Flash a special type of animation program that allowes movign images and sound on a webpage but it requires a special plugin if your system isn't downloading it automatically or the webpage isn't set to send you the file goto. www.macromedia.com and it will downlaod and install the file for you. - John Carnell

Solution 2: What browser are you using? If you use Internet Explorer 4.x or Higher, try downloading the latest Java Virtual Machine if you dont know what it is, just download it by clicking the following link:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/javasdk/install/3194/w9xnt4/en-us/msjavx86.exe.  Safe the file to your HD and run it after the download has finished, you will need to restart your computer afterwards, make sure you safe any changes before you proceed. After the system restart, go to control panel, and open Internet Options, go to the advanced tab, and check everything in the "Multimedia" section. open your browser and see if this work. - Bill Wiriawan

Submitted By: Melissa

Question: I have a problem that the sound card is disabled by windows upon a cold boot. There is a yellow exclamation point in Device Manager, and no speaker icon in the system tray. If I reboot Windows, not the entire machine, everything is ok! I had a Creative Labs Vibra 16 ISA card, and I have tried a Yamaha PCI card. Same result. It is a home-built machine. Soyo 5EHM mobo, Win98 SE, an ATI AGP video card, a 56k ISA modem on com2 IRQ3, and the sound card, that's it. The PCI card does not let me change resources of course. Any ideas?

Solution 1: Reset your BIOS to its defaults? Re-install Windows or upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows ME (when it is released)? I really can't give a good enough answer to this question. I have never ever come across such a strange problem.- Simon Porter

Solution 2: When you double click the icon in the device manager, what does it say in the message window? If it says that widnows cannot find an empty resource, you must have used up all the com resources.
First try running the troubleshooter, this will give you a basic overview of what kind of issue are you having with your computer. Secondly, open the bootlog.txt (it should be in C:\bootlog.txt) just type it in the Run command, since it's a hidden file in your system dir. Read for any section that refers to your device driver, when it says load fail..... it means that windows was unable to load the device driver, when there is no fail, you need to try to free up some resources at the com port. you can do this by disabling one of your coms from the cmos setup, for example if you have your modem in com2, you can disable com3, you still have com 1 for another resource, and if you don't have any printer, you can disable the printer port as well. This method was used to troubleshoot my clients similar issue, it was almost very successful on every machine. If it still doesn't work, try swapping the slots from the current one, see if it changes something. - Bill Wiriawan

Solution 3: Ok this is a simple one it is an irq problem first thing to do is drop into bios and set all you motherboard resources off of Auto and set to pci/isa rather than Legacy ISA. Give it a reboot into windows. Now last time i check you should be able to alter the IRQ assignment for the sound card in resources if you cant. 
Here is a trick, find the other device that is using the same irq that your sound card is probably irq 11, 12 or 15 and move that so it isnt shard with that device. If you can move a device down to 7 all depends on how lucky you are with the hardware you have that should solve te problem because that is the same irq as your printer port (LPT1) and itshoulnt cause you a problem need info on the irq's you are using. Upgrading to win2k probably wont solve the problem and its very drastic when there is a work around. - John Carnell

Submitted By: Charlie

Question: Word 98 allowed multiple files to be entered and listed in the target area of an icon's properties. When clicking on the desktop icon a single Word session would open with multiple files opened.
An example of the target entry would be :  "c:\Program Files\Office\WINWORD.exe" "C:\letters\File1.doc" "C:\letters\File1.doc" "C:\letters\File1.doc" With Word 2000 it no longer appears like you can add multiple files. Is this true or is there a way to do what I want.

Solution 1: I believe it's a natural design of Word 2000, the concept is like Internet Explorer browser, you wont be able to open another web page in the same window (we are not talking about frames here). As you may see the Document windows button only has a "X" button, there's no minimize and maximize button. 
I once post this message to Office newsgroup and no one replies to this issue, I search through the help and every option/preference details theres nothing that points to this as well. If someone knows any registry key to invert this, I'll make sure that everybody knows that.- Bill Wiriawan

Solution 2: You can't change it. Word 97 was a MDI app. Mulitple document interface. Word 2000 is SDI. Single document interface. - Mean Drake

Solution 3: I'm afraid it is a design on Office 2k its self as well as word 2000 nothing you can do about it at the moment you could try Staroffice by sun Microsystems I believe it still supports MDI. - John Carnell

Submitted By: Unknown

Question: Hello. I am getting a new laptop computer by the end of the month. I wanted to make sure I backed up as often as possible so I won't have to worry about anything. Can you please recommend a really good program to use for backing up my computer? I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much for your time!

Solution 1:The two probably best options for backing your system up does not mainly depend on software. If there are just certain files, like reports you may type up and such, you may just want to invest on buying a zip disk. These disk's hold 100 megabytes of data a piece, plenty enough space to backup documents and keep them on disk. If you wanted to backup programs and maybe even your entire system, then you would want to invest in either a tape drive or an extra hard drive (my preference would be the hard drive, they are a little more costly, but more reliable). The tape drive can hold up to as much as you need since there are tape drives that can hold more than hard drives. This way you can back up your software and system and if it crashed or you needed anything you can just go right to it and get it again. The hard drive can hold a lot of data depending on how much you spend. These are more reliable since you dont have to worry about a tape breaking, they are faster, and you have direct access to it instead of having to use a data translation software to retrieve it from the tape. I hope I've answered your question. - Jason Rainwater

Solution 2: From your motif of getting a new notebook, I assume you do two kinds of backups, System backup, and data backup. I've tried many backup software for my self, and I found Winrescue (http://superwin.com) is a good alternative for backing up both your system configuration, system file, and data backup, An alternative freeware like Rapid backup (mlin.net)will do a good job too. All this kind of backups needs disk space, a cd burner through LAN access would be very handy, but since you don't have your notebook yet, make sure you have lots of disk space (12gb or more) for your HD, and try to partition it so you can put your documents and backups in a different partition. For an example, have at least 3 partition, C:\ for system, D: for Programs and/or games, E: for your data, archives, mp3s, or backup, as for the size, assuming you have 12.gb, 1.5 gb is good enough for Windows file and microsoft office, 4 gb for D:\, and the rest is for E:.
I'm using this configuration for my system, it's very convenient on managing files and archiving, and if something goes wrong with your system, e.g virus, and you need to format c: drive, you wont loose any of your data in drive e:
The point is, backing up is never a good solution when you dont have cd burner, tape drive or anything similar, try to manage it so you dont loose your data by accident instead, I've been using these method for a long time, and I never lost any of my data. I do backup for my system config for testing between programs.  - Bill Wiriawan

Solution 3: I really don't think you would need anything more than the backup program included with Windows. Though I would have to say the Windows 2000 version is the best as it allows you to schedule backups. If you are not getting Windows 2000 preinstalled on your laptop then have a look at http://www.veritas.com/ This is the provider of the software included with Windows 2000.
On the other hand Windows Millennium is out in the next month or so. This provides a system restore facility that would save the need to back up your entire laptop computer as it allows you to back out of any harmful changes to the operating system or programs. This would best be used also with backing up any personal files. I really think that all that needs to be backed up is your personal files as these are irreplaceable. The operating system and programs can be re-installed from CD if need be. A Zip drive would suffice for such a job. Hope this helps. - Simon Porter

Submitted By: Kathy Pitts

Question: I hope you can help me with this. Whenever I log on to my computer, I get the following message: "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 its uninstall or setup program. If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file. C:\RealTime\System\viaspoxd.vxd Press a key to continue."
Another window with the exact same wording as that above follows the above but this time refers to the file C:\Windows\System\vmmrd.386
I have no idea what files they are referring to. By the way, the above are DOS messages (black screen - white print). After I press any key to continue as the message requests, I can proceed to log on successfully. 
I know that the above is probably not a very important annoyance, but it really is very annoying to have to go through the above whenever I log on to my computer. I believe I forgot to state that I am using Windows 98. My PC is a Compaq desktop. If you can help me get rid of this pesty situation, it would be very much appreciated but please, if you can, tell me what to do using easy-to-follow instructions. Thank you.

Solution 1: Click Start > Run. Type REGEDIT. Now search for these two file names and delete them. Please do backup the Registry before hand by clicking Registry > Export Registry. This usually gets rid of such a message.- Simon Porter

Solution 2: You must have uninstalled some program that deleted the file, but leaving the registry key untouch.
You can eliminate this by deleting the key from the registry entry, you can go to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE section, and search for the key by entering the file name and or the file and the path name just like shown in the error message, if it returns no value go the next section, or you can even just selecting the "My Comptuer section on top, and let the computer search it for you, but it may takes longer to complete.
A better solution is to use Norton Utilities or any registry cleaner utilities that will do the job for you, since you are using Windows 98, to avoid such an error in the future, you can use a free utlities from ZDnet called InControl which you can download from here: 
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000WRX,.html 
What it does is generate a log file that report what the installation program do, and if you perform uninstallation of the logged program, you can view the report, and see what is left uninstalled in your computer, so you can manually delete the remaining. It's not a smart program that can be used within a view click but it is the bestand the only of its kind that do such a task, you can get it on hands after a few use. It's a very useful program, a must have for Windows power users.
If you dont know how to use the registry editor, press Winkey+R (Run command from the start menu) and type regedit. See the help for a quick overview.- Bill Wiriawan

Solution 3: Here is your fix for this one this gives the direct path to get rid of them:
1. From the Windows desktop, click on "Start", then "Run".
2. In the "Open" line, type REGEDIT and click "OK". 
3. Click on the plus (+) sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4. Click on the plus (+) sign next to System.
5. Click on the plus (+) sign next to CurrentControlSet.
6. Click on the plus (+) sign next to Services.
7. Click on the folder titled VXD. 
8. Look for subfolders VRTWD and VIASPOXD and delete the offending .386 and .vxd Realtime references.
9. Exit the registry and the changes will be saved.
This program is a pain to say the least most people report not having even installed it- from the looks of it, it is preinstalled by compaq and IBM-Aptiva systems.
Its a sound card add on of some sort but thats all i have been able to track down.
Interestingly Microsoft has no mention of the .vxd in either Technet or Knowledge base so so far its an unreported problem. - John Carnell

Solution 4: With the missing file having a directory structure off the root would suggest an older or DOS oriented application/tool with Windows support by supplying a Virtual Device Driver (.vxd). The SYSTEM.INI would be the offending source.
1) Go into a DOS Shell.
2) This should take you to C:\WINDOWS, if not, go there by typing: "cd\" then "cd windows".
3) Now type "edit system.ini".
4) After loading the system.ini you should see the first line be the heading [boot], to verify you loaded the correct file. Now you can search for the offending instance by hitting [ALT] S and [ENTER] on Find.
5) Under Find What type viaspoxd.vxd.
6) Under the heading [386enh] of the system.ini it will most likely find this line: Device=C:\RealTime\System\viaspoxd.vxd. If not, find the mentioned heading and look manually, just to be sure.
7) You can now delete this line, being careful not to delete the lines that follow it. You may also comment out the line by putting a * in front of the line. Commenting out the line then rebooting to see if it worked before actually deleteing it may be a good idea.

You can also find the C:\Windows\System\vmmrd.386 in this way.
Please take note, you can edit the system.ini the way I described above or use Windows Notepad. I suggest using DOS's edit from personal experiences.
If you find the system.ini does not contain any reference to your offending device file names, then by all means start looking in the registry by using the suggestions provided by the others. I personally suggest trying the above first. - Ray Harvey

Submitted By: Isabel Rogers

Question: I have a problem with the new Windoes Media Player 7 beta. I have a CD-ROM drive as well as a CD-RW drive in my computer. When I try to rip tracks from one drive using WMP7, it searches for the audio info on the other drive instead.... if I have an audio CD in the other drive, I end up with a WMA containing a music clip from the wrong CD. The Microsoft newsgroup offers no explanations or fixes, but it seems I'm not the only person to encounter this problem.
Interestingly, MusicMatch Jukebox seems to be affected by the dual-drive as well. With both drives connected, MMJB hangs when I try to rip any music from an audio CD. However, now that I've disconnected my CD-ROM drive, both MMJB and WMP7 work fine.
Any idea what's wrong?

Solution 1: Well, first of all why don't you try the most obvious thing and put it in the other CD drive. Also, depending on which CD drive you use to play your CDs with, you should set this up as default in the Multimedia properties in the Control Panel. Do also bear in mind that Windows Media Player is still in Beta at least for the public. - Simon Porter

Solution 2: I don't think the problem is with WMP7 or with the OS. I had the same problem when I setup a dual CD-ROM/CD-RW setup. In fact, it is a universal problem with CD drives in general.
Most CD drives today support UDMA/33 (Ultra DMA 33). However, if you put two CD drives into one computer, it gets confused. Even if both CD drives support UDMA. I suspect you know your stuff pretty well, so I will be somewhat general on this and lead you down the right path. I will try not to be confusing but when dealing with hardware issues, putting things into words is a little tricky.
Hardware side: Both CD drives in good practice are both slaves. To illustrate, if you have two harddrives, put one on the first IDE controller as the master and the CD-ROM as the slave. On the second IDE controller put the second HD as the master and your CD-RW as the slave. Now if you only have one HD then controller one your HD is the master and your CD-ROM is the slave. On controller two, just make the CD-RW the slave. The bottom line: make both CD drives the slave.
Go into your BIOS and turn off UDMA support on the slave for both controllers. Do not make it AUTO or ON.
This alone may fix the problem, however... After the above and both CD drives are installed.
Software side: Go to your System Properties and locate your CD drivers in the Device Manager. Go into properties of first the CD-ROM. You'll be at details but select the "Settings" tab. You will see an array of checkboxes from Disconnect to Sync data transfer and DMA. Uncheck the DMA box. Now do the same for the CD-RW.
Of course, all computers react differently, the above is all you have to do. You may have to do one, the other or both. If you are not comfortable going into the BIOS, try the software side first. I do recommend doing both.
After all is said and done, do what the others have suggested and go to your Multimedia in the Control Panel and make sure the drive you want to use for audio CD's is selected under the CD Music tab.- Ray Harvey

Submitted By: Joel Pan

Question: Clicking on "energy savings feature of monitor", located in control panel,display, screen saver, settings, will adjust the time before the monitor will be shutdown. I works fine for a while: several hours, 1/2 day, etc, but then the monitor will not go into the idle mode. Will stay on all the time until turned off at night. However again adjusting the time before shutdown will make it work just fine "for a while". The driver has been reinstalled several times without appearing to make any difference. Gateway has advised that the only two options are to reformat the hard drive, or keep adjusting the time. Is it possible to somehow get this to work properly? Would greatly appreciate your help, thank you.
Have a Gateway desktop P111 500 with lots of hard drive space, using Windows 98 SE.

Solution 1: First, run the troubleshooter.
Is your system time running properly? is your battery still effective in the motherboard?
You have a problem on your APM/ACPI (Power Management) feature, which can connects to your system BIOS.
First, determine what kind of power system you have on your motherboard, go to the cmos settings, and open the power management section, make sure you enable the APM support, and disable all monitor power saving, HD down, or anything similar, let windows do the power management for your system.
If still there's no help, go to the device manager, uninstall all APM devices, and reinstall your windows with the following switch added: "/pj" this will enable the ACPI support in windows 98, the whole setup command will look something like this: setup /ie /iv /pj ..... (see the command list by typing setup /?)
If Gateway recommends you to reformat, try contacting microsoft, and see if they help, Maybe it's the time for you to reformat when nothing helps. Good luck.  - Bill Wiriawan

Solution 2: I would say to check and see if there are any new device drivers for your video card or maybe a BIOS upgrade. Sounds to me like there's a chance the video card drivers or the bios might be conflicting with the ACPI/APM. - Stephen Funderburk

Solution 3: You do not mention the date or manufacturer of your Bios..I have enclosed a bios utility that with properly give you the date and proper string of your Bios..It may also be that your bios does not fully support ACPI, you can run the acpi checker i sent as well.... good luck hope this helps- Craig Catapano

The following files have been scanned by McAfee ActiveShield from McAfee Clinc however we do guarantee these are virus free and you download them at your own risk:
ACPIHCT.EXE (203.5KB), ACPIHCT.TXT (2.9KB), Bios Wizard.exe (62.2KB)

Submitted By: Alton Colby

Question: When is Windows ME going to be released????

Solution 1: It will hit the store shelves on September 14th in the United States. For more information about Windows Millennium Edition check out the official website here. - Dennis Gregory (ActiveWin)

Submitted By: Chris

Question: I have a Logitech marble mouse installed under Windows 2000 and at completely random times, it will freeze. The device manager shows no error when that happens (and there are no errors or warnings in Event viewer). I have the latest drivers from Logitech installed, on a Dell Latitude. I can disable and then reenable it, and it will be fine, until it freezes again. A reboot will also remedy the freeze. I look forward to some help -- nothing else has even offered an explanation.

Solution 1: Just by having the latest driver does not guarantee that it will not have bugs in it. I myself tend to just stick with the drivers with Windows 2000 as they have been tested and certified by Microsoft. Try removing all the software and drivers to do with the mouse and install the one included with Windows 2000. Another thing to check is that your Logitech mouse software is indeed designed for Windows 2000, if not un-install it.
If you are still having problems then it could even be a problem with the mouse itself. Check with Logitech's tech support to see if they offer any additional help. - Simon Porter

Solution 2: Too bad you didnt provide us what port is your mouse using.
A USB mouse has a known problem of freezing periodically within some disk activities on some machine. What I know from the BETA version of Windows 2000, the system cannot initialize a mouse plugged to a com port with the adapter (you know which one do you?)
Another possibility is because the system has to initialize two mice simultaneously (Touchpad). If you use Mouseware, the program is launched every time you boot your computer, try to not load it and see if the system freezes.
(Go to mlin.net and download the Startup Control Panel applet, a utility to configure your startup environment in your system, you can add, enable or disable any startup item easily)
Try contacting your system vendor (Dell in you case) which is known for the good tech support, I believe they will provide you more info regarding this issue. - Bill Wiriawan

Submitted By: Brian Meents

Question: I have a sound blaster live platinum and an elsa geforce that appear to be conflicting with each other whenever video and sound play simultaneously. No conflicts if I set the resolution on the graphics card to 640X480 at 16 color. Creative cant seem to figure out the problem and ELSA doesnt want to reply to my inquires.... ASUS P3C-S motherboard PIII 733. and yes I am actually using RDRAM. 

Solution 1: You probably only have a low watt power supply say a 250 try getting a 300 or a 350 the ram you are using is that on the grapics card or th MB because intel recalled a large number of board i believe it was the I820 but cant be sure due to crash problems and other weird stuff - John Carnell

Solution 2: You might want to try switching the PCI slot for your SB Live Card. If you put it directly next to your AGP Card there would be a trouble. I've gone into the same trouble you have only mine is Matrox G400MAX and not the Elsa. Basically I guess it's got something to do with the IRQ. Check and see if the Live Card is using the same IRQ as the Elsa (I guess it should be the same) - Chairat Suvajanakorn

Submitted By: Unknown

Question: I have 2 identical ATA 66 hard drives with a 66 Promise controller. With W2K Professional is it possible to to have one drive mirror the other automatically. If so, do I need special hardware or software? If not, then where can I find information to instruct me how to set it up.

Solution 1: Yes, indeed. Right click My Computer and click Manage. Now click on disk management. Please do bear in mind that you will only be able to create a new mirrored partition if there is free un-partitioned space on both drives. The operating system cannot be placed in a mirrored partition without you using a hardware based RAID card that Promise also make. You would then need to connect the two drives to this and set via a jumper, for it to be a mirrored drive. This would then appear as one hard drive when you install Windows.- Simon Porter

Update: Open the Help File by clicking F1 for more information on this issue (in windows).

Solution 2: The 66 promise controller does not have built in raid support, but if you feel lucky and like soldering there is a way (the website escapes me) to enable raid capabilities on that particular controller.- Jason Rainwater

Submitted By: Shrop

Question: I'm having a problem with my emailer when I want to send a web link via email and it "freezes". To correct the problem I have to cont/alt/del and end the task to un-freeze.
When I open OE then the message with the web link that I wanted to send is then sent with no problem. 
I've tried reloading the program and that didn't correct it. I've checked all the config for OE and everything appears alright.

Solution 1: ODD - what O/S are you using Windows 2000 pro does have some weird issues with Outlook 2000 pre SP1 but I've not heard of any problems like yours using Outlook express. Have you tried reinstalling it?? _ also you can try waiting till IE 5.5 is released and install that it may cure the problem!! - John Carnell

Solution 2: I assume you are running Internet Explorer 5 with outlook express 5 running.
This could be an internet explorer and/or Windows system error, since Internet Explorer integrates their libraries direct to the system shell, it means that anything could happen that leads to this issue.
First, check if you have Powertoys (send to extension) installed, if you have it installed, remove all Mail and MAPI related items.
I recommend you to backup all your items in your message store folder, you can configure it and change it by going to the maintanance section at the OE5 preferences window (Tools - Options - maintanance), export your mails to a file, and store it in a safe folder just in case, and you can import it back later on.
I'm not sure how did you install IE5, but if the option is available, try uninstalling Outlook express 5 from the add/remove programs applet at the control panel, if the uninstallation is suceessful, proceed to the Internet Explorer Detect and repair (if it's available, choose Internet Explorer 5 from the add remove programs, and choose repair) this will let the system check for any corrupt file, and restore them for you. Restart your system, and go back to the add/remove programs, also from the same section, instead of repair, choose add/remove items to reinstall outlook express 5, follow the instruction, and restart your system.
After the installation is successful, go to internet options, and set the desired program, and make OE5 your default mail handler. Hope this rather complicated solution will resolve your problem, as it did resolved my client's once in the past. - Bill Wiriawan

Solution 3: There is one main question that needs to be found, when did this problem first show up.
If the problem showed up on first install, the first time you attempted to send your specific mail, then I concur with Bill to a point (defaults, explained later).
If, however, the problem didn't show up or you didn't notice until sometime later down the line, then a change had been made. This is definately a DLL problem.
If it was the latter and you use Win 98 or greater, I recommend using the System File Checker. If you are not familiar with it, the easiest way to get to is Start, Run, then type SFC. Follow the instructions on the screen. Another question is do you have OE as your default? OE5+ as the default mail handler changes your MAPI32.DLL. The DLL is suppose to be around 610k, after making OE5+ your default, it is 130k. This new DLL causes many system annomalies. Why it was done like that, I don't know. If OE5 is your only email client, it is safe not to have it as your default. When OE5 needs to be loaded automatically, such as a mailto: link on a webpage, if it is the only client, it will be loaded and function as normal. Putting the original DLL back from an install disc will do.- Ray Harvey

Submitted By: Mike

Question:  I ran the Win2000 defragger the other day, everything was fine. Got the "Defragmentation complete" message. Then I used the machine for a bit, so I know the files were still around. Then shut down for the night, only to power up the next day. When I powered up, the C: partition was gone. Booting with a Win98 boot disk and running fdisk showed me that there was some sort of partition on C:, but attempting to access that drive via the command prompt was invalid.

This was a clean Win2000 install, NTFS drive which had been running fine. Does anyone know what happened and/or how I can save my data? Any and all suggestions (desperately) appreciated. Thanks.

Solution 1: It is not impossible to have this kind of disaster, however, is it the only partition available in your computer? If it's an NTFS partition, try repairing with the setup program, boot the computer with the Windows2000 CD ROM, and choose repair at the next screen, and follow the screen instruction, and choose all repair, which the system will attempt to recover the MBR of your NTFS partition if there's still no help, reboot with the same disk, but instead of choosing repair, choose setup this time, and choose repair install at the next screen, and follow the screen instruction. I recommend you to create an ERD (Emergency Repair Disk) for your system, and update by time to time.
A more advanced solution is the recovery console, you must be very familiar with the available commands, read the help file for more info.
If you dont have any FAT or FAT32 partition, a WINDOWS98 STARTUP DISK WON'T WORK WITH NTFS. - Bill Wiriawan

Solution 2: II go with Bill on this one i can't think of any other way round this problem or other fixes.
The reason for the problem however may be that win2k did not shutdown correctly you have to ait till it goes to a VGA 640x480 screen after you shutdown. 
Otherwise services don't stop properly and files and folders that were stored in Memory(Ram) don't get saved properly. Ever wondered why Win2k takes so long to shut down if you have a lot of ram and after a heavy work session. Well that's why at any one time it is using Ram and Virtual ram to buffer applications and files to make them work quicker.- John Carnell

Solution 3: I have had somewhat the same problem. The fix that worked on my WD 13.6 GB drive was to create 7.8 MB of unallocated space at the end of the drive. I did this using Partition Magic 5.01. It seems like if there isnt that unallocated space, the system wont boot.- Alex Samanta

Solution 4: Let me guess, you woke up, started it and it stopped at ...C:\NTLDR missing?
well same thing happened to me after I RAN DEFRAG on WIN2000....same thing...used it for a while...slept, yes it is not always optional, and poof next morning NO Win2000! 
Now I must admit at the risk of self ridicule lol that I lost my sweet dual boot in the same manner. The only advice i can really offer is...using a bootable disk, run your win2k cd setup and use the R option to repair your boot sector....also you may need to check your boot.ini file? to see if its been deleted...
This a Bug in Win2000 we discovered or what? I thought i was imagining things when it killed my setup! have not been able to reinstall win2000 since i had to reformat...shhhh thats a long!!- Craig Catapano

Submitted By: Matt Weagle

Question: We will be deploying Windows 2000 on all of the PCs throughout our organization this coming Summer. We are trying to find out if there is any incompatibility between 
Windows2000 and Microsoft Office Suite 97/98. Of course, upgrading to Microsoft Office 2000 would be the next logical step. At this point, we want successfully deal with 
the OS first. We have tried to search for the info at the Microsoft homepage without success. We are hoping you can assist us.

Solution 1: I run a duel boot of win 98/win 2000. I have Office 97 SP2 installed, and after nearly 3 months of use i fail to see and compatibility problems The stability and and ease of use, make win 2000 an excellent choice. - Craig Catapano

Solution 2: Provided you have all of the SP's for Office 97 which ensure compatibility with W2k, there shouldn't be any problems at all.- Adam Sowalsky

Submitted By: Kap Peace

Question: I have a virtually new pc, 500Mhz amd K6-2 with Rage Pro Turbo AGP * 2 graphics from Time in Edinburgh, I am running at 800*600 16bit High Colour with a 17"Studio works Monitor 775N, and i find the writing and icons out of focus.
I recently came from a 15"monitor with clear focus , and i put it down to the bigger monitor or something, I have tried to contact Time about this with no reply or kept hanging on the phone line at 50P per minute.

Solution 1: Ok Here are some things to try:
Right Click on Desktop --> goto Properties --> Goto Settings.
Click on Advanced on the adapter tab check and see what refresh rate your graphics card is running at it may be running at 60hz set it up to 75 and see how that works. Or up as far as 85hz
Also click on monitor and see what type of monitor it is using it may say plug and play try changing it to a Standard Monitor 1280 x 1024.
If i remember rightly the monitor you have their is a samsung if you have clorific installed ( a Utillity that sets the monitor colour to match with true real life color) it can cause some weird problems if you haven't calibrated it correctly.
This was check out on Windows 2000 Pro you may have to adapt the steps for windows 95, 98 or 98SE systems.
The Studio works monitor has a tube provided by Samsung so the above step is still relevant with regards to the Clorific problem i believe its also a problem with Iyama monitors and Sony Trinitron as well. - John Carnell

Solution 2: I've checked out your monitor with a friend, and I found a "Moire" settings in the last item of the menu, try adjusting it, and see if it helps, 800x600 and 16bit settings for your monitor is a bit too low, try adjusting it for at least 1024x768 24 bit colors, this would allow the monitor to refresh as high as 85Hz. If another monitor still wont focus, it should be your graphic card problem, check your graphic card vendor's web site, and make sure you have the latest drivers available.  - Bill Wiriawan

Solution 3: Everyone sets the display adapter correctly. Also see if the monitor profile is set up properly.  - Mean Drake

Solution 4: Ok i hear what everyone's been saying, i have never used colorific, but i know a utility that is similar in nature that MAY help.

I use PowerStrip which to many, is a program used to tweak the monitor and graphic card qualities more than the original windows/card makers utilities, plus as those who use it know, it has a great overclocking utility built in..lol ..I know the monitor settings can be altered with better precision that with most programs I've tried..
D/l here and for more info
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm  - Craig Catapano

Submitted By: Tam

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