This goddam computer.

A problem has come up out of nowhere. I’ll be using my computer
(Windows 98) when it’ll suddenly freeze for no reason other than to
enrage me. So I press reset, and while it's loading that screen comes
up with the yellow percentage bar on the bottom of the screen.

At some point a box comes up saying that it detected an invalid
filename that is too long, and I should use Scandisk for Windows to
fix it.

So I run Scandisk, and it says it fixed any errors that it found.

An hour later, it freezes again. Repeat until fade.

Is there a downloadable freeware/shareware program on the internet
that can fix this problem (and any others) so that it will stop
freezing and I can put the mallet away?

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Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 21 Nov 2002 23:22 PST

Prior to that first "freezing" of your unit, could you tell us if:
1) you opened any attachments from your email?
2) you installed a program? If yes, what's the program?
3) you opened a file from an unchecked floppy disk?

Furthermore, it would help if you can tell us the/any error message/s
displayed in your screen.

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Clarification of Question by markabe-ga on 24 Nov 2002 18:06 PST

feilong,

To answer your questions:
1) I opened attachments, but only at work, because my home computer is
not hooked to the internet
2) I've installed heaps of programs, but I have no idea what the last
one was
3) all disks have been scanned for viruses

There are no error messages displayed, it just freezes.

---

Clarification of Question by markabe-ga on 24 Nov 2002 18:17 PST

bobthedispatcher,     

I have very few programs running when I use Windows, and even if I
close them all, it still ends up crashing.

If my filenames have to be eight characters long, I'm in a lot of
trouble; heaps of them are more than double that. However, it's been
like that for years, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

---

Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 24 Nov 2002 19:11 PST

How big is the size of your RAM?
Have your tried increasing the memory?
Have you checked your CPU's heatsink and fan? You might need to clean
it.
For the meantime, reinstall Win98 over your current installation and
see what happens. There's no need to reformat.

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Clarification of Question by markabe-ga on 25 Nov 2002 14:12 PST

aceresearcher, 
 
I've used Scandisk in the "Thorough" mode several times last week
(starting it just before I go to sleep), but it still freezes up.

It seems this is one problem Scandisk is not able to fix.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 25 Nov 2002 21:47 PST

Markabe,

I'd like to suggest exiting to MS-Dos mode (using the Shut Down menu)
and running "scanreg /fix" in case it might help.

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Clarification of Question by markabe-ga on 10 Dec 2002 21:02 PST

Thanks for all the suggestions - I ended up bringing it to the
computer shop where I bought it from, and they fixed it, saying it had
a lot of corrupt system files, so there ya go.

I suspect that a program you are using may not support the long file
names now typicaly used (pre-WIN98/95 there was a limit of 8
characters, a period and 3 more)  There may be something in Win 98
about selecting it, but I can't find it. More likely some program you
are using, possibly one that you had before upgrading to WIN98 is not
compatible and crashing when it encounters one, and there could be a
different program generating it!

What programs are running when this happens????
Can you shut down all unneeded programs, and run them one at a time to
see which may be causing the crash???

pressing CTL-ALT-DEL one (ONLY ONE) time will bring up  a list of
running programs, some are started automaticly when windows starts -
they should be shut down too, though some are required (Explorer, for
example)

Once you find that program, either upgrade it, replace it, don't use
it, of somehow make it avoid the "offending" files.

Athough this may feel like a cop out, I suggest one of the two
following courses of action:

Firstly, if you have your windows 98 installation cd, reinstall
windows. No need to delete anything or reformat. Windows 98 is pretty
good about installing on top of itself and reinitilizing a lot of
files that may be corrupt without losing many/any settings or data or
programs you have stored on your computer. I have done this at least a
dozen times, and it works pretty well.

The other option I might recommend is upgrading to windows 2000. After
living in the "98 world" for quite a long time, I thought that
computers simply couldn't be reliable. However, once I upgraded to
2000, my computer was at least 10 times as reliable. It wasn't
uncommon to be able to run the thing for weeks on end without it
crashing. The reason I'm not recommending XP is simply because it is
much too slow. Just about any computer that would be running windows
98 still probably is not fast enough to run windows xp. Actually, you
might not even want to install windows 2000 for the same reason.
Although I feel the os is better overall, it would run too slow on
anything less than a 300mhz computer with 128mb ram.

I hope this is of some help to you.

markabe,

I had this same problem last year. You will need to run Scandisk in
the "Thorough" mode, rather than the "Standard" mode.

I hope this helps!

aceresearcher

As you mentioned in your question, and as bobthedispatcher piointed
out, it sounds like your system is no longer supporting long file
names.

Not too long ago, there was an internet hoax about a virus called
sulfnbk.exe. It was an e-mail hoax and advised you to delete the above
file.

That file is responsible for supporting long file names in Win
95/98...
If you remember getting an e-mail like that and removing the file,
please visit on of these two sites for adding the file back:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/sulfnbk.exe.warning.html
http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99084

(They also describe the hoax. Instructions to add the file back are at
the bottom)

Hope this helps!