I have recently developed three problems on my computer, and I don't know if they're connected or seperate. 1) When I sign on, after the password box, and while loading other functions, a little grey box comes up with a blue bar across the top reading " Checksum failure!". Then in the grey box beneath it, there is a circle with a big red X, and next to it reads: " This executable is corrupt! Please obtain a new copy." and an OK box o click on. Until I do, nothing can be clicked. 2) While typing, usually after the computer has been on a while, the computer starts to beep mid typing, freeze, and skip all kinds of what I've typed ( cue obligatory jokes here). As it goes on, it becomes more and more constant, until after a while, it's every few letters. 3) Contrary to in the past, whenever I sign on now, I have to sign in to this ( and other sites), fill in my password,etc. Now a few notes to those who will respond. A) This is a slightly older computer which I rarely use for work, I have a newer Dell for that. This one used to be a friends, and still has many of his files. I don't know if that affects anything, but I used it for over a year without any problems. B) I know next to nothing about computers, so if you're going to offer help, please dunb it down. If you say to me something like " Oh, you've just gotta end-cloutch your XP sig and reroute your ergonitrix", I'll blink at the screen, and ask for an interpretation. Im's sorry, but I'm rellay, tremendously compu-illiterate. I just learned how to cut and paste a few months ago, for an example. This system is using Windows '98, and is an IBM Aptiva. Please help if you can, it's really frustrating mem especially the typing thing. Thanks in advance. JAG
Sounds really annoying. I think Windows98 is just a messed up operating system through and through. I think the first two problems can hardly be fixed by advice you get here, it sounds like one of these things where the best thing would be to format the hard drive and install XP. The third problem sounds as if you have some setting in your browser that prevents cookies from being stored, or you can only have session cookies. When you have auto-login at a site like the BBS, as far as I know, the information is stored in a permanent cookie. If your security settings are very high in Internet Explorer, it will not allow permanent cookies. At least that is the only explanation I can think of. Good luck.
Disclaimer: I should say that I really have no idea about computers myself, just trying to think of something that it could be. Fortunately, there are a lot of very skilled computer people on here. Try to check what level your security settings in Internet Explorer are. You need to go somewhere to Internet Options, there should be a security tab or so.
Thanks. Yeah..it's really frustrating. I have to stop every few seconds, go back and see what letters were skipped, invariably miss many, etc. And it just gets worse and worse, so I have to restart my computer to type anything. Q) Does "format your hard drive" just mean buying and installing XP, or is there more to it than that?
I was thinking about the second problem, sounds like you could have a memory leak that makes the computer kind of run out of memory after a while so that it freezes. But again, I have no idea.
1.) Are you using an internet provider like AOL? If so, you should be able to reinstall it and it'll fix that problem. 2.) Since it's an old computer i'm not a 100% sure but it sounds like your computer may have too many things running at once on a system that probably has low computer memory. My dad had this problem. We doubled our memory (RAM) and it still was doing the exact same thing. It would take 5 minutes to write out one sentence. We finally just broke down and formatted the hard drive and reinstalled everything. Since then, it's been great. At the bottom, right hand part of your screen do you have a lot of little icons? 3.) That sounds like your cookies are being deleted everytime you sign off of the internet. That will cause you to have to retype all your user Id's and passwords back in. I don't remember where to go to adjust that but i'm sure someone on here does.
Under system, it says that I have 53% free...is that relevant to memory? Weird thing is, I swear I checked it a few days ago, and it said over 70% free, and I've not downloaded anything since then.
One can theoretically install XP over an old operating system, but my impression is that some of the old problems get carried over. My father had Windows 98 on his laptop and had similar problems like the ones you are describing. I bought XP, formatted his hard drive (= deleted everything on the hard drive) and installed XP. Since then, the thing has not crashed once. It's a big hassle, though - you will need to back up your important data first, and you will need to reinstall all programs you need afterwards. Judging from your post, you will need help with that.
1) I'm using Rogers At Home, HS ( through cable). 2) My RAM say 128.0, and 53% available. Again, I don't know fif the two are linked, or just written in sequence. 3) Cool. I did install new security things recently, and that could account for that. It's the least concern of the three, and the first only concerns me because the box looks so serious, and I have no idea what it means. It's the second that's driving me nuts.
You can make that go higher by removing some of the small icons from the bottom, right hand part of your desktop. Go to your "Start" Button Select the "Run" button type in the space provided "MSCONFIG" Select the "Startup" tab at the top of the screen Then uncheck the uneccessary programs. Examples would be "Real Play", "Aim"
How do you delete everything from your hardrive? Actually, it might not be that big of a deal...I mostly only use this computer for games, sports internet, and p*rn . There's not a whole lot I think I'd be sorry to lose.
In the Windows Explorer or My Computer (the file manager) you go to C:, right click on it and select Format. Don't do it right now, though, because then it will take a while for you to be able to post again...
Granted that I hardly ever agree with No Worries on anything here, I do agree with him on this - you may have a virus, JAG. My OS is ME and I am getting problems all the time. Today when I got home from work, I could not get Outlook Express or IE to work right. I kept getting messages that said that not enough memory was left or something. Then the damn thing would not let me restart! I just had to unplug the computer. However, after the restart, I had a Windows Update come up and I installed the 2 critical updates for my computer. Apparently, there are a lot of viruses or trojans out there where if you don't have the security or firewalls etc, these malicious programs screw with your programs, especially IE. Just go to and see if that helps anything.
Here is a link to a site that does online scans. My computer took at least 2 hours to scan but it found at least 100 infected files about 6 months ago. housecall.antivirus.com
OK Mac...heres the deal Firstly....Win98 is notourius for memory leaks.. You should really go ahead and see if you can upgrade it to XP. Secondly....the *corrupted executable* is probably just what it sounds like..one of the startup programs are corrupted. Each program that is started when the computer is startedup are executables(.exe) files...if one of them has become corrupted...that is the type of message you would get. Virii very rarely have a screen warning you about what happened to your files popup...they do it in the background...and you would never know if you dont detect them with AV software. One of two things for you to do. Wipe the drive and reinstall your current operating system or Upgrade to XP. questions? you know how to get ahold of me.
I thought I would ask this question instead of starting a new thread on it. What is the most common program to write software these days or does it vary, like what does EA use to write its games or Microsoft use to write its office software, or Kazza use to write the P2P programs. Now I'm not interested in just these but just giving examples.
