msgsvr32 not responding

[Carl Price]

Maybe every other day my cursor turns to an hourglass and then I hit ctrl-alt-del. The task box comes up with "msgsvr32 not responding". When I end this task control of my computer is returned to me and I'm good for a couple more days. This is not fatal but it sure is annoying. Does anyone know what is happening? I'm running a Shuttle AV18e with a 1 ghz. p3 on it. Operating system is Windows 98se. I have 512 megs of ram and plenty of harddrive space.

[GeneC]

msgsvr32, when you get this error it usually means that there is some kind of hardware conflict taking place, i.e. two devices trying to access the same resource at the same time like the sound card and any other device. I used to get a lot of those as well, turned out that I was using the wrong driver for my sound card.

[edrod13]

I know that 98se supports up to 512MB or ram and then anything over that one must modify the Vcache settings. I have heard of some systems where it did not play nice with 512MB. I personally ran a 98se system with 512MB for a year with no problems, but you might want to search the forum for different experiences by other members.

Edrod13

[edrod13]

Carl,

I tried to find a post I one saw about a member having problems using 512MB but I could not locate it. I guess the problems lies somewhere else. Sorry

Edrod13

[reboot]

Win98 doesn't like RAM over 340 meg. Change it in system properties, advanced (I'm on XP and can't remember exactly where).
The msgserv32 error can be caused by a simple sound file being corrupt. Change the sound scheme on the computer, and it may go away.

[Carl Price]

Well, I don't know if this fixed it or not, but the last information I had (a Microsoft knowledge base article) said it was a problem with power management. I enabled power management in the bios but disabled all events so Windows could manage power and so far it is working properly. Power management does not seem to be Windows 98's real cup of tea. I disable all events in the power management applet thru control panel too.

Unless I get another hourglass, I consider this problem fixed.