Net Connection Problem in 98

[DysconneX]

Okay. My girlfriend is having a serious problem with her computer. I'll give you the entire story.

She does alot with her computer, and with only a mere 6 gb harddrive, she manages to fill it up really quick. It's a regular ordeal for her to sit down for a few hours and uninstall/erase stuff she no longer needs. Well, after uninstalling stuff Via Add/Remove Programs and clearing the Windows\Temp folder, as well as using McAffee Quick Clean, and restarting, she's encountered a most peculiar problem.

Her computer runs fine until she connects to the internet. It connects fine (she uses Dialup). But as soon as she does, Aol Instant Messenger attempts to connect to the internet. It then errors out, reporting "AIM has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor"

It then closes, and reports the same message each time it is opened.

Wait, theres more:

MSN Messenger and Internet Explorer report a similiar error:
"An error has occured and ______ must shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience"

At first, I figured AIM or MSN were damaged. Then IE errored when I opened them to redownload AIM. FTP clients also error out with a strange "Connection Failed [access violation@address 00E20B3F. read of address FFFFFFFF]"
Error. I'm guessing its a problem within Windows.

Is it possible to repair a Windows 98 install? I havent used 98 in about a year, so I dont remember. Any other suggestions are welcome.

[GaryRouth]

Hi DysconneX

and Welcome to PC Mechanic.

You can check over at the MS Knowledge Base to see if you can find an exact match for that error, but my 1st instincts would be to uninstall MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and do a "repair install" of your IE.

Before doing that, though, I'd do a complete system scan for viruses, with both whatever antivirus she normally has running, and an online scanner like HouseCall (http://www.trendmicro.com - it's a free service to show off their products: does a nice job - and their PcCillin is a nice product that has capabilities similiar to Norton's).

After the virus scan and the uninstalls, try a run of RegClean 4.1 (http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=list) The Registry is probably a bit messy with leftovers. RegClean is very easy to use too, and reliable. If you make a folder on her C: drive to hold it [call it something easy to recognize like "Registry Cleaner"] you can extract the files to it (the download is a self-extracting file - just point it to your folder, or place it in your folder, and double-click on it to extract). To run RegClean you double-click on the RegClean.exe file thats extracted (you don't, and shouldn't, run it from a shortcut - because it generates an "UNDO" file that you can use if its fixes cause more trouble than they fix. This undo file is saved in the folder from which RegClean.exe is run. [By the way, in four years of using it, it's never caused me a problem on any of the many, many computers I've used it on])

OK - after the virus scan, uninstall, and RegClean: you're ready to try a "repair" install of your IE: Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/System Information - and from the "Tools" menu, select "Internet Explorer Repair Tool". If you don't see this option, you can go to the Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel, and select Repair (a 2nd option when you click on Remove for IE).

Then try her Internet connection again. If still a problem, try uninstalling/reinstalling her ISP software and try again.

I wouldn't reinstall the Instant Messenging programs until you have the ISP connection running smoothly and error-free.

Best of luck, and Happy Holidays
(post again if you have any questions)
. . . Gary

[DysconneX]

Great response Gary, much appreciated. Glad to be here. I've watched the forums for quite some time, and decided I needed the forums help.

I haven't found out what service she uses for her internet, but i know she doesn't use any ISP software. Just a standard Windows dial-up connection.

I'll have her go through the antivirii, but is that what you think it could be?

Thanks for the RegClean link. I'll certainly use it on my system as well!

But yeah, like I said, her internet connection works great, 'cept anything that uses the connection fails to work, making it just about useless.

Thanks again, I'll try these. Any more suggestions are extremely welcome and appreciated.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

I hope it's not a virus: but I always run a thorough check when making a system change to rule it out (saves headaches for later trouble-shooting).

With RegClean - I recommend it mostly for Win95, 98, & 98se. You don't need it if you've got WinME: it has System Restore built-in. (Win2000 & WinXP also have System Restore, & RegClean won't run on them anyway). And if a system already has a different Registry Cleaner (I imagine Norton Utilities has a Registry Cleaner in it), you wouldn't need it there, either.

If she has Win98se, I'd recommend System File Checker, but it's a tricky program to run on a system that's been in use a long time & has never run it before. In such cases, a lot of attention to file versions is needed, and there are a lot of files that get listed, especially if the options to show all changed/deleted system files: - you have to know which you really need & which are best left deleted.

If the first tries don't help, she can try re-creating the DUN connectoid. Somewhere I had a program that checks the file version "health" of all the DUN and COM components. . . wonder if I can track that thing down. . . (I got it originally from the microsoft download site)

Again - best of luck
. . . Gary

[I don't reinstall Windows much, but if it comes to that, seems like reboot and others have a lot of experience with that. I tend to try clean installs: it gives me another chance to tinker with tuning the beast]

[reboot]

If necessary, installing Windows over top of itself can usually fix things up. It's simple and easy to do, and all settings and files remain intact, except for corrupt and missing ones.
Just run the setup.exe and follow the prompts on screen.
Make sure you select "Other Location" and install to c:\windows and NOT c:\windows.000, otherwise you'll end up with two installs of windows on the same machine. Not good with only 6 gig to play with.
Before you jump to that though, I would completely remove DUN in add/remove programs, then restart and Start > Run > and type in: inetwiz
Make a whole new connection to the net. This will force a reinstall of all DUN components, so have the windows CD handy.

[DysconneX]

Okay, so after reinstalling the DUN, and configuring it for her internet, give it a try? And if that still doesnt work, reinstall Windows?

Thanks for the help

[DysconneX]

Oh, and there's a new development that might or might not make a difference...

Today she tried the same thing, only when AIM crashed, she reloaded it again, and it crashed and also gave her this message:

"Loaqum: The program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. if the problem persits, contact the vendor."

I have no idea what the Loadqum file does, althought the name sounds familiar.

[GaryRouth]

I imagine that the file is probably loadqm, a queue manager for Instant Messenging in Windows. MSN Messenger and MSN Explorer use it, an article on it mentions that it is used especially for automatic Windows Update messages and downloads.

Here's one of the loadqm articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309418

And a link to a site where you can look up background jobs that run on many systems, and find out what they are doing:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

And the more thorough link, that gives more background information on controlling what starts and what doesn't, from that same site:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm#THE_PROGRAMS
_______
And thank you, reboot, for the reinstalling Windows over the top method. [It's funny, but after 10 years with Windows (and 21 in the computer field) I've yet to do an over-the-top reinstall. . . ]

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[DysconneX]

To be honest Gary, I've been in the computer business for about 6 years, and building them for a whopping 3, and I prefer to format and reinstall (usually because when I @#$% up my PC, i REALLY mess it up.) But she doesn't have alot of expertise, she's never formatted a system and started from scratch, and even tho she has multiple ways of backing up her data, it'd be alot more trouble then just reinstalling over Windows.

And when she told me about the "Loadqum" error, the first thing I thought was Loadqm. She's been under alot of stress lately, and I figured she probably got the name wrong, but I'd rather let you guys figure that out :).

Well, I'm still waiting for her to reinstall, she's not being very speedy about it, so suggestions are still welcome.

Thanks for the responses so far guys (and gals?)

[mike breck]

It sounds to me as tho one or more programs took shared files with them when they were uninstalled.

As reboot says, reinstalling Windows and IE over the top can usually fix most of these file problems and retain the data integrity.

I must tell you that since Win95, I have never been too impressed by either Windows Add/Remove Programs or the Uninstall feature of many programs. In many cases a lot of debris is left over (files and Registry entries). Sometimes shared files and dlls get taken out as well which can cause major headaches.

If she is finding uninstalling programs a big chore, then the easy solution is to use a third-party uninstaller program. There are many commercial programs out there and Reboot can give you the name of some free ones. I personally have found CleanSweep to be very good.

It monitors the installation of a program, noting changes to your registry and system files. When uninstalling it reverses this info does a compressed back-up of the program. If there's a problem, then you can restore the backup which allows you time to sort out the problem. If there isn't a problem, then you can delete the backup after a few days.

If also contains programs for cleaning the Registry (it backs up the changes before cleaning), deleting orphan files and dlls, and a very useful utility which can move existing programs to another location.

If you combined such a program with the RegCleaner that Gary suggested (a second Registry sweep - just to make sure) then you have a very good and easy uninstall regime.

In my opinion, much better and safer than letting programs uninstall themselves.

[DysconneX]

I agree totally. Occassionaly, I'm seen manually going into the registry and deleting all the keys that correspond with a certain program name. What I'm doing isn't the smartest thing, but it does clean out alot of junk that I thought was uninstalled.

CleanSweep? Are you referring to Norton CleanSweep? I do believe I have that...

[DysconneX]

Bah. So she's managed to lose her product key. And seeing as how her household has 3 computers, and all 3 run a slightly different version of Windows 98, she's having trouble locating the right key. Is there a way I can check the product key currently in use on a machine?

[GaryRouth]

If Windows is still mostly functional on the troubled machine, you can try downloading (on another machine, I imagine) SiSoft Sandra, which (if it will install on the problem machine well enough) will list the current product key under the "Windows Information" section. BelArc Advisor might do this also, but I haven't tried that one yet (another thing I haven't gotten around to).

SiSoft Sandra can be downloaded at:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk

As Rosanne RosannaDanna (of Saturday Night Live) used to say, "If it's not one thing, It's another"
. . . Gary