My Comp Just took a HUGE crap on me

[MrNasty567]

The subject basically describes it, I restarted my computer and now the res is stuck on 640x480 and 16 colors, if i even try to fix it the computer freezes, the mouse stopped working and my restoration disk just tells me"This disk can only be used on a gateway computer" and guess what, THIS COMPUTER IS A GATEWAY, also, i think that something is wrong with rundll32 if that helps(until i started turning programs off at startup it kept crashing things) this blows immensly (and im running winME)

[Andrewxcav]

Have you installed any new hardware? That could effect the system restore disk.

[Markoman01027]

What video card are you running?

AGP speed set to 4X in BIOS?

In the BIOS, is it set for VGA?

Did you change anything after the reboot? If you did, try to remember what you changed, and set it back to what it was and see if you are able to change the resolution without any freezes.

Update your Video Card drivers, and see if the problem still occurs.

Post back with the results!

[Andrewxcav]

see if the ocmputer wil lwork in safe mode and if it does look in device manager to see if any devices have errors

[Markoman01027]

Do what Andrew suggested, and also run MSCONFIG, and go into the startup tab, and remove one program, reboot and see if are able to boot up normal and change resolution fine without freezes..if no success..go back into safe mode and remove another program. Maybe a program is keeping you from changing a resolution.


In the "Advanced" settings of MSCONFIG, make sure VGA 640X480X16 is turned off, if anyhow you have it checked.

[MrNasty567]

ive got a ti4200 which would be the new hardware and I still need to figure out how to get the mouse to work again

[Markoman01027]

When your in SAFE MODE, USB does not work. So if you are using a USB mouse, make sure you use PS/2 instead of USB. You should have a PS/2 Connector, or else just get a PS/2 MOUSE . That way your mouse will work in SAFE mode.

Are you able to enter SAFE Mode Though?

[GaryRouth]

The GateWay Restore would probably take you back farther than you reall want to go - a milder Restore try might be to use WinME's built-in System Restore (If you're not sure how, and you can boot into Safe Mode, check the Help files in there). Choose a restore point from before your recent trouble. Some Gateways have a program called GoBack, which takes over SystemRestore's territory, so to speak, - if you have that running, do the same with that program, namely "GoBack" to a date prior to the recent trouble.

If you're in a hurry, you can still get around with just a keyboard in Safe Mode. [Matt's idea about adding a ps/2 mouse to get around in Safe Mode should work, but it'd take up an IRQ - so if you add a ps/2 mouse, remove it when you reboot].

If hardware is failing, no restore is going to do much. You've got a pretty good chance, though - since it's run32dll errors - that sounds like drivers/subroutines (dlls) . . .

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[MrNasty567]

i havent tried going into safe mode yet because the computer is still working (somewhat) in normal mode, as for the driver thing, i have tried the newest and the second newest video drivers and the computer keeps complaining about my ps/2 mouse drivers(i forgot to mention that the computer wont even show a mouse cursor and it still highlights things and gives tooltips when something is in the default cursor place(in the middle of the screen))

[GaryRouth]

As long as your ps/2 mouse isn't a cordless, try uninstalling any special drivers that came with it and just using the built-in mouse support in Windows.
1) Boot into Safe Mode
2) Remove all mice from Device Manager
3) Uninstall all mice drivers, if any, from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
4) During Reboot: enter Bios Setup = and ensure that the ps/2 port is set to "Enabled" . . . or, if you can't find it, try something like "Save Defaults and Exit". You can tune for performance later.
5) After you exit Bios Setup, saving changes, Windows should re-detect the ps/2 mouse and use it's built-in driver.
_____
Did you get the video working OK?

. . . Gary

[MrNasty567]

after eliminating everything but the static VXDs from bootup I finally have a working mouse, so now im down to the video probs

[MrNasty567]

I have everything working again after telling my system.ini and win.ini files to not get processed at startup. Is this going to mess anything up by any chance? I also forgot to mention that I had to reinstall my video card and the mouse literally fixed itself.

[GaryRouth]

I prefer to have working win.ini and system.ini files in my Windows9x computers, mostly because since they are older they have lots of older 16bit code programs that need the settings in there - old drivers can start from there, too. You can look in Windows Explorer and see if you have older versions of those files - compare them to what you have now for clues as to what went wrong. (For example: the current system.ini might have a reference to a different video or sound driver than the older, reflecting changes that you've made. Or perhaps it still points to an older driver that you no longer use - or no longer want to use). You can make a backup copy of those files, and try editing out references to things that you are certain are no longer there. If you make a mistake, just copy the backup back in.

Did you uninstall the mouse software during your troubleshooting & switch to the generic builtin Windows mouse support?

What made you decide not to use System Restore (is it disabled?) . . . (just curious)

Best of luck & Happy Holidays
. . . Gary

[MrNasty567]

system restore has been disabled for a few weeks(convienient, isnt it?) and turning off system.ini and win.ini fixed all of my mouse probs and then i had to reinstall the video card, things have been a little goofy in terms of how my computers working since i fixed it yesterday, but nothing too bad

[MrNasty567]

here are the contents of my system.tsh(i went to system.ini and it told me the file was actually system.tsh)
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[boot]
*DisplayFallback=0
[drivers]

*DisplayFallback=0

[386Enh]
EMMExclude=C000-CFFF,C000-CFFF

so im guessing the problem is the fact that its EMPTY
win.ini works though(i tried booting with it too and it just decided to work)
NEW PROBLEMS
my computer now wont remember ANYTHING(in terms of settings and stuff), my antivirus wont open and cant be reinstalled(it says a key is locked and i need more access priveleges), and my computer takes like 5 minutes to restart and shut down

[MrNasty567]

firewall still works though

[Markoman01027]

MrNasty,
I suggest backing up your important DATA and reformat the hard drive. This will restore the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI file to how Windows wants it.

[MrNasty567]

umm, is there another way? i dont exactly feel like backing up 35 gigs of stuff and then getting a new windows cd(as i said earlier, mine wont work because i put a new vid card in it)

[andyms18a]

if you have a frend with the same op sys use his disk and your
cd key and reinstall windows on top of its self or try booting from a boot flopy and runing scanreg restore

[Markoman01027]

Try using SYSTEM RESTORE or like AndyM suggested, run Scanreg Restore in DOS.

[Markoman01027]

Mrnasty,
Sometimes reformatting your hard drive is the last step you have to take to correctly solve your problem.

[GaryRouth]

Hm... a little messy situation: let's see if we can have you fixed up before Christmas.

1) I'd run diagnostics on the hard drive before going anywhere else. It's a real pain to do all the other restore work only to find out the drive is dying. If you don't have the diagnostics, you can download them from the manufacturer's website (the maker of the hard drive, not Gateway). [You create a bootable floppy from the download & run the diagnostics from that.] Test the system memory too, just to be sure it's not hardware: http://www.simmtester.com

2) If the hardware is OK, the mildest Windows repair is to run the System Restore that's builtin to WinME (or run GoBack, if it has taken System Restore's place). Don't worry, if your system has been running for quite some time just fine with the newer nVidia card, you should have a restore point after the nVidia install, but before your recent trouble. Be ready to update stuff like DirectX and your video drivers after the restore.

3) If you are still having serious problems, you can try installing Windows over itself. You can get your product ID by downloading/installing/running SiSoft Sandra (a system analysis set of tools) Run the applet marked "Windows Information" to list your product key - it will also tell you lots of info about your versions of Windows components.

4) If you have your old video card around, and things are still awful after all your other tries, you can put the old video card back in & run the System Restore CD set from Gateway. YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA SINCE THE TIME YOU PURCHASED THE COMPUTER: if you choose the option to reformat/reinstall the whole works. You will be starting over from the beginning. But everything should work. Just remember to unplug any printers, modems, cable modems, ethernet connections, digital cameras, scanners, etc, while you are running the Gateway Restore.

Best of luck, I hope one of the milder fixes will do.
. . . Gary

[p.s. ...forgot to give your the link to SiSoft:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk ]