re installing "my comp" or "win explorer"

[stuartey]

IS there any way of repairing or re installing the “my computer” or “windows explorer” sections of windows 98?

There must be a number on ways that this can get corrupted and I have a feeling that that is causing problems with my PC.

So far I have just tried to reinstall windows again over the top of the existing system but that has not caused the problem of my pc freezing for 10 sec periods

[ktkendall]

You could actually be looking at hard drive or even memory problems.. I would suspect harddrive first and get harddrive diagnostic program from the manufacturer. Also I wold exit to dos and run scandisk and do a defrag...

[reboot]

10 second freezes are usually the result of corrupt software/drivers taking ouver the CPU cycles, so nothing else can be done. I doubt it's got anything to do with a bad hard drive.
If you want to try again, you can reinstall Windows over top with the /p /f switches.
From the A:\ prompt, using a startup disk, you would type:
x:\setup /p /f with "x" being your CD-ROM drive letter.
If you want to monitor the system and see what's taking up that CPU time, use the task manager.

[stuartey]

Excellent. Will try all of those.

[stylin19]

curious about 10 sec freezes. Has this always happened ?
when did it start ?
does it happen randomaly ? or does if happen with regularity ? ( ie every 5 minutes).

Ms Office has a tool called fastfind, that has been known to freeze/slow a system on a regulary basis.

Also, you may devices sharing an IRQ that could cause the freeze.

I had bad video card updated drivers that did caused the system to feeze, then release. I reinstalled the old drivers and the problem went away.

good luck...

[stuartey]

Hmmmm, possible. Will try

[systempat]

Reboot,
What do the /p and /f options do for the setup ???

[stylin19]

From Axcel216's

Win9X/ME Setup switches

SETUP /?

"Setup Options: SETUP [/C] [/IL] [batch] [/T:TMP] [/IM] [/ID] [/IS] [/IQ] [/IN]
/C Instructs Setup not to load the SmartDrive disk cache.
/IL Loads the Logitech mouse driver instead of the Microsoft
mouse driver. Use this option if you have a Logitech Series C
mouse.
[batch] Specifies the name and location of the file that contains
Setup options.
/T:TMP Specifies the directory where Setup will copy its temporary
files. If the directory doesn't exist, it will be created.
WARNING: Any existing files in this directory will be deleted.
/IM Skips the memory check.
/ID Skips the disk-space check.
/IS Doesn't run ScanDisk.
/IQ Skips the check for cross-linked files.
/IN Runs Setup without the Network Setup module.

Note: The /a and /n options are no longer valid. Use NETSETUP.EXE instead."

NEW documented SETUP switches added by Windows 98/ME:

/IE Bypasses Startup Disk Wizard.
The %windir%\Command\EBD folder and the Emergency
Boot Disk (EBD) are not created.
/IH Skips Registry check.
/IV Skips billboards display during upgrade Setup from within
Windows.

UNDOCUMENTED SETUP SWITCHES:

/IP Bypasses detection of undocumented plug and play devices.
/IR Bypasses detection of system CMOS/BIOS and does not
update Master Boot Record (MBR).
/IW Bypasses Microsoft EULA licensing screens/dialog boxes.

/NTLDR Bypasses existing Operating System detection.
By default OEM/VAR Win95/NT full releases can be installed
ONLY on a new PC, without ANY previous OS, but this switch
allows SETUP to circumvent this "problem".

This works ONLY IF you create a new file (size doesn't matter) in the root directory of your boot drive (usually C:\) and name it NTLDR with no extension. More info.


/P Allows usage of additional switches after "/P" to
detect/view/log eventual errors.
Multiple /P switches MUST be separated by a
semicolon ( ; ). Example:
/Pb;f;g=3;i;j;p
Valid values:
b = enables the "Prompt Before" mode, allowing
step-by-step manual
device detection. Default is disabled.
f = enables "Clean Registry" mode: creates a NEW Registry
from scratch before starting hardware detection. Ignored if
SETUP runs in GUI mode. Default is disabled.
g = 0 - 3 = controls the level of progress bar display.
Maximum level is 3, showing all detected devices resources.
Default is 0.
i = bypasses detection of plug and play BIOSes/devices not
listed in MACHINE.INF. Default is disabled.
j = installs ACPI support. [Windows 98/ME ONLY!]

HINT: You might need to reconfigure the printer port in your BIOS to make ACPI work properly on your Win98/ME system!

p = enables performance timing logged in DETLOG.TXT.
Default is disabled.
/N Runs SETUP without mouse support.
/NM Bypasses internal processor detection (No Minimum) to
allow Win9x/MEinstall on systems that do NOT meet
Microsoft's minimum requirements
(486 + 386 CPUs). Especially useful with Windows 98/ME!

"SETUP /NM" switch "Win98 with less than 66 MHz"

/D Bypasses usage of installed Windows configuration (ignores settings in existing SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI etc).

Next 12 Win98/ME undocumented SETUP switches

/IA Skips Setup.inf "AfterProvider" section.
/IB Skips Setup.inf "BeforeProvider" section.
/IC Win98 boots without 16-bit real mode drivers. If
"KeepRMDrivers=1" setting absent from the Registry, 16-bit
drivers are not run from Config.sys or Autoexec.bat.
/IF Performs quick Setup. Uses CacheFindFirst for filenames and
speeds up DOS Setup. Verify for copied files is off.
/ICH Keeps Scandisk window visible during Setup. Useful if
Setup halts during Scandisk operation.
/IX Skips codepage checking. Allows usage of different
codepages for DOS and Windows.
/IY Skips language conflicts.
/NR Skips Registry check.
/S:inffile Loads custom Setup.inf. Allows unknown drivers to
install.
/T:directory Specifies directory used by temporary setup files.
/nostart If Setup runs from DOS or Windows/WfWG 3.11
copies only needed DLLs. Allows Setup to run on
non-working Windows/WfWG 3.11 systems.
/domain: DomainName Automatic notification to NT domain.
Win98 asks for network notification upon first load.
Works only in server based networks with NT
controlling usernames.
/SrcDir:directory Creates custom directory for Win98 Setup
files. New components are installed from this
location.
Correspondent Registry key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup


Next 6 Win9x/ME undocumented SETUP switches


/M Bypasses playing of Setup sounds (.WAV).
/NA Bypasses Windows/MS-DOS program check. Valid values:
0 = Default.
1 = Windows programs not checked, MS-DOS programs
blocked.
2 = MS-DOS programs not checked, Windows programs
blocked.
3 = Windows and MS-DOS programs not checked.
/ND Bypasses MIGRATION.DLL settings and forces Windows 98
to overwrite newer files (USE WITH CAUTION!). Files that
use .INF file ",,,32" flag force Windows 98 SETUP to keep
newer versions.
/NF Bypasses prompt to remove floppy disk from the drive. Used
for bootable CD-ROMs. Same as:
1. BOOTCD file present in the cabinet folder.
2. "BootCD=1" line present in MSBATCH.INF.
/NH Bypasses running HWINFO.EXE at 0 percent files and
RunOnce.
/NX Bypasses SETUPX version check.

Not all these SETUP parameters work with all Windows releases. Try them all out to see which ones are valid in your case.

[glc]

Another documented but little-known switch is Setup /p f (the space between "p" and "f" is necessary). This builds a new Windows Registry. Running Setup with this switch deletes existing settings that may have been in the root branch of your Registry. For this reason, Setup /p f is useful only if your Registry is hopelessly corrupted and you cannot fix it with a backup. But in that event, this switch can be very, very useful indeed.

This switch enables Clean Registry mode. It forces Detection to
clean the root branch of the registry before starting. This switch
is ignored when Setup is run in the Windows 95/98 graphical user
interface (GUI).