whoa! start bar gone?

[MaxRat]

My lil girls pc is missing the start bar....I mean it's gone....

how do I get it back? you can put the mouse at the bottom and it does not appear.....it start doin this about a week ago...

I have to use ctrl,alt,delete to shut down the pc as there is no where else to do it???

the pc is a Compaq 7360 presario 500mhz Amd k-6 (2) 3d
with windows 98se......could sure use some help here

the pc is only used for kids games ....as she is only 4....I reformatted this a year ago and did a full install of 98se and until now no flaws.....there is no modem or nic card just games.....any ideas..?...T

[Aaaron]

Try moving the mouse down to the bottom of the screen u should see two arrows appear (one pointing down and one pointing up joined togethor) click and drag the mouse up, the start menu should apppear

[ktkendall]

It may be hidden on the sides or the top, and as aaron said just move the mouse around till you see the black arrows, then hold down and drag it back out and put it back at the bottom. My kids used to do that a lot too...

[trulad]

Once you get it back,right click the start bar and check "lock the taskbar". That should keep it where you want it. I have one machine though that the taskbar is twice as wide as it should be. I uncheck the lock the taskbar and I cannot get it to the normal size. It is either below the screen or real big.
trulad

[ktkendall]

I don't think win98 had the lock the taskbar thing..

[MaxRat]

No dice on the double arrow trick (that was the first thing I tried)....I sure don't know what the heck is going on here but it sure is strange........I tried the top and sides ,bottom and no luck........

One mean trick to really hide the start bar....This pc has always had a mind of it's own......any other suggestions???

[ktkendall]

You can boot up to DOS by pressing F8 right at start up, and at C: prompt type scanreg /restore and put the registry back to the day before the taskbar dissapeared.. It should have the last 5 days saved..

[MaxRat]

I would do that but it's been gone like two weeks...I am just now getting around to fixing it......If I can't...I will rip it apart and get a new board, cpu and then redo the whole darn thing again....but was wanting to save a little...

[glc]

To shut down the PC, just hit the Window key on the keyboard, the start menu will pop up. While you are in there, go to taskbar and start menu settings, you may have a clue in there.

[ktkendall]

Yes you sound frustrated, but this is not a cause to rip it all out and replace the mobo and redo everything. Find those settings and you'll find the trouble..
I was just thinking it could be that she changed the screen resolution so that the taskbar is not visible..

[glc]

Good point - use the monitor geometry controls to shrink the display to make sure it's not off the screen.

[MaxRat]

tried the monitor resolution adjustments.....no work there either! have not tried the windows key yet...dsl is down for a few days will try and re-post results...thanks for the help..

[ktkendall]

Did you try as GLC suggested though, not the windows screen resolution but the actual geometry controls on the monitor itself??

[andyms18a]

reboot the computer in to safe mode by pressing the f8 key after you turn it on and select safe mode if the task bar comes back it shod be back to normal if not windows explorer has a problem and your best fix is a over the top install

[MaxRat]

KT...yea I did try the actual monitor resolution (on the monitor itself) and this didn't work.....I have had a lot of troubles with internet explorer5.0-6 and was the whole reason I did a fresh re-install of 98se....the last time I did it ...it took most of a day because as the place where I originaly purchased the pc did not furnish me any software (windows or the compaq recovery) and I have to manually find all the compaq drivers on the net....(this is a pain)

I recieved two 98se coa licences with this pcand nothing matches the numbers on the pc....futhermore the place is no longer in business.....so to save time ...I would rather put a new board ,cpu and memory in this before a new install...that way it will be a whole lot faster and I will have all the driver software....Terry

[trulad]

If you are going the new board,cpu,memory route you may as well go one step farther and get a copy of XP. Just getting rid of obsolete Win.98 will make your little girl's life much better.If you buy the parts at Newegg you can get an OEM copy of XP for like $90.00.
trulad

[GaryRouth]

. . . if nothing seems to be wrong in the Taskbar settings, and you're fairly sure there's no virus around, here are the notes for reinstalling over-the-top [like andy mentioned - if you use one of the two methods, you won't have to reinstall all your Compaq drivers, nor your programs or personal data] http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=70846
. . . Gary

[MaxRat]

Well I have not figured this gremlin out yet...I hit the windows button like Glc said to do....

I got the shut down popup with the programs ....so I can shut down the pc..(which sometimes it refuses too)

yesterday the startbar just appeared out of nowhere , at the top of the screen and was like four inches wide and all the way across the top of the screen.....

today it's gone again....this pc is haunted....what gives

[GaryRouth]

Since the issue seems to come and go, I wouldn't think that this Registry fix is the answer, but you can take a look & see if you'd like to try it:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=247502
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If that PC connects to the Internet, you could do an online antivirus scan at http://housecall.trendmicro.com -- just to be sure that it's not virus/spyware related. Or you can run a scan with whatever antivirus is installed on the PC - just update the virus definitions first. Or you can pull the hard drive, slave it in another PC, and scan it there.
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If moving the mouse-pointer (the cursor) to the edges of the screen doesn't cause the double-arrow to show (that would enable you to drag the taskbar to your desired -and visible- width), I wonder if trying another mouse might be interesting. Malfunctioning mice can cause some pretty strange behavior.
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The only taskbar settings I know of in Win98 that apply to what you're seeing are auto-hide, and manually resizing the bar by dragging. ---> so, if nothing else seems to help, I think an over-the-top might do it (though you'd want to make sure the system is virus-free before trying it). The details are in the link in my first reply.

Best of luck
. . . Gary