Well I don't know what the heck happened to my computer, the dumb thing froze up, so I had to use the reset button. When it came back, I got this red NAV auto protect window that said "unable to determine the location of the configuration files" and a [OK] in the bottome left corner.
So I hit enter and then it brought me to the windows CD Key window, so I put in the CD Key # and windows seem to load up till after the load up sound then I got that illegal operation screen and it said

EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in modale EXPLORER.EXE at 017f:00401f31.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=017f EIP=00401F31
EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=0187 ESP=0080feec
EBP=0080fef4
ECX=c14f8200 DS=0187 ESI=00000000 FS=0d67
EDX=0080fefc ES=0197 EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 08 50 ff 11 8b 45 08 50 8b 08 ff 51 08 8b 45
Stack dump:
00401ee0 0080fefc 0080ff34 00405cac 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000001 00404436 00000000
0059fc0c 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000

All I can do is close the window and then I get nothing. I can use ctrl+alt+delete and no programs are running so thi only thing I can do is to reboot or shut the computer down. I cam get C: prompt, but can't use safe mode or the other options. I can't even access my cd rom so I can use the windows 98 se cd to just reinstall... Idon't know what else to do other then to shoot it lol

Any ideas what can be done to fix this?


My guess it that's its dead and I should shoot it to put it out of my missary >:)

Well to tell you the truth, either format and re-install to get rid of all the probs your having or just re-instal rather, or switch to linux. Put linux on it and you won't really have to worry much more

Don't format just yet. Just try reinstalling Windows over the top first. It sounds like something has corrupted some files on your PC. Reinstalling Windows will hopefully overwrite these corrupted files.

So how can I reinstall if I can't get the computer to find/read the cd rom?

I have 2 hd's c: and d:, and a or b (floppy), but says e: is an invalid drive

Put the CD drive in the computer, turn the PC off then turn it on again. The computer should detect the CD in the drive and load the install for you. You don't need to go into DOS and run it yourself.

If it doesn't pick up your CD on booting, you will need to go into your BIOS and change the order of your boot devices so that the CD is before the hard drive.

Well it doesn't read the cd rom drive, and I know nothing about bios. How do I do that?

By hitting F1 when first starting the computer, you should be able to change the cdrom drive to be read first very easily, but its depending on your bios but you have a dell right, well they aren't that hard to change, just be careful though still

OK I've gotten into BIOS and this is what's on the screen now...

Boot Virus Detection : Disabled
CPU Internal Cashe : Enabled
External Cashe : Enabled
Quick Power On Self Test : Enabled
HDD Sequence SCSI/IDE First : IDE
Boot Sequence : C Only
Boot Floppy Seek : Disabled
Floppy Disk Access Control : R/W
IDE HDD Block Mode Sectors : Disabled
HDD S.M.A.R.T. capability : Enabled
PS/2 Mouse Function Control : Auto
OS/2 Onboard Memory > 64M : Disabled
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop : Disabled
Video ROM BIOS Shadow : Enabled
C8000 - CBFFF Shadow : Disabled
CC000 - CFFFF Shadow : Disabled
D0000 - D3FFF Shadow : Disabled
D4000 - D7FFF Shadow : Disabled
D8000 - DBFFF Shadow : Disabled
DC000 - DFFFF Shadow : Disabled
Boot Up NumLock Status : on
Typematic Rate Setting : Disabled
Typematic Rate (Chars/Sec) : 6
Typematic Delay (Msec) : 250
Security Option : setup

I haven't made any changes because if I do I'll probably really mess it up lol so what do I do?

Howdy:

Where it says "Boot Sequence", change it to CD-Rom.. save the change and exit out.. Make sure your Win98SE cd is in the drive..

As long as the cd is an original, it should fire right up..

Murray

Hey guys thnks to you I have my computer up and running again :)

Only one thing that that seems to persist is then red NAV auto protect window that said "unable to determine the location of the configuration files" and a [OK] in the bottome left corner.

I don't know what this means other then it's lost something lol, but the computer is running again and I really hope it stays running till I get a new computer :)

If there's something that can be done about the NAV thing I'd appretiate the help

Once again thanks for your help :D

You could re-install it or just get rid of it, but it won't matter much just you'll get that to come up when you start up.

So this Nave auto protect, will just keep showing up? How can I get it to stop like I use to have the PC load up before the crash?

I'm willing to bet that just maybe 98 may have caused the drive to crash into the drive and it is affecting it. Just a thought

Like Briggs said - uninstall or reinstall it.

If you are feeling adventurous, you could go Start >> Run, type MSConfig in here, then in the startup section uncheck anything relating to NAV. That'll stop it running at start up. Would be best to reinstall the software though as this isn't fixing the computer and Norton Antivirus (as I'm assuming this is what NAV is) is a useful thing to have.

I kind of screwed up what I said above, 98 may have crashed into the drive, meaning it scratched it and has corrupted the file. It will work to keep it from even starting like he said but to get rid of it and reinstall it or just get rid of it will do the same, and free up some space if you keep it off

How can I format C: drive when I am prompt "cannot fomat c drive because window is installed there" or something like that.

Too much crap that somewhat there and or pieces of programs or whatever is causing it to crash. Need to start with a clean drive and then reinstall Windows 98se.

What steps do I take to format C:?

I have tried to reinstall stuff but get too many errors or it freezes up
Done the scanreg /fix thing but its not doing a whole hell of a lot either

Thanks for help

Have you tried it in safe mode? Either that or closing all programs off manually except explorer. Most of the time its because the drive is in use.

Howdy:

Briggsdude.. the hdd is in use even in Safe Mode dude.. you can't format c: drive in Windows period..

You have to use a boot floppy and boot to DOS.. use the format command from the a: prompt in DOS!

Murray

Just to clarify here, you CAN format a drive from within Windows. However, you CANNOT format the drive you are running FORMAT from. Since, in the vast majority of installations, Windows (and therefore the Format command) is installed on C you will not be able to run Format from C.

The proper way to format the Windows drive, is to boot from a floppy or CD that has the format command on it and then run it from that location.

Oops, didn't read it I was in a hurry, umm yeah it won't format the one in use. But ahh you guys gave the answer