Hi, I received an e-mail to tell me I am able to post again on the message board while connected via my Adsl (that I couldn't use). That's wonderful news! I'll be here very often then! Thanks a lot Justin! Gérard from Paris, France

0

Dear Folks: I wrote Microsoft tech. support for help on this problem and got a response as to what to try. This is what they suggest. It sounds a bit challenging for the "technically challenged": MS writes: "Based on the service log, I would like to confirm that I understand the problems as follows: You get the blue screen and error message "the system is busy or has become unstable" in your Windows 98 computer. Based on the information, in order to narrow down the issue more efficiently, let us restart the computer in Safe Mode to see if the problem also occurs in the mode that loads a minimal protected-mode configuration, disabling Windows device drivers and using the standard VGA display adapter. NOTE: Since the system does not load the network driver, we cannot access Internet in Safe Mode. 1. Click Start, click Run, type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK. 2. Click the advanced button, check the box beside "Enable Startup Menu". 3. Click the Ok button and restart your computer. 4. When the Startup menu appears, select the Safe Mode. 5. Check if you can enter Control Panel normally at this point? Does the issue occur in Safe Mode? If not, I suggest we temporarily disable all the programs in the Startup Group to verify if it is a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) program causing the problem. Let us perform the following steps: 1. Click Start, click Run, and type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) into the Open box, click OK. 2. On the General tab, select Selective startup. 3. Deselect the following check box: Load Startup Group Items 4. Click Apply, click OK and click Yes to restart the computer. Note: Temporarily disabling the Startup Group only prevents the program from loading at startup. This shouldn't affect the system or other programs. We may still run these programs manually later. Does the problem occur after we unload the Startup Group? If not, let's step through the Startup Group to narrow down it: 1. Click Start, click Run, type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) into the Open box, and click OK. 2. Click the Startup tab, click to check the first unselected item. 3. Click Apply, click OK and click Yes to restart the computer. 4. Does the problem occur? If not, please repeat the steps 1~3) above, check the remaining sections of the startup group tab, one at a time, and start the computer after each checkmark adding. When the problem returns, the last check box you selected is loading a program that is causing the problem.>> What exactly is a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) program as mentioned above? He doesn't explain what that is and I'd like to know? Any feedback on the above procedure?

0

I actually ran through all the above steps and the problem was never duplicated. Back to square 1.

0

Hello Jesterabk, I'm sorry about the problem which is not solved yet! >What exactly is a TSR (terminate-and-stay- >resident) program as mentioned above? He >doesn't explain what that is and I'd like >to know? As the name says it, a TSR is a utility that is not unloaded from the memory. When you start Internet Explorer, you get a new window and the possibility to exit the program (this is not a TSR). On the opposite, some programs are lauched, usually automatically and are stopped only when you exit Windows. Take a look at the system area (bottom right of the screen), you can see oodles of programs that are running: the Antivirus program, the scheduler, the clock, etc. these programs will be running all the time and use some parts of the RAM, that's why they are said TSR! There are other programs, the list of which you get asking for Start/Run/MSconfig+Enter/Startup tab. Gérard from Paris, France

0