After getting Windows 98 start screen am getting a very nice blue screen.. Fatal exception 06 has occured at 0167:00000017 Application terminated. Can someone tell me what i have to do in plain English please. I dont want to have to reinstall as i have some important uni work on my laptop that i need to retrieve. I take it my little brother has been messing around with my laptop and deleted some important registry files or something? Some help would be grateful otherwise he isnt getting a birthday present !!! many thanks Carl

Generally speaking, the error messages are accompanied with some indication of which process caused the problem. Knowing which program of file to fix is often useful. One thing you mght try is to boot to dos (press F8 as the system boots and choose 'command prompt only') and enter the command 'scanreg /restore', chose a date before the problem began.

Well i think he was trying to install a game or play a new game on my old laptop. He is 10 !!!! But i dont know how to do anything in dos with how to look or stop it etc.. If it is that game that is causing the problem. I dont know what he has done or deleted...

You still didn't answer my question about the error message. The dos command 'scanreg /restore' might fix the problem. All you need to do is enter that command at a dos prompt which you can get with the F8 key. After typing that exactly as I've shown it, press the enter key. You will then be presented with a list of registry backups to choose from. Pick one before your little brother played with your computer. This may solve your problem. If that doesn't work, try booting into safe mode, another option on the boot menu accessed with the F8 key.

Well i dont think it does point to any particular process. as it is on screen after window 98 starup screen has been on for 10 seconds.. A Fatal exception 06 has occured at 0167:00000017 Press cont/alt/delete to restart or press any key i cannot get into the computer even in safe mode.. get the same blue error screen. I will try the above entry later on when i get home. many thanks for that - fingers crossed hey..

Great success !!!! thanks very much for that it worked fantastic.. cheers CARL.

Great to hear Carl, the next steps could have gotten messy. Now that you can boot to windows, you can do some backing up!