My grandson has an Acer computer with w/98. It starts and then says changes have been made to the reg.When I run Scanreg it freezes up. Help

You should be running SCANREG /RESTORE. How are you attempting to run it? from safe mode / command prompt? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221512

There is also SCANREG /FIX which can sometimes help. some other bloke...

The problem is, no matter what I run, the computer freezes after a couple seconds. I tried loading a new virus ware, in safe mode, and half way thrue the download, it stopped woking, and went back to the error page.

I've found over the years that W98 sometimes reports registry errors when there is a RAM problem. It might be a bit of a long shot but try this: Remove the RAM sticks and clean the edge connectors with a pencil eraser. Then pop them in and out of the sockets a few times to clean the oxide off the sockets themselves before pressing them firmly home. I've been bitten so many times with this, it's something I now try before getting immersed with software issues. some other bloke...