[emaan9301]

Hello, My children were given an older pc as a gift a few years ago. We did not have it on the internet until a few months ago and now it has given us problems since. It started out that every time they would go into ie and start surfing the web the browser would shut down. Today I finally decided to take a screen shot of the message so I could ask about it here. When I was pasting the shot into paint it gave me the same message for paint and again when i was trying to save it. I finished with that and rebooted that pc. I came over to my pc to get the screen shot so i could post it here and I can't access that pc from the network as it no longer shows up. I went back to that pc to see what was up with the network and it was not set up for sharing. I set that and it told me to reboot. While rebooting i got a message that says "Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows application. The windows registry or system.ini file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists. If you deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the associated application using its uninstall or setup program. If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file. vserver.vxd press any key to continue" When I pressed any keyy to continue it opened up the pc and I still cannot access that pc from mine through the network. I know that it is connected since I can access the internet from it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is one of 2 pc's that they can use and the other one is acting up as well. If I can not fix this one I will post a new question and try to fix the other one.

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This will rebuild the registry and also replace missing or corrupt system files

Boot the PC and keep tapping F8 right after the beep until you get options, select command prompt only, give it a minute to arrive at the prompt with a flashing cursor then type scanreg.exe /fix then press enter, it will run through a few screens then say registry repaired. Press enter then press ctrl + alt + delete keys together to reboot.

When Windows has loaded, click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools, system information, tools then run system file checker and replace any files it asks for from the 98 CD then reboot.

When it has loaded to the desktop, click start, programmes accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then run disc defragmenter from system tools

Did you install networking from the XP or 98 CD

Are the firewalls set for sharing

[Retired Tech]

This will rebuild the registry and also replace missing or corrupt system files

Boot the PC and keep tapping F8 right after the beep until you get options, select command prompt only, give it a minute to arrive at the prompt with a flashing cursor then type scanreg.exe /fix then press enter, it will run through a few screens then say registry repaired. Press enter then press ctrl + alt + delete keys together to reboot.

When Windows has loaded, click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools, system information, tools then run system file checker and replace any files it asks for from the 98 CD then reboot.

When it has loaded to the desktop, click start, programmes accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then run disc defragmenter from system tools

Did you install networking from the XP or 98 CD

Are the firewalls set for sharing

[emaan9301]

I am running the scanreg.exe/fix like you said now. As for the disk I don't have one, it wasn't given to us with the pc. It already had networking on it so I didn't install that I just changed it to connect to our network here at home. I'm not sure about the firewall, I hadn't thought to check it, i'll check it after the other finishes.

[Retired Tech]

You can run the system file check without the disc, click skip (check the dot is not in update the registry) just to get an idea of which system files, if any are missing

[emaan9301]

ok here is the only file that came up with a problem setupx.dll

Right now i'm running the disk defrag. I'll check the firewall after that is finished.

[Retired Tech]

setupx usually gets deleted, so unlikely to be a problem

[emaan9301]

When I just wen to check the firewall I don't' see that there is one on that pc. If there is it should be in the control panel, right?

[Retired Tech]

More likely in all programmes, you can check if you have any of these

http://www.filehippo...ware/firewalls/

The firewalls on all the machines which need to use the home network should be set for sharing, Zone Alarm calls it the trusted zone

[emaan9301]

Thank you, i am d/l zone alarm now as I never could find a firewall on that pc.

[Retired Tech]

Does it start properly now?

[emaan9301]

Zone alarm no longer supports win 98 pc's so i'm looking for a program that will. As soon as I find one and can get it on the pc i'll let you know how it's running.

[emaan9301]

I have no idea what I did wrong now. I d/l a program by jetico, off of zdnet.com and it is a firewall program to run on win 98 pc's. After installing the program and running it, it asked for a system reboot, now the pc won't boot up. It boots as far as telling me the message about the vserver.exe missing and to press any key, when I press any key it just sits there. I think I may have killed it now.

[Retired Tech]

Start it to a command prompt, type scanreg /restore then press enter, you then get a screen with registries, you need one which is started and before the recent install, either today or before should do

It should show that a working registry has been restored

Otherwise, scanreg.exe /fix from post 2

[emaan9301]

Thanks, that brought it back up. I don't understand this firewall though, I don't see anything about allow sharing for the files on the network.

[Retired Tech]

My 98 PC decided to retire itself, if only temporarily, so am without the advantage of being able to use it for this

However, this is for general help

http://www.helpwithw....com/windows98/

This is for internet sharing, so you can check the set up

http://www.helpwithw...hfiles/ics.html

If you need any help with it, please post back