TSGL: Reformat Restore Can't Do It

[Don Penlington]

Dave wrote:
>The RAM sticks did not all go in easily when I installed
>them and when I removed the one 256MB stick I wondered at the time if there
>was a particular _order_ in which the RAM sticks should be in and if I might
>have removed one which resulted in the remaining ones being in the wrong
>slots order.>>


I don't know whether the location of each stick is vital---someone familiar 
with building will guide you here. I wonder if the contacts might have got 
damaged---remove the sticks and carefully examine all the contacts for 
signs of damage. Play around with them in different slots. See if it makes 
any difference. I believe they can be cleaned with a pencil rubber---just 
make sure you clean off any debris afterwards.

<<It only has one fan>>

Is there no CPU fan? That's often the one that causes all the trouble when 
it fails.

<<14.2GB Free
4.72GB Used>>

No problems there.

If you reformat, don't forget to back up everything you want to save.

<<I have dial-up.  Is the file too large
for me to receive via dial-up?>>

Depends what the limit is for your attachments set by your ISP. Contents of 
boot floppy will be about 1.4 Mb. I think that may be too big for dialup 
email attachment.

<< I think my system is FAT32 .>>

I think you can assume it is with W98. I don't think W98 will run on NTFS 
anyway.

<<These un-used ones are probably in the 4 to 5 yr. old
range.>>

I don't know what the shelf life of unused disks is. Usually, the better 
the brand (eg Sony) the better quality they should be and they will have 
better protective coatings. The glue from sticky labels,  or inks from felt 
pens,  in time bleeds thru cheaper protective coatings and can etch away 
the data. I would guess your Sony and TDK disks should be OK.  If in doubt, 
I'd burn several copies of really important stuff.

Having said that, I've never had any trouble with my old el cheapo disks. 
It's a matter of luck I guess.  Floppies are notoriously unreliable.  They 
wear out with repeated use. All my emergency boot floppies were duplicated 
at least 3 times, though they are now of little or no use with NTFS 
partitions, as dos won't read or write to NTFS.

<<I wish they gave
the option to install or not install their fonts.>>

If offered, you usually get that choice if you do a "custom" install.

<<I have to manually power it down>>

The trouble with that is Windows doesn't get a chance to close properly, 
remnants are left resident in memory (incl your 900 fonts if they are all 
in the primary Wondows/Fonts folder!!!), and the system pretty quickly gets 
well and truly hosed. The problems compound until you have to reformat and 
start with a clean install.

The only way to avoid that is to run a tight system, with regular registry 
backups and restorations. The registry is usually the first vital organ to 
get corrupted, then other problems will start to arise from there.
  The first sign usually is that the system starts to get a bit sluggish, 
or a few odd error messages start appearing. That's telling you it's time 
for a spring clean and registry restore. (See my web tutorial on registry 
backups and restores)

<<Sort of like
one of the TV Time Travel shows where they could never get back beyond the
point where they went back in time and were locked in an endless loop.>>

A good description. I know how you feel--it gets very frustrating. Try 
shaking it vigorously and screaming at it. Won't do the computer any good, 
but might make you feel better.

<<Now it won't shut down again.>>

Reinstall the patch.

Don Penlington









 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
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http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html