Am trying to get my grandson's computer to work again. I know he downloaded some music, from where I don't know. I can't get connected to the internet, so am trying to make copies of cleaners on disk and run them on his computer. I managed to run Adaware SE and a couple of others and have gone as far as reinstalling WIN98, however, everytime I click on any of the icons, I get the message that Explorer has encountered an error and needs to shut down. I click on ok and then can access the program, i.e. Word. When it starts up, it is looking for a .vxd file. Have no idea what this is, but it doesn't stop Windows from starting up. Can't get it to connect to the internet, so have to do everything by copying to disk then on to his computer. Any suggestions would be greatfully received.

why would you take it to a computer shop? didnt you sucessfully reformat the HD?

Yahoo!!!!!! did the format and clean install. I also added 128meg RAM, but when I check, the computer doesn't seem to be recognizing the additional RAM. Any suggestions for that? Maybe I didn't put it in securely enough. Have to take the darn thing apart again and check. What a pain getting it in the first time. The cabinet is very compact. Anyway, other than checking to see that it is seated securely, do you have any suggestions for me before I take it in to the compute shop.

Walkeriam, can't thank you enough for all your help so far, it's been great.

Thank you for your reply. I did not format, I just reinstalled Win 98 after having cleaned up the disk, run virus scanners and defragmenting. Part of my problem is that I can no longer connect to the internet on his computer, which is what started this in the first place. He couldn't connect to the internet. Now I have no idea what is wrong. When I did the reinstall, everything went smoothly, but obviously, something is not right. Is there any other information I can get that will help you help me???? since I need all the help I can get on this.

Thanks again

I have a Compaq disk (since it is a Compaq pc), but it is only a diagnostic disk. It says disk one of 2, so will also try to find out if he has the 2nd disk to see what that is. Will see what I come up with. Thanks again for your time and advice.

You should get an ANTI-VIRUS program installed and updated immediately. AVG FREE EDITION is very good and it is FREE. You can download it from here: http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0....20&search.y=11

Also, go to WINDOWS UPDATE and update all the critical updates and service packs as soon as you can after getting on the internet.

If while downloading the music, he downloaded a virus and you reinstalled windows on top of itself, the virus would still be there. Did you format and recover or just recover?

If you do not need to save anything from his hard drive, I would do a complete format and clean install. Let me know if you need help doing this.

Here is a good website you can print the Clean Windows98 Install info out and have it by you when you start.

http://www.showshown.com/clean-install/

One of his aunts gave him the computer and unfortunately, we only have the 1 Compaq disk which is the utilities one. So I am left with only the Win 98 disk.

Thank you walkeriam. I thought that is what I would end up doing, so I need all the help I can get. If you could give me instructions in lay-man's terms, I would appreciate that.

Thanks again