Freezing computers

Theresa called about a Windows 98 computer that had been freezing. She'd reformatted but was still finding problems. This tends to indicate there is a hardware or driver problem.

The most likely hardware problem is the hard drive. To test it, restart a Windows 98 computer in command prompt and type scandisk, let the test go through and answer Y when asked if you want to repair the drive or run a surface scan. This scan may take several hours, if the letter "b" appears during the surface scan you have a bad hard drive and it should be replaced immediately.

It is also possible there is nothing wrong with the system, just that the correct drivers haven't been installed. Visiting the System settings on the Control Panel allows you to open the Device Manager. Once in there, check there are no yellow exclamation marks on the devices, if there are then the correct drivers need to be installed for those devices.

Windows 98 also had a number of software problems that could affect the shut down. It's worthwhile going the the Windows Update website and making sure the optional extras are updated. The specific one to install is the Mapped Drives Shutdown Update

As usual our apologies to the many callers who couldn't get through. The next Nightlife computer spot will be at 10pm May 26, but that is to be confirmed. If you"d like to be kept up-to-date with our schedule then subscribe to our newsletter