windows 98 tech help

March 20, 2005 | knarf

[knarf]

My 9 yr old son, who thought he knew everything, plugged in a cd game that informed him he needed 256 color. He knew enough to right click on the desktop and that's where everything went wrong ...
I have for wallpaper the windows clouds .. they are now grey scale.
All of my desktop icons are very large and some are off the page.When I right click on my desktop, click prperties ... all of the active pages are so large, I can't move the page(s) to the point where I can 'apply' any remedy.
Any web sites, including FR, are all very large.

Reading FreeRepublic seven or eight lines at a time is too much.

How can I get my page properties back to normal?

[Terpfen]

Click and hold the blue bar at the top of the Properties window. Drag it upwards. Keep nudging it upwards and you should see the Apply button nudging its way onto the bottom of the screen. If you can't make out the text "Apply," it's in the lower-right corner.

Alternatively, after you make a selection from the color settings drop-down box, don't click ANYTHING--instead, hit Tab six times, then hit Enter.

[Terpfen]

Actually, your "blue bar" is probably a "gray bar." Either way, it's the section of the window with the X and ? buttons.

[knarf]

Off to church ... I've tried everything here except restart in safe mode ... not sure how to do that.
I really appreciate all of the help.

[Wiz]

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display -> Settings Tab

Change the color settings from 256 colors to a higher setting, and change the display size. If that does not solve the problem, then the display driver may have been changed which will require you to change the driver back to the original from the "display" or "add hardware" of the control panel. If there is something wrong with the driver, you may want to check the system property from the "system" of the control panel. I have not played with Win98 so long, so I am not sure if I am right in the sequences.

[freedumb2003]

Off to church ... I've tried everything here except restart in safe mode

Good. Praying was my next suggestion.

[TheOracleAtLilac]

restart in safe mode ... not sure how to do that.

During boot up, repeatedly hit F8 key till menu screen appears.
Select start in safe mode (choice 3 ?).
Then reset display from desktop.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If all fails....go to system restore maybe.

No system restore in Win98. Not until WinME.

scanreg /restore from the command line or Run box is the only way to go back in time with Win98.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

My kingdom for an Apply button ....

Seriously...use the Start button and use the 'scanreg' command I suggested earlier. It will fix it.

[Focault's Pendulum]

I've tried everything here except restart in safe mode ... not sure how to do that.

Use a real big condom!!!

Seriously though, restart your computer, before it boots to Win98 hit f8 it should walk you through a menu of start options....if I recall #4 is start in safe mode.

Also...if you can get to the edge of your windows....try resizing them manually

[Oblongata]

Just move the outline until you can see the lower right corner of the outline then press enter to put the window in its new position. I have done this many times to fix peoples computers when they accidentally changed to 640x480 resolution. I used to work tech support at UW Madison.

[Concentrate]

Reistall windows 98. It's the easiest solution.

[ShadowAce]

JoJo, you run Win 98, right? Can ya help a fellow freeper?

[thebaron512]

Well if you get the computer into safe mode, right click My Computer and select properties.

Select the Device Manager Tab and remove the Display driver ONLY IF nothing else worked. restart the computer and it should reload the video card driver.

If that does not work, the driver maybe corrupt and needs reinstalled from the manufacturers website, preferly a newer one.

[Right Wing Assault]

Reinstalling Win98 is easy. The hard part is spending the time reinstalling the drivers and other software. If you had a lot of stuff on there, it will take hours. That is the LAST resort. Don't do it!

If you ever call up for tech support (and find a "tech" who speaks English) and they suggest reinstalling Windows, hang up.

[Right Wing Assault]

Oh. I forgot the last step. Go to a used computer store, buy your kid his own computer. Tell him he's on his own. Tell him not to touch yours under penalty of digital (finger) removal. Take all of his software off your computer. I found fewer problems when the kids don't have all their terribly programmed games on my system. I was in the habit of turning the computer off everytime I took over after a kid was using it. If I didn't, it always seemed to crash at a bad time. Some of the game programmers don't follow the rules and end up putting things in places where they shouldn't be. Then, when you are in the middle of your project, blooey!

But yes, it is Bill Gates fault. I have a "Bill Gates moment" every day. That's when I wish I had him in the room and could grab him by the shoulders, shake the hell out of him, and ask him, "Okay,why did THAT just happen??" If he would concentrate on getting the software to work and then not dropping support once all the bugs are out, that would be a big help.

[JoJo Gunn]

Yeah, I'm running ME, which is just gussied up '98.

This is a head scratcher. I don't think even 640x480 would make everything go off the screen like what's described. If memory serves "Mame" has some oddball sizes like 512 by something, so maybe there's some sizes I'm not familiar with floating about

Sometimes when icons go off the page you can right ckick on the desktop and select Arrange Icons>Auto Arrange and that'll bring everything back into view. You might try a right click and Properties and see if under the Effects tab "use large icons" is selected. Uncheck that, of course.

Since you can't reach the Apply button try and hit Enter if you can slide the resolution back.

The Start>Run>scanreg /restore suggestion is a good idea. Pick a time to just before the problem and no earlier. (You might lose the latest anti-virus or Ad-Aware definitions, so recheck them afterwards).

[processing please hold]

Ahhhh, didn't know that, thanks. I'll remember it for future references.

[varon]

My 9 yr old son, who thought he knew everything, ........

Are you going to let him reset the VCR clock when its time to turn it forward for daylight savings................LOL?

[processing please hold]

If he would concentrate on getting the software to work and then not dropping support once all the bugs are out, that would be a big help.

Please...he has islands to buy and chicoms to smooze and short the dollar. His day is full.

[Right Wing Assault]

That's right! I forgot he was a liberal.