I’m running Windows 98 and have had an external HP cd-writer (8100 series) installed for about a year. It’s never really worked the way I liked, so I went out and bought an external Dynex model.
I uninstalled the HP software and installed the Dynex. Suddenly, my computer has serious issues. It will load up the desktop, but freezes in a peculiar way shortly thereafter. For example, I can click on an icon but it won’t upon it. The arrow just becomes an hourglass. If I Ctrl-alt-del it says that msgrv32 isn’t responding. Other times, ypager isn’t responding.
This is interesting to me because the computer normally loads Yahoo instant messenger immediately; something seems to be blocking it now.
Ending tasks doesn’t fix the problem. It responds by saying Explorer itself isn’t responding. I have no choice but to shut down the computer.
I have disconnected the Dynex device from the computer, that doesn’t fix the problem.
The computer won’t boot in safe mode. I just get a blank green screen, no icons.
I contacted Dynex support. They told me I had a virus. I do regular checks, and I don’t see how I should have a virus that just happens to start affecting the system when the Dynex software is installed. “You’d be surprised,” the customer support person said, and pretty much hung up on me.
Has anyone encountered something like this before? Could it be virus? And is there any way to deinstall the Dynex software if I can’t get into safe mode? The computer won’t let me access any area of the computer beyond the desktop.
Another question: could upgrading the system to Windows XP possibly solve the problem? I was thinking it might be something junky in Windows 98 that’s causing a system conflict, but I just don’t know enough about computers to judge. Does the problem sound "obvious’ to anyone?
Thanks!