Computer problem

Factual Questions
1

I got two irritating problems on my PC that just won’t go away. I’m running Win 98 (not SE) FYI

  1. I installed a cheap sound card and the software and ended up hating the card so I took it out and uninstalled the software. I ended up putting a better soundcard in, installed the software and it works fine.

BUT NOW…at start up, before the Windows splash screen I get an error stating that the system can’t find the old card. And right after that error it says that it can’t load SB emulation. This might or might not be related.

How do I stop my computer for looking for my old sound card? I checked the startup folder and autoexec file but there’s nothing there. I think it’s in the registry but I feel like Alice in Wonderland in there.

  1. Even with the above problems, Windows does finish booting but it takes an extra long time. Does this have to do with the sound card problem? Everything seems to work fine after it boots up.

Help!!!

2

Write down the names of the files that Windows says it can’t find. Then either go to DOS or run winedit and check your system.ini and win.ini files in the windows directory. If you see those in there, rem them out.

If you don’t, then it’s in your registry.

3

Uh…I’m not a computer guy by a long shot, but I know this:

  1. If it works fine anyway after boot up, who cares?

  2. If you screw with your registry you’re definitely going to screw something up and only make your problem worse.

Nuf’ said…

4

SB emulation is for programs running in DOS mode. Go to system, device manager, Creative Miscelanious Devices, Creative SB Live SB Emulation, Properties, click disable in this hardware profile. This will free up an interupt also. The message is probably appearing, because of the other problem causing the dos drivers in the autoexec.bat file from loading for SB emulation.

Since the old card message shows up before the SB emulation message, it could be a dos mode drive trying to load. Edit the autoexec.bat in the root directory, and look for commands to load the old card’s drivers. Edit the config.sys in the root directory looking for the old card’s drivers. Use notepad to edit the files. Save your changes, and reboot.

Leaving the computer doing what it currently is doing, makes it start slower at the least.

There is a better program than regedit, but I can’t think of it now. Try my other sugestions for now.

5

Type “sysedit” on the “run” command line in your “Start” bar menu list on th left side of your screen (typically) and rem out or delete any reference to drivers that are trying to find this card in the config.sys or autoexec.bat files.

6

Or you could use something like Norton System Works.

Or you could have started with a bootlog.txt & find the references to what its looking for & then go after those…

7

I found the program I was trying to recall.

Go to start, run, then type in Msconfig, and run it. You can turn off programs you don’t want to start, without the editing of files.

Let me know if this helped or not?

8

stick a magnet up to its harddrive