"You Have Performed An Illegal Operation"- ARRRGGHHH

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Oh, paint me FURIOUS. I’m typing this as fast as I can before I crash. AGAIN.

No matter what software is running, it crashes and I get that same insipid windows warning,’ YOU HAVE PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION, IE IS NO LONGER RUNNING’. Oh please.

When I check the Details window for this particular G.P.F., it tells me two things. Well, one of two, all depending on how the neutrinos are striking my Hard Drive at the moment :rolleyes:

It either says

or, alternately,

has failed.

Any ideas? I don’t own a CD burner, I cannot back up the 400- some-odd photos I have on this P.C. Not to mention data, which I could back up on floppies. If I do find a way to back-up, will FDISK’ing this wretched thing do it?

Is there another way to re-install Windows 98SE without a FDISK? I tried putting in the Win 98CD, and installing. It said I could not do that. ( figures. ).

Ideas? Help? This is insane ! Not for nothing, but yes I am the guy who detests his Mac MORE than his PC. This problem is new, and irksome. This PC still crashes less than my TiBook with it’s much vaunted Mac OS-X…

Anyone have a good fix for this?

Cartooniverse

2

You should be able to reinstall Win98. Why did it say it couldn’t?

Sometimes you can trick it by renaming your Windows directory. It’ll then treat things like a new install.

Also, have you downloaded and run Ad-Aware? (Make sure you have the most recent definitions). It may be cause by something running on your computer that shouldn’t be there.

Click on “Start” “Run” and type in “msconfig” and run that. Go to “Startup” and see what’s running. Uncheck anything you don’t need. At the same time, uninstall any software that isn’t absolutely essential.

Good luck.

3

I was having similar problems a while back. Mostly because, as my son liked to say, I was a cyber slut with about a gillion infected files. Also my hard drive was dying.

You might try buying a new drive and make it your C: drive. Check the pictures for virii and if they are clean copy them onto the new drive and reformatt the old one.

4

Hey Reality, I’m down with the whole MSCONFIG thing, I do that periodically to make sure that nothing is running if I don’t want it to be running. Keeps a machine happy, doncha know.

What happens when I DO try to do an install off of the Win98 CD is that I get a GPF and have to cold shut down the machine. I’m dreading pulling off all of my data and simple FDisking it, but I see few options. It’s odd, it’s entirely intermittent. Using a very updated McAfee Virus Scan, I’ve found nothing.

I’m in denial. I should be doing this right now, and yet here I am on SDMB, hiding. Damned addictions !!! :slight_smile:

Any pictures on my computer are my own pictures. I don’t download images off of the Net, it’s a little policy of mine. No executable files, no links ( unless I am in IM with the person, and know them and know what they are linking me to ), and no photos or other data downloaded into my files. Clean, clean, clean.

I sense that it’s a corrupted Win98. It is SO frustrating that I cannot install a fresh version over this, and voila’, solve the problem.

Maybe I’ll go make some pancakes. ( Feeling a bit fragmented myself today ). Thanks for the suggestions. Anyone else have an idea on how to solve this thing?

A very grouchy and hungry Toons.

5

Might as well make use of that TiBook. Since you don’t use it for much, its HD is probably pretty empty, so use it for backup storage space in lieu of a CD burner: Share your Mac HD as an FTP share; connnect the two computers via crossover ethernet; open an FTP session on the PC and copy all your files to the Mac. THEN you can FDISK the sucker.

(PS–sorry your Mac has been a disappointment)

6

Very odd. The install of Win98 should not be using any of the corrupt files, so I can’t see where the GPF comes from. (I’m assuming you’re booting to the Win98 CD.)

It may be a memory problem. The memory may have just gone bad.

7

You might have a corrupted Registry. Try booting into the DOS prompt and typing ‘scanreg /RESTORE’

Windows will display the last five copies of your Registry that booted successfully. Choose a registry that predates when the problems started and restore it. Then reboot normally.

8

Have you removed anybody’s kidneys in a motel room lately?
Maybe they’re onto you.

9

I’ve got a few suggestions, but they involve a full moon, a live chicken, three mulberries, and a zither. It’s pretty complicated and illegal in several states, so maybe I better not go into it here.

[sub]OK, I lied, I have no idea how to help you. I just felt like poking a hungry and grouchy Toons with a pointy stick. I’ll just leave quietly now…[/sub]

10

Have you tried booting in safe mode and then attempting to reinstall Windows?

11

–Sniffle-- I loves youse guys. Okay, in order…

AHunter, the TiBook is an ongoing thing. I’m not in love, but I’ve moved from detest to uneasy acceptance. Give me time. Your idea is a great one, but I have no Ethernet Card in my PC ( I know…). Can I affect the same connection using a USB line?

Reality Chuck: Bad assumption. I wasn’t booting to the Win 98SE CD. Duh…I shall try that next. Hmmmm. OTOH, RAM is as RAM does- getting new chips won’t break my heart. Maybe my wallet, but not my heart. How much could 2x 256 BE anyway?.. Someone told me once never to put more than 256 Mgs of RAM into this machine, because Win98SE cannot support more than that anyway, and it’d be a waste of $$$. Thoughts?

Nutwrench, I’ve rebooted too many times. Excellent thought though, I shall literally print out this thread before it dies ( or, before I fix this blasted thing ), so I can keep these little tidbits handy for the next time. It’s a Windows machine. There WILL be a next time. :rolleyes:

Jack Batty- I’ve nothing to say. NOTHING. And yes, that is a Betadine stain on my pants. What of it? :smiley:

FCM, you are a meanie. My addiction supply is threatened, and you poke me with a stick? What’s that? HUH???

Jazzmine, No I haven’t tried booting into Safe Mode and reinstalling from that platform. That is in fact the FIRST move I shall make. Thanks ! ( See? You’re not a meanie. FCM. Now, there’s a meanie…

I likely have to go into my BIOS and alter the boot sequence, I don’t think my CD boots before the HD, and so I cannot very well boot off of the Win98SE CD as suggested up there. That’s cool, I’ve been in and out of my BIOS Setup so much that I have my own stool in there.

Updates as they arrive. My thanks again to the Teeming Millions ( or, in this case, the Teeming Handful ) for the help. :slight_smile:

12

Could you buy a cheap hard drive, load your OS onto that, make it the master, slave your current hard drive, boot from the new one and copy your files over to it?

13

Yeah, but as a temporary fix, that hurts. I don’t need more disk space, I just need to have the disk I am using free of schpielkas. ( Yiddish agita ).

14

I’m not a meanie - I’m just technically inept. But I felt left out not having a suggestion to make, soooo…
<sigh>
If I honestly and sincerely wish you the best of luck getting your 'puter running, can I be your friend again?? I promise I’ll never mention the zither.

15

I have absolutely no short-term advice. As to long-term advice, maybe save up a bit for a cd burner. They are amazingly cheap nowadays. You can get an internal for $50 if you shop around, and an external for about $120 or so if you don’t feel comfortable installing things.

16

Toon,
This is a somewhat drastic measure, so try it only if none of these other posts work. But this will work.

Read this carefully before proceeding.
Boot your computer into windows and copy the “Win98” folder from your cdrom to the root of your harddrive.

Reboot your computer, and go into DOS.

Rename your windows folder to something else (DOS command “REN C:\Windows C:\WinOld” assuming you have a standard install of Win98)

Change to the Win98 directory (“CD \Win98”) and run SETUP.

Run through the setup process UNTIL it asks you where you want to install Win98. Setup will show you “C:\WinOld” (or whatever name you chose when you renamed the windows folder). CHANGE that to “C:\Windows”
This instructs Setup to completely ignore the previous version of Windows. You get a brand-spanky new installation.

Run through the rest of the setup process as normal.

Congratulations, you now have a virgin OS installed on your computer.
After doing this, you will have to:

Check all of your programs. Some will work. Some may not; these you will have to reinstall. Make sure you have your install disks handy for anything important.

Setup any network/internet connections.

Dig through the WinOld folder and find your Favorites and anything from your old desktop.

Import your email settings/accounts/messages/addresses from the WinOld folder into Outlook Express (if you use it).

Reinstall the drivers for all your hardware. If you use dial-up, make sure you have your modem drivers BEFORE you go through this process. It’s kinda hard to download your modem drivers when your modem doesn’t work. (Voice of experience.)

When you are certain you have everything in working order, you can delete the WinOld folder. I usually zipped it up to save space.
I used to do this process every six months or so when I used Win9x. Expect it to take the better part of a day. It’s tedious, but it works.
Enjoy. :smiley:

17

Aye, that’d be my long term advice, as well.

Being able to back up 700MB at a rip <of whatever> makes the idea of giving your PC the FDISK finger lots more appealing, when it gets seriously wonky.

But as I think of it…
With the BIOS set to boot form the CD first, don’t most (if not all) versions of Win98 and up give you the option to reinstall the OS without formatting the whole drive? A soft re-install, if you will?

This might leave you with a lot of non-functional programs (as the registry entries for them wouldn’t be there), but it’d at least let you back up files by one method or another, in preparation for a reformat/reinstall of the OS.

Of course, NutWrench may well have the answer in a registry backup, in which case… hell, back up everything else anyway.

18

Err, buying a CD burner would be my long term advice, that is.

(You’d think I’d learn to preview…)

19

Maybe you could borrow a friend’s extra hard drive to keep your pictures and stuff on while you fdisk and reinstall your existing drive? In my experience - and a lot of people agree - Win95/98 just needs to be re-installed from scratch every couple of years no matter how careful you are. It just does.

20

Have you tried running sfc.exe and checking for corrupt system files? I suspect you will find a few. That program will give you the option to restore originals from your system disks/cab files.

Or would you rather just re-install rather than fix the current installation?