Here's what happened: Gateway P2, lots of RAM, loads of free hard disk space, Win98, 2 video cards (one Voodoo2); steering wheel; other than that pretty straightforward trouble-free home desktop. Loads of software.

My son installed Tachyon, a new game of his. Apparently no problems. I attach a pretty standard joystick and go to install new hardware. It doesn't spot it and asks if I want to do a complete search. I do. It does. Only it starts finding everything - motherboard, etc. etc. To add to the pain, it can't find some of the drivers and I can't cancel out.

When the madness was over, I reboot. PC freezes during Win splash. Ctrl-alt-del gives me an error message that it can't find a VxD file. Pulling the plug and rebooting will sometimes get me into safe mode but with no CD drive access.

What gives, guys? And how the heck do I fix it?!

Thanks,
Paul

Restoring a previous (good) copy of the Registry can often fix this type of problem. This link (http://support.promise.com/techsupport/trouble/using_scanreg_to_restore_a_corru.htm) has the details. Please report back on the results.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME

Reid (Die Meister Geek!),

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl when I get home today. I recall getting to a DOS prompt but cannot remember whether I could cd to C:. I fear I might only have been able to access A:. Anyway, I will certainly report back and many thanks for the help!

Paul OH