Diagnostic, please

[ecoli]

My girlfriend's computer (Win 98) is having some problems and I haven't, as of yet, been able to fix them. I was wondering if anyone here could shed some light.

 

So, my gf's little brother was playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein when the computer froze. After he restarted, the resolution was really low and the colors were screwy. Also, the mouse doesn't work, it doesn't appear on screen at all. We tried fixing the colors via the control panel, but the computer is 'ignoring' our changes.

 

The mouse works in safe mode, so I figured it might be a virus. I ran several virus/spyware checkers (AVG, ad-blocker, Spybot S&D) but to no avail.

 

Does anybody have any other ideas? Much obliged for any and all help.

[1veedo]

Had they played wolfenstein before with no problems or had they just installed the game and started playing it?

 

Wolfenstein requires like "the whole screen," right? It could've made changes to the graphics in order for it to run.

[ecoli]

Had they played wolfenstein before with no problems or had they just installed the game and started playing it?

 

they've been playing it for quite sometime without a hitch.

 

Wolfenstein requires like "the whole screen," right? It could've made changes to the graphics in order for it to run.

 

That's what I suspect happened... by why the permenent change and no mouse?

[Dave]

When an application like this starts up, it generally changes the monitor settings depending on the resolution you want. When it exits nicely, it should change these settings back. However, this clearly didn't happen in your case since the program crashed, and I suspect Windows 98 isn't quite intelligent enough to put the monitor settings back to how they were. I've no idea why you have no mouse; it could be that it's just not visible on the current screen area, or something more fundamental might be going wrong.

 

That's the probable cause, but I don't have any suggestions on how to actually fix the problem

[Pleiades]

Have you tried running the game again, once you run it, it might fix whatever it broke when it crashed, you should be able to launch the game with just the keyboard.

[ecoli]

Thanks... I'll give that a try.

[ecoli]

I tried running the game again, but I get the error message "Could not load OpenGL subsystem."

 

I tried reinstalling the graphics drivers (Visiontek Geforce 3) but it's still not working... perhaps somebody knows what's going on now?

[Pleiades]

I found this thread http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/2006/ that seems be about a very similar problem, it’s worth a shot.

 

Was the game updated recently?

 

Did you download the latest drivers? Or did you just reinstall the ones you were using?

 

You could also try removing your graphics card in Device Manager, and then reboot it and reinstall the card, I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws here..

[ecoli]

I found this thread [url=http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/2006/]http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/2006/[/url'] that seems be about a very similar problem, it’s worth a shot.

 

"I just replaced a Voodoo 3 with the new card..." (from the link)

 

What is Voodoo 3?

 

Was the game updated recently?

 

you mean did they install patches for it recently? No, I don't think so.

 

Did you download the latest drivers? Or did you just reinstall the ones you were using?

 

The latest ones... but I had a hard time figuring out if they installed correctly. I downloaded the executable from the manufacturers website and ran the install... is that enough?

 

You could also try removing your graphics card in Device Manager, and then reboot it and reinstall the card, I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws here..

 

I'll have to try that too.

 

 

Does the graphics card often cause problems with the mouse, or could that be a separate problem?

[bluesmudge]

Could be one of those problems where a couple have things have gone at once - but the mouse you see is a graphical extension of the actions a mouse performs . . . as you're having graphics problems we could assume your mouse problems are related.... but best to try plugging a mouse in via a diffrent port. Being windows 98 you're likely to have the following options - USB, Seriel, PS2 - find a basic mouse plug it in . . . see what happens. If nothing then assume the problem is related to graphics problems, OR mass hardware faliure.

 

Odd colours and resolution are normally a result of using a graphics card without the driver installed . . with windows XP finding drivers itself most people never see this anymore, but 98 is a diffrent beast

 

Running the .exe of the driver update should work for reinstalling drivers, but works best when you remove the graphics card from hardware profiles, then reinstall. . . . still not working?

 

Start the machine in safe mode, then repeat the above - remembering that if it was successful it won't be visable until restarted into a normal boot.

 

To the physical - it is likly that something might have blown somewhere in the motherboard . . . is the graphics card on board? or is in PCI, or AGP? If its in a PCI slot then you can move it to another free (or make a PCI port free) slot . . . sounds stupid i know but a pin or something could have broken on the slot etc etc (make sure you're grounded when you touch the computer's hardware) . . . reboot the machine, and try reinstalling driver again (windows 98 is stupid and will probably prompt you to do this on startup anyway)

 

Still not working? find an old graphics card, this is optional - its not worth buying a shiney new one, i've worked in computer support for a number of years now and have a couple laying around, but not everyone is as boring as me - so don't worry if you can't get your hands on one.

 

Then im afraid if that doesn't work i would diagnose a new computer, multiple hardware faliures could result from a physical problem with your motherboard /graphics card, or lets face it windows 98 corruption(could consider reinstall '98 but i wouldn't cross my fingures).

 

If anyone has a happier answer i look forward to hearing it!

[5614]

I agree with dave in post #4... all of it, ie. good diagnosis and I also have no idea, although you could format! (I always say that!)

 

When in normal mode although you can't see the mouse cursor can you use the mouse? ie. if you take the mouse and move it to the bottom right and then click does the start menu pop up? You might not be able to see the icon but does it still function?

 

Running the game doesn't help... everything is updated... no virus, btw I think it's unlikely it is a virus or any other form of malware, it's very rare to get on from playing a multiplayer game.

 

Did you do this:

"2) There's a 3dfx DLL of sorts in the Windows SYSTEM32 folder. It's presence is enough to make Wolfenstein try to load it, and fail. Deleting this was my solution and it worked."

-- from http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/2006/

 

Or just generally have you read through that thread that Pleiades gave? There's a post about old drivers for Win98 and others which might be worth trying.

 

Voodoo 3 is a graphics card, an old one.

 

Have you tried, in safe mode, right clicking on the desktop and changing the resolution etc. there? And maybe the graphics card has its own resolution options which you could change.

 

Can you reinstal Win98 without losing all your data? If so try that.

[ecoli]

Thanks for all the help, guys. I'm going to be taking all of these suggestions ASAP.

 

I wouldv'e rebooted the OS a long time ago, if she still had her disks, (there's a lot of shit on her computer) so that's not really an option.

 

again, thank you.

[ecoli]

removing the graphics card in device manager worked... the mouse is still not working though, it's not just invisible either. Removing the mouse from the device manager doesn't work either.

[bluesmudge]

removing the graphics card in device manager worked... the mouse is still not working though, it's not just invisible either. Removing the mouse from the device manager doesn't work either.

 

The only real suggestion as i said above for that would be to try a new mouse in a diffrent port

[ecoli]

everything's back now, thanks to your suggestions... there was something wrong with the sound card as well, but re-installing the drivers seemed to take care of that problem. The mouse came back by itself... still not sure why.