Can anyone please help, I have an AMD Athlon XP1800+ running on Windows 98se, it started crashing and giving all sorts of error messages so I took it to be repaired. the man said it was the fan on my graphics card that had burnt out and changed the fan, he said he had left it running and it was alright, as soon as i got it home i fired it up and guess what after 5 mins it crashed, I rang the man and he said that the graphics card must be fried. so i bought a brand new GeFORCE MX4000 but i still get the same message when i try to do anything with the computer ie defragment, copy a cd.(A FATAL EXCEPTION 0E HAS OCCURED AT 0028:C0061789, THE CURRENT APPLICATION WILL BE TERMINATED) If you can please help reply in idiotspeak as i am igmorant of computers, Thank You

Fatal Exception errors are usually indications of programs crashing into each other in memory. This can be caused by bad RAM, insufficient swapfile size, insufficient space on the hard disk to "work" the swapfile, bad drivers, etc.

Have a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/150314/en-us. I realize it may appear to be somewhat daunting at first glance, but it's not too hard. It's just that there are several things (possible causes) which must be eliminated one by one.

Post back with results or questions.

what do you mean by bad RAM is this an hardware issue, would it be possible for me to format the c drive and re-install windows

RAM problems are a possibility. It could also be incorrect drivers for a device. RAM problems can be potentially eliminated from the problem by testing it;

http://www.memtest86.com/

Use the downloaded file to create a bootdisk on one of your floppies. When complete, you won't see any files on the floppy, but they are there. Just boot the machine with this floppy and run it as long as you can afford to. If there are errors, run it on one memory module at a time to narrow down the possibilities. (ie; Remove all but one module.) You may have to set your bios boot device sequence to boot from the floppy drive first.

It's my opinion that you test the RAM. If there are problems with it, a format/install will only deliver the same problems.

If the RAM tests OK, I would troubleshoot the problem, unless of course you prefer to start over with a clean slate. If you format C:, all that is on it will be lost; personal data files, non-MS drivers, etc.

Hi Dan, braindead here, thanks for your help in this matter the memtest programme you suggested seems to be a zip file, as you can tell i'm not using the computer i am ah ah, sorry, you are trying to repair, but a new one i bought for my wife. I think I can download the file in winrar on this computer but can i transfer it to the athlon, if so could you please explain how. Thanks very much. Ian

Just download the zip file on your wifes new machine, and use winrar to extract all the files into an empty directory. (I have an empty INSTALL directory on each of my partitions (Drives) which I use for these purposes. ie; C:\INSTALL, D:\INSTALL, E:\INSTALL, etc. I extract files to it, and when done, I delete all the extracted files keeping it empty for my next use.)

Once the files are extracted, bare format a floppy disk (no system files etc), and click on the Install file. It will ask you the drive to use, type in a (just a plain a, no colon) and hit Enter. It takes only a few seconds to create the disk. Boot the troubled machine with this floppy and let it run.

sorry Dan but what do you mean by an empty directory, i did tell you that i am braindead

OK. Open (click on) My Computer, open C:. Now right click and choose New, then Folder. Name the new folder INSTALL.

Do you know how to extract files using Winrar? I don't have that utility installed, but if need be I can install it on a secondary 98SE machine to walk you through it. (To do this I'll do it with the latest version, which I'll download from here; http://www.rarlab.com/)

Hi Dan, opened My Computer, opened c: when i right click I get open,explore,browse,search,sharing and
security,scan for viruses,add to archive,add to "archive rar",compress to e-mail,compress to archive rar and e-mail,format,copy create shortcut,rename, properties. If i click "open" I get books,drivers,IBMtools,MFG,my downloads,support,valueadd,documents and settings,1386,my documents,icons,programme files,temp,windows. As regards winrar, never used it. cheers Ian

Actually, I'd like to use the same version which is installed on your wifes computer. Open Winrar and tell me what version it is. (Probably click on Help, then About to get the version.)