Everything is fine when I start win98. Desktop loads fine, but about 15-20 seconds later I get an illegal operation. I can quickly see that sstray is at fault. If I click fast on close it goes away after 2 or 3 clicks. Then another illegal operation shows that something in kernel caused the error. I can't get all the info because if I stop to read it..I can't get rid of the illegal operation button and nothing works. I can't shut down, not even with power. I have to unplug the computer to shut it down. HELP

THanks

I would start by disabling start up items that you don't need.

 

Just goto Start, then RUN and type MSCONFIG

 

Then hit enter and goto the startup tab.

 

From there, uncheck ALL items on startup EXCEPT TASKMON (task monitor) and SYSTRAY. And any antivirus you use. Next save changes and reboot. If you no longer get the illegal operation message, then you can narrow down the problem to one of the programs at startup that you just disabled.

 

Quite frankly, when it comes to Windows 98, I actually recommend for best performance, the only programs running at start up are Taskmon and Systray. Windows 9x eats memory resources when programs are loaded into it on startup., and performs best when you start it out with all the resources free and all these unneeded programs disabled.

 

Time and time again, I have seen a win 9x machine crash shortly after startup, or similar errors like you recieved, simply because the resources were overloaded at startup.

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