Windows 98 help sought !

[bont]

Yes, yes, I know I'm at the wrong place, but this evening I had to give telephone support to my sister whilst she tried to intall a game onto her PC.
My Windows knowledge is very limited :cool: so can someone tell me why the message "Illegal act, this programme will self quit" (or something like that) appears when trying to launch the installed game ?

Thanks :)

[awulf]

the 'Illegal Operation' message is just something you will have to put up with in Windows 98. There is a bug either in windows of that program.

[switchedanhappy]

I heard that it's because windows blows the big one. tell her to get a mac. I mean come on.:p

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says.....welcome to "dll hell." sounds like the OS does not get along with that game or something else that is installed on that PC. Try doing another install, and also check the game mfger's websire for any updates that may need to be applied. I always thought the slogan should have been "what do you want to re-install today?".......oh yeah!

[FightTheFuture]

eh.. try updating directx drivers. yeah, thats all i have.

[Westside guy]

Well there are two steps I always do first when it comes to trouble-shooting a friend's Windows box:

1) Make sure all the system updates have been installed (they usually haven't). An unpatched Win98 box is 5 years out of date in terms of security holes (a BIG issue) as well as system updates (a BIG pain in the neck). It'll take next to forever, but point Internet Explorer at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ to get all the bug/security fixes available.

2) Do this only after #1! But go to the game vendor's Website and look for patches. Often games are rushed out the door for marketing purposes, even if they really aren't ready for prime time. This is especially the case for games being released during the holiday shopping season.

If this is a new game, make sure it's listed as being compatible with Win98. It may very well have a minimum requirement of Win2000 or WinXP.

[bont]

It is an old game , bought in a bargain bin, so it should be compatible. I did figure it might be something to do with missing patches. Oh well, I have to go round there now to sort it out. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing !

Thanks for the replies :)

[virividox]

or you could lie to her and say you cant fix it :)

[5300cs]

Originally posted by virividox
or you could lie to her and say you cant fix it :)

Hahaha, my favorite. I used that all the time to get rid of annoying/stupid windows users. :D My other favorite was "You need to contact m$ about this problem." m$ will make them call their OEM, the OEM will make them call m$ again, and you're rid of them :)

While I hesitate to give windows advice, I'm surprised no one has stated the obvious in the windows world: you could reinstall windows. That works sometimes.

[topicolo]

Originally posted by bont
Yes, yes, I know I'm at the wrong place, but this evening I had to give telephone support to my sister whilst she tried to intall a game onto her PC.
My Windows knowledge is very limited :cool: so can someone tell me why the message "Illegal act, this programme will self quit" (or something like that) appears when trying to launch the installed game ?

Thanks :)

That's the windoze equivalent of the ol' type 11 error on mac os 9 and under. Basically, it's a general message windows farts out when something went wrong but it doesn't know what to make of it.

[KillSwitchRICKP]

1. Try to reinstall game
2. Install DirectX 9.0b
3. Install fresh videocard drivers
4. Install fresh soundcard drivers
5. This game maybe does not support Win98, Install Win98 SE

[topicolo]

Originally posted by KillSwitchRICKP
1. Try to reinstall game
2. Install DirectX 9.0b
3. Install fresh videocard drivers
4. Install fresh soundcard drivers
5. This game maybe does not support Win98, Install Win98 SE

I don't think directX 9.0b even supports windows 9X. If the game is compatible with Win9X, it shouldn't even need anything above directX 7.0