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Saturday evening, I installed a new modem (Not exactly sure what brand, it was an OEM v.92 I got for about $7 online) and as I slid it into the PCI slot, the computer spontaneously booted, and proceeded to give me a VXD error, 000:00000013, and since then I've gotten 000:00000009, and several others.

Originally, the config.sys file was missing, but I restored it from D, and I can't find any other file that might be having a problem on the backup.

Right now I'm at school on a teacher's computer, with my computer in the next room, waiting for the tech to help me out, but he's busy, and I was hoping someone here could be able to help.

I have an old Compaq 5838, and the only modifications I've made to it are the new modem I put in (replacing it with the old or just taking it out doesn't help), a stick of 128MB RAM, a new CDR/DVD drive (A Lite-On, not sure of the model offhand, and I can't just disassemble my computer to look at the moment, lol) and an Optorite 4x DVD Burner. I'm still running the Windows 98SE that was preloaded, and I can boot to safe mode and a command prompt, but not to Windows' standard mode.

Any help would be, as always, greatly appreciated.

I'll be checking back a few thousand times today, so if anyone needs more information to be able to help me I'm sure I can find a way to get it for them. If the computer tech gets here and helps me out before anyone else, I'll share his diagnosis in case it helps anyone else out at some point.

Thanks in advance

Well, the computer tech came down and told the teacher here that he changed his mind about helping me, and he wasn't going to set the precedent of being the guy to bring your computers in to for free repairs, or else he'd never get work done.

Oh well. It's not like it's urgent to get my computer running... Other than my rampant addiction...

StarKnightGoku wrote:as I slid it into the PCI slot, the computer spontaneously booted

Was the computer running when you put the modem in, or was the power cable plugged in?

In the future, it's best to unplug the computer's power cable before you add or remove anything that's inside the computer. The motherboard is still receiving power whenever the computer is plugged in, even if the computer is turned off.

It might be a good idea to clear the CMOS. Unplug the computer's power and leave it for about a minute before clearing the CMOS. If you don't, the CMOS won't be cleared properly. There should be a jumper which can be used to clear the CMOS (check your manual). If you don't have or can't find it, remove the small silver battery from the motherboard for 15 minutes or so. Then, put the battery back in, plug in the power, and start up the computer.

I would say possibly a virus or just data corruption at the least. If I were the one working on it it would get a fresh install of whatver OS you like.

Yeah, I'm notoriously lazy about unplugging things... I'll try looking up how to clear the CMOS, but I'm not sure exactly where my manuals are (this computer's over four years old, so they could be anywhere)

As always, I'll post back the second I can when I can either report a success or failure (although I have more of the latter)

Thanks

Well, I went with a quick restore to reinstall 98 and all the core drivers, so now I have my computer working again, but after all that work this modem really sucks, and I don't think I'll be keeping it in long... I connected at 48k with my old modem, and only about 38k with this one... Grrr... And now I have to redo everything...*sigh*