Illegal operation

Illegal operation when using Words - delete normal.dot template by doing a search for the file.

Illegal operation when Windows starts, check network configuration, network driver if you are part of a network. Try reinstalling the network setting.

Illegal operation on everything, check your RAM, CPU (Damaged RAM, CPU, whether the fan stop working).

Windows boot to DOS prompt

Windows boot to DOS prompt if original MSDOS.SYS file of 1024 bytes has been deleted or replaced. Copy the file from another working WIN98 system.

Windows XP cannot start, blue screen on startup

Windows XP will sometimes turns up a blue screen when you incorrectly install a new driver or make some changes. Start in safe mode with command prompt, locate "repair" folder and copy the file with the same filename as the corrupted file back to the original location. Restart and it should work. If you cannot boot Windows XP to safe mode, you will need to boot from the XP CD and choose recovery from there. You may also want to check this step by step guide on using XP Recovery Console or see Q314058. If it is blue screen on corrupted files.

Windows XP cannot shutdown and other shutdown issues

If your Windows 2000 machine does not power off by itself, you could start regedit by click on Start Run and type at the Open: prompt regedit and then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and set the value of PowerdownAfterShutdown to 1. It should work on most of the newer machines but may not on older ones. Large amount of information available at Microsoft site

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Printer paper feeding problem

Printer paper feeding problem may not always be due to printer. If you recently change vendor for your computer forms supplier, they may be supplying you a thicker paper grade than your previous vendor thus causing problem. Try adjusting paper thickness and see if it solve the printing problem.

Removing Windows password prompt

If you want to removing the Windows password prompt for a previous user, do a search for *.PWL files, delete it, logout and logon as a different username with a blank password. Unfortunately, this may cause you to lose some saved passwords like dialup password.
Removing Client for Microsoft Network prompt. Go to Control Panel, double click on network. Setup primary network logon to Windows logon.

Cannot connect to network

If you install a WIN2000 network card driver on a Windows 98 machine, it will gladly accept the driver but you cannot connect to the network. typing ipconfig will not display the network card or its configuration. Removing and restarting will only cause it to install by itself. To solve the issue, you will need to change the network card driver to another manually (maybe NE2000 compatible) and then later change it back with the correct driver. If this don't work, try the next step.

For shared folders on Win2k and XP to be accessible by Win98 machines, you will need to enable guest account on the Win2k/XP machine.

Restore system to first boot status

If your using Windows 95/98, Microsoft actually have an easier method to get around driver issues or startup issues. Restart you computer in DOS mode, type "ATTRIB -r -s -h user.dat" and then "ATTRIB -r -s -h system.dat". Rename these 2 files by typing "REN user.dat user.bak" and "REN system.dat system.bak", then restart your system to let Windows try restoring your first install settings.

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