windows 98 reinstall help

i have a compaq laptop 1200xl 104 with an amd 450mh processor and a 5gig hd. i am having some trouble with my machine and i would like to reinstall windows 98. i have the disk but i can't find the certificate is there a way i can find a code.
thanks, gary

 

It's not on the disk, it's on the Licensing Book that comes with Win98. My suggestion: if you find it, write it on the disk. There are places online to find "replacement" keys, but I don't know where they are.

 

thanks safe watch i will try a web search.
gary

 

There have been a number of interesting and informative discussions about re-installing Windows vs. fixing it. If you'll describe the issues to the people here, you may be able to save yourself a lot of reinstallation grief by fixing the problem instead...

 

I know, I know, but he more specifically asked about the key, so I was just answering that. And just reinstalling the OS is a lot different than a format/reinstall.

But, CycleZen has a good point, you probably don't need to reinstall Win98. Tell us what's going on and we'll see if we can work around it.

 

ok cyclezen here's the whole skinny. i have recently been getting a lot of stack fault errors on ie6 so i went to fix it didn't work. so i try uninstall and reinstall ie6 it didn't work. so i start using netscape navigator and you guessed it, it didn't work. i have had this machine for about three years and have never done a reinstall or a fix so i thought i would do a reinstall in hopes of clearing up this problem. but i am open for suggestions since i am not a geek, but do have some knowledge of computers. and i looked through my stuff and found my old windows 98 disk and thought i would attempt it but i can't find the sleeve with all of the code numbers on it and i didn't write it on the cd.
gary

 

i found the key code it is on the bottom of the laptop. boy, i feel pretty stupid. but i am also pleased. anyway i am still waiting for some suggestions. it seems when i get the stack fault errors that i have to restore my active desktop and then if i try to shut the machine down it is hard to do because it seems to be unresponsive or confused.
thanks, gary

 

Ahh, that's why Kay calls them Personal Confusers

I think I'm going to have to agree with you and say go ahead and do a reinstall. Reinstalling is much different than a format/reinstall. A reinstall will just rewrite the system files. You should still have all your programs intact. Your settings may have changed, but that's no big deal, especially if it means you can use your confuser again.

Good luck!

 

thanks sw. i will let you know how it comes out when i do it.
gary

 

sw i finally got around to doing the reinstall. it seemed to work for a while but i am now having the same problem. which is getting explorer stack fault errors at kernel 32. any suggestions?
i recently had a trogan but i had it removed with a virus program. thanks,
gary

 

Did you format/reinstall? Or just reinstall the OS?

 

i just reinstalled the os. i did not format.
thanks, gary

 

It sounds like you have a corrupt file. Updated files are not necessarily rewritten when you reinstall Windows. You may want to try reinstalling the IE6 updates from Windows Update also. Or, if you have good backups, do a format/reinstall - but this is probably unnecessary.

Have you run scandisk and defrag from Safe Mode yet? If not, you should. Try this first actually. Before you do anything else. Make sure you run both from Safe Mode, this releases system files to be checked and repaired also.

Let us know how that goes. And we'll go from there.

 

sw i will try these things and let you know.
thanks,
gary

 

hello sw i have been gone out of town for a few days. i tried your suggestions i done a deep scan and it found errors and fixed them and seems to be working normal for now. i also done a defrag. too.
thanks,
gary