25th October 2000

Coming from the "Playing it Safe" department, Lockergnomie Stephen Volkmann seeks solutions in an alternative Windows 9x configuration. Grab a geek before you go gouging, though. Ever been forced to boot up in Safe Mode? Yeah, it happens to the best of us. But that might not be a bad thing, especially if you're experiencing seemingly-random crashes all the time. When the system becomes unstable, the kernel seems to lose track of system handles and figures it needs to recreate them. Consequently, it causes more than one device driver to load and ends up installing a duplicate device. If you go into Device Manager, you will see the list [sans] red or yellow exclamation circles marking the anticipated offending culprit(s). Boot up in Safe Mode (use X-Setup from XTEQ.COM to configure your boot options) and then look at the Device Manager; right-click on My Computer, pull up Properties, then flip to the Device Manager tab. Look high and low for phantom and duped devices, then delete them (always leave at least one instance behind). "Once all duplications have been removed, restart the system in real mode. Only the devices found will be reinstalled." Again, if you've never done this before, be sure to enlist the help of a knowledgeable friend first.