Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

OS or I/O

0 helpful
3 replies

by morebewon

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Have a clone with a Biostar M6VLQ & Celeron 1.2.
It came with XP which I replaced with 98SE (different HD).
In both configurations, the system will suddenly replace the Windows cursor with a large, sometimes vertically textured, square. The upper left is the (active) part of the cursor, which is enough to properly shut down the system but not to accurately navigate. Replacing the mouse doesn't help.

Is this the BIOS or the I/O?
Both are OK according to diagnostics.

3 replies

by thechas

Actually, I believe it is a combination of the OS and device drivers.

Start by checking that the chip-set and video drivers are up to date.

If either driver is not the correct driver from the manufacture, you can get strange video problems.
The default W98 drivers are way out of date.

Next, make sure that you have the correct version of DirectX for the video driver.
If the driver does NOT support DirectX 9, you can get some strange problems.
Likewise, if the video driver does not support DirectX 9, IE 6 can cause some strange "Windows" problems.
Even with the security issues, I seldom install IE 6 of W9X boxes. The systems are MUCH more stable with IE 5.5.

Finally, how much system RAM do you have?
There is a bug in the core 9X code that can cause a number of strange problems with more than 511MB of RAM installed.

Chas

by sgt_shultz

this is something to do with video or maybe mouse driver (even tho you switched mice did you uninstall all related software?). do you have any mouse utilites installed or any alternative desktop shells? does it do it in safe mode? if not, your basic hardware is ok.
use start/run/msconfig to disable anything that looks like third party or mouse related, see if you can narrow down offending app. do you have windows 98 option pack installed? maybe disable themes?

by donmars

What do you mean different hard drive. Is the old drive still installed and in use as a slave maybe? Try removing the old drive such as unplugging the cable, with machine off of course. then reinstall W98 on the new drive. You may have picked up the mouse driver or some mouse file off the old drive when you setup the new drive?

This discussion is closed to new replies.