Win 98 Control Panel

hmm some ? for you what speed is your computer and how much ram do you have also how many programs runing do you have. Aslo so can you get to control panle is the safty boot?. I had that problem with my uncles computer he was runing a pentim 90 with 32 MB of ram. he had a hole bunch of stuff running like msn norten icq the list goes on i ended up having to put more ram in to it too solve the problem i put another 32MB in and the problem stoped. but if you have a newer computer and you have 64megs of ram or up i would say some thing in your windows messed up and is telling you that you dont have enuff memery. There for it might be the easyest to back up your computer and fdisk and format your drive and reistall windows because windows sometimes does not liked to be moved if any thing changed.
BEFORE!!!!! you do that though run a virus scan on your system you might have a new virus. Also try running it is safe mode if you can get to it in safe mode you are loading some thing windoes does not like in your nomal start up. good luck

You may need to use policy editor from system tools in accessories, from the start up menu. The cp could have been disabled by a virus. If the policy editor has not been installed then you can find it on your 98 cd in X:\tools\reskit\netadmin\poledit.
Load up your current policy and look at the options. If hide control panel is checked then uncheck it and all should be ok.
If this works, I would run a virus check asap to make sure it does't happen again.
Hope this helps.

Many times the memory sticks will be recognized while they are actually faulty.
Try replacing the sticks one at a time(the new ones) then reboot.Also, you can re-install Windows over itself, without having to format the hard drive.

I know this will sound like a strange answer, but this actually happened to me and as strange as it may sound, this WAS the cause and the solution:

Boot your system into Safe Mode. Go to the Control Panel and set your video to basic 480X680 16 Color VGA. Reboot your computer, then download and install the latest drivers for your video card.

There are likey more than one issue causing your problem, first try the Windows direct program in the Windows folder, it's listed as "Control" in windows 98, as it's a open discription , I see no reason for it to be hidden in any case, if it is, then likely it's gone south, and you will have to reinstall Windows. Also some !@#$%^ programs made by mean folks will rewrite the V-Cache, to optomise their program , at the loss of all others, sooo find v-cache in System.ini , if it has settings there (Which it shouldn't) put in "AUTO" for the maximum setting , without the "" brackets, this is also a nasty way of virus writers to shut you out, but they set the minimum too low at times to fool you (It wont load the fat), it should be above 160. Be sure to run every Virus program you can lay hands on, as simply to reinstall over the current mess may not work if there is a nasty to rewrite it, but after you have satisfied all you suspitions about a virus or worm, reinstaling Windows over the current setup is not difficult as all you have to set in are the missing programs, if you can get the app to work you can run C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SFC.EXE which is system file checker. There are a couple good registry fixers 98 uses, and First, if you've not expired the 5 day limit since the breakdown use Scanreg /restore (Read the instructions), the next is Scanreg /opt , which clears out dross and compacts it, But the first one should be Scanreg /fix, the "fix" option will attempt to repair the registry, then try the rest.
Well good luck, hope this info helps