I need some help fixing my computer, please

[Nutzy0216]

I need some help fixing my Mom's and Dad's computer.
A friend of a friend installed McAfee antivirus software on there computer and now my Dad is having problems. When he starts his computer it says:
Connot find a device file that may be needed to run windows or a windows applacation.
The windows registry or System.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists.
If you deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the associated application using its uninstall or set up program.
If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file.
C:\PROGRA"1\MCAFEE\MCAFEE"2\SAFE&"1\FBWIN95.VXD
Press a key to continue.

The people who installed the software can no longer be found, but I'am told that the software they used had a problem with it ( it was a copy). I tried uninsatlling the software and the uninstall wizard stops 5 seconds into the uninstall and says something stopped the the proccess or that the program wasn't fully installed. I try to reinstall without a disk and it also stops the reinstall. My parents said that the person who installed the software in the first place tried to reinstall it with a disk with no success. I did some research on the web and found some info that says it could be on of three problems; One, a windows virtual device driver referenced in the system.ini file or registry is missing or is damaged. Two; The static VxD values in the registry contains invalid data. I checked the registry and it is correct.
Three; If I have recently removed a program, reinstall it. I tried and it wont work.
My question is one, how to fix it and two, if I buy a new McAfee antivirus program will it take care of the problem. Some people I talk to say no, I have to turn on the computer and place a recovery disk in and then turn it off and turn it on again and the recovery disk will do its job and take care of the problem. The problem there is they did not get a recovery disk when they bought the computer 2-3 years ago. Also I'm told the maker of the computer is no longer in business. It's a Vega with Windows 98 and a AMD pentium 2 or 3. So its a decent computer. I tried Vegas wed site without success.
The computer works, but the color is all wrong and the size of windows is small so you have to move the horizonal bar and the vertical bar to view any web page. Every time I try to change the settings back to 800x600 pixals and reboot it doesn't take. This is really the only problem they have besides the foresaid message.
Thanks for any help, Dan

[AnnMarie]

Hi Nutzy0216 - welcome to CTH. How long ago was the program installed? We may be able to restore your registry to a date prior to the install. Failing that, I think we are going to have to do a manual uninstall of McAfee and its a big job. What version of McAfee is installed?

[Nutzy0216]

Hi AnnaMarie,
I don't know what type McAfee software was used.
I think its been 6mths to a year since it was installed. It's my parents computer so this is the best time fram I can give you, I think it's closer to 6 months than a year.

Thanks for tying to help.

P.S. I had a problem responding to your post. When I pasted the link from your e-mail and hit go it said that I was not allowed in that part of your site, I since got through.
Dan

[AnnMarie]

Hi again Nutzy0216 - If you open McAfee from Start > Programs and click on the Help menu, there should be a "About McAfee" or something similar in the sub menu. What version does it say is installed?

How long has your dad been getting the error message. It may possibly be corrected by a registry edit but do you feel comfortable working in the registry? Also how long have you had a problem with your display settings? Did you install or uninstall any software or hardware about the time that it happened?

Re: your problem responding to the email. It has been taken care of and you should not have any further difficulty.

[Nutzy0216]

Hi AnnaMarie,

Hes been having problems for about 8 months ever since McAfee was installed and and then uninstalled. The problems with the display also has been going on for about the same time. Thats when we noticed there was a problem. It was my brotherinlaws friend who installed the software and he tried to delete or uninstall the software and I believe his son also tried to uninstall or delete the software. Maybe they deleted something eles instead? Needless to say they aren't allowed to touch the computer anymore and if I don't fix what I did I wont be allowed to touch it either. Ha! Ha! McAfee is not in the program setion so I still don't know what type it is. Yes I feel comfortable messing with the registry. I tried that today. I copied Micosoft product support artical on how to fix the problem and it said to; start registry editor (Regdt32.exe) I typed REGEDIT
Locate the folloing key in the registry: HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\Systems\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\Vsh init
Back up the Vshinit key, and them delete the entire key
Quite registry editor and restart your computer.

I had to delete one key at a time. Right click on VxD press delete right click Services press delete until I got to Machine which could not be deleted.
Now on start up I'm gettin' a message that reads(by the way it did fix the Cannot find a devce file message), Invalid Vxd link call from VWin32(01)+ 00000714 to device "0009", Service1.
Your windows configuration is invalid.
Run the windows set up program again to correct this problem.
To continue running windows press 4 or enter. To quite the current program press N. If you continue running windows your system may become unstable. Do you want to continue?

I checked the registry again and everthing was back were it was except Vshinit so I exported it back to the registry. When I first checked the registry everything, but FBWIN95 was there so I tried editing that key FBWIN95 into the registry and I still get the same message, I since deleted the FBWIN95 key.
I also pushed delete when the computer was in start up mode and it took me to CMOS and I changed the date back a year and I still get the same new message the old one, Error Message is longer there. I changed one screw up for another!!
Another thing I can't get on the web now. My parents have cable and AOL and none of them work now. AOL says I have to reinstall it and when I do it says there is a problem with some drivers or something like that. What to do???
Thanks so much for your time,Dan

[AnnMarie]

Hi again Nutzy0216 - I dont know why you changed the date in the CMOS. Can you please change it to the correct date again. After that, we can try a restore of your registry which will probably take you back to the problems that you originally had. Then we can try to undo the mess but if we are to help you, please dont make any further changes to your system without checking here first. Ok, if you have reversed the changes that you made in your CMOS and rebooted, we will try a manual restore of your registry to the last good backup. Win98 backs up 5 copies of your registry by default.

Reboot into DOS using:

Start > Shutdown > Reboot to MS-DOS mode

You will now be in DOS mode, and it should look like this: C:\Windows>

now type scanreg /restore

(note the space between "scanreg" and the forward slash)

At blue screen, use your mouse or keyboard arrows to choose a date before you made the changes. The date you choose must say "Started" next to it and dont pick the oldest date.

Make sure the word "Restore" is highlighted, and press your keyboards Enter key. At the "You have restored........." prompt, press your keyboards Enter key.

Your computer will probably restart in MS-DOS mode again. At the MS-DOS prompt, type Exit and press your keyboards Enter key. Computer will then re-start in Windows.

Now can you please tell us whether or not you can connect to the Internet and what error messages you are getting.

[Nutzy0216]

Hi Anna Marie,
I fixed the new and old error messages buy changing the registry back to another date and buy deleting the FBWIN95 key in the registry. The computer boots up without the Cannot Find Error and the second error I caused is also fixed. I can now surf the web. There is still one problem and that is the display color or pixals is set at 640x400 or so and every time I change it to 800x600 and restart the computer it goes back to 640x400. Any Ideas??
Thanks,Dan
P.S. I wont do anything eles

[AnnMarie]

Thats great, we are getting there :) Re the problem with the display resolution, try updating the driver for your video card with the latest version from the manufacturers website. If you are not sure what video card you have, you can run this program Belarc (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) and it will provide you with a profile of the hardware and software on your PC. If you are still not sure, post back here and we will try to help you.

[Nutzy0216]

Hi AnnMarie,
Thanks for all the info. I found alot of great technical help sites out there including yours. It was really nice for you to get back to me and stick with me until the problem was solved. I'm not blowing smoke up your skirt, but we need more people like you and your members who are willing to take time out of there busy schedule to help people.

Thanks again for all your time and I hope I can fix the display resolution with the web site you gave me so you can help others.

Dan:cool:

[AnnMarie]

Hi again Nutzy0216 - dont thank me yet, wait until we fix your display problem :D

If you have installed an updated driver for your video card and all is now well, I think we should clean up your registry and your drive (particularly in view of the earlier problem with McAfee). Go here (http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/jv16powertools.shtml) and download jv16 power tools (with Installer). Instructions for use below:

Install then restart your computer. Shut down everything in systray that will close and make sure that your browser is closed and you are off the net.

When you open the program, click on Registry Tool. It will give you a complete listing of the programs on your computer. Search that list VERY carefully and make sure that you put a checkmark in front of the ones that you KNOW that you dont have anymore (previously uninstalled) then click "Remove". On the same screen, click "Tools" then "Registry Cleaner". Make sure that there are checkmarks in "I want to manually verify deleted entries", "Show why each item should be safe to remove" and "Dont pop up the registry cleaner after scan". Make sure that the other options are NOT checked. Click "Continue", then uncheck Active X/Com (this is not functional yet) then let it find everything that its going to. Click "Select", then “Special Select” and click "All items that are safe to remove"" and then "Remove". Close that screen

While you are there, you might as well clean up your drive. Click on "File Tools". Go to Preferences and make sure that you select "Create a backup" Now choose your Source (drive) and select "Find Only Broken Shortcuts". Let it find them, "Select", "All" and "Remove".(at the bottom) Click on Find Broken ShortCuts again to unselect it and then do the same thing for "Temp Files" (dont use the other selections unless you really know what you are doing).

[Nutzy0216]

Hi AnnMarie,

Sorry it took me so long to reply to your post, I've been a little under the weather. I down loaded the Belarc Advisory software and it gave me my computer profile. Is the info I'm looking for under "Display" if so it says "Video-78 RIVA 128ZX Ver. 3.12
Manufacture: Jaton Corp.
Software Version: 4.0"??

Dan

[AnnMarie]

Hi Nutzy0216 - yep, thats what you are looking for. I had a quick look and found some drivers here. If they dont do the trick, have a look on Jatons (http://www.jaton.com/2002/downloads/downloads.html) for an update.

***EDIT*** Nutzy, for some reason, I cannot post the link to the drivers. I will email it to you.