First, I will try to reconstruct the chronology of my problems with Win 98 SE shutdowns. This has proven to be a fairly persistent malady. I am hopeful that it has finally been corrected; however, there have been at least two such hopes already dashed on the rocks of computing reality.

This all started more or less out of the blue. I can’t recall any installations or major crashes prior to the first time that an older machine just froze up after clicking on OK in the shutdown Dialog Box. The box would go away and the computer would thrash a little, all of the icons would leave the desktop and there we would sit just looking at the bare wallpaper. When you did a Ctrl-Alt-Del one culprit appeared in running programs/ files list box: RunDLL32. The only way out of this which I found effective was a touch of the Reset Button on the tower’s case. After a reboot and the obligatory Scandisk tour ("because Windows was not properly shut down….."), the machine was typically good to go for 5-6 sessions before this occurred again. Since RunDLL32.exe kept turning up as the file that was not responding, I kept thinking that it was corrupted or had been switched for a newer or older version, etc. After predictable reading and webbing, I invoked the System File Checker. SFC said I had numerous files which had been changed or updated including more than one DLL; none of them were RunDLL32. Other trails of possible solutions which were run across on the Web included:

• disabling the assignment of IRQ/s for USB.
• go to C:\Windows\System\MSCONFIG.exe and select the Advanced button and then disable the quick power down option.
• disable power management .
• right-click on My Computer, open Device Manager, click on the plus sign next to System Devices,double-click PCI Bus, select the IRQ Steering tab and remove the check mark beside "Get IRQ Table from Real Mode PCI BIOS 2.1 Call" Then restart the PC and have your Win 98 installation CD handy.
• in CMOS BIOS enable IRQ for VGA

Well, either I was in compliance with these suggestions or my gut told me that I was heading down a dead end on each of the preceding. Basically, I was still looking at RunDll32 as my prime suspect. So thought I, if the file is corrupted just pull a fresh copy of it off of the Win 98 CD. So I hit the Windows Key, Find, entered the file name and hit Enter. Nada. After some more research, a lucky stumble revealed that the file resides in Cabinet 46. More specifically the path to the file is: Win98_se\Win98\Win98_46. Having ascertained the location of the file, I then tried to extract it per the information in Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and got some sort of error message which eludes my memory at the moment. But I soon found that once you dig down to the file itself in Windows Explorer and select it, you then have in the File menu drop down an option to Extract right there. This being done, the machine was restarted and work proceeded. Before going any further I will list some Microsoft KB article numbers/titles which surfaced during this overall process.To Wit:

• Q129605 How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files
• Q180465 Error Message: The File was Not Found. Verify…..
• Q231793 Corrupted Setupx.dll After Installing Windows 98 Second Edition
• Q192926 How to Perform Clean Boot Troubleshooting for Win 98
• Q239887 Availability of Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement

In truth, Microsoft does put out a lot of information about their product even if much of the info needs the three letter prefix "mis" attached. At this point I thought I had accomplished something and maybe this little fracus was over. This proved to be False Hope #1. After following the pattern that had been established in terms of number of normal work sessions, the machine again froze and named RunDll32 as No-Respondent. I then turned my attention to the last of the Knowledge Base articles listed above. Following the directions, I downloaded and installed the Shutdown Supplement as outlined in Q239887. It prompted me to do a restart so that the changes could take effect. OK, let it rip. The machine froze on the restart. False Hope #2. What followed was a lot of frenetic and extremely feral casting of allegations about the lineage of various industry personalities and a forced landing of the system for additional musing. However, at the next opportunity (translate: at the next juncture where I had time and had just done the manual Reset), I downloaded the supplement again, installed it again and was prepared for a prompt to Restart the computer. This was not forthcoming. So I then went in through the Start-Shut Down route and restarted the machine and so far so good. On the second or third shutdown after this last attempted fix I noticed a hesitation but after some more churning, it did go ahead and perform the ShutDown normally.

Bottom Line: What I "learned"was more or less corollary to the circumstances at hand, but if it holds up we’ll take it.

Onward through the Fog. u