Member Avatar for gforrest

Hi,

I have two issues with WIN98:


  • When I double click on the “Date/Time function in the Control Panel or in the Task Bar the screen flashes briefly then nothing happens. I don’t see the panel which allows me to adjust the date and time.


  • When starting up WIN98 I get an error message which states:

“Cannot find a device that maybe needed to run Windows. The registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists

C:\WINDOWS\SYTEM\VSHINIT.VXD

Please press any key to continue.

When I look in the System folder I don’t see a file called VSHINIT.VXD.

Is there a way to get rid of this via the registry?

Thanks very much.

Glenn.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by thepom11

Dani AI

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Two separate faults are likely: the Control Panel applet for Date/Time failing to display, and the boot-time error naming C:\WINDOWS\SYTEM\VSHINIT.VXD. The misspelled folder name in that error is a useful clue — it usually means a plain-text configuration file is pointing to the wrong path rather than the file actually being present in the wrong place.

Make a copy of C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI first. Open the copy in Notepad and inspect the [386Enh] section for any device= lines that mention VSHINIT.VXD or a path containing SYTEM. Correct the path to SYSTEM or remove/comment the offending line (keep the original copy so you can restore it). Also use Explorer’s Find to search the Windows folder for any other text files referencing VSHINIT.VXD and fix them. If the VxD is required, restore VSHINIT.VXD from a known-good Win98 installation or the original media into C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.

For the Date/Time issue, confirm the control-panel applet file timedate.cpl exists in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. Try launching it directly with control timedate.cpl. If it still flashes, boot into Safe Mode and test again — if it works in Safe Mode the cause is likely a third-party shell/ startup conflict. As a quick isolation step, move shortcuts out of Start Menu > Programs > Startup to a temporary folder and reboot; if the applet appears, restore startup items one at a time to find the culprit. If timedate.cpl is missing or corrupted, restore it from the Win98 CD or another working machine.

Back up files before editing INI files or replacing system components. As pointed toward registry-based fixes and flagged system tools, editing INI references and restoring the missing CPL/VxD are usually the fastest, least-invasive ways to stop the boot error and get the Date/Time applet working again; a repair install from the Windows 98 media will restore both if needed.

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Member Avatar for thepom11

check system file checker and system config utility in information section of system tools. you may find the answer there.enjoy.

Member Avatar for gforrest

If you're referring to "sfc /scannow" I've tried it. It doesn't help.

Member Avatar for TallCool1

I have two issues with WIN98: When I double click on the “Date/Time function in the Control Panel or in the Task Bar the screen flashes briefly then nothing happens. I don’t see the panel which allows me to adjust the date and time.

  • When starting up WIN98 I get an error message which states:
    “Cannot find a device that maybe needed to run Windows. The registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists.

I'm not sure about the date/time problem, but it might be a good idea to read my on Windows 98. A temporary work-around would be to adust the time from a DOS command line using the time command.

For the boot-time error: back up the Registry. Open Regedit and do a search on VSHINIT.VXD. Remove the reference that you find there. That file is part of McAfee anti-virus software. If you still have it and it's current, you could try a re-install. If not, you are running anti-virus software of some sort, right?

Member Avatar for thepom11

no. . go programs- accessories-systemtools -system information and go to tools and take it from there.

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