another broadband query

[woodpam]

I'm having a prob with broadband in that I have to unplug the USB thingy, start up the computer and plug the connection back in when the windows icons come up or it won't work. The NTL helpline have no answer. Now I can't get the usual scandisk and defrag functions to work either, they won't go past the 1st 10% of the job. However if the system crashes, windows will successfully scan the disk when it starts up. I have Windows 98 and McAfee virus scan always comes up first before Windows starts. Please help - it's way beyond me and driving me a little crazy.

[j2buttonsw]

What error message do you get if you don't unplug the USB modem? If your USB modem doesn't initialise it could be a faulty USB socket: do you have any other USB devices? (printer, mouse, keyboard, scanner) and do you have a similar problem with these? There also may be a program starting on bootup that is upsetting your modem: run msconfig.exe and on startup untick everything except the registry scan and systemtray. Reboot with the USB modem plugged in and see what happens. Scandisk is notoriously bad in Windows 98 as it will reset if anything writes to the hard disk. The 1st 10% is always quick but then it will eventually fail. You can get rid of any background applications (which write to the disk) by pressing Alt + Ctrl + Del and stopping everything except systray and explorer before running scandisk but it is best to run it, and defrag, in safe mode (hit F5 or F8 during Windows bootup).

[woodpam]

Sorry to be dim J2, but how do you run msconfig.exe? I know this is like computing for beginners, but do you mean type it in from the DOS prompt? Don't laugh - I'm really trying to understand.... BTW My camera works in the USB port.

[j2buttonsw]

Sorry, go to Start then Run then type in msconfig then OK. This should bring up the System Configuration Utility and one of the tabs is Startup where you can see the programs that are initiated when you startup. All except SystemTray and ScanRegistry can be unticked. OK then reboot. If you find that this cures it you can keep running this utility adding more startup programs until you find the culprit. Once again, knowing the error message is a good start to troubleshooting these types of problems. At least we can rule out faulty USB sockets.

[mattie]

I have the same problem, and I have not got to the bottom of it, so I have just learnt to live with it.