Device File?

[Emma-J]

My father-in-law recently acquired a computer, and went it loads up it says this:

Cannot find device file that may be needed to run windows or a windows application.
The window registry or SYSTEM.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists.
if you deleted this file on prupose, try uninstalling the associated application using its uninstall or setup 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~IPCANYW~aw_host.386

Can anyone translate this into english for me? I am quite good with computers, but have no idea what his means.
The computer itself runs fine, and I can use all the programs etc on it, it runs Windows 98.
Personally I think it could do with being reinstalled to its factory settings and starting from new, but I have no idea how or whether I can do this

Thanks

Emma-J

[b0shb4ll]

It's a pc anywhere file which is used for remote usage.

Search inside the file system.ini for this line and remove it..

If that does not work you can remove the link from your registry easily enough.

[ajmmac]

the "system.ini" file is a file that instructs the computer what progs and settings to use when it is booting up--clearly in this case it has an instruction to load file C:progra~1/pcanyw~aw_host which the computer has had at some time--all that means is that the file was originally on the C drive in the program file folder and within that the folder that contains the pcanywhere program
as b0shb4ll says it is a pcanywhere file so u will either have to re-install pcanywhere if u still have it or again as b0shb4ll says go to the system.ini file and open it with something like notepad--find the line containing pcanyw.... and delete it--

[ajmmac]

b4 u do that make a copy of ur system.ini file in case any thing goes wrong

[Emma-J]

Thanks.

So how do I go about reinstalling it? Any chance you could give me a walk through, or is it too complicated?

[b0shb4ll]

for a start you would need the orginal media files. I suspect you don't have these so the re-install option is not one we have.

Another place to check would be the following area of the registry:

hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentv ersion\run

Look in this area for the pcanywhere file. It's most likely to be in your system.ini file though.

[ajmmac]

yes b0shb4ll--emma u would need the original disk the program is on to re-install it--u would put the disk into ur cd drive and it should start automatically and u just follow the instructions--if u haven't got the original disk then the only thing is to forget the prog and do as b0shb4ll says edit the system.ini file--if u have the disk and it doesn't start when inserted do this--double click my computer--double click the drive letter the cd is in--somewhere in there u want to find a file called setup.exe OR install.exe double click on that to run it--it will run the install prog so just work thru that following the instructions--i should have said earlier in win98 the system.ini file will be on ur c drive in folder labelled windows--as i did say earlier u cannot open it by clicking on it--u have to open it from within a text editor like word, wordpad or notepad--good luck--postback if things don't work out

[b0shb4ll]

Got a feeling system.ini is also a hidden file but can't quite remember (not support 98 for ages now).

If you can't find the file, do this:

open explorer, click tools folder options then view. Tick the 'show hidden files' tick box.