I have various ghost devices showing up in Device Manager while running in Safe Mode(Win98). They don't show up normally, only in Safe Mode. How do I get rid of the phantoms without accidentally deleting the good ones. I suspect this is what is making my system unstable at times.

I don't think you have to worry about the good ones. I you delete them, 98 should redetect and install them.

By phantoms I take it you have devices in device manager with yellow exclamtion marks next to them? What do they say exactly? What kind of system is this?

------------------
Computer Help Page
www.helponthe.net/nathan

I don't have any yellow flags. And when in normal mode, devices all appear as advertised. However, when in safe mode, 2 or 3 extra copies of the same device show up, and in places, devices(a brand of cd-rom, or monitor) that I don't have – show up, even duplicate com ports, too. I was alerted to this by a question in our local paper refering to this, and Microsoft knows about this and there is a solution. From what I remember, the real device is not necessarily the first one. When I checked my system, there they were. Only visable in safe mode. I've lost the newpaper article though, so here I am. Pentium II 4oomhz, 128mb ram. Often times my system hangs at shutdown, more often hangs during startup. If I go through boot log, however, it never hangs. But what a pain. Any suggestions?

OK. I understand. Believe it or not, that's a good observation on your part. Many people have that problem and don't know it.

Go to that device and if 2 are listed, delete both of them. So say you have 2 CD-roms listed and have only one on your system, delete both of them. Let windows redetect them. Check all the categories for this, including the com ports. If you have duplicate entries under system devices, let us know what they are. But go ahead and delete those other double entries.

Let us know what happens.

------------------
Computer Help Page
www.helponthe.net/nathan

Hi All, Yes, it's too bad more people aren't aware of just how powerful a tool "safe mode" is. Especially in situations as described above.

Thanks. Before I do this, I must note that there are duplicate disk drives, hard disk controllers, floppy controllers, joystick . . . you say just delete them all and win98 will re-recognize them when I reboot? When I got this system last year I had to get it built quickly, locally. It was unstable then to the point I reinstalled win98. Could I have done something wrong then?

It's hard to say if you made matters worse or not. It really all depends on what the problem was. If it's been working up till now, then I wouldn't worry about it.

As to the duplicate items, just make sure they are EXACTLY duplicate. Then delete both of them and reboot.

------------------
Computer Help Page
www.helponthe.net/nathan

Hi, As it's been explained to me, these multiple entries are or at least can be caused by PNP devices whose programs may not be written quite right and they then cause all sorts of conflicts. I once ended up with 6 SCSI controlers! Whenever my computer seems to do strange things I do a quick check of device manager in "safe mode" to make sure everything is in order there.

Done. Man that was scary- wasn't too hard though I had to go hunting for a few drivers that windows couldn't locate. Everything seems to be working fine and my system resources seem to be higher-92% vs 77%. We'll see how she boots etc. over the next few days now that the "imposters" are gone. Thanks guys!

I bet it was, especially doing it for the first time like that. See, you learned something that many don't know, well they do now. And that's what this is all about too.

I guess this thread is finished, don't you think Larry? hehe

[This message has been edited by Nathan (edited 05-17-99).]