[Solved] Runonce has performed an illegal error

Hello,

I am running Win98 on my computer, when I start my computer everything seems to be loading fine until I reach the desktop. Once I get to this point an error message appears it read "Runonce has performed an illegal operation" I click on the close button and then my screen freezes. I can see all the icons on the desktop but I can't click on anything. When I hit "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" nothing happens.

Thank you for your help!

 

Restart the PC and keep tapping the F8 key during the bootup. You want to start tapping the F8 key just when you see the drives recognized on the screen but prior to the Windows splash screen appearing. A menu with 6 options should appear. Take option 6, "SafeMode, Command Prompt Only". Once you have a C: prompt type in the following and press enter.

scanreg /restore

Now use the up/down arrow keys to choose a registry dated prior to or the day that error first starting occuring. Don't select any that seem to be very far back in time. You want the most recent one dated the same day that error first started to occur or the day prior to the error first occuring. Once it's highlighted, press Enter and follow the prompts to restore it.

Let us know what happens.

 

Hello,

I ran scanreg/restore and picked the earliest registry it would allow, I restarted my computer and the same error message appeared: "Runonce has performed an illegal operation".

 

Go back and do the F8 tapping to get to the Startup Menu. Then take option 3, SafeMode. Let us know if you can get into SafeMode. If you can get into SafeMode, myself or someone else will lead you through removing the RunOnce entry in the Registry using Regedit or Msconfig. I'm not sure if it's an actual program called RunOnce causing the error or if it's an entry in the RunOnce key of the registry. It sonds like a program called RunOnce but I can't really be 100 percent sure. Anyway, the first step is to see if you can get into SafeMode and get access to the PC.

Let us know what happens.

BTW, do you have any idea what was done on the PC prior to this error starting to occur?

 

Runonce.exe in Windows\system. Try extracting a fresh copy.

 

Hello,

I tried opening in safe mode again and I choose option 6, I must have done something wrong the first time I tried this, because when I tried it again it worked!

Thank you all very much for your help!

 

Your welcome but are you able to boot Windows into Normal mode now, too? If so, what did you do to get it going?

 

Hi,

Yes, I am able to boot in Normal mode now, when I first tried it and restarted my computer the error message still came up. I shut off the computer and restarted it and then I followed your directions again, when I restarted it in normal mode it started fine and the error message did not appear?

 

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear your ok now. Have a nice weekend.