vnetbios.vxd corrupt thanks to bluetooth drivers

[dj.tuBIG/MaliceX]

Since my dad bought a bluetooth dongle, when I installed the drivers for Win98 on the spare computer (which already had 98SE2ME and Revolutions Pack 7 installed), the internet got screwed.

On startup, it whinges that vnetbios.vxd is corrupt. I've already tried replacing it with the one fron Win98 and the one from WinMe, but the internet still won't work. (in fact the WinME vxd causes the error, wheras the Win98 one just doesn't function at all.)

Need tips here...

[dencorso]

I'm totally flabbergasted! How on earth did you trace your problem to vnetbios.vxd in particular?

You installed a new bluetooth driver and the internet stopped working. OK, it shouldn't happen, but so far I do understand. Now, there are at least 70 files involved in enabling internet communications, how can you be sure the problem lies with vnetbios.vxd? Or is there some additional evidence of it you just forgot to tell us about?

As for what happened when you susbstituted vnetbios.vxd v. 4.10.0.1998 by v. 4.90.0.3000, thats just what you should have expected. If you use 98SE2ME, you should know that v. 4.90.0.3000 does NOT work with Win 98SE, that being the reason why it's not part of 98SE2ME. So this is a well known fact. What is less well known is that, whenever a .VxD asks Win 98SE for windows version 4.90, instead of the expected version 4.10, Win 98SE hangs while loading the .VxD with "file is damaged" message, even when the file is, in fact, not corrupt. If you want a patched version of Win ME vnetbios.vxd that Win 98SE is able to load OK, get it here. But I do doubt it'll solve your problem, because I'm not at all convinced it is the one causing your problem, to begin with.

Edited November 26, 2007 by dencorso

[RJARRRPCGP]

Win 98SE hangs while loading the .VxD with "file is damaged" message, even when the file is, in fact, not corrupt.

That often is because of an unsuccessful processor overclock.

I see it too with Windows 2000, where it falsely claims NTOSKRNL.EXE corrupted.

Edited November 26, 2007 by RJARRRPCGP

[dj.tuBIG/MaliceX]

I appreciate the responses. At the moment at this time of writing the computer is currently out of order as the keyboard port on the motherboard is stuffed. (ie: Unusable, and didn't help from a surge that happened last month. It's a broken mobo anyway.)

Anyway, I did no tracing to track the problem. All I did was cite the problem as outlined by the message that appears before Windows 98SE2ME starts. I've already tried putting in the ME net drivers (via driver overwriting via Network options when changing stuff...) Sure, the message disappears but the net still won't work.

I may have to reinstall everything anyway since the motherboard's FUBAR, but in the meantime I'll have to get my hands on a compatible spare mobo before I can continue to rectify this issue.

Thanks for your time.

[KevinR]

This is only a guess but I am assuming that the 98toME and revolutions confused the install of the bluetooth device. This then (re-)installed some networking executables - possibly even just those from the base win98. This then gave you an invalid mixture of dll's...

It is possible that only the dll you mentioned is confused BUT its quite likely that more may be confused.

Ideally restoring some or all of windows(/system) from a backup might help - or even comparing it with a backup.

You could try and start it in safe mode - uninstall all networking - then reinstall networking from your base 98. Then reapply the upgrade/conversion packs. The risk exists that the reinstall of networking may not like the hybrid windows install and will still be broken.

My uninformed guess is that its best to have a real backup of the windows directories on these hybrid installs so as to have a recovery method.