Freezing, or locking up of system using Windows 98

[Rodfuller]

System freezes and can only be ulocked using re-start button.

On start up system asks for missing virtual truck program, which I have located using 'find, but presumably is not active.

I have tried scan disc and de-frag, latter starts over 10 times,is very slow and again another problem area.

 

[ski]

Do a Ctrl-Alt-Del on the Desktop immediately after starting up, and shut down all programs except Explorer and Systray.
If that works, then you can prevent these programs from running at startup by going to Start/Run, type msconfig, click OK/Startup, uncheck their boxes, click OK, and restart at the prompt.

If doing the above does not fix things, then make sure only default settings, and not optimal, are selected in BIOS.

If still no luck, then use the Standby option in Start/Shut Down menu instead of shutting down, and see if that works.

 

[Redhook01]

On the defrag issue:

Most anti-virus programs can cause problems with defrag on WIN9x systems. Try disabling your anti-virus program before running defrag. Many people only run defrag from safe mode to avoid this.