Systray won't load

[Cold Boot]

I'm having a strange problem with my brand spanking new laptop.

While booting into Win98, I'm getting a error message something along the lines of "Systray cannot load" apparently because of a particular driver, which I believe to be video related.

System is a Celeron 500, 128 megs. with ATI Rage Pro 8 megs.

An insignificant albeit irrating problem, considering how many clams I shelled out for the system.

Any help is appreciated,

Cold Boot up in Canada

[socalgal]

Hi Cold Boot

Does the error message give details? Please post it if so, it may help narrow down what the problem is.

Here's some info, hope it helps.
http://www.microsoft.com/DDK/ddkdocs/win2k/pcdesign_5s1f.htm

[tkray]

Have you tried booting into safe mode and removing the offending hardware from the device manager?

If it really is a video problem, then going to device manager and removing the component under display adapters and rebooting should get you in. It will redetect and reinstall your driver, of course. The key here is to choose not to restart after the driver is installed and get to the net and download a new driver from ATI.

Goto http://support.atitech.ca for drivers

Hope this works!

[Cold Boot]

Thanks for the replies.

This board is great! I'm a newbie here, although I've been "skulking in the shadows" for a number of months.

I live on an island off the coast of British Columbia that doesn't have many permanent residences and winters here are damp and sleepy. Communicating with all you folks feels enpowering and also very educational.
I'm half way through the MCSE course and feel I have to know everything!

Here is the lowdown on the Real problem. I ordered this laptop from a reseller up here in Canada. I'll name no names at this time.

I based my purchase decision on assorted reviews about systems this company builds and sells through mail order. They use the best parts in these machines and consistently are at the top of the list in terms of performance and prices seem to be about 15% less than Dell or Gateway.

Overall I'm happy with this machine, but to date I have had to update drivers to get the modem working correctly, jury rigged the touchpad with old Win95 drivers to get it working and returned a dead battery for replacement. Also, tech support has been mediocre at best.

I haven't copied the exact details concerning this Systray problem as it has only happened about 4 times now and is not really a big deal. I will post again when I have the full story.

I believe that tkray's suggestion about downloading a new driver is good. My only problem is that the installed drivers are apparently "third party" drivers and the ATI website recommends sticking with them. I'll check into Socalgal's link right after posting this.

The moral of this long winded story is this: Stick with the big names (Dell,Gateway et al} who have proven tech support even though you might have to pay a premium for it. It beats fiddling around all night with your computer trying to iron out all the wrinkles that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

[tkray]

If all else fails, cheat.
Set up a second hardware profile, and remove the display driver from your second profile. This way you can try out the new driver, and if it doesn't work, you can go back to the original hardware config and get rid of the second.
Third party/proprietary drivers sometimes just add extra functionality. But if you don't even have basic functtionality, what is the point?

Setting up a separate hardware profile gives you the opportunity to try it without risking anything.