My computer is experiencing two problems. Firstly, when opening Microsoft Outlook the following message appears: ‘OUTLLIB.DLL MAPI32.DLL.239 C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeOUTLOOK.EXE a device attached to the system is not functioning’. Secondly, when opening Solitaire the following message appears: ‘This program has performed an illegal operation and will shut down’. Clicking ‘Details’ produces the following ‘SOL caused a General Protection Fault in module KRNL386.EXE’. The computer is running Windows 98 on a Pentium II with 2 GB HDD (available space 990meg).

The problem you are experiencing with Outlook is recognized by Microsoft. You can find the resolution to this problem at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=174843. There is also a Microsoft Knowledge Base article dealing with your second problem. The MSKB article comments that the problem could be caused if you have either Bonzai Buddy, TraySaver Beta 6, or Microsoft IntelliPoint software installed. Workarounds for all cases are available at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=237900. Two other MSKB articles which may be relevant to your case are support.microsoft.com/?kbid=234430 and support.microsoft.com/?kbid=304402. I refer you to these articles, as opposed to publishing the instructions myself, as there is not enough space in this column to paraphrase the information in the articles (and if I did I would be essentially reinventing the wheel). Also, the articles are in HTML which makes them easier to read.