Until recently, whenever starting my computer it always booted into Safe Mode. In an attempt to fix this, we went to the computer fair and purchased a new hard drive which my son installed. Now, whenever the computer is turned on the following message appears: ‘A fatal exception OE has occurred at 0028:c15FBB70 in VXD EMU1OK1 (01) + 00012980. The current application will be terminated. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL. Press any key to terminate the application’. Pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL does nothing except display the message again. The computer will not then turn off and has to be turned off at the wall. The computer is running Windows 98. Any ideas?

The file EMU1OK1.VXD is related to your sound card. In particular, this file is the SoundBlaster 16 Compatible Emulator. It seems the best way to fix the problem is by installing the latest SoundBlaster drivers from www.soundblaster.com/drivers. However, as you cannot currently boot your computer, you will have difficulty uninstalling the current drivers and installing the new drivers. In order to accomplish this, you will need to boot Windows in Safe Mode and carry out the necessary modifications through this mode. To boot in Safe Mode, when the ‘Starting Windows 98′¦’ message is displayed just before the Windows splash screen, press F8 and select ‘Safe Mode Only’ from the start menu. Be aware, that as you will not have internet access through Safe Mode, you will need to download the latest drivers from another machine with internet access and copy the drivers onto a removable media (e.g., disk or CD).