When installing ‘Where in time is Carmen Sandiego’ the following message appears: ‘Qt32inst has caused an error in QT32INST.EXE. Qt32inst will now close’. Also, sometimes when turning on the computer, I end up with a totally blank blue screen and the bottom task bar which is frozen. The only solution is to restart the computer. Why does that happen and is there anything I can do about it? The computer is a Celeron 600 running Windows ME.

The error in Qt32inst is the QuickTime installer which Carmen Sandiego appears to use for the movie/video segments within the game. Other people have reported this error when installing other programs under Windows Me, so it appears that the version of QuickTime which comes with games such as Carmen Sandiego does not support Windows Me. Try downloading and installing the latest version of QuickTime from www.apple.com/quicktime before attempting to install Carmen Sandiego. In this way, the installer may detect that you already have QuickTime installed and should not attempt to install the older (incompatible) version. If this does not work, there is another possibility we should explore. Generally third-party support programs are only installed after the main program has been installed. Therefore, if the crash only occurs after the main Carmen Sandiego installation has completed (or at least the file copying portion) it is possible that Carmen Sandiego is installed on your hard drive but no shortcuts have been created (as this is generally the last task the installer completes before finishing). As you already have the latest version of QuickTime installed try locating the game directory and running the game by double-clicking on the game executable (program) file.

If you cannot find the game directory, the failed installation of QuickTime could have caused the Carmen Sandiego installation to initiate an uninstall. In this case, as soon as the crash occurs you will need to use CTRL-ALT-DEL and terminate both the QuickTime and Carmen Sandiego installation programs so that it does not uninstall, then try to the find the program directory and run the game.

In the event that the game is not installed at all, you may be stuck! You could try installing the game in Windows Safe Mode. To do this, reboot your computer and when the ‘Starting Windows Me’¦’ message appears (just before the Windows splash screen) press F8. This will bring up the Windows boot menu, at which you should select ‘Safe Mode’.

Regarding your second problem, other people also report a similar problem. However, they are able to press CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the list of running tasks, and identify the task which is not responding. If you are able to do this, try closing the task which is not responding to see if this makes the computer usable. If you are unable to do this, please contact me again.