Obviously, Microsoft is quite aware of these pesky message boxes. This is a problem that you will have to ferret out yourself using the search engine in the MS Knowledge Base. A lot depends on your hardware. A good starting point is Q188867 - Troubleshooting Windows 98 Startup Problems and Error Messages. I have found this document to be quite helpful.
Computers are fun.
Fax problem I have installed a fax program that has a voice mailbox and answering machine, but I have resident Microsoft Fax which seems to take over. The diagnostics find the modem but can't initialize it. It also cannot find the microphone and the phone settings are not active even after loading twice. Any thoughts or advice appreciated. Two questions for the price of one.