System Restart

[ejnallstars]

Using Win98 se and have recently been getting problems with my system restarting just as the password log on screen appears.

This does not happen all the time but is very frustrating.

Any ideas??

[glc]

Possibilities:

Flaky driver
Rogue program in startup
Bad ram
Overheat
Virus
Other bad hardware, like a nic
Corrupt registry or system files

[Cricket]

What are the system specs?

Is this a home built or store bought name brand computer?

What kind of programs are loading up with Windows? (anti-virus, firewall, etc...)

How long has Win98SE been on your computer without a reformat and reinstall?

Anything out of the ordinary happen prior to this problem?

:) Cricket

[ejnallstars]

Hi Guys

Sorry to take so long to reply.

Dell system 4 years old. Win98se with p3 450 processor,6GB hard drive,64 MB of ram.

At start up I have sygate firewall,AVG and my speedtouch modem. The only recent changes are my modem (for broadband) and I updated my version of Sygate.

[GaryRouth]

Hi all

It's probably not heat-related, but just to rule that out, you could run with the case open for a bit & see if the trouble goes away - and check the temps in the Bios just to be sure (or if you have a temp monitor program in Windows).

Is your SpeedTouch the internal PCI card? or one of the external models? Some of those external models can have builtin firewalls - you might be having some issues with Sygate.

SyGate has a forum that does have a few entries for Win98 startup problems with 5.5 - one example: http://forums.sygate.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=8600

Also, you might boot into Safe Mode, and look in Device Manager to check to make sure you don't accidentally have two instances of the SpeedTouch. If you have two, you can try either removing just one, or removing both & reinstalling the unit.

. . . and might as well run a full system scan in Safe Mode. . . [or Normal mode, if it's the lucky start that works]

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[catfishjoe_1]

You are probably getting errors in the boot part of the system. Did you uninstall your old modem? System could be looking for it and creating an error. I think there is somewhere to have the system restart on errors and I think that is what the reboots are about. Go to safe mode and check your device manager for hardware conflicts. I think someone on here can probably point you to a registry cleaner. That might help too.
cat

[glc]

If that's a USB modem, get rid of it or use the Ethernet port if it has one and uninstall its driver.

[ejnallstars]

Thanks guys.

I will try some of your suggestions.

My new modem is external. No I have not uninstalled my old modem.

Silly question but do I need my old modem as a back up for dial up or can my broadband modem be used for this in the event of broadband connection problems?

[glc]

I'm referring to your broadband modem - if it's USB, switch it to Ethernet.

Nope, if you want dialup backup, you need a standard 56k phone modem. It will coexist fine.