system crash :O(

[oliverclosov]

Hi all, my neighbours computer crashed on him....he is not very computer litterate so he couldn't give me that much information but...he is running a lower end windows 98 system with I'm guessing a 600mhz intel processor and probably 128mb ram and an 8gig HD something like that......anyway he recieved some antivirus softwhere with his sympatico internet he said it was called "freedom" something or other which bell sympatico offered free, he said that worked good for about a month and the his internet connection kept getting slower and slower but his sympatico virus scanner said he didn't have any viruses so he went to Macfee and did an online scan, it also said his system was clean and one day when he turned on his system it went as far as showing the desktop but it didn't load the destop, there were no icons, mouse, or systray and he couldn't do anything.......I'm going to go over to his place tomorrow to take a look at it, I'm planning to reinstall the CAB files, I figured one of his .dll files must have been deleted or something. Does anyone know an easy/quick way to install the cab files or maybe there is something else I could try 1st.
Any help would be greatly apperciated.
Thanks all

[Force Flow]

Can you boot up in safe mode?

[oliverclosov]

OK, I went to his place and took a look at his machine. It is a 300mhz pentium with 2gig hd and 64mb ram running win 98 1st edition. I tried booting into safe mode, it looked like it was going to let me but...I clicked "ok" when it said you are running in safe mode bla bla bla.......then the "start" button aka task bar at the bottom of the screen showed up for about 1 second then disappeared and I couldn't do anything. I turned off the system and tried going to the dos prompt and doing a scanreg \restore , sfc, ext.exe etc.... no matter what I typed it said "bad command" error.....so now I'm stuck, I don't know what to do from here except a reformat but he has work files on there that he can't lose......what should I do? Are there different commands for the dos prompt on 98 then 98se? does anyone know anything about 98 1st edition?
Please help me help my buddy :O(
Thanks all :O)

[GaryRouth]

Hi oliverclosov

Nice to see you here at the forum again. I've been away on vacation, so sorry for the late reply.

I'm not sure how much luck you'll have with a Registry restore on a system that can't boot to Safe Mode, but if you want to try it again, try a bootdisk from http://www.bootdisk.com to get the ball rolling. Then try the scanreg/restore from there.

If you can get to the desktop:
1) Take a quick look at his system resources [right-click My Computer, "Properties", "Performance"] and see if they are under 50%. If so, press ctrl-alt-del once to bring up the Task List, and end some of the obviously unneccessary processes (such as QuickTime, StartCenters, Instant Messengers, etc - for a complete look at this sort of thing, refer to http://www.pacs-portal.com). . .
2) Check how much free space is left on the hard drive. 2gb isn't that much if the system has regular use [especially if regular Internet use, and if the Temporary files aren't deleted when the browser is closed]. If the hard drive is low on free space (likely), make sure to use Internet Options in the Control Panel to clear the Temporary Files. Clear the offline material as well, and empty the Cookies. Clear the Temp files in C:\Windows\Temp.
_____________
All the above assumes that you can reach the desktop. If you can't even reach the desktop in Safe Mode, try testing some of the hardware from DOS. Check the hard drive's health with the diagnostic from it's manufacturer's website. You can use something like MemTest (available at download.com) to test the memory. And just in case the Bios settings are out-of-whack, try entering the Bios Setup screens [by pressing whatever function key is mentioned in the Startup banner "Press DEL (or F1, F10, etc.) to Enter Setup"] and using the value "Enter Defaults" (then go to each menu an make sure to disable any onboard devices not being used, such as onboard video, sound, IR, modem, etc.) - then choose "Save Changes and Exit".

If the hardware checks out OK, you might consider slaving the drive in another PC that has up-to-date antivirus and antispware scanning programs, and scan the hard drive from the "helper PC". You should be able to check for free space while slaved, too: and you can delete Temporary files to free up space using this method also.

If the antivirus/antispy scans come up clean, yet the system still has trouble booting normally: you can try an over-the-top, which should allow the files your friend wishes to keep to be saved unharmed. There are two methods, both in the thread: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=70846 . . . you might also consider making an extra copy of those files on the "Helper PC" while it's slaved [can't be too cautious!]

See if any of these suggestions help. Hope so!
. . . Gary

[p.s. ...one more thing - if the date in the Bios is wrong, especially if it has reset itself back to 1980 (or some other odd date long, long ago) - try replacing the little 3v. coin battery that helps the Bios save its settings and keep time - such batteries usually cost about $1.50 USD ]