Windows Protection Error on boot

[allburnintegrated]

Hi,

I'm having a problem with a 5-year-old Windows 98 machine (or it may be WinME, not totally certain but pretty sure it's Win98). It hasn't been turned on for about 2 weeks. Nothing new was put on it when it was last used, no new drivers, no Windows Updates, no new programs installed. Now, whenever it tries to boot, it comes up with "Windows Protection Error: You need to restart your computer" and then shuts down the computer after about 20 seconds of sitting on that message.

I have done some searching on Google about the problem, and all of the pages about this error say that the cause of the problem can be very wide, problems with conflicts between different devices, VxDs etc. However, I don't think that many of these driver problems will be the problem as the computer hasn't been modified the last time it was used, nothing new was put on it which could be causing the problem. Is it still likely that it is a VxD or similar problem, or is it more likely to be defective RAM or something?

The computer still boots to safe mode normally. Reinstalling Windows isn't really an option as the computer is 500kms away, it's my aunt's computer. She would have to take it down to a computer place for Windows to be reinstalled and that would probably cost more than the value of the computer.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[GaryRouth]

Sorry for the long delay replying - I've been away on vacation.

If the problem still exists, since your aunt can boot into Safe Mode, help her see what version of Windows she has (if she has the "My Computer" icon on her desktop, she can right-click that, select "Properties" from the little options box, and look in on the "General" tab to see what version of Windows she has) . . . of course, she can also try to notice what splash screen displays.

If she has Windows ME, she can
1) run a full system "thorough" antivirus/antispyware check - always a good idea to run one anyway once and a while (if the setting to "scan within archives" is available, select that setting, too).
2) if the system checks out clean, try running System Restore (all the instructions are available from the Help and Support menus, which she can access in Safe Mode as well as Normal) - she'll want to run System Restore using a restore point prior to the current problem.

If she has Windows 98, and has a Windows installation disk (not a Recovery disk) she can
1) run the full system checks, just as described above.
2) shutdown the computer.
3) restart the computer, but enter Bios Setup by entering the key mentioned in the spash screen "Press F1 (or F2, F10, or DEL...) to Enter Setup" --and in the Bios menus, have her look for a Boot order item, or 1st boot device, and have her make sure that the CD-ROM is the 1st device in the boot list.
4) have her put the Windows installation CD in the CD-drive
5) have her "Save Changes & Exit" the Bios Setup screens
6) let the computer boot from the CD, and choose "start computer with CD-rom support"
7) from the A:> prompt, have her type "scanreg /restore" (without the quotes), and choose a Registry from prior to her current trouble.

If she doesn't have a Windows 98 installation CD, but has a Recovery Disk - try to find out as much information about the options that Recovery Disk provides. Some will do "partial" recoveries, OR a full reformat/reinstall (which wipes out ALL DATA [it erases the drive completely, repartitions, reformats, and reinstalls] = the hard drive is restored to the exact same data it held when it first came home from the store. Such Recovery Disk set info is held for quite a long time at many of the major vendors websites. Some offer replacement Recovery Sets, too.

There is a chance that failing hardware is at fault here. If you are headed out her way any time soon, try a run of diagnostics on as many things as you can. Many diagnostics run from bootable floppies, and test from the DOS on the floppy. You can try MemTest ( http://www.memtest.org ) for the memory, and the hard drive diagnostic from the website of the hard drive's manufacturer (there's usually a label on the hard drive itself, not usually hard to identify).

Best of luck
. . . Gary