Time Warped Windows 98 PC

[kram 2.0]

Hi,

This one is puzzling me. I have a Windows 98SE HP Desktop PC that's been running strong for nearly eight years. A few days ago, the computer wouldn't shut down as I have to force-shut down - it would hang at "Windows is now Shutting Down". I booted the system up again and it seemed like my computer went on a four year time warp. All my settings, all my startup programs were like it was then. It prompted me for a McAfee AntiVirus file which I uninstalled a long while ago. The time is set correctly - the BIOS and the Windows system time reads the right time.

Any suggestion on how to revert back to "today's" PC? I have not imaged/backed up lately, so I'm suspecting a total nuke and pave would be in order.

Sys Specs:
Windows 98SE
10.2 GB HDD
192MB SDRAM (PC100)
Intel Celeron 500Mhz

Thanks.
kram

[GaryRouth]

Hi kram

If you liked that setup a lot, it can't hurt to try a quick fix to save it: before having to go the full erase the blackboard routine.

Not sure whether you'd want to run thorough malware scans before, or just after, restoring a saved Registry - I guess that one's your choice - but I'd try restoring the Registry just to see how it goes. You probably remember the trick: boot the computer from either a bootable floppy disk, or from a Windows 98se CD ("start computer with CD-rom support"), and from the command prompt, type

scanreg /restore

You'd pick a saved Registry from before the desktop went Time Travelling.

Hope it's the easy fix!
. . . Gary

[... the other, slightly longer not-so-quick-fix repair is the over-the-top reinstall ... ]

[kram 2.0]

Thanks Gary. I'm still looking around for the Win98SE/98SE recovery disk. Once I get my hands on it, I need to see whether restoring to a previous registry would work, or whether a clear nuke and pave is needed.

Thanks again.
kram

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Perhaps the fastest quick fix you can try is to use a bootable Win98se floppy diskette from http://www.bootdisk.com - and try the scanreg/restore command from the command line. Since 98 saves a copy of the Registry at bootup, you might have one in OK enough shape to be usable (the saved copies are right there on the hard drive).... You'd still have to hope that it survives the malware cleaning process - if not, I suppose that's when you'll have to round up that Windows installation CD. [You may have several options from Hp on how much to recover - - remember that most "full recoveries" will erase all data added since the Hp came home from the store (a good thing when too many viruses to clean are hanging around)].

By the way, since we've been seeing a lot of older Win95/98 era systems whose original CMOS batteries are expiring = see if the system time and date are staying put in the Bios, just in case anything off in there. Repairs that only cost $1.50 are big favorites of mine (the 2032 coin battery is sold almost everywhere, from Kmart to Wallgreens to your local electronics store).

. . . Gary

[kram 2.0]

An update. The CMOS Battery was good - I did change time and it retained the changed time after a while of being left alone. After unsucessfully trying to restore the known-good registry using the accessing the command prompt, I decided to nuke and pave using the recovery disk provided by HP. I reinstalled all the software and it looks like it's in good working condition. Thanks a lot for your help though Gary - I really do appreciate it.

kram

[GaryRouth]

Thanks for letting us know how it turned out --- and it's always nice when it turns out well!