strange bootup problem

[grasshopperbe]

When i try boot up my pc it hangs at the win98 startup screen. my boot sequence includes avg bootup check and a modified autoexe.bat for oracle 9i ( need it for school)
It seems to hang a little after it loads the oracle bootup lines
When i boot up in safe mode first, and then reboot, everything works normal.
i did upgrade the drivers for my gf2 mx400
yesterday.
does anyone have any idea what may be causing this?
i checked msconfig. nothing different than before as far as i can tell , the pc doesnt have internet so virus would be unlikely. (and my avg is always recently upgraded)

[Force Flow]

First you should try unselecting the modification in the autoexe.bat using msconfig. If your computer starts up without it, then that is the problem. If not, then it would be something else.

[grasshopperbe]

Iv'e had the same idea, but it has been booting these lines for weeks and i have never before had this problem with my pc
Is there any possibility that this is caused by upgrading my nvidia drivers?
It's the only thing i altered on my pc the day before it started hanging.
I also noticed that when i reboot form windows i dont get this hang. it only happened when i booted up my pc with the "button".

Thanks for the help

[Cricket]

Hi grasshopperbe,

Have you tried booting to Safe Mode? Hit and hold the Shift key when the first boot screen switches to the next...that will take you directly to Safe Mode. If you can boot to Safe Mode, the new nVidia drivers could be the problem.

You could try doing a Logged Boot too...boot your computer and hit and hold the Ctrl key when the first boot screen switches to the next. That will bring up the Boot Menu...select the Logged Boot option (I forget the exact name) and reboot your computer and let it try to get to Windows...when it hangs, reboot to Safe Mode, open Windows Explorer and in the root look for the bootlog.txt file and open it up. Look over the log and you may see something isn't loading correctly.

Cricket

[grasshopperbe]

Thanks for the help guys, it seems like the problem was indeed the drivers for my card. Booting without oracle didnt make any difference, but earlier today i uninstalled my video card, and reinstalled it with my old driver backup (downloaded it last years summer, luckily still have it around) and the bootup problem seems to be gone.
Also after upgrading i got heavy graphical errors in No One Lives Forever 2, but the strange thing is, that these errors only appeared in one level (8). downgrading also solved this problem
(the only reason i upgraded my drivers, is because it was very much suggested by the NOLF readme, go figure).
I noticed the settings interface (in control center) was very 'windows XP like'
could it be that 98 drivers are badly made?(since they dont even make a separate interface anymore, and i think the XP version sucks megaballs.)
Should i message nvidia tech support with this problem i had , or is this useless?

[andyms18a]

dont use the winxp drivers on a win98 opsys the winxp drivers are different

[grasshopperbe]

off course i used the win9.x version of the detonator drivers, xp drivers are totally different from 98, they wont even be recognized as drivers since one's .vdx and the other .wdm.
what i mean is that the screen in control panel where you set screen res , opengl and direct3d settings,....
this had a nice, normal layout with the previous version. in the new version of the drivers, you get pop-up side windows, xp style colors, i absolutely hate that, since i wouldnt use xp if they gave me 10000 bucks for it.
i think the time is coming to switch all my home pc's to mandrake( half has mandrake now) and and say goodbye forever to those halfwits of microsoft.