Win 98 WILL NOT start in safe or any other mode..

[dmzx]

Hi all, new here and did a search already and didnt come up with much. I have a comp that hangs at the Windows 98 screen and wont boot. I've tried every option, command prompt, safe mode, all of them and nothing works. It just freezes and eventually says there is a bad file on line 6 in command reg. But how do I get to it if it wont let me access anything? Its an original 98 version, but we have never had problems before. Is there any way to start it so I can fix it? Thanks for the help, D

[bailey]

I am thinking that you should be able to do a reinstall repaire on top of it without loseing any data

[mike breck]

Alternatively you could try some basic Win98 troubleshooting.

Use your Anti-Virus floppy set to scan for viruses.

If the system is clean, place a Windows 98 startup disk in the floppy drive and restart the PC.

You will arrive at a menu with various options.
Select "Start Computer Without CD-Rom Support" and press Enter.

At the A:\> (A: prompt) type SCANDISK C: and press Enter.
This will do a physical check on your HD looking for damaged sectors and examines the integrity of the file system. It will repair any errors it finds.

Next check out the Registry.
Type C: at the A:\> and press Enter. That will move you to the C: prompt (C:\>) which is your C: drive.

At the C:\> type SCANREG.EXE
The whole line including the C: prompt will look like this

C:\>SCANREG.EXE

Let Scanreg run and fix any errors if found.

Alternatively type SCANREG /RESTORE and select the most recent Registry backup to restore it.

At the Menu choose Option 2 "Start Computer without CD-Rom Support".
At the A:\> prompt type "SYS C:". There is no space between the ">" symbol of the A: prompt and SYS C: so the whole line, including the prompt will look like this

A:\>SYS C:

This will replace any system files that are missing or damaged on C: and is the common reponse to the problem of not being able to enter Safe Mode.


When it's finished, exit Scanreg and you will be back at the C:\> prompt.
Take out the Startup disk and press Ctrl+Alt+Del on the keyboard and the PC will reboot hopefully into Windows.

If it does boot into Windows, then try going into Safe Mode again and see if it is still hanging.

If the above doesn't work, then as Bailey said, you can always try an overlay install of Windows; however, if this is a mature installation of Windows, then it might be better to consider, formatting the HD and putting on a nice clean install of Win98.

HTH

[reboot]

Can you get to Command Prompt Only, or SafeMode Command Prompt?
At the c:\ prompt, type: scanreg /fix and follow the onscreen prompts to restore a previous working registry.

[dmzx]

Great ideas, and I'll try them all. Reboot, I get the command prompt, but it freezes and doesnt let me type anything. I'll try the Windows startup disk and all the other stuff and let you know the outcome. thanks again for all the help and hope it works....Derek

[reboot]

If it freezes in DOS, then there's a hardware problem, most likely overheating, or flaky RAM.
If you can swap out ram chips, or if you have two, try it with only one in, see if there's any difference.
It could also be a flaky video card.

[Parangles]

dmzx- welcome to pcmech- youve got 3 of the finest PC mechanics on the web working for you for free.
Cheers,
chris

[dmzx]

Chris, i really appreciate the help. This thing is frusrtating. I did all the stuff you guys said and it wouldnt give me a scan of the disk. I got as far as "start without cd rom " and had the A prompt, but when I typed exactly what you said, it said bad command or file.. So I put the old windows 98 cd in and went to the D prompt and typed setup. It worked for a minute then froze at 14% and said that it found an error and will try to scandisk past it. Is this a step in the right direction? I wanted to scan from the A prompt but it just wouldnt let me do it. What next??? Thanks guys...

[GaryRouth]

Hi all -

I'm up late out here on the Coast, so I figured I'd jump in a little:

dmzx - I'm assuming you have a working PC to use, since you're still able to post about the bad one. With the good computer, go to the website of the manufacturer of the hard disk drive that's in your system. If you don't know what brand it is, shutdown that computer, unplug the power from the outlet, open the case, and look at the label on the top side of the drive. Each manufacturer has a diagnostics program you can download for free. The downloaded program creates a bootable floppy that boots the computer you wish to test, and runs the diagnostic program. Even if your hard drive is "solid gone history" (as my younger daughters say) the floppy should still be able to boot the computer & check out the drive. This step will at least rule out a physically damaged drive.

If it turns out your hard drive tests OK: maybe try booting with either your Windows 98 installation CD (if you've got one), or a disk from http://www.bootdisk.com - choose one that matches your version of Windows (the original 98). [To boot from either the floppy or the CDROM, you might need to enter your Bios Setup screens by pressing the key in a little banner that flashes by (sometimes entirely too quickly to read) "Press F1 (or DEL, or F10, etc) to Enter Setup" - and look for a menu item something like "Boot Order" or "First Boot Device"....and set the order for the disk you want to use --- you can change this all back to normal after you've got things OK again.]

If you boot Ok with the cd --- choose "start computer with cd-rom support". Then try the scandisk or scanreg commands that reboot and mike b. recommended. If you boot OK from the floppy, do the same. If you get a bad file or command message, try again (especially if booting from a downloaded floppy) - watch carefully for messages at startup that say what letter is assigned to the "RAM drive" (this is actually a virtual drive containing the diagnostic programs like scandisk), then switch to that letter & try the commands again.

If none of that works, but you can boot OK from either a floppy or a CD, you could try an over-the-top reinstall (though I'm hoping the earlier fixes will work - they're faster). Here's the link for the over-the-top http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=70846

& Good Night, all - - - even the Night Owl sleeps eventually
. . . Gary

[reboot]

You can't initiate a scandisk from the A:\ prompt, without a little more work.
If you're booting to a bootdisk, at the A:\ prompt, type: c: and hit Enter. This will get you to the C drive.
Now type this: path=c:\windows\command
This will allow running DOS commands from the C:\ prompt.
Now type: scanreg /fix
Choose a date from the list of a known working registry, and restore it.
If that fails, you can try the "over-the-top" install as well.

[andyms18a]

the first thing to do is get a copy of f prot anti virus and scan your computer from dos as you may have a virus you can get f prot from hear http://www.f-prot.com/download/download_fpdos.html

[dmzx]

Thanks for the suggestions Gary and all, I'm going to give it some more tries. Last night I gave the flaky ram thing a try by pulling one of my ram chips, and now I cant even get a signal to my monitor. I replaced the chip and I shut it down because it was late, so hopefully when I get home from work it will fire up and I can try all these ideas. Thanks again....Derek