HELP! win98se blackout

[reet]

Help! the other night, I went to my computer and the monitor was black. I wiggled the mouse and nothing happened. I rebooted. computer went into safe mode just fine. but when I booted back to regular win98 se, it would only get past the general info, but never go into windows, just a black screen. reboot to safe mode again, just fine. finally got into win98 regular boot, but as soon as I click on a program, the monitor goes black and will not continue. It appears that the computer is blacking out of any programs and is freezing up. when it freezes, the monitor light blinks green then orange. what is everyone's opinion........hardrive, video card, computer virus?????? I am going to attach a different monitor and see if it helps any, but really think it is the computer.

[Redo40]

Did you change or add anything before this started happening?

Can you open applications normally when in Safe mode?

[GaryRouth]

Interested to hear your answers to Rogers questions: they'd give us a better idea what to look for.

If it turns out you haven't added any hardware or software lately, and that the programs run fine in Safe Mode (and especially - can you run for as long as you like in Safe Mode? -or do things freeze up & go black after a while = which would point to hardware trouble [heat, component failure, etc]) - then you can start with a virus scan, especially one that can boot and run from a CD (like Norton 2003) or floppy (like FProt).

Since the problem is so recent, and occurred so quickly, if you haven't made any changes the main suspects would be a virus or a hardware problem - possibly caused by heat or a power surge. While in Safe Mode, you can try running ScanDisk "thorough", and possibly restore your Registry to a date just before your current troubles by booting to DOS, and typing in scanreg/restore at the A: prompt. [This would only work if the Registry was damaged somehow by a recent event]

Best of luck
. . . Gary

(& Hi Roger)

[xtremev1]

i have the same problem. difference is my computer didn't go online. all it did was defrag and scandisk thorough. i don't know if this helps either but i did install an UG windowns 98 SE just a couple of days ago. i also got GTA vice city on the computer and roxio easy cd creator 6 before the OS was UG, any tips on that?

and you really can't do much on safe mode. probably the control panel and the really basic stuff

[reet]

ok....so far I have run norton systemworks antivirus from boot and everything checked out ok, no viruses. now running scandisk from safemode and no blackout. system still will not go into windowsSE in regular mode. I will get a windows 98 screen and then a black screen with the cursor, then just black. I haven't installed any new hardware or software as far as I know. the night that it first blacked out, when I rebooted, it did show an "updating windows files" and then it was frozen at that screen. I didn't download anything intentionally. could I have gotten something off a web page that "updated" my windows system and caused all this. waiting on scandisk to finish in safemode, but so far, it looks as if it will run ok in safemode.

I even tried to go into windows from the c:\windows\win and all it did was drop down a line after hitting the enter key and just sit there without a prompt or anything.

[GaryRouth]

If you can get online in Safe Mode, you might double-check the virus angle by visiting http://housecall.trendmicro.com -Trend Micro's House Call is a good way to double-check your regular scanner. It's a free service, it helps them advertise their antivirus package (PcCillin) - which is a good one.

Assuming everything checks out OK, and that the ScanDisk doesn't find any bad clusters or file fragments, you can try the scanreg/restore option.

Another thing you can check is Add/Remove Programs in your Control Panel (this will work in Safe Mode). See if any entries in there don't look right. If you are familiar with the Registry Editor (regedit), you can check on the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Run and see if everything in there is OK also. The System Configuration Tool works in Safe Mode, also (Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information - and from the "Tools" menu select System Configuration Tool) --> see if anything unusual has been added to the Startup tab. If you'd like, you can also uncheck items from the Startup list, then see if Windows starts normally. If yes, then start re-enabling items one at a time until the problem pops up again. That might pinpoint the trouble for you.

Lots of options to try. If worse comes to worse, there's always the over-the-top reinstall (in which you don't lose you programs or data) If you don't feel like spending a lot of time troubleshooting, that's yet one more option http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=70846

Best of luck
. . . Gary

xtremerev1 - welcome to PC Mechanic. You can try some of the same steps as reet. I don't know a lot of Internet shorthand - what is UG?

----
another option you both can try is a run of RegClean 4.1 (the version that was updated for Win98) - I recommend this a lot, mostly cause it's free and it works. Here's a download link http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=list

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[p.s. ...reet - do you have Microsoft Windows Automatic Update running? You may have downloaded an update in the background that is causing some grief]

[xtremev1]

it meant upgrade, yeah i'll try some of that, thanks

[reet]

well, i have no idea what scandisk in safe mode comes up with, because it blacks out. rebooted back into safe mode and went "programs.....control panel" and things blacked out again. still will not boot into normal mode. Internal temp is running about 117F to 124F. can't dial into the internet in safe mode.

oh yeah, I am worried about reinstalling windows 98SE, because what will happen if I get half way through the install and things blackout? Would I be able to get back into anything if that happened.

[GaryRouth]

Just to make sure, next time in Safe Mode, go into Control Panel/ Power Management and make sure that it's not some Suspend mode you're entering after 15 minutes of no mouse or keyboard activity [and change the setting to either longer stretches of time, or "Never"]

If it's not Power Management, it might be hardware - but it doesn't seem to be heat-related, since your temps are reasonable (you could be double-sure of this by running with the case open for a while).

It is true that the hardware has to be stable enough to last through the installation for your data to be safe. I'd make backups now if you haven't already. Then I'd check that the Bios Settings are normal (especially that memory and cpu timings are set to defaults while troubleshooting). A good default for memory timings is "by SPD" [by "Serial Presence Detect" which uses info stored in the memory module itself]. You can also try something like DocMemory to make sure nothing's dicey with the RAM http://www.simmtester.com . . . Also, might want to try booting with a diagnostic floppy disk to test the hard drive [go to the manufacturer's website & get DataLifeGuard for Western Digitals, SeaTools for Seagates, Powermax for Maxtors, etc.]

See what turns up.
. . . Gary

[reet]

ok....since I can't get into a normal mode windows 98SE, can I backup from safe mode? Can I backup from a c:/?

[GaryRouth]

You could probably back up some documents to floppies in Safe Mode, but to backup much else you'd probably want to use either a Cd-R or just slave the drive in another computer & copy what you want to keep that way. Slaving the hard drive might be the fastest. But if the drive is failing, there's no guarantee that the backups will be successful. (that's where the drive diagnostics will give you a better picture of the drive's status).

Did you try restoring to a previous Registry at all? [not all that likely to work, but might be worth a try]
. . . Gary