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Win98 no boot excpt cmd prompt only mode

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7 replies

by james szabadics 1 view

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Celeron 533 PC with win98.

When system boots it gets the Win98 startup bmp then powers off after about 1 sec.

Does the same in "safe mode"

Only way to boot is in "Command Prompt Only Mode"

When I tried a logged boot (bootlog.txt) no bootlog.txt is generated and it powers down.

Am running a virus check - what else should I check?

7 replies

by 1stladytech

Choose "step by step" mode to start the computer, the error message that tells you what is corrupt or not working is being hidden when you boot normally. As you are stepping through the startup - the error is usually displayed on a blue screen page, and you can read it to find out what is causing your problem.
Hope this helps,

Vickie

by james szabadics

Step by step mode revealed that the problem was when win.com ran - a bunch of ascii appeared after a line referring to wininit.exe. Closer investigation showed the wininit.exe file was not present in the c:\windows directory. I copied this file from another PC - fixed.

by opatzg9

Have you tried booting from a win98 startup/recovery disk? When you boot to a comand prompt what all do you see? Are all the files and directories there? Does it shut down even when in a dos mode after a period of time?
The startup disk should let you know if windows is corrupt causing the problem, How familiar are you with the dos operating system and windows files? It wouldn't hurt to backup whatever important data files you want to keep at this time since you may be needing a format and reload.
Anymore info might be helpful also.
Good Luck

by sgt_shultz

wow. weird one. you are saying it doesn't power down when you stay at Command prompt only?
it will sit there all day?
only things that kick in after text startup involve video card and maybe system memory. can you try another video card? can you try reseating memory, maybe removing some?

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