Hi
I have a Windows 98 machine that displays the message Himem.sys is bad or corrupted during startup. I have followed the instructions contained in the MSKB article that describes how to overcome this problem by extracting a new copy of himem.sys from the original installation CD, and have also followed the instructions for advanced troubleshooting using the system file checker and configuration utility.
At the moment the only way to start Windows successfully is to leave the installation CD in the drive. When Windows starts a message is displayed asking me to choose between starting Windows from the hard drive (the default), or from the CD, and a timer ticks the seconds away. If I press enter before the timer is up (thereby selecting the option to boot from the hard drive), Windows starts fine. If I allow the timer to run out, forcing Windows to accept the default selection, I get the error message!
Does anyone know what is happening here? Why is himem.sys reported as beingcorrupt, even after a new copy has been extracted from the original source CD, and why the strange startup differences when the Windows 98 CD is in the drive?
Any help would be appreciated.