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Windows 98 hangs during startup

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11 replies

by schwar3

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I have a Powerspec Celeron 300mhz, 32MB RAM. The computer started freezing when I was on the internet, so I reinstalled Windows 98. This fixed my internet woes, BUT then my cdrom was undetectable, so I used my Windows 98 startup disk and changed thedrive letter in my config.sys file and it was fixed. Now, I restarted the computer and it loads all the icons on the desktop and starts loading the icons on the taskbar and the computer stops responding. I restarted in safe mode and it works fine. Iwas running McAfee Utilities, but I unistalled it. I am also running Corel WordPerfect Suite. I noticed when I opened it that WP causes one of those illegal errors, so I was thinking about uninstalling that as well. My concern is getting the computer started in NORMAL mode without formatting the hard drive. Any advice? Please help!

11 replies

by md_hashim

I've had similar problems - only I re-installed whatever I uninstalled and that mostly helped.
Once or twice, after uninstalling an application, I checked the registry (using regedit) and found that some keys of the application still existed, deleting these manually helped. Only excerise EXTREME CAUTION doing this.

by zpip1

Hi
As far as I can remember, Corel Wordperfect Suite or Novell Wordperfect Office is not compatable with Win98.
I had this issue one time and located the root cause to be WP suite.
Uninstall this and things might be ok for you.
Delete all temp files if you can and run scandisk to recover and delete any lost files.
If you have Norton Disk Doctor for win98 run this. A good clean up will do no harm.

by sixfourtykilo

1. Make sure your system is not overheating!!
Celeron owners are notorious for overclocking, not to say that you are! Make sure all of your fans are on and working properly.

2. Bad Memory!
It may be possible your memory is or has gone bad in some manner. 66mhz and 100mhz are extremely cheap right now for you to swap memory and even upgrade in order to determine if it is a memory error.

3. Start over one more time!
I'm not sure about a made for windows product not being compatiblewith windows, it seems a little far fetched. However, if Corel Suite is making your system unstable, try running your system without it. Start with a clean install of Windows and don't install the Corel Suite until you're sure your system is stable. You may want to try to obtain imaging software like GHOST and create a backup before doing this.

Good Luck!
640k

by grantcom

Boot to safe mode and run msconfg...on the start tab uncheck all unnecessary programs...I run only the power profiles, systray, taskman, and norton av. For diagnostics I would unload everything but systray and profiles. If you get into Windows without it hanging you can then use msconfig to re-enable (one at a time and reboot each time) the programs listed in startup. However, it is wise to keep only those apps necessary running. For instance Stillmon must run if you have a scanner.

This should get you into Windows ok. If not the next thing to try would be to run system file checker. After that consider it a hardware issue...ie ram, hd etc.

by estebandelatorre

A driver may be the cause of the error...
Boot to safe mode and run msconfg...on the start tab uncheck all unnecessary programs...I run only the power profiles, systray, taskman, and norton av. For diagnostics I would unload everything but systray and profiles. If you get into Windows without it hanging you can then use msconfig to re-enable (one at a time and reboot each time) the programs listed in startup. However, it is wise to keep only those apps necessary running.

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