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Windows 98 safe mode only

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I have an old Windows 98 system (just an old plaything) it will only start windows in safe mode. If it is allowed to try to load windows normally, it will just continually reboot. Any suggestions for a fix? (aside from a big hammer)

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In reply to Windows 98 safe mode only

Have you tried the step by step boot sequence? I seem to remember having a virus checker that would re-boot when it went to load a dos checker in autoexec. You can step through saying “y” until it reboots, then you have found your culprit. If it fails after autoexec, you could check the ini files as well, win.ini and system.ini, look for things loading initially. You could edit these in dos mode, should be in c:\windows\system if I remember right. Have a look at these, remming out anything that looks suspicious. You can bring up sys files in safe mode by typing sysedit in the run box

Good Luck

BK

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As it turns out, looks like someone has tried to install Win98 over Win95 and made a mess of it. Drive will be erased anyway. Thanks for your help.

Reply To: Windows 98 safe mode only

In reply to Windows 98 safe mode only

It’s typically a FUBAR’d driver or a corrupt registry setting. The step thru method is a good place to start. I would probably find all associated drivers and start replacing them one by one beginning with the video driver. You can also do safemode to varying degrees, but i would focus on 2 places – the video driver and the motherboard drivers. Another method is remove all hardware except necessary stuff like video, keybd, mbd, hdd – then try a reboot with just VGA. Se how it goes and begin to add by degrees. You will appreciate your mouse so add it second 🙂
Good Luck

Reply To: Windows 98 safe mode only

In reply to Reply To: Windows 98 safe mode only

As it turns out, looks like someone has tried to install Win98 over Win95 and made a mess of it. Drive will be erased anyway. Thanks for your help.

Reply To: Windows 98 safe mode only

In reply to Windows 98 safe mode only

Boot into SAFE mode. Run msconfig and disable all startup items. Reboot and see if it goes into Normal mode. If so you will need to eliminate the startup items one by one to see what is causing the problem. You can also try booting into DOS mode and type scanreg /fix to attempt to fix the current registry settings. If that does not work, from DOS prompt type scanreg /restore and pick a previous good boot to restore.

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In reply to Windows 98 safe mode only

I have had a similar problem with constant rebooting. If it has an Intel motherboard or uses Intel chipsets, then you may have an outdated ATA controller. Take a look at Intel’s website and use the ChipUtil programs (There are 2) to determine what chipset you have. This will then allow you to find the latest Driver on Intel’s Site for that Chipset. In my case the problem was with the 440BX chipset, but I think there were a few that did this.

Job Cacka

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It is an old AMD Slot 1 CPU and not Intel. Thanks for trying. All other options are in process of being tested.

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In reply to Windows 98 safe mode only

In safe mode, look in C:\ for files modified recently and you may find a log file which has all the details of what happened during the boot process.

You can also check the hard drive for errors – right click the hard drive in Windows Explorer, select Tools and make sure you select the option to fix the errors and scan for bad blocks. This may actually take hours but you will at least check the integrity of the hard drive.

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Hard drive checks out clear of bad sectors and errors. But who relies on scandisk to give accurate reports anyway LoL

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