boot prob

I am working on a windows 98 machine that is getting a error at bootup. It is not realy an error it just stops booting before windows splash screen and says
C:\windows|wininit.exe

C:\
ehijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {|} and an assortment of messed up symbles and charactors. Than it will say press any key to continue. If you do it reboots. If you don’t it will reboot in so many seconds. Same problem booting into safe mode. Can anyone give me some help?