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windows 98 reboot loop after Format

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14 replies

by marseyus84

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Well a friend brought me his computer, i can build them, just not good at fixing. Well his problem was a reboot loop. He said the data wasn't a problem. So i formatted and tried to reinstall Windows 98, and even after this there's still a reboot loop. Well i figured the sasser worm maybe? so i downloaded the F_Prot antivirus program, since you can run it in dos, and everytime i run the program it also restarts the computer. I can run in dos mode just fine, but once it boots into widnwos 98, either at or just after the splash screen it restarts.

14 replies

by jleather

Have you tried booting in safe mode? If that works, try booting with acknowledging each step of the boot process. Perhaps you will find a device driver or program that is the culprit.

Please let us know . . .

John

by douglasb

I would suspect that a cooling fan or other over heating issue is the problem. If you did a clean install and still have the problem, check how long the computer runs before rebooting. If it is about the same amount of time I would suspect it may be overheating and resetting itself.

by willcomp

Could be one of several things, but if I had to pick just one, it would be memory failure.

DOS only uses lower 1MB of RAM. Sounds like Windows is failing when loading extended memory.

Dalton

by marseyus84

i would agree, except it will attempt to reinstall windows, and sometimes i'll even get into the part that checks for plug and play, but even then it still reboots

by marseyus84

Ok here's an update, i deleted the partition, and when i went to re-partition the HD, it kept saying "Boot Virus" or something like that, but either way, it kept warning me that the MBR was infected with a virus, bad news is the guy who's teaching me about all of this said the HD is pretty much gone, and the system is hosed. Good news is we talked the guy into buying a new comp i think. But this is one of those were putting up on the "bone shelf" it's all the systems we can't fix, or so we think we can't, so i'm still gonna mke it a personal project.
Also when booted into safe mode it still goes into the loop. As far as the overheating, the fans are running, and it's only when you try to boot into windows, or if i run the virus scan, then it reboots, also i have tried reinstalling windows several times, and still then it goes back into the loop when it's about 95% done.

by jleather

If I recall correctly, windows 98 has fdisk.exe utility which you can run with the /MBR command line parameter (in dos mode fdisk /MBR or fdisk /mbr) which will replace the master boot record. Since you seem to be at the end of your rope, why not give it a try?

Hope it helps (I'll keep my fingers crossed!?),

John

by marseyus84

That did the trick, thanks for all your help guys, after it replaced the MBR just self rebooted one time after i did that, and hasn't done it since.

by tabcomputers2002

Hard drives are cheep enough. You didn't mention your system specs. But if the system is still has a use, toss a different drive in it. Format, install and compute away.

by stevan

what i would do to see if it is a memory problem is shut off the cache in the bois. this well slow the system way down but you may find that the system will run with out reboots. also even if the fans are running they may not spinning at a speed that is cooling the CPU enough. what MB, CPU and mem, are we taling about?

by capris

I would suggest, remove all the devices (eg, Network cards, AGP, USB devices and ports....) except the display. Then try installing Windows 98.

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