dell latitude laptop startup problem

I'm messing with my daughters Dell latitude laptop with windows 98. She was attemting to cleanup startup. The only one she unchecked was TkBellExe (scheduler for real on player) and then on restarting the pc this message appears:

"While initializing device CONFIGMG: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer."

That just repeats on startup, however it will let me go to safe mode.

I went to ms site they suggested deleting or renaming win.com file. Reading further, from what I understand, they said do NOT do this if it is in the folder where windows is installed and it is (windows is installed in c:\windows). Then it seems the advice ends there.

I do see a couple of other other win files I'm going to post here in case they means anything.
file type
Win.--- ---File
Win MS-DOS Application
Win Configuration Settings

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.....thanks Jena

 

I forgot something and it was too late to edit my post, sooooo...

The entire message I get is as follows:
While initializing device CONFIGMG:
Windows Protection error. You need to restart your computer.

I do not have the cd's etc that came with the pc, and a new os hasn't been installed or updated. (I've read this is a possible cause for the error)

I have unsuccessfully tried the instructions under "MORE INFORMATION" in this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187612

Thanks ~Jena

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187612

 

Well....as I mentioned in the earlier post that's one of the articles I read and tried the resolution. However it was unsuccessful - nothin' changed - nada. grrrrrr
Any ideas?

~Jena

 

Well.....I know it's not cool to bump here. But I thought that after 5 days there may be someone new around that may have a possible solution for me. So I give myelf permission to bump once. lol

 

So you have the latest BIOS version for your computer, disabled the external (CPU or L2) cache in the CMOS, and BIOS APM setting is incorrect as in the Microsoft KB?

Then only thing left is replace with (PCI) video adapter.

http://www.smartcomputing.com/techsupport/detail.aspx?guid=&ErrorID=33459

All the fixes say the same thing...not sure what you're looking for, no easy fix and you don't have the OS CD so no restore on WIN 98 w/o it I think. My guess is your daughter was looking at start-up items because the PC is limping along and replacing the video adapter should work from what I've see on the net but not a sure thing.

You can go to dell.com put in your tag number and they will give you your PC specs, if it has a recovery partition you will know (but don't think so) you can also try ordering replacement CDs if they still have them but again I don't think so.

 

i seriously doubt you will get replacement win 98 cd from the manufacturer? you'd be better off try to install xp on there.

you could always ask around, and see if you have any friends with win 98, and use your key. but, you won't have all the s/w that came bundled with your laptop (you should be able to get all your drivers from the dell site). - g/l, sos