MsDos Compatibility Mode Problem

Operating System Version:Windows 98SE
Drive C: Hard Disk Intel Pentium II, 400 MHZ
64 MB Ram
Direct X 9.0
Internet Explorer 6.0 128 bit


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How I noticed a problem:
Cd rom drive disappeared
Sound Card not detected anymore
Had to update Display drivers again

Where I looked to diagnose:
system properties - device manager =Hard Disk controllers
Intel 82371ab/eb pci bus master ide controller
yellow exclamation mark beside:
Primary and Secondary Ide controller (dual fifo)
Performance tab: File System:
All drives are using Ms-Dos compatibility mode
comment on bottom = Master Boot Record Modified

I went to another forum and this is where I was directed to fix the problem: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q130179
But, although I told the person who replied that it made no sense to me......I need to know WHAT to do to fix the problem.....it seems to only tell me WHY I have a problem.....they just told me all the information I needed was there.....I have read it and re-read it to no avail

Can anyone here put the problem into plain english and tell me HOW to get my computer to run in windows 98se with sound, cd-rom drive again, and NO compatibility problems.......

Any directions would be nice.......LOL I have no idea what I did to cause all this to come about....so if ANY further information or file attachments are required JUST tell me....

I have run Avg Anti virus software, adaware, and spybot......they found nothing.......NO virus

Thanks

 

Looks to me like you're missing drivers for your motherboard. That would account for the missing CD drive, the missing sound card, the exclamation point in System Properties, and the MS-DOS Compatibility Mode file system. You will need to download and install (or re-install) the drivers for the motherboard's chipset.

The first step is to figure out what your motherboard is, and then you can download the proper drivers. If it is a Dell, an HP/Compaq, or a Gateway this is pretty easy. You just go to the company's support site, type in the model name/number (or the serial number). Then click on the download or files section. Then look for something labelled motherboard, chipset, or system drivers. If you get confused, you can post your system's make and model number (and serial number if you have that) and we can get a direct link for you.

If you don't have a name-brand PC, it's a bit more difficult. First, download and install Everest. Run it, and the software should be able to tell you the name of your motherboard (see attached image below). If you scroll to the bottom of the same right pane that I have the shot of, you can usually find a link to the motherboard manufacturer's support site. You can either take the name of the motherboard to their site and, again, look for chipset or motherboard or system drivers to download, or you can post the name of your motherboard and someone here will post a direct link.

Hope this helps!

 

I ran the online scan from Housecall as advised........
Two viruses found
TRoj VB AA.....in C:\Win\System\Sleep.exe
TRoj VB AL.....in C:\Win\System\appdll.exe
according to their instructions, it was uncleanable, but said to delete in that window, which I did......not sure how that affects MY computer tho......lol

It said nothing about a Boot sector virus for the scan of C: Drive

But.......I did run the scan also on my Windows98 Startup Disk....which I used in A: drive........it did show a virus
Virus found....Parity_Boot.....in Boot section of Disk
also uncleanable......and avg looked like it couldnt heal either....so it is still on the disk....A: floppy disk only

so now what?

 

Iv seen this problem countless times on contless computers. Every computer iv seen it happen on was after a complete format and reinstall of windows ( thay wearnt connected to the enternet so it wasesnt a bug.. I beleve iv only seen it in win 98 SE but reinstalling seems to fix the prob no need to format all over just reinstall.... (BTW thay were all older PCs Slot 1 and ss7 mobos)

 

Compatibility mode is not always viruses. I've seen it with bad drivers, I've also seen it with hardware not working right, i.e. a floppy drive hooked up with a ribbon cable, but no power. I've also seen it when the OS is not detecting the device correctly, which ties back into the driver problem.

So if removing the viruses doesn't help, look down this avenue.

You have aenough viruses that you might want to look at a new install. Just my two cents.

 

Every time i got the boot sector thing to it means nothing.........Gilloo is this a fresh install you working on now ???? BTW all the systems that i got the prob. with were never connected to the internet after the format....

 

Not arguing with you man. I missed the comment for compat mode (so I agree with it being an MBR virus), however I have seen no power to a floppy drive yet ribbon cable hooked up do this too.

I dont recall if there was a comment or not when it happened. It was while ago.

You don't have to believe me, and personally, I don't care if you don't.


I am here to help, not compete with you again.

 

Thay were all fresh format and reinstalles and were never connected to the internet and had never had any thing installed..... ...

 

Ace, we're talking about this problem, not a thousand others, but this particular problem.
now clearly the guy has virii and needs to remove them and then post back to us whether or not that helped resolve his issues.

 

so the best thing you can do right now is to scan your computer with HouseCall, remove the viruses and if you can't remove them, you'll have to do a format C:, wipe everything out.
as far as the virus on the floppy disk; format the floppy disk or simply create or download (click here) a new bootdisk.

 

Okay, so just so Im clear
If Housecall said that the viruses I listed (Troj VB AA and AL) are non-cleanable, does this mean I am unable to "remove" them? Or could I just remove the files shown? C:\Win\System.....sleep.exe, and appdll.exe and replace them??

What all need I do to wipe out via Format C: drive and reinstall.......its been years since I did anything like that......want to make sure I dont forget anything.....Like, when I go to reinstall, my cd rom drive isnt showing up NOW so how do I get it to see the CD of windows98 setup?

BTWthanks for your help now and in the next reply.....lol

 

What's worth a try, is to boot into safe mode and see if you can remove the virii from there.
do you have a virusscanner that picks up the virii (except HouseCall)?

things needed for Format C:

* Windows 98 bootfloppy
* Windows 98 cd-rom

now it's very likely that the reason you can't get to your cd-rom drive in Windows are those viruses, however, make sure you've got a backup cd-rom drive laying around so you can put that one in in case it doesn't find it.

 

Ok, thanks,
No I dont have any Virus software that will pick up the virus I mentioned......when I run AVG6.0 the free edition it doesnt find the same thing as housecall did

 

Hm, yeah sorry. Missed the MBR thing, too.

If it's a problem with the master boot record, doesn't he have to use fdisk (and, preferably, do a low-level format)? I mean, the format command doesn't affect the master boot record at all -- and I'm not even sure how much it touches the volume boot record.

And assuming he uses a 98 boot disk with write access disabled, can't he even try "FDISK /MBR"?

 

Agreed. Only FDISK or an AV will rewrite the MBR.

And he could always be re-infected booting from any one of his infected floppies. Those need to be cleaned too.

 

Okey Dokey.......I did what ya said, downloaded and ran.....didnt need to do safe mode......the results =
0 files containing viruses.
Found 0 viruses totally.
Maybe 0 viruses totally
only it did come up with an error message:
when scanning C:\Win\Win386.swp...error (-94) Access Denied
thats bout it


should I go ahead and format/reinstall or what......Im confused now that it hasnt found a virus......lol

as for fdisk/mbr......that doesnt really mean much to me........Im a newbie of sorts still, but i do take directions well.........lol

 

No viruses found? That's strange. What happens if you run Housecall again?

Here's the technical details about the viruses that were detected. Note that they do not infect the master boot record, and have become non-destructive viruses. Of course, we have no idea how long they've been there.

TROJ_VB.AA
TROJ_VB.AL

The win386.swp error is expected. That's the page file (swap file) for your system, and it's locked so that other processes can't access it.

I'm confused as well.

After doing some more research, it appears that just because the master boot record (MBR) was modified, it doesn't necessarily mean that the virus data is in the master boot record. The virus has just left tracks of it's presence by using the Int 13h interrupt to access the hard drive (that is, it accesses your disk without requesting the OS to do something for it). Tech geeks should see this for further details. That document relates to Windows 95, but I'm thinking it may apply to Win98 as well.

The fact that the detected viruses above were not boot sector viruses at all suggests that may be the case.

FDISK /MBR is a command you can run from a Windows 98 boot disk, or from the command prompt selection if you boot with the Windows 98 CD. The command creates a new copy of the Master Boot Record on your hard drive.

The master boot record is a very small program that your BIOS passes control to after it POSTs (beeps) and initializes the hardware. The master boot record is also called a bootloader or bootstrap. The master boot record knows the partition layout of your hard drive, and it knows which partition can be booted (called the "active" partition). It checks to make sure that nothing strange is going on with the partition table, and then it passes control to the Volume Boot Record, which is a program located on the active partition that locates the actual operating system files on your hard drive, and loads and execute those. It is the Master Boot Record that will present you with a list of OS's if you're on a multi-boot system.

These instructions here provide a more detailed explanation of how you can restore your master boot record. However, if it actually is a boot sector virus, you must be very careful about using floppies. I suggest using the Windows 98 CD and selecting Command Prompt from the boot menu so you can avoid any potential for making a new boot record that already contaminated.

If that doesn't solve your problem, then I'd try installing new chipset drivers like I suggested in my first post (post #2). Because, hey, if it's not a virus and it's not the boot record, it could still be that.

If none of those work, then you're down to not just reformatting and installing, but low-level formating, partitioning, formatting, and then installing.

 

Just to add one little item...

FDISK /MBR can be run from the hard drive by booting to 'Command prompt only' and running it from the C:\Windows\Command folder.

Might take a possibly infected floppy out of the equation.

 

Dang. Maybe I should start reading things, huh? I'd just throw the infected floppy away, and make a new start-up disk.

Again, here's a link for info about PARITY_BOOT. Beyond copying itself, it seems to have no destructive capacity (it has no payload). Only problem is that the only way to get rid of it is to format it away.

 

Yes, I already threw out the floppy I had used as a start up disk.......
In my travels I came across the site shown below......I downloaded boot98se onto a floppy for a new start up disk......think this will work okay?


http://www.computerjohn.info/downloads/

 

OMG......okay scrap that last reply I posted
I tried to run boot98se......it gets to insert floppy to write and stops responding.....or writing to disk to about 9% and I get a Windows fatal exception 0D at 0028:C0056E76 in VXD V86MMGR(01) + 0000006A....???

so now I have NO start up disk again

AND

I tried
restart in MsDos Mode to rename the autoexec.bat and config.sys files as per instructions I was following.......and
I am unable to cd to C:\> from C:\Win> ....because.....my keyboard in dos reverts to a french keyboard......so backslash becomes a with an accent, and the > becomes a capital E with an accent.......LOL


and no I have no other keyboard.....the one I do have needed a whatchacallit to enable me to attach it to this computer.....so since I could get the french keyboard to work in windows as a normal english one I didnt bother to buy the extension or converter or whatever ya call it to change the plug dynamics
sheesh

so again......OMG.......

 

It would be best to create that startup disk on another (non-infected) PC...

Is that boot98se.exe you have the same one that's available here?
http://www.24by7.ca/files/boot98se.exe

If not, download that one, run it on a different PC to create the startup disk, then write-protect the disk and you can boot from it on your PC.

 

Yep same one available both locations

However, yes it would be ideal to make the startup disk on another Pc......But I actually have no one with a pc around me.......the one pc I would normally use is out of commission, they packed her up to move.......and the other is a friend who lives outta town and I have no vehicle.......lol

Really, for some reason my friends and family have no computers? Most of them only use one at work.

Any other suggestions? Im open to em

 

First thing I would do is try a different floppy. You might have a bad one.

Also, you can try running "fat32ebd" in the "\tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\" folder of the Windows 98 CD. That also creates a 98 boot disk, but I'm not sure what utilities it puts on it.

Heh. That's too funny. You can use "cd .." to change to the parent directory, however.

You could always do the workaround and use <Alt>+<ASCII Code>. It's pretty simple, if time consuming. Hold down the <Alt> key, then on the numeric keypad type the ASCII code for the character you want to type. Release the <Alt> key, and your character should show up. Here's a reference table.

Backslash is 92, so hold down <Alt> and type "92" or "092" on the numeric keypad, and then release <Alt>. Greater than is 62, so, again, hold down <Alt> and type "62" or "062", and then release <Alt>.

 

Okay, Somehow I got my Cdrom to work.....lol......fiddle enough and ya find the error eh?....lol
So, with the Cdrom ........I used my Windows98 Disk to do a new Startup disk and its ready to go......quite the project here.....I almost forget what I was asking about in the first place....lol........ALmost....lol

Okay, da chicken.......you must have a special computer encyclopedia at your finger tips over there.....lol

I will try the workaround with the Alt/numeric key pad......thats great info to have!!......thanks again


Okay, now back to the first instructions.....lol
I will post back if all is good, or if I run into any other languages other than french......haha

 

Alert the Media
My Ms Dos Compatibility mode problem is GONE.........

Thank you thank you thank you


1. Okay, now I am only dealing with.......No sound...no acceleration..it says in dxdiag that no sound card was detected......how do I find out what sound card I have in order to get the drivers for same?

2. I am still getting Illegal operations for
Dxdiag= invalid page fault, in module kernel32.dll
at 0167:bff9dfff

and wordpad = general protection fault, in module mmsystem.dll
at 000a:0000032

 

>>Configuration Settings For : wdmaud.drv<0001>
SOFTWAREKEY : System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\MEDIA\0001
DeviceID : ISAPNP\CSCE825_DEV0000\FFFFFFFF
Driver : wdmaud.drv
Description : Crystal WDM Audio Codec
Active : Driver is Active but is Not AccessibleFriendlyName : Mixer for Crystal WDM Audio Codec

got this from soundcheck system log report.......I checked in properties and says no conflicts for any crystal audio listed?

does this tell YOU anything?.....lol
can I remove all under sound and have it detect it at reboot or anything like I did with my printer when I had a problem????

 

Okay, I can finally stop bugging you all......
Mode compatibility problem is GONE
I have Sound
And No error messages in dxdiag, or wordpad
the final sound issue solution I found at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;138835

Just to keep ya updated......lol

Thank you SO much for all your help
I truly appreciate the time you spent with me
Have a good one


Thanks again, we can close this thread.........woohoo

 

Good job Giloo