Software Messed Up Computer??

I was installing a wingman joystick , so my son could play games on our family desktop, and it just went horribly wrong.I have no idea what happened, but everything seemed ok, up until it was time to restart the computer to complete the setup.When I tried to restart the system, it got as far as bringing up the wallpaper, and then just quit.It won't go any further, I have no idea how to get it to boot up.If anyone could suggest someting , I will try it.I will be out most of tomorrow, but will check in later in the evening.Thanks in advance for any help you guys can send my way.
Scott

 

does it work in safe mode?

 

I got it to boot up in safe mode, and removed the wingman software, but it still won't start up properly.Once I had the software removed , I shut the computer down and tried to start it up in regular mode.Once again, it would not go past the point where the wallpaper shows up.No icons or task bar show up, and it just sits there doing nothing.
Scott

 

can you also give some spec's of the pc like os processor ram and such and this may sound dumb but it happens to me alot did you leave a cd in the cd-rom? because if i leave a cd in my cd-rom my computer will only boot up to the wallpaper and sort of lock up untell i remove the cd and hit restart

 

It's an AMD Athalon 1.2 processor, with 512 of ram, the Op System is win98.I did leave the software cd in the drawer, but removed it and still couldn't get past the wallpaper stage.
Scott

 

when you start it in safemode can you run checks for the usual stuff like spyware and virus and this might help you out on that
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
and can i get someone in here and help what might be causeing this? i am doing over my head i think

 

I have the same problem as "braindead" but a different cause, and I've fund no solution. I had downloaded a Windows 98 update and installed it, it required a restart, and when the computer restarted, it ran normally -- normal displays -- to the point of showing wallpaper and no further. The taskbar and the rest of that line flicks on for one second and disappears. A notice shows and soon disappears saying that some scheduled programs didn't run, another normal occurrence. But that's it -- I can't get anything further to happen. The computer doesn't recognize the CD drive so I can't reinstall Win98. There is no task bar in safe mode and apparently no way to do anything in safe mode. I've tried going to C-prompt to initiate someting, such as Windows itself; I can get the prompt, take a directory, etc but apparently not much else. I've tried going to A-prompt and using a boot disc in the A-drive, and I tried a rescue disk; I've interrupted the startup and told it to load each thing one at a time, and to use or reset all the default settings. The computer had Win98SE fully updated to the point at which it failed. It's an older one with 64meg RAM, a Pentium 3 at something like 480 Hz, and about 6.3 gig memory. I still hope to recover data from it so have not gone so far as to reformat. It crashed in April 2003. I keep fiddling with it ... hope springs eternal. *g*

 

earsz It would be better to post your problem in its own thread. This way you can get specific help.
You have many options of pulling your data off the HD.
Jump drive
HD to another system and then burn to CD
If NIC installed attach to other computer
External or internal HD

 

I tried again to boot up the computer and it did the same thing.This time I hit ctrl+alt+del, and got the following message Kb891711 not responding

Any idea what that means?I really am new to this computer stuff.
Scott

 

That is a MS update. You could try and reapply the update. You may need to uninstall it first.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200501_windows.mspx