Win98 SE won't boot in normal mode

I have a real dilemma and have tried about everything, including re-installing Win98!!!!

Hardware seems fine; can boot in Safe Mode without any problem. However, when I attempt to boot in normal mode, the system hangs ..........

Have run scandisk, defrag, and checked the hard disks. Everything appear normal. Even re-installed Win98 from the CD. Still no success ...

While this is not my base system, there is content and other files that I need to preserve. Furthermore, this PC can do most of my basic Internet chores.

Need some suggestions or questions that can help me solve this dilemma ...

Thanks in advance ...

PS .... go Miami ... Michigan ... USC ... Auburn !!!!!

 

Ok, Lets try this first, Boot in Safe Mode, Disable all startup items.

Click Start >> Run >> Type in the box

msconfig

System Configuration Utility will come up, uncheck where it says "Load startup items" and reboot.

See if this resolves your problem, let me know. Thanks!

 

I did as you suggested and got the exact same result, i.e. nothing changed.

I launch to the traditional Win98 screen and the bar at the bottom is moving but I do not see any activity on my CPU. My BIOS is "loaded successfully", SCSI board and devices are all listed. Up until I try to install Windows, the system behaves as before when it was operating fine.

This one has me baffled. I do have an old USER.DAT & SYSTEM.DAT file which were working fine before all this happened. After renaming to .old, I copied the two files ... Same result.

I have been using anti-virus & anti-hacker tools routinely and have not noticed anything unusual. The re-installation of Win98 SE was long but uneventful.

I'm beginning to panic ... There is content that I need to get access to on a network (LAN).

Any other suggestions or observations???

 

Something has me wondering if this is not spyware or virues related. So what I would like us to do is this. Please follow below:

1) Download HijackThis 1.99 and save to desktop. Extract this file to the same location and copy the file HiJack This.exe to a Floppy Disk.

2) Boot into safe mode (Only way into the system for now) Create a folder in your program file directory and name it C:\Program Files\HJT

Insert this disk into the computer with the problem and copy the file from the disk to your hard drive.

3) Once the file is copied from the Floppy it should now be in the folder C:\Program Files\HJT
Please be sure to close ALL browsers before running this program.

4) Now run this program, Click on "Do a system scan and save a logfile" Save this file to your desktop

5) Attach that log to you next post so I can take a look at it

NOTE: Be sure you enable ALL startup items before running this so I can see if anything suspicious is starting up.

If you have any problems let me know. Thanks!

 

Okay ... here is the log file.

 

Ok, on the machine that will not boot up normally, run HJT and have it fix theses problems. Before fixing anything with HJT make sure ALL browsers are closed!

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {D6DFF6D8-B94B-4720-B730-1C38C7065C3B} - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\BTLINK\BTLINK.DLL
O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {F2E259E8-0FC8-438C-A6E0-342DD80FA53E} - (no file)
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE} - (no file)
O9 - Extra button: Net2Phone - {4B30061A-5B39-11D3-80F8-0090276F843F} - http://www.net2phone.com/ (file missing)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Net2Phone - {4B30061A-5B39-11D3-80F8-0090276F843F} - http://www.net2phone.com/ (file missing)
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {233A9694-667E-11d1-9DFB-006097D5040A} - (no file)
O13 - WWW. Prefix: http://
O16 - DPF: {C2FCEF52-ACE9-11D3-BEBD-00105AA9B6AE} -
O16 - DPF: {2BC66F54-93A8-11D3-BEB6-00105AA9B6AE} -
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\VxD\MSTCP: Domain = nthome
O18 - Protocol: eti - {3AAE7392-E7AA-11D2-969E-00105A088846} - (no file)
O18 - Protocol: relatedlinks - {CD8D1CAA-FE4A-45DF-A06C-028AAF1821DE} - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\BTLINK\BTLINK.DLL

After removing these entries, reboot and see if it boots normal.

 

Well ... No luck.

I did as you suggested. Also diabled startup menu. Nothing has changed.

Are there any other suggestions OR am I doomed to chasing a problem with no apparent solution?

Here's my current thinking. I have been able to transfer the important files to another drive on this computer in Safe Mode. That cleans up C drive in terms of what I want to save/secure. I have a lot of "junk" in my registry and on the drive from software that had been installed and is now uninstalled. Maybe I should reformat drive C and reload Win98 SE from scratch .... Given the time it would take to fix this problem, a clean install may be the better alternative. My reasoning also assumes that once I reinstall, I can access the other drives and the files contained on them without this problem recurring, i.e. my understanding of viruses/spyware is that they attack the C drive (primarily).

Is my thinking right?

 

try booting with the console (DOS) and use this command scanreg /restore
or scanreg /fix maybe it would work !

 

When I tried "fix", I got through user.dat and at 73% of the way throught the system.dat file, I received an error message stating that "Windows found an error in your system files and was unable to fix the problem. Try deleting some files to free up disk space .... If that does not work then you will need to install windows in a new directory." I have over 2GB of free disk space so I don't think that is the problem. I fear that my registry is damaged.

What do you think about my earlier note of reinstalling and accessing the drives under the new setup? I think that will be more efficient in terms of time .... than trying to restore my existing system .... UGH!!!!

 

If you have what you need backed up already, then yeah I would go ahead and format and reinstall clean. This way you know your clean!

 

Thanks ... now I have another problem.

The hard drives are on a SCSI chain. I entered the SCSI utility and did a low format on my C drive ... All other drives were untouched. When I reboot using the Windows Startup Disk and the CD in the CD drive, there is no "blank" C drive because I have not partitioned it. My D drive is now my C drive and it has files on it that I do not want to lose. Is there a utility for formatting and partioning a hard drive? The SCSI adaptor and a Seagate utility sees the hard drives in their proper order and they are in working order. So I'm missing something here and it's been a long time since I have done this ...

Thanks for any help/advice ...

 

Thanks for all the help ... I found a utility on the Seagate website that formats and partitions the drive. Easy to use and worked perfectly.

Lesson learned ... Backup frequently -- particularly important data files; despite the Anti-Virus/Hacker tools, be careful; safeguard your data on another, separate drive; and don't be afraid to re-install if necessary (it's sometimes more difficult to restore and you still have all the garbage).

Thanks again for all the help ....