win 98 bootup problem need help

[tomm]

Win98se on bootup "Windows 98" screen appears then the
"It is now safe to turn off your coumputer screen". This is my kids computer and it froze on them then they had a problem shuting it down. Now the above happens on bootup. Safe mode works ok. Any suggestions?

Tom

[Dj-Icer]

have u ever get in to your desktop?

[tomm]

No, I never get to the desktop. Only in safe mode can I get to desktop

[John Prophet]

repeatedly press the f8 button while booting..when the menu appears choose "ms dos" mode..or it might say "command prompt" (cant remember which)

when you get to the flashing cursor type in "scanreg /restore" without the quotes.

it will show 5 dates, pick the newest one and choose to restore it to that date.

Hopefully that will put a good copy of the registry back in place and youll be good to go....if not, reboot and repeat the process but choose the next oldest date and try to restore it that.

[tomm]

John: The only saved registry that works loads to the desktop then a few seconds later I get blue screen with "fatal exception 00 at 0028:C023DB5B in VXD VDD(09) + 00001803"

[Jüš† ä gü¥]

If you've still got the Windows98 CD it came with and all driver CDs and/or floppies it came with/etc..., I'd recommend you make a DOS-bootable floppy from your functioning Win98 machine, then copy fdisk.exe and format.com on there, then write-protect it (move the black thing in upper corner to the other position). Then boot off that floppy, use
fdisk/mbr

followed by

fdisk
(follow onscreen instructions for deleting all partitions)
Then use format to make new partitions (optional, as Win98 will do this part for you upon install). Then stick the Win98 installation CD in drive, turn off computer and reboot. (If not set to boot off CD, go into the BIOS and change options so it will----can try holding Delete, holding F1, holding F3, holding Ctrl-Alt-S, and a variety of other combinations of the F keys and/or Ctrl----probably one of these will get you in your BIOS)

Follow on-screen instructions for installing Win98. When done, insert Drivers CD/floppies and install those (Need install chipset first, then graphics card, then monitor, then whatever else---and if it looks right on first go, win98 default drivers for chipset, graphics card, and monitor work well enough. Must install all drivers that you need though.)

Will lose all of your data this way, but at least have functioning system. Can then put other stuff back on it.

Probably want to see if can save stuff to floppies while in Safe Mode.

Can always just try to play around with the registry/etc while in safe mode and if you screw up, then do the stuff I listed above.

[trieder]

Boot into safe mode and run regedit. Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > MICROSOFT > WINDOWS > CURRENT VERSION > Run (do not expand run, click on it)
You might also want to check "run once"/"services" too

see if there is anything out of the ordinary installed. Also at this point you may want to try uninstalling the last program or driver you had installed. If none of this works maybe you have a portion of you hard disk went bad, you could try running scan disk.
Good Luck