Win 98SE won't boot

[bill1971]

Built this box for someone's business almost a year and a half ago.
So I get a call asking if I can look at this prob of not being able to boot into Win98SE.

Everything looks good as far as the BIOS and POST are concerned - it wants to "hand off" to the OS, I get the splashscreen, then when Windows goes to load, there's a dialog box that says:

"Comctl32.dll could not start"

Dwnlded this file onto a floppy before going over there, and looks like I overwrote the existing file, but still get the same error message.

Tried to get into Safe Mode, but same message appears - I get the light "teal" screen w/ "Safemode" at the four corners, but no icons, ( from what I read, this file is used by several apps, and somehow relates to the GUI ).

Ran Scanreg, which said that HIMEM.SYS is not loaded. DOS message said to make sure the line:

DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS is in the CONFIG.SYS file on the boot drive.

When I look in either C:\ edit CONFIG.SYS and C:\edit C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG.SYS - they open up into "DOS boxes" or fields, but they're both completely empty.

Tried to restore the registry to a previous date,(I think 1/22/04), when I believe the machine was working OK - that was successful, but it still boots the same way.

I cannot boot from the Win98SE startup disk, w/ or w/out CD-ROM support. Ran Diags on the HDD - all were fine.

Could I possibly repair the Master Boot Record?? (Just thinking out loud).

Trying not to reformat and re-install if possible,(although I prolly could have done that by now!). Actually I'm trying to learn something here, but the more I read in books, and by doing a search here, the more confused I seem to become.

Are there any DOS-type Diagnostics, since I can't run SFC 'cause I can't get into Windoze??

Also, can I hang this HDD, let's say, as a Slave off of the Secondary IDE channel, behind a CD-ROM as Master, on a good, working PC, just to recover some critical files, in case I have to reinstall the OS? (It woud be easier than taking out my "Serillel" HDD, and maybe having to change it over to Master instead of "Single", then reset it back to single drive when I'm done, etc.).

One last question while I'm here - are there any Anti-Virus proggies out there that I can dwnld, and that will boot from multiple floppies and run in DOS to check a non bootable HDD?

Sorry for so many questions in this thread. Thanks for any help.

- Bill

[teengeek88]

to mix the master boot record i believe the DOS command is fdisk /fixmbr

could some one correct/affirm that? havent used 98 lately

Good luck with this though

[stroyal]

I'd be cheching why you can't boot from the win 98 CD, it sounds like the problem is before the HD is read. How will you reinstall if you can't boot from the win 98 CD

[John Prophet]

you can put the drive in another machine to get stuff off of it....though I get nervous with it as far as w98 machines, id rather put it in an xp machine to get the files.


Also thats a way to run antivirus.


you cant boot from a floppy?

there is an article here http://support.microsoft.com/default...43&Product=w98 about replacing that file...from cd etc

[John Prophet]

fixing the master boot record for w98 is just

fdisk /mbr

of course you need to be able to boot from the floppy for that

[stroyal]

Sorry, I ment Win 98 start up disk

[bill1971]

Thanks, guys:

Let me give it a whirl. I'm a late bloomer - not real savvy when it comes to DOS, (particularly when you can't get into windows to do anything, and have to rely on DOS commands/switches, etc).

Oh, I can get the 98 startup disk to boot, and expand everything into memory, but when windows loads, I get the comctl32.dll not able to start box. (Hope that statement helps a little).

JP - I will hang that drive off of my XP box, if I have to retrieve files - as a last resort, which is fast approaching, I might add- lol.

- Bill

[bill1971]

Well:

Everything extracted exactly as stated in the MS article, JP. But I'm still getting the same "comctl... unable to start" dialogue box. (sigh).

If I had a 98SE upgrade or retail CD, I'd try overwriting everything. Unfortunately, I just have an OEM disk, so it won't do it.

Thanks again for the input.

- Bill

[stroyal]

Does the manufacturers disk have it's own start up disk?

[bill1971]

Hey,st:

The mfr boot disk is an installation disk, with "Hard System Recovery", Install w/ and w/out formatting options, etc.

I did read in the help section of the Startup disk, that , if there's an Anti-virus proggie running, that sometimes it won't allow changes to system files.etc. But I don't think this is the case here, although I get a dialogue box right before I get the "comctl..." error, saying NAV could not install or run.
Everything seemed to copy correctly, etc.

I would still like to know how to get into the config.sys file for editing - as I said previously, when I type in edit C:\Windows\System\Config.sys , a DOS box opens up, but there's nothing in it(?)

About 4:00 this morning, I did manage to hang this HDD as secondary off of my XP box, to copy over critical business files, etc.

Thanks.

- Bill