I recently came across the below troubleshooter - cannot remember where I got it. It may help you find a solution.
Safe Mode Troubleshooting
A time will come when the BIOS for our card loads, the Windows 9x boot process starts, and then the system comes to a quiet halt. The first thing you should attempt to do is to boot your computer in SAFE MODE. Safe mode is a special diagnostic mode in which Windows 9x bypasses all of your system startup files. The startup files which are bypassed include your: CD-ROM drivers, sound card drivers, Zip drives, video card drivers, video capture drivers, modems, etc. This unique environment can aid you in resolving conflicts involving hardware and/or it's drivers. Many boot problems are the result of a driver that failed to load on boot. Reasons include corrupt device drivers or device drivers that are causing a direct conflict with other device drivers or their hardware. To boot your computer to into Safe Mode you need to press the <F8> key when you see the "Starting Windows 95/98" string on the startup screen.
*If you cannot boot into Safe Mode, you may have a Hardware configuration issue or Windows 9x is corrupt to the point that boots are no longer possible.
Solution #1
1.) Once the machine has been booted into Safe Mode you need to check your C: Drive for a text file named bootlog.txt. Double click on bootlog.txt to open the file.
2.) Use the "Find" command located under "Edit" on the toolbar menu. Type "fail" and press enter. The "Find" command will stop at all lines that contain the word fail in them. Write down the name of the file or driver that failed to load and then press <F3> to continue searching, repeating as necessary.
3.) After you locate all failures (except for fonts that are failing to load) you should do a search using "find files or folder" located under the Start Menu. Type in the name of the file you are looking for and then make sure you are searching your C: Drive by selecting it in the drop box below labeled "Look In". Once the search is complete, click on the file in the display window below, right-click with your mouse, and select "cut" (never delete files) and then move your mouse onto an "empty" area of your Desktop. Right-click and select "paste". Repeat as needed.
4.) Reboot your Windows normally.
Solution #2
- After you have booted into Safe Mode, right-click on "My Computer" and then select "properties". Click on the Device Manager tab. Double-click on each device category (except for your Display Adaptor, Hard Disk Controllers, and System Devices) to reveal the installed devices. Double-click on each device and select "disable in this hardware profile" box at the bottom of "General Tab". Repeat as needed.
**This steps are not guaranteed to work to all situations. Corruption of the operating system is a possibility.