Weird Boot Up Problem In Win98SE: Please Help.

[Salvador]

Hi,
I'm having a weird problem with Win98SE. I just tried to install some drivers for a USB device and now my system is acting all buggy. I pretty much gave up on the USB device for now, but I'd like to get this boot up problem fixed.

Anyway.. If I go to start the computer up in the morning on a cold boot, it gets through the splash screen, but doesn't finish booting up. I then click the restart button and it wants to put me in safe mode. What's weird is once I'm booted, if I go to restart at all, it will always boot for me. It's just on the cold reboots that it doesn't finish booting.

Now.. I have been messing with the EIDE drivers trying to get updated ones because the computer has been acting buggy with USB devices. I was successful at upgrading the drivers once, but I try to upgrade them now and Windows just keeps rebuilding the old drivers on me. I'd like to install other drivers because I have since found newer drivers than what I had previously installed. One of the problems is that Windows keeps asking for an INF file for a new driver and the drivers that are available at the AMD site don't seem to have them.

Also.. In the instructions at AMD, they say to delete the old driver in add/remove. What do they mean by this? Add/Remove programs or in the Device Manager? Then, they say to reboot and install the new drivers by running the app that I download from AMD. The problem is that Windows 98 keeps on reinstalling the same drivers when I reboot the computer and doesn't give me a choice.

If I try and update the drives through the Device Manager, it says that I cannot run this program because I already have the drivers installed. Does this mean that I already have the latest drivers or does it mean that the can't install the newest ones because there is already a driver installed?

Also.. What's the best way to install drivers in Windows 98? Do you just knock out the Master EIDE controller or do you for instance knock out the USB controller if that's what you want an updated driver for?

BTW.. I have a Gigabyte mobo with an AMD 756 chipset.

Any help on getting this resolved would be most appreciated.

You can PM if you would prefer to.

TIA,

Sal

Sorry so long..

 

[EmperorRob]

You're going to have to briefly clarify that. What do AMD have to do with your USB problems? What kind of USB device was it and how did you install its drivers.

All the other factors shouldn't matter. If you installed some drivers and now your system won't boot, there's your problem. Whatever your machine is asking for on startup write the name of those files down, then do a search inside these files:

1. Win.ini
2. System.ini
3. Config.sys
4. Autoexec.bat

You may find you have references to removed files in there.

Also, if you reset your machine during startup you'll be prompted for Safe Mode every time you do this.

 

[Salvador]

<< You're going to have to briefly clarify that. What do AMD have to do with your USB problems? What kind of USB device was it and how did you install its drivers. >>


Because I have a mobo with an AMD chipset. I figured that AMD would have the drivers that I need; Gigabyte certainly didn't.

It's a Microtech Cameramate USB reader. I returned it already though. The tech support told me to go to the AMD site and download a new chipset for my mobo. Shows you how much they know.


<< All the other factors shouldn't matter. If you installed some drivers and now your system won't boot, there's your problem. Whatever your machine is asking for on startup write the name of those files down, then do a search inside these files: >>


I figured as much. I'll have to look into what my system is looking for on startup. I don't think it's saying that it's looking for anything though. Everything appears to be fine and then it just stops booting and leaves me with a black screen.

Thanks again, I'll look into what the machine wants on startup.

Sal

Update: I tried rebooting the system several times and it isn't asking me for anything. I will shut it down and see if I can get the cold boot problem to act up later on. I've had to reboot my system every morning the past 4 days because of this problem.

 

[EmperorRob]

If you're just hanging on the splash Win98 screen then you have a conflict somewhere. Did you install any kind of BIOS or driver files other than what came w/your camera?

 

[Salvador]

It's hanging right after the splash screen. It will flash to the black and white page for a couple of seconds and then just go black. Nothing strange on the page from what I can see.

It's really starting to act buggy on me now. I couldn't barely get it too boot this last time after sitting for about an hour. I wonder why I can get it to boot if I go to restart my computer right now?

I just installed the drivers for the card reader. Come to think of it, I think I flashed my bios from an update at the AMD site. I don't know if I even flashed it or not though. I clicked on it and it brought up a DOS prompt, flashed a few lines and then said Finished at the top of the box. It said it was for my particular chipset.

The only other thing that I did was remove the EIDE Master controller and had Windows rebuild it. When I go back in to Device Manager, it says that everything is working fine. I don't get any yellow exclamation marks and it says that everthing is working fine when I right click the driver types.

Also.. On bootup, it doesn't say anything about errors, so I have no idea what to do at this point.

I'm almost afraid to shut it off now with all the trouble that I had on the last boot. It must've taken me 6 or 7 tries before I could get the computer to boot into normal mode.

Any suggestions on what I should do at this point?

Thanks again,

Sal

 

[EmperorRob]

Man I couldn't even begin to guess. How long has this machine been running since your last clean install of 98? Also how big is your HD and how much do you have stored on it? And lastly do you have a burner to back up data?

 

[Salvador]

I got the computer in December of last year. It's never had a clean install of Windows 98 since new.

Here's the thing. I thought that it might be the drivers because I've tried two different card readers on the USB ports and got the same kind of buggy symptoms. I thought that it might be something wrong with the drivers or a possible IRQ conflict. I ruled out the IRQ conflict and went from there. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been messing with this stuff considering my limited knowledge on how to troubleshoot a problem like this.

I have a 30gb hdd with about 15gb's free and I'm in the process of backing everything up right now for just in case..

I have a burner and a tape drive for it. I'm going to backup most of this on a tape in case I need to restore everything. Unfortunately, I have gone awhile between tape backups and if I just do a system restore, I'm going to be missing a load of work and emails.

Do you think reinstalling Windows would help any? I would hate to have to fdisk this drive.

Thanks again,

Sal

 

[johnlog]

I had just about the same problems with Win98 SE you are having now. It use to take about 3 to 7 restarts or reboots to get it to boot all the way from Safe mode to '98. I won't go into more detail but some kid techs from PacBell were trying to install DSL on that computer and 8 of those kid techs failed. In the meantime they deleted all kinds of files and reinstalled whatever.

To make a very long story short this is how I fixed that very sick computer.

When Win ME came out I bought the upgrade version for $47.60. I figured I had nothing to lose so I installed ME over that sick 98 SE and miracle among miracles that fixed and repaired every single problem I was having with that very sick win98 SE. Even my scanner started working again.

That computer has been running perfectly with ME ever since then. It is super stable and I can't remember it ever crashing since I installed ME on it. That was about a week after Win ME was released.

>>>I'm almost afraid to shut it off now with all the trouble that I had on the last boot. It must've taken me 6 or 7 tries before I could get the computer to boot into normal mode.<<<


JL 😀

 

[EmperorRob]

You do have that option, or even installing 98 over your existing install. Backing up is the smartest thing to do right now. Get the important stuff: e-mails, IE prefs, mp3s, porn, whatever. 😀

Anyway, you may wind up fdisking. That should solve your problems if you delete and reformat a partition. But if you've changed your BIOS on a device, it may still have problems. But I think a reformat is your best bet. You may even want to consider migrating to Windows 2000. I use it at work and now at home. Norton Ghost is a good program to invest in.

 

[Salvador]

Thanks for your help guys. I just posted another message asking how to backup my email's in Outlook Express. I've always been a Netscape person until recently and can't figure out the best way to save my email's or IE preferences. I have just about everything else backed up including my porn. 😉

Oh man.. I do not want to have to fdisk and reformat this thing. I will try starting with a reinstall of Win98SE and see if that helps.

The install of WinME sounds interesting, but it probably won't help my situation. I've heard some pretty bad things about ME. I'm glad it worked out for you though Johnlog.

Do you think I screwed something up by flashing my Bios? It seemed pretty harmless at the time. Can you tell if I actually changed anything by my description above on what I did?

Yes. I have been contemplating Win2K. I will probably be upgrading to it very shortly. Especially if I have to wipe this sucker clean and start from scratch.

Thanks again,

Sal

PS. I just thought of something. I pretty much screwed myself with the tape backup. I should've tried backing everything up before I started messing with everything. If I do a full backup now, I'm basically going to be copying my problems to tape, aren't I?

 

[EmperorRob]

Depends on what you back up. I like to backup individual files. IF you're talking about a system-wide backup like through Norton Ghost or Microsoft Backup, then yes, you'll just get crap-backup.

It's hard to tell about flashing BIOS. If you think you may have done some damage, it might be possible to go to your mobo makers website and d/l your original BIOS and re-flash, if they have it.

A good idea for you to do is, once you have your system back to running order, backup to tape, CD, or whatever and label it and don't overwrite it. That way you'll always have a clean install somewhere on disk. I recommend Norton Ghost for this.

 

[Salvador]

Just wanted to give everyone an update. Redfox1 was able to suggest that I remove the &quot;PCI Bus&quot; under Device Manager and let Windows rebuild all my drivers. I did this and made sure that I had Windows use the older drivers because I suspected that the newer drivers were the ones giving me my problems.

Well.. It's fixed! My computer successfully cold booted this morning for the first time in a week.

Many thanks to all those who helped, especially Redfox1 for the &quot;PCI Bus&quot; removal suggestion.

Salvador 😀

Woops! Forget to add the smiley faces 😀 😀 😀