Yet another Windows 98 help question

Factual Questions
1

Okay, so I’m using my cousin’s PC, which runs 98. When booting, it won’t load Windows in any form, except going into Safe Mode. When in safe mode, it tells me that the display settings aren’t set properly. When I change the display to anything other than 16 colors, and then reboot, it get the “system is busy” blue screen. When I reboot again, it goes into Safe Mode (well, let me clarify…I get the option to start in Safe Mode).

Bottom line is this: I can’t get this computer to operate in anything but Safe Mode (I’m typing this in Safe Mode currently). Any time I try, I get the blue screen.

I’ve run Spybot and AVG. Not to mention SpySubtract and CWShredder. So far, nothing’s alleviating the problem.

I’ve also run scandisc (after closing all programs except Explore and Systray), and no errors. I ran it in extended mode, and left it running all night, and it still hadn’t finished the scan when I woke up.

Any help?

2

I thought while in Safe Mode, network resources were unavailable?

But to your problem: Have you tried searching for, downloading and installing new display drivers?

Or in Safe Mode, go to the Device Manager and check the display & driver status.

3

If checking the device properties (as mentioned above) doesn’t work, consider this:

Does the PC have a video card? Does it have onboard video? Either one could be broken. If you have both, and have been using the video card, remove the video card and change the BIOS settings to use onboard video. If you only have onboard video, try installing a video card and using that. If you only have a video card, try installing a different one.

What happens if you keep the video settings to 16 colors? Does the computer boot normally?

4

Nope. Any time I try, I get the same error screen, and it reboots in Safe Mode.

5

Probably time to bite the bullet. Back off any critical data, and reformat and reinstall OS. Beyond that, it is probably hopeless unless you personally know a Windows geek.

6

Well, rfddxm, that wouldn’t bother me. But she’s currently in the hospital, so I’m not touching anything without her okay on that.

7

You don’t necessarily have to reformat before reinstalling your OS. Google ‘Windows 98 reinstall instructions’.

8

First try uninstalling and reinstalling the display driver.

9

Also try any other drivers found on your Windows 98 CD. Settings -> control panel -> display -> settings ->click ‘advanced’ button -> adapter tab -> change.

10

Then use another box. :slight_smile:

11

Yep. There are lots of other possibilities. Hence my “Windows geek” reference.

12

I’d save reformatting for the very last. It’s not really a solution so much as an “Igive up.” Also, if the problem is hardware related, reformatting willl be entirely ineffective.

Start w/ the driver. It should be relatively painless if you know where to find the driver.
There’s a lot about the machine that’s “it depends.” For most onboard video the drivers are available from the 98 install disk. However, if there’s a card, then it likely came w/ it’s own disk.

An aquaintance of mine had a similar problem when he downloaded and installed a driver update with his mouth in the wrong position (or maybe the stars were crossed). I used the restore point (it’s an XP box) to get things running for him. however, later, when I updated everything, there were no problems. So, who knows?