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re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 3:20 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) |I try to boot up in [standard] mode |and in only goes to a black screen with a cursor in the top left corner. | rob http://www.liverepair.com/encyclopedia/articles/cmosreplace.asp [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Monday, December 29, 2008 at 3:19 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) Thanks for the input. I replaced the battery and tried to reboot in standard mode and ran scanreg /fix in dos mode. The system will only boot in safe and dos and the scanreg /fix still freezes up and systenm.dat. any other ideas? Thanks On Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 3:20 pm, gewg_ wrote: >|I try to boot up in [standard] mode >|and in only goes to a black screen with a cursor in the top left corner. >| rob > >http://www.liverepair.com/encyclopedia/articles/cmosreplace.asp [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Monday, December 29, 2008 at 5:41 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) |I replaced the battery[...] | rob | No more blinking cursor. Right? |The system will only boot in safe and dos and the scanreg /fix still freezes up | Uh huh. |and systenm.dat. | I'm not sure what you mean by that. As a start, it would be good if you previewed your composition before posting it. The first 2 paragraphs here are worth reading: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1217046552 The difference between Normal Mode And Safe Mode is that normally Windoze uses device drivers to get more than the basic functions enabled in the Windoze kernel. As such, looking in Device Manager for yellow marks is a good idea. Remove any damaged item before replacing it. You have scanned for infections. Right? Part of Windoze could also be broken; System File Checker can help there. Caveat: SFC is a *very* blunt tool: cache of http://www.rickrogers.org/sfc.htm [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 5:10 am Posted by Keith Stanier (1248 messages posted) rob wrote: |I am able to boot up in DOS and Safe Mode. But am not able to access and hard or |floppy drive or the inteternet in safe mode currently. Safe Mode only removes your CD Roms, hard drive and floppy are is accessible. As for accessing the internet I've never tried that in Safe Mode because I have fixed the problem and started in normal mode. As regards your system restore you only have 5 backups by default. You can change this number to any number you want to. Edit C:\Windows\Scanreg.ini and change MaxBackupCopies=5 to a new number of backups. But if you enter 20 you will only see I think 7 previous dates is the max in Scanreg. But there are ways to do your own system restore to any date you have a rb***.cab file for. Or your other option. I bet its been many years since you did a format and rebuild, perhaps its time now. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:09 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) gewg_ (3610 messages posted) |I replaced the battery[...] | rob | No more blinking cursor. Right? If I try to open in standard mode after the windows 98 screen appears, it still goes to the black screen with the blinking cursor in thwe upper right of the screen. |The system will only boot in safe and dos and the scanreg /fix still freezes up | Uh huh. |and systenm.dat. | I'm not sure what you mean by that. If I run scanreg /fix in dos then scan feature freezes up whils scanning the system.dat files at about 1% As a start, it would be good if you previewed your composition before posting it. The first 2 paragraphs here are worth reading: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1217046552 The difference between Normal Mode And Safe Mode is that normally Windoze uses device drivers to get more than the basic functions enabled in the Windoze kernel. I'm not sure what the kernel is. Should I make changes to this so I can access other devices while in safe mode? As such, looking in Device Manager for yellow marks is a good idea. Remove any damaged item before replacing it. Nothing with a yellow mark in device manager You have scanned for infections. Right? All the time. Found nothing. Part of Windoze could also be broken; System File Checker can help there. Caveat: SFC is a *very* blunt tool: cache of http://www.rickrogers.org/sfc.htm I'll check sfc and get back to you with the results. Thanks [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:20 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) Posted by Keith Stanier (1093 messages posted) rob wrote: |I am able to boot up in DOS and Safe Mode. But am not able to access and hard or |floppy drive or the inteternet in safe mode currently. Safe Mode only removes your CD Roms, hard drive and floppy are is accessible. As for accessing the internet I've never tried that in Safe Mode because I have fixed the problem and started in normal mode. As regards your system restore you only have 5 backups by default. You can change this number to any number you want to. Edit C:\Windows\Scanreg.ini and change MaxBackupCopies=5 to a new number of backups. But if you enter 20 you will only see I think 7 previous dates is the max in Scanreg. But there are ways to do your own system restore to any date you have a rb***.cab file for. Or your other option. I bet its been many years since you did a format and rebuild, perhaps its time now. [Reply or follow-up to this message I have tried to rrestore the most current rb file in dos mode and it didn't work. How many time can you try resore without messing up a rb file? I also have found one rb bad file in the folder. Does that make a difference? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:23 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) Any help on how to format messages on this forum would be appreciated. I'm new here Thanks [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:31 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) I ran SFC and recieve a message that setupx.dll "may be corrupt." I searched for setupx file and found one that was empty. CD rom still not working. Thanks for any help. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:54 pm Posted by Keith Stanier (1248 messages posted) rob wrote: |I have tried to rrestore the most current rb file in dos mode and it didn't work. |How many time can you try resore without messing up a rb file? |I also have found one rb bad file in the folder. Does that make a difference? Rob you can restore as many times as you want too. It doesn't mess up any rb***.cab file, these are only backups for the registry thats Scanreg uses. Thats why I said increase you backups to 10 or 14. If Scanreg finds a bad cab file it will tell you and the file will get renamed to rtbad.cab. P.S. I see you haven't posted much on here Rob. When you make a reply look further down the page and there is a checkbox that says Check this box to preserve your spacing, or leave it unchecked to have your text wrapped automatically. Tip: Don't use this option unless you really need it; use the preview feature on the next page if you're not sure. Make sure its checked, that way all you text doesn't end up on one big paragraph. Also when you reply it copies the previous reply text across. So as not to get confused with your reply please edit the previous post and put a | in front of all the previous text, it makes it easier to follow. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 1:33 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) Ok, I did another search and found four files that have setup in their names. under C:\ there is a folder that is empty titled setupx under c:\ there is a file titled setupxlg.txt under C:\windows\system there is a .dll file (728kb) under c:\windows\helpdesk\sfc there is a .dll file (728kb) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 1:51 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) rob wrote: |I have tried to rrestore the most current rb file in dos mode and it didn't work. |How many time can you try resore without messing up a rb file? |I also have found one rb bad file in the folder. Does that make a difference? |Rob you can restore as many times as you want too. It doesn't mess up any rb***.cab file, these are only backups for the registry thats Scanreg uses. Thats why I said increase you backups to 10 or 14.| Thanks |If Scanreg finds a bad cab file it will tell you and the file will get renamed to rtbad.cab. Should i delete the bad cb file or leave it alone? |P.S. I see you haven't posted much on here Rob. When you make a reply look further down the page and there is a checkbox that says |Check this box to preserve your spacing, or leave it unchecked to have your text wrapped automatically. Tip: Don't use this option unless you really need it; use the preview feature on the next page if you're not sure. |Make sure its checked, that way all you text doesn't end up on one big paragraph. Also when you reply it copies the previous reply text across. So as not to get confused with your reply please edit the previous post and put a | in front of all the previous text, it makes it easier to follow. Test I'm trying to figure out how to respond and include the previous message text. Thanks for you patience. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 1:57 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) |Posted by gewg_ (3610 messages posted) |I replaced the battery[...] | rob | |No more blinking cursor. Right? When I try and boot to sandard mode, yes the black screen with the blinking cursor comes back. Safe mode and DOS are ok. |The system will only boot in safe and dos and the scanreg /fix still freezes up | |Uh huh. |and systenm.dat. | |I'm not sure what you mean by that. |As a start, it would be good if you previewed your |composition before posting it. |The first 2 paragraphs here are worth reading: |http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1217|046552 When I run scanreg /fix the scan freezes up while scanning the system.dat files at about 1% |The difference between Normal Mode And Safe Mode |is that normally Windoze uses device drivers |to get more than the basic functions enabled in the |Windoze kernel. Is there a way to change the kernel, should I try to search for it and tell you what is says? |As such, looking in Device Manager for yellow marks |is a good idea. |Remove any damaged item before replacing it. No yellow markes in device manager |You have scanned for infections. Right? Yes, no problems there. |Part of Windoze could also be broken; System File |Checker can help there. |Caveat: SFC is a *very* blunt tool: |cache of http://www.rickrogers.org/sfc.htm I did the SFC and it says that the setupx.dll file "may be corrupt." I did a search and found the following files/folders. under C:\ there is a folder that is empty titled setupx under c:\ there is a file titled setupxlg.txt under C:\windows\system there is a .dll file (728kb) under c:\windows\helpdesk\sfc there is a .dll file (728kb) I hope that this is a much clearer response. Thanks for all of your help. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 4:11 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) rob wrote: |||I replaced the battery[...] ||| gewg_ wrote: ||No more blinking cursor. Right? || rob wrote: |[...]the black screen with the blinking cursor comes back. | Hmmm. You're sayng you see *just* the underscore character --and **not** a DOS prompt. Right? |Safe mode and DOS are ok. | Another difference with Safe Mode is that a bunch of crap apps don't run at Startup. It sounds like a DOS app is trying to run in fullscreen mode. If you can see a difference when you hit Alt+Enter or Alt+Tab , then I'm right. ...also notice in my post that the gold standard for blockquoting of previous posts includes one hash mark for *each* layer of previous-ness. Even better: REMOVE anything that isn't **needed** to frame your new text. ||The difference between Normal Mode And Safe Mode ||is that normally Windoze uses device drivers ||to get more than the basic functions enabled in the |Windoze kernel. || |Is there a way to change the kernel, | If you have to ask the question, you can't do it. http://www.google.com/search?q=define:operating+system+kernel ...and with closed-source software, it ain't possible anyway. http://www.google.com/search?q=define:open+source+software (see also "thwart", below.) If you want to be able to mess with the guts of your OS, to start, I suggest a course in a computer programming language (C, C++) and a change to a 21st-Century operating system like Linux (which doesn't purposely thwart your efforts by keeping everything secret). ...and you completely missed what I was saying about external device drivers-vs-Safe Mode. ||[...]looking in Device Manager for yellow marks |is a good idea. ||Remove any damaged item before replacing it. || |No yellow markes in device manager | OK. ||Part of Windoze could also be broken; System File |Checker can help there. || Re: Your blockquoting of previous posts and previewing your own typing: I'm going to suggest again that you read the first 2 paragraphs here: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1217046552 |I did the SFC and it says that the setupx.dll file "may be corrupt." | http://www.google.com/search?q=Corrupted-Setupx.dll-After-Installing-Windows-98 People familiar with Windoze recognize that M$ OSes need re-installing now and then. (Keith has already suggested this.) Using a Registry Cleaner periodically *can* postpone that. (This is a potentially dangerous procedure; see also "backup of your Registry", below) If you don't have your data backed up to external media, now would be a good time to do that. What follows is for AFTER you get Windoze working right: Backing up your device drivers from your properly-working install of Windoze is also a good idea. http://web.archive.org/web/20070106035713 /http://www.safe-install.com/programs/windriversbackup-personal-edition.html An occasional backup of your Registry--again to EXTERNAL media-- can also save Windoze users grief. (These are the RB*.CAB files mentioned elsewhere in the thread.) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 4:05 am Posted by Keith Stanier (1248 messages posted) rob wrote: |Ok, I did another search and found four files that have setup in their names. |under C:\ there is a folder that is empty titled setupx |under C:\windows\system there is a .dll file (728kb) |under c:\windows\helpdesk\sfc there is a .dll file (728kb) Everytime I do a rebuild and do an sfc is always picks up on setupx.dll as corrupted in the Windows\System folder. I've never found out why because the replacement file on the Win98SE CD is exactly the same, date, time and filesize. I wouldn't worry about that file. When I do a system restore I always use Scanreg /restore with a space in between. I've never tried /fix as /restore always fixes. rob wrote: |Should i delete the bad cb file or leave it alone? You may as well delete it because it won't be used again. As gewg says when Windows starts up in Safe Mode only the basic system drivers are used just to get Windows running. There is another Windows exe that I use on occasion. C:\WINDOWS\SCANREGW.EXE This will check the registry for errors and report then it will ask if you want to make another backup, just press the Yes button it doesn't hurt. Make a short-cut for this file so you know where is is for quick use. Now I know I said earlier that if push comes to shove do a format and a rebuild. When was you system last rebuilt? Start your computer up whilst holding the CTRL pressed untill you see the DOS menu. Then select Command Prompt Only No.5. Then just type Dir and return, this will show all files on the Root of your drive. If there are to many to see in one to type Dir /p which is a Pause switch. When the screen fills just press a key to let it file again. When you see the WINDOWS < DIR > or PROGRA~1 < DIR > look at the date when created. Mine was done a month ago 30/11/08. If its more that a year then do a rebuild, you will be supprised of the difference. I'm presuming you have the Win98SE CD? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 3:36 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) Thanks for the ideas gang. It's the holidays so I'll try some of the tricks in a day or so and report back. Thanks again. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode -- black screen, blinking cursor Friday, January 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) |is that a bunch of crap apps don't run at Startup. |It sounds like a DOS app is trying to run in fullscreen |mode. |If you can see a difference when you hit Alt+Enter |or Alt+Tab , then I'm right. I tried the Alt+Enter and Alt+Tab keys and got no response. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Friday, January 9, 2009 at 12:33 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) If there are to many to see in one to type Dir /p which is a Pause switch. When the screen fills just press a key to let it file again. When you see the WINDOWS |< DIR > or PROGRA~1 < DIR > look at the date |when created. Mine was done a month |ago 30/11/08. |If its more that a year then do a rebuild, you will be |supprised of the difference. |I'm presuming you have the Win98SE CD? I checked both the Windows Dir and the Progra~1 and the date is 2-28-04 I'm pretty sure that I did a "dirty reinstall since then. I assume you mean "rebuild" as in a reinstall? I have tried to access the D: drive through the command prompt by typing in D: Enter and it's telling me that drive in not available. Any tips on a reinstall? Or maybe I can fix a damaged file manually? Thanks [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Friday, January 9, 2009 at 2:07 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) The error message that I get when typing in D: from command prompt is "invalid drive specification" Any ideas? Thanks [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Friday, January 9, 2009 at 3:32 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) OK gang. I tried something new by unpluging the computer and disconnecting/reconnecting the ribbons on the floopy drive and the D: drive. Booted back up and got the following error messages then pressed delete to go to the bios screen. I did not make any changes to the bios. Error resource conflict-pci Bus 00 device 0F function 00 Error resource conflict-pci bus 00 device 05 function 00 I'm not sure if this helps or not. Thanks [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 2:06 am Posted by Keith Stanier (1248 messages posted) rob wrote: |I checked both the Windows Dir and the Progra~1 and the date is 2-28-04 |I'm pretty sure that I did a "dirty reinstall since then. |I assume you mean "rebuild" as in a reinstall? |I have tried to access the D: drive through the command prompt by typing in D: Enter |and it's telling me that drive in not available. |Any tips on a reinstall? Well if the date is 2-28-04 then that is over 4 years. So what you need to do is a fresh rebuild not a reinstall. A reinstall dirty or clean will only add more problems. The reason you can't access the CD drive in DOS is because you need drivers for your CD Rom. What I suggest you do is download a Win98SE boot disk from Boot Disk. Some people say that the WinME boot disk is a better one but I can't comment on that because I have my own boot disk for many years with all the necessary files on it. The two main files apart from your CD Rom drivers on a boot disk are Format.com and Fdisk.exe. Now these live in your C:\Windows\Command folder. Now there is a newer version of Fdisk which you can download from BootDisk or Microsoft which allow larger drives to be partitioned. I wouldn't worry about that at the moment. Just follow my previous instructions. Start your computer up whilst holding the CTRL pressed untill you see the DOS menu. Then select Command Prompt Only No.5. Then just type cd windows\command and enter. cd means change directory so the command prompt should now say C:\Windows\Command. With your boot disk inserted just type in Copy Fdisk.exe A: and enter Then type Copy Format.com A: and enter. Now you have both important files on the floppy. If when you start your computer with the boot disk inserted if it doesn't read the floppy disk first you need to set the boot sequence in the BIOS/CMOS. Now depending who made your BIOS will depend on which key you press on startup to access it. The common one is the Delete key. Once you are in there and again this will depend on the maker you need to find the boot sequence and change it so it reads the floppy disk first then the hard drive. gewg_ wrote: |It sounds like a DOS app is trying to run in fullscreen mode. |If you can see a difference when you hit Alt+Enter or Alt+Tab , then I'm right In all the years I've been using computers I've never had that problem. A DOS screen is just that a full black screen where you can type commands. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 12:08 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) rob wrote: ||I have tried to access the D: drive through the command prompt[...] ||and it's telling me that drive in not available. || To access a device under an operating system, you need a device driver for the device FOR *THAT* OPERATING SYSTEM. As Keith has said, when you start up in DOS, you need a DOS device driver for each peripheral. As he also said, getting one of the many Startup Disks available will solve this. ||I assume you mean "rebuild" as in a reinstall? || ||Any tips on a reinstall? || This guide has a lot of good stuff: cache of http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Clean%20Install%20of%20Windows.htm (I really hate it when bozos put spaces in file names --when that stuff will be put on the 'Net.) Here's another: cache of http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win98/install98cd/indexfullpage.htm and another: http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html Among those, all the points should be covered nicely. Keith Stanier wrote: |What I suggest you do is download a Win98SE boot disk[...] | Properly named, that would be a "Windows 98 Startup Disk" because of the files it contains *other* than the DOS kernel. |The two main files apart from your CD Rom drivers[...] | While the disk contains a driver for each of *several* types of CD-ROM drives, only ONE device driver will be needed by a single disk drive. (You've made a grammarical/syntactical error that many people do.) |on a boot disk are Format.com and Fdisk.exe. | Again (the misleading name of the site bootdisk.com aside), these are more than a simple "bootable disk". |With your boot disk inserted just type in Copy Fdisk.exe A: and enter | Now you've conflated the 2 ideas ("bootable disk" and "Startup Disk"). If he gets a Startup Disk, all the necessary files should be there; if he does this to a blank (formatted) diskette, that disk won't be bootable without using the SYS command. gewg_ wrote: |||It sounds like a DOS app is trying to run in fullscreen mode. |||If you can see a difference when you hit Alt+Enter or Alt+Tab , then I'm right |In all the years I've been using computers I've never had that problem. | If you don't run AUTOEXEC.BAT when Windoze starts (it's not needed), there is zero chance you would ever see a DOS app start there. If you do run AUTOEXEC.BAT at startup and don't have any DOS apps/commands there that are told to run, you won't see it either. If you run DOS apps and don't have any of them configured for fullscreen running (via PIF file), you won't ever see the *fullscreen DOS* thing either. |A DOS screen is just that[:] a full black screen where you can type commands. | Windoze can *appear* to be "shelled out" to DOS by clicking the Command Prompt icon that installs in the QuickLaunch bar by default or by running COMMAND.COM via Start/Run. Because that isn't Real DOS(tm), this confuses the **DOS** issue. As mentioned, **before** WIN.COM gets run, AUTOEXEC can also run a DOS app or command. **That** is Real DOS(tm). If it TRIED to run a *broken* DOS app or command or didn't use the CALL command in a batch file or when running a batch file, it could stop at a DOS prompt and wait for further input. The moral of this story, boys and girls, is Don't run AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS if you don't **need** them. They slow down your Startup times and can cause problems. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 1:33 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) I shut down the computer and inserted the Start up floppy disc that came with the computer. I then restarted it and the Dell screen appeared, 1 beep, black screen with cursor in the upper left hand corner, windows 98 screen, then it went to the Microsoft windows 98 start up menu. The options there were: 1 Normal 2 Logged (\bootlog.txt) 3 safe mode 4 safe mode with network support 5 step by step confirmation 6 Command prompt only 7 safe mode command prompt I selected command prompt and at the C prompt I typed A: then enter. I received "general failure reading drive A" Abort, Retry,Fail" I typed in A and recieved "the current drive is no longer available." [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 1:52 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) rob wrote: |I shut down the computer |and inserted the Start up floppy disc that came with the computer. |I then restarted it and the Dell screen appeared, | A BIOS graphic. |1 beep, | POST was successful. |black screen with cursor in the upper left hand corner, | DOS loaded sucessfully. |windows 98 screen, | Those stupid M$ advertisements mask useful information. I haven't seen any of them in years. e.g. cache of http://www.computertips.com/Windows/Windows98/Appearance/19970721006.htm |then it went to the Microsoft windows 98 start up menu. |[...]I selected command prompt and at the C prompt | It appears you didn't follow directions to reset your Boot Precedence in CMOS Setup. http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/t1230501936 Look for the text /CMOS. More here: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1105063208 |I typed A: then enter. | You shouldn't have had to do this--if A: was specified *first* in Boot Precedence and the diskette is not defective (i.e. bootable in another box). |I received "general failure reading drive A" |Abort, Retry,Fail |I typed in A and recieved "the current drive is no longer available." | Sounds like the device is disconnected (been poking around inside your box??) or is defective. Can the drive read diskettes under Windoze? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 1:52 pm Posted by rob (25 messages posted) Will system data txt or system information report help you to solve the problem? Any files/folders that I should look for/edit/delete on the C drive? I took out all of the cards except the video card and get error messages when trying to use the start up floppy that came with the computer. Thanks . [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 1:58 pm Posted by Keith Stanier (1248 messages posted) rob wrote: |Microsoft windows 98 start up menu. |The options there were: |1 Normal |2 Logged (\bootlog.txt) |3 safe mode |4 safe mode with network support |5 step by step confirmation |6 Command prompt only |7 safe mode command prompt |I selected command prompt and at the C prompt I typed A: then enter. |I received "general failure reading drive A" |Abort, Retry,Fail" |I typed in A and recieved "the current drive is no longer available." So you have a boot disk/startup disk just to keep gewg happy but the floppy drive isn't available? Right go back into the BIOS/CMOS just to keep gewg happy and see if it shows a floppy in the setup and its the right size. If it does then it looks like your floppy drive is another problem. Buy a new drive they are quite cheap, I bought one a few weeks ago. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 3:22 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) rob wrote: |Will system data txt or system information report help you to solve the problem? | No. |Any files/folders that I should look for/edit/delete on the C drive? | No. |I took out all of the cards except the video card | If you get a single beep at the end of POST, this is unnecessary. In addition, careless handling of the circuit cards poses a danger to the electronics as does poking around inside your box willy-nilly http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1127346860 ...not to mention inadvertantly causing other problems like dislodging cables. |and get error messages |when trying to use the start up floppy that came with the computer. | **Trying the diskette in another box** has been mentioned. The free items at bootdisk.com have also been mentioned. If you won't try the things that are suggested, we're all just spinning our wheels. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Can not boot up in standard mode Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 11:03 am Posted by rob (25 messages posted) OK gang, I bought a new floppy and D drive and have reinstalled windows 98. Now I am having problems with the sound and video card drivers. Any quick fixes? Thanks for all your help [Reply or follow-up to this message] Got Windoze re-installed (sorta); driver problems now Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 1:39 pm Posted by gewg_ (3923 messages posted) rob wrote: |Now I am having problems with the sound and video card drivers. It would be Good Thiong(tm) if you would DESCRIBE the SYMPTOMS of the problems you are having. The mistake most people make after an unsuccessful install of a device driver under Windoze is that they don't Remove the defective driver before trying to install a fresh copy. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows 98 Discussion Forum