DescentBB

Won't boot to GUI.

I am working on a friend's Compact Presario model No. 5834 running Windows second edition. Someone had updated the Windows media player and they had recently installed a NIC card for cable Internet. I believe the computer was working after the NIC card was installed but not after the Windows media player update.

The computer will only boot up in safe mode. So they went and uninstalled the Windows media player upgrade and restarted. It shows the splash screen and then the screen is black with a flashing cursor.

Things I've tried.

1. Using a startup disk I tried regscan /restore from an A prompt . Could not find it gave me the Abort, Retry....
2. Tried disabling the swap file, no help.
3. Tried "Quick Restore" in safe mode, it didn't do anything.

Can I used the Windows CD to install Windows over itself without losing the programs and data?

Any other suggestions?

P.S. Not my computer so I don't need "dump Win98 SE. Thanks

thewolfe wrote:Can I used the Windows CD to install Windows over itself without losing the programs and data?

I know you can in win2k, but Ive never done anything like that when fixing 98.

Personally what I'd do is back up everything and reinstall. This problem sounds a little bit to complex to invest that much time into it. I know thats not what you wanna hear, but its the truth about win98.

See if you can get it to boot up and list every driver it tries to load before it loads the GUI. That would tell you what driver hangs the system.

Virus scan
check for corrupted msdos.sys, command.com, io.sys

boot to a dos prompt and type sys c: this will replace the top 3 files.

Will that keep the programs and data?

I did get to scanreg and I "fixed" no help and then I restored to a previous setting.

I can still get into Safe mode but get the following when I try to start reguarlly.

Missing C:Windows\ststem\vshinit.vxd

Any ideas on that?

Here's the latest.

I "fixed" - no help and then I restored to a previous setting.

I can still get into Safe mode but get the following when I try to start reguarlly.

I "fixed" no help and then I restored to a previous setting.

I can still get into Safe mode but get the following when I try to start reguarlly.

"Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows applications.

The Windows Registry or system.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists.

If you a deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the associated applications using its uninstall or setup program.

If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file.

C:\Windows\system\vshinit.vxd"

Tried to "REM out the McAfee files in Autoexec.bat file but no luck there.

Check the registry, system.ini, and win.ini files for references to vshinit.vxd. If the offending item is in the registry, it will be located at the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\Vshinit". Remove any references to this file (delete the entire "Vshinit" registry key if it exists) and boot normally; Windows should boot or give you another similar error message, at which point perform the same operation for the newly offending file.

Boot to safe mode, edit the system.ini file, search for that device driver.

Run regedit, search there for that device driver as well.

Try commenting all instances out.

Deleted the regedit file and now I don't get the message but it hangs up at the "splash screen".

What do you think about re-installing over its self?

Will it keep the programs and data?

If you reinstall, you won't lose the data but you'll lose the registry settings for all apps which means you'll have to reinstall all the apps n games.

Actually merlin, that depends. By default overwriting a windows install will preserve the registry settings and programs. If he deleted the old windows install first then put a new one on it would roast the registry.

What you need to do is find out what driver needs that file and uninstall/re-install those drivers.

didn't read all the answers, but from your question i get it's win98se that won't boot the gui.
do this: boot to ms dos mode, edit the msdos.sys file and set the variable:

BOOTGUI=1

it may have been set to 0 accidently _somehow_.

Krom wrote:Actually merlin, that depends. By default overwriting a windows install will preserve the registry settings and programs. If he deleted the old windows install first then put a new one on it would roast the registry.

i agree, ive overwritten many Win98 isntallations with minimal problems. the largest problem i ever came across is: Zone Alarm had a issue with its uninstall and it took me damn near 6 hours to locate the registry and file location to delete some file it didnt remove and kept throwing up that "Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows applications.

The Windows Registry or system.INI file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists.

If you a deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the associated applications using its uninstall or setup program.

If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file." ...crap once i deleted that it ran just like previous.

you may need to reset a few custom options, but other than that it will "re"install over the previous installation just fine.

Dude, just reinstall 98 over itself! I've done it hundreds of times.

If it still doesnt work (as there is a 50% chance it may not work since your OS and stuff is already buggy), boot to a DOS disk and backup any desktop files and such you want to keep and delete the windows folder. Then start again. THis way you are starting a windows install from scratch without having to reformat.

You will have to reinstall all of your programs after that point (those who depend on the registry at least, games like D3 do not and therefore can work without a reinstall) but thats how it is and too bad if you have to do so.

You'd ether want to fix the problem, or you want to fix the problem the right way. Forget all of the stupid registry and ini editing, you'll go nowhere.

who needs a gui anyway?

Anyone whose CLI is MS-DOS.

I re-installed Windows, over its self, still habging at "splash screen" and will go into Safe mode. Going to take out the NIC card and see if that has any affect.

Ok, listen.

Obviously a reinstall wont help.

Boot to DOS, delete the windows folder (whilst backing up your desktop/start menu should you decide to keep it) and try it again. YOu will just waste time while going over every other possibility. Most likely your driver system is corrupt, but with the 9x series it could be anything.

take out everything but the hdd and plug stuff in one at a time

If its a bad device driver you just need to trash them all, boot into safe mode and delete every device in system properties. Reboot and install new drivers when it asks.

Ok, try re-installing MacAffe. If you get something like this and post about it, totally ignore the morons saying "oh just reformat and re-install windows". That is not a proper solution for troubleshooting an issue and half the time won't get you anywhere.

Once you get that installed, reboot and see if it'll load in normal mode. If not, reboot and choose the Normal (bootlog) version. Let it do its thing, then boot into safe mode and open up bootlog.txt in your C drive and see where it goofed up at. I've dealt with ★■◆● like this on multiple occasions so I know what the hell I'm talking about. If by chance it loads, shut it down and buy a copy of Norton Ghost. Install and make a damn image of the system as it is and burn it to CD. This will save your ass more times than I can count. If anything happens to the system, you can restore everything with that CD.

MD-2389 wrote:Ok, try re-installing MacAffe. If you get something like this and post about it, totally ignore the morons saying "oh just reformat and re-install windows".

hey hey, i never said reformat, i said just reinstall 98 over the previous FUBAR'ed installation.