Start Up Problem w/Win98SE

[c1eddy]

Families secondary machine, running an AMD 500mhz w/Win98SE. Normal startup (single beep from mb, all the typical Dos screens show up), but when it comes time to load Windows desktop and icons...no-go. I see a quick flash of the tool bar before it goes away...the HD continues spinning for what appears to be the normal loading time while the hourglass (working) displays...but all I end up with is the green Win 98SE background. After 30-45 seconds, I hear the HD spin again for a few moments but nothing shows up on the desktop. When I do control-alt-delete....there are no programs that show up as running. I have tried starting in Safe mode...get the same thing except two of the screen's corners have "SAFE MODE" showing. Nothing else, except the green background.
I'm not much of a tech guy ("Oh Really?", you say) and I'm kinda baffled. Can anyone lead me down the right path?

Oh ya...and I kinda remember seeing somebody (that only appeared to look kinda like me) doing something that was questionable just prior to the problem starting. USB scanner needs to be started prior to computer startup for computer to recognize it. I think it was started a second or two after the computer was restarting. Might this have something to do with it?

 

[cholley]

boot from a windows startup disk and try to reinstall 98

 

[KGB]

c1eddy,

Try this:

1. Turn on the PC.
2. After the POST screens but BEFORE the Win splash screen, you need to hit the F8 key.
This will bring up the Startup menu.
3. Select "Command Prompt Only" from the menu.
4. At the prompt, type "scanreg /restore".
5. What you see are recent registry backups sorted by date.
Select a date from before you started having this problems and hit "enter".
6. If the backup is valid, it will confirm it and you need to hit "enter" one more time to reboot.

Let us know if this works for you.

BTW... Welcome to the Forums.

 

[c1eddy]

Thanks for ideas. I'll initially try 2nd one out when I get home from work.

 

[c1eddy]

I had high hopes for a few minutes...but it came up the same. Initially went back 4 days...failed. So did going back 3 days. Going back 2 days took....it ran and then said to restart. I did so..but came up w/ same scenario as before: standard green background, no icons, the quick flash of the toolbar, etc...

Any other ideas appreciated...or should I just do as cholley suggested (boot from startup disk and try to reinstall 98)?

 

[Slikkster]

You're probably missing one particular file (could be several reasons why it's missing now). It's called
shdocvw.dll. You can download it here:

shdocvw.dll download (zipped)

Once you unzip it, place it in the c:\windows\system32 folder of the affected computer. How? Use a bootdisk to boot up the affected pc to the a: prompt. Make sure this downloaded file is on this disk. If the disk doesn't have enough space, copy it to a second floppy. Once you're booted to the a: prompt (if you have two floppies) remove the boot disk and put in the other floppy. Then, type:

copy shdocvw.dll c:\windows\system32

Reboot without floppy.

If you get your icons, you'll need to repair or upgrade Internet Explorer.

Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
On the Install/Uninstall tab, click Microsoft Internet Explorer x (where x is version) , click Add/Remove, click Repair the current installation of Internet Explorer, and then click OK.

If there's no repair option, just go to MS's IE page and download/install IE 6.x again.

IE page from Microsoft

 

[c1eddy]

Thanks, Slikkster. I'll give it a try...probably tomorrow after work.

 

[c1eddy]

For whatever reason...attempt to copy the file from the floppy onto the C: drive failed. Tried it 3 times w/ 2 different floppies. So, resorted to cholley's reinstallation recommendation. All seems to be working well at this point, though I have only been back up and running for fifteen minutes. Thanks guys...for the the help. Pretty hopeless for a non-tech like me without guys like you who are willing to offer your knowledge and time.

 

[Zepper]

Try bringing up boot menu and boot into DOS mode. type scandisk /all /nosurface at command prompt. Hopefully you will have no disk problems. Then reboot to boot menu again and choose boot in logging mode. It will create a bootlog.txt file that may tell you where things stop working. Good luck.
.bh.