win98 stuck in safe mode

[Slikkster]

How about trying this simple test:

Hold the CTRL key down as soon as you reboot the computer. It should bring you to the Safe Mode menu (a dos screen). If that doesn't work, reboot and start tapping the F8 key as soon as the pc starts booting. It should bring you to a safe mode menu.

Choose Safe Mode from the menu. I know, it doesn't make sense. But you're trying to break the loop and get the software to reset. So, let it continue booting at that point to safe mode. Then exit windows choosing the restart option.

If that doesn't work, try the other options in the safe mode menu, like Command Prompt.
Let it boot to that, and then exit out of it.

See what I'm trying to do here? Trying to break the cycle that's toggled somewhere.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

actually scanreg /restore is one of the first things he should have done. its similar to system restore. try all the dates startingh from first to last.

 

[Slikkster]

A three year old registry restore? Three years of no accounting for anything installed since then, either hardware or software... Wouldn't be my first choice.

 

[ellisz]

I tried booting up through safe mode(F8) and then going into command prompt only. Reboots sometimes reset on their own and this last time it hung up and just stayed there.

When I ran through the step by step it hung up after vfs.vxd.

 

[Slikkster]

Ok, let's move to the static vxd arena, because that's probably where the problem is.

Here's how to isolate static vxd problems:

Click Diagnostic Startup on the General tab in System Configuration Utility, and then do not load static .vxd files. To select Diagnostic Startup to avoid loading static .vxd files:

1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Diagnostic startup - interactively load device drivers and software, and then click OK.
3. Restart your computer when you are prompted to do so.
4. On the Startup menu, choose the Step-By-Step Confirmation menu option, and then press ENTER.
5. View the following table for the choices and how it is recommended that you respond to the prompts that you receive:
Prompt Your response
---------------------------------------------------------------
Load DoubleSpace Driver? Yes
Process the system registry Yes
Create a startup log file (BOOTLOG.TXT) Yes
Process your startup device drivers (CONFIG.SYS) No
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS Yes
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS Yes
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS Yes
Process your startup command file (AUTOEXEC.BAT) No
Load the Windows graphical user interface Yes
Load all Windows drivers? Yes

Note that the location of the Windows folder on your computer may vary. You may not receive all of these prompts, depending on the startup files that are on your computer. Press ENTER to respond with Yes, and press ESC to respond with No.

6. Note each static .vxd file and respond with No to avoid loading each file. View the following partial list of Microsoft static .vxd files:
Static .vxd file Provides support for
----------------------------------------------
Vnetsup.vxd Microsoft Networking
Ndis.vxd Microsoft Networking
Ndis2sup.vxd Microsoft Networking
Javasup.vxd Microsoft Java
Vrtwd.386 Clock
Vfixd.vxd Video Phone helper
Vnetbios.vxd Microsoft Networking
Vserver.vxd Microsoft Networking
Vredir.vxd Microsoft Networking
Dfs.vxd Microsoft Networking
Ndiswan.vxd Microsoft Networking
Msmouse.vxd Microsoft Mouse


7. If the behavior no longer occurs, repeat steps 1 through 6, but press ENTER to respond with Yes to each of the files in the previous list. If the behavior no longer occurs, the behavior is not related to any of the static .vxd files in the list.
8. Use the restoring by halves process to isolate the static .vxd file that is causing the behavior.
9. Delete the incompatible static .vxd folder under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD registry key.

 

[ellisz]

You ROCK!

Once I took all of the .vxd's out, the system booted right up. I ended up narrowing it down to a norton clean sweep prog that was on the pc. Once I got into it, I noticed a lot of dead progs and removed them too. I got put in safe mode a few more times but all is good now.

Should I go ahead and fix the autoexec.bat and config.sys files? I might try and do a bit more clean up since it takes a bit to load windows but I can see the light now.

Slikkster, I appreciate all your help.

 

[Slikkster]

Awesome, man. Glad you're back up. Sure, fix the autoexec.bat and config.sys (but check them to see what's going to run at startup to see that it's accurate).

Glad to help. If you did successfully do a registry restore earlier, chances are you are going to find programs that won't work right now. The reason is that the registry you restored (if you actually restored) was older than the date(s) of some of the programs added since then.

It's a simple matter of just reinstalling those programs on top of themselves to get them back up to speed, if that's what you mean by "dead" programs. Or, you can uninstall them. But you may find they don't even appear on an uninstall list. So, better to reinstall them to the same location they are at, then uninstall them if you don't want them. Sounds convoluted, but that's the only way to be sure Windows knows where to get to the files to uninstall.

 

[ellisz]

By dead programs I meant that there were progs in the remove/install tool but I could not really find them except for a folder in the program files- no real .exe file. I think most of these must have been deleted before. There was some kind of virus scan 95 and I never found an executable.

I ran an old regcleaner program to help get rid of some dead items.

I did not do a reg restore so all is good. I need to reinstall the network card drivers but that is it. I went ahead and ran scantool and defrag again.

Thanks again.

 

[Slikkster]

Cool. I've had good success with the Regseeker registry cleaner. It's freeware, and does a very good job. Makes backups of everything it cleans, so no problem in restoring if there's some issue.

http://www.hoverdesk.net/dl/en/RegSeeker.zip

When you run it and choose "Clean the Registry", it will find a bunch of things that are obsolete or dead, etc. You do a "Select All" from the menu. What it doesn't make clear is how to actually remove the entries. All you have to do is right-click in the box that shows the entries you've highlighted to remove. Then, you'll get a menu. Delete is one of the options.