Windows 98:Troubleshooting - part 2

Part1: Undocumented Windows 98 Setup options.

Bob Cerelli's Windows Page lists a number of Setup options undocumented by Microsoft. If you are having problems getting Windows to install or reinstall, try these switches.

If you are trying to maintain one or more Windows 98 systems in a manageable condition, heed the suggestions at http://www.nmt.edu/~armiller/win98set.htm

Part2: Trouble shutting down or restarting Windows 98? Here are solutions to this common problem.

Shutdown Problems:

As we noted in part one of this article, if your system restarts instead of shutting down, it may be a problem induced by a recently added video card or sound card driver. Before you reinstall Windows or waste a lot of time with other attempted fixes try this: type "msconfig" into the Star menu's Run dialog, then select Advanced, then click "disable fast shutdown." That might fix it. If it's already checked, then we'd recommend a look at Microsoft's Knowledge Base, for a few other possible explanations.

For example, the Knowledge Base contains this entry:

Microsoft Windows Second Edition Hangs at Shut Down
URL: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q232/9/15.asp

Microsoft says it has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows 98 Second Edition and has released a Windows98 SE Patch to fix the problems some users have shutting down after updating their OS. Typically, affected systems would restart when selecting shutdown or hang during a shutdown attempt. Other support pages listing further information on this topic include Microsoft's page on How to Troubleshoot Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Problems and James Eshelman's (excellent!) Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter.

Suspend or Standby Problems:

If your machine exhibits problems waking from Standby mode (sometimes referred to as "Suspend" mode) more than two times consecutively, Windows 98 will offer to disable this feature, so that it does not cause problems in the future. Or, sometimes a crash, a change to your Advanced Power Management configuration or even a software update can cause Suspend mode to disappear from your Shutdown dialog box. If this has happened to you, refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article #188134, "Standby Missing From Windows Shutdown Dialog Box."

Solving Serious Problems

Scandisk won't complete, and Windows Setup won't run because of it: Boot from the Win98 Emergency floppy and run: Setup /d

Crash on start: Press F8 when your system beeps at startup to enter the Boot menu's "Safe mode." Then, figure out what you added or changed that caused the problem.

Windows Protection Error: As above.

If all else fails: Use that Emergency Startup floppy (now with CD support) to restore Win98. Reformatting should not be necessary.

Use the emergency floppy to boot and enable CD-ROM support.
Put your Windows 98 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.
Navigate to the \Tools\Sysrec directory on the CD
In the Tools\Sysrec\ directory, type PCRESTOR
Follow the onscreen prompts through the minimal Win98 install (be sure to remove the boot disk on first restart).
Upon completion, the system recovery wizard will replace the Welcome To Windows screen.

Alternately, You might try booting from the floppy and renaming the existing Windows directory on your HD to something like "Winbad" and reinstalling a completely fresh version of Win98.

C:\REN WINDOWS WINBAD

...then running SETUP from the CD-ROM -- again, after using the emergency floppy to boot and enable CD-ROM support. Instead of installing windows to the suggested location "WINBAD", type a different path name, e.g., C:\Windows

Uninstall: And, if things really, really don't go well and you would rather bag Win98 entirely and revert to Windows 95 or Win3.1 and DOS, you can uninstall Win98 and restore your old OS using the Add/Remove Software control panel. Be aware, however, that the Win 98 emergency floppy doesn't include this uninstall utility. However, the utility is on the Win 98 CD-ROM, which you can easily access by booting from the Win98 Emergency Startup floppy. It's also stored on the hard disk in the Windows\Command folder.

Uninstall NT: You can install Win98 after installing Windows NT (not that you'd necessarily want to) by booting from floppy and renaming or deleting the NTLDR file in the C:\ directory that NT needs to load its Boot Manager. Then, run Win98's Setup program. NT can be restored later by re-running NT's Setup. As always, we recommend backing up your important files before attempting any action that could prevent you from accessing your data.

For Further Reading

Windows 98 Tech Tips by Graeme Bennett.
DirectX and OpenGL info.
The latest Windows 98 info from Usenet.
An Installation Guide to Windows NT 4.0.
PC Magazine's Guide to Memphis - Installation tips and upgrade advice.
PC Week - ZAW and Windows 98.
ACPI
PC98
Device Bay
TCP's Win98 Orientation Guide
http://www.msolution.com/win98/ - an excellent, up-to-date page of Win98 "insider" info.
Emergency Recovery Utility - This little gem is hidden on the Win95 CD. Really. It is a utility to copy all the needed files in case you have a crash and need to recover your setup.
Microsoft's Device Driver List: www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl

IT Library

The Techno Zone

User Account

Windows 98:Troubleshooting - part 2

Post new comment

More like this . . .

How many search commands do you have in your PC?

Linux News

A Mac OS X Overview

Editorial: MS World Domination Scorecard

Windows Server 2003

Alternative GUIs for Windows XP

Codename: Whistler