Windows 98 SE won't shutdown

[Fordtruckmaniac]

I have an old Windows 98SE desktop that won't shut down. It will get to the screen "It is now safe to shut off your computer" and thats it.

I have downloaded the "fix" from Windows Updates. Nothing. I Googled and found another fix from Microsoft downloaded it, nothing.

The computer is a Proteva, with Windows 98SE. I have cleaned it all up for a friend. And this is the only issue left to solve.

The computer was full of all sorts of nasties to begin with. But I did not delete any files while cleaning, but I realize there could be some corrupted files. But the computer works like a champ.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

[panboy]

There was a glich with windows 98 that if you had any shared drives or printers , or if you connected to shared drives or printers , i wont shut down.

if you are not on a network i sugest you uninstall the file and printer shareing option

[soybean]

It's been so long since I've seen a normal Win 98SE shutdown that I can hardly remember how it's supposed to work.  I have a computer that runs Win 98SE, but it also does not shutdown the way it's supposed to.  It skips the "It is now safe to shut off your computer" screen, which is basically the opposite of your situation.  I haven't tried to resolve this because I don't use that computer very much nowdays, and, other than not displaying that screen, this causes no other problem.

Does Win 98SE startup normal after a shutdown?  In other words, it doesn't go through that scandisk routine?  If so, I think one option is to do nothing.  I actually had that problem with the same computer that I mentioned above, but that was before a formatting of the hard drive and reinstalling Win 98SE.  And, I never resolved it; again, turning off the power at that screen seemed to cause no problem.  So, I've had two different abnormal shutdown behaviors with Win 98SE on the same computer.  

I wish I had a specific solution but I do not.  A Google search on Win98SE shutdown problems or something similar will yield numerous results.  Here's a Microsoft link that might be a solution: Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement.

[panboy]

Soy have you tryed shuting down the network on you PC? ie. uninstalling all the network drivers

[Fordtruckmaniac]

Does Win 98SE startup normal after a shutdown?  In other words, it doesn't go through that scandisk routine?  If so, I think one option is to do nothing.  I actually had that problem with the same computer that I mentioned above, but that was before a formatting of the hard drive and reinstalling Win 98SE.  And, I never resolved it; again, turning off the power at that screen seemed to cause no problem.  So, I've had two different abnormal shutdown behaviors with Win 98SE on the same computer.  

soybean,  

Yes the computer restarts fine. No going to scandisk first. And its not a big deal to just hold in the power button to shut it down.

I had Googled and found several things from suggesting to update video and sound drivers to links to Microsoft. I did install a extra link beside what was listed in Microoft Updates. This old computer had never had 1 single Microsoft Update installed in it. It still had IE 5 on it. I had to install IE 6 before the Microsoft Updates would even work. For that matter it had no AV protection at all. No malware protection, flat nothing.


panboy,

The computer was not on a network, it was all by itself on a dialup internet connection. Though it did have a printer intalled on it. Which the person asked me to not uninstall it.

[soybean]

Are you absolutely sure that computer is designed to shutdown - meaning power off - automatically?  My Win 98SE computer is a 10 1/2 year old computer, originally a 75MHz Pentium with 8MB RAM and Win 95, later upgraded with an overdrive processor which boosted it to 200 MHz w/MMX, along with memory upgrades ending at 128MB and other upgrades.  But, it, and most, if not all, computers of that vintage had to be turned off manually.  I have the computer and the monitor connected to it plugged into a surge protector.  I just leave power switches on the monitor and computer in the ON position and turn them on and off via the switch on the surge protector.

The shutdown screen you're talking about was merely a notification to the user that it's okay to turn the power off now.

[Fordtruckmaniac]

Its a possibilty that it did not shut off by itself. I actually have not ask the owner if it did. I should ask  .  I assumed it may have been related to all the problems that it did have.  To coin a phrase I have seen on here, it was pretty crappity smacked.

This owner said this unit was new in 98. To the best of my knowledge this is the only OS thats been on it.

Thanks,

[soybean]

Well, either that computer is not quite as old as the owner said, or it originally had Win 98 (first edition) on it.  Wikipedia says Windows 98 Second Edition (Windows 98 SE) was released on May 5, 1999.

You might check the BIOS for a setting that enables or disables ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) capability.  I believe ACPI is the technology involved in the automatic shutdown capability.

[Fordtruckmaniac]

How would I get into BIOS on this old machine to check this setting?

The owner could be mistaken on the age. It has a sticker on it (Not anything Microsoft) that says something about being compliant with the year 2000. So it probably was built in 99.

[panboy]

oh i dident read your frist post right ,

if it says "it is now safe to shut down" then its ok it has shut down , and you can pull the plug or hit the power button.

and if your computer is ACPI then you should be able to set it so it will turn off outomaticly.

if you enter your Bios

Most machines today use the Delete key for bios. but some dont ,

i would try the F2 , F3 and F5 buttons

also it should tell you what key to push at the bottom during post, eg "Press F2 to enter setup"

[GX1_Man]

You should see an onscreen prompt during boot like "Press Del to enter setup" or such.

[Fordtruckmaniac]

F2 took me into setup.

In the "power management settings" I did not see ACPI (I assumed this would be where to look for it, for that matter I did not see it anywhere). But I did see something called APM and it was enabled.  

I also saw in another spot "Plug and play O/S" and beside it was a NO. Should this be different?

I saw at the bottom of the screen there appeared to be a setting to return things to a default setting. Is this anything to do?

Thanks,

[panboy]

As for the Plug and Play OS , as far as i know it dosent do anything,

If your computer dosent have ACPI then it wont Ever turn it self Off, but it dose shut down , so you dont have to worry about killing your files by hitting the power button, as long as it says safe to shutdown its ok to hit the power button