HELP, with WIN 98

[stella150]

Hello, Someone please help me. I decided to take a Compaq ArmadaE500 from a relative for my young daughter so she can play games and not ruin my computer. Except, I think I ruined hers!  I have been trying to load a printer (HPv40) but it locked up mid download. Now I can't start it. I can start it but I always have to turn it off and then on, I get the check system disk error because I wasn't able to shut down properly. Then I get to enter network password and it won't let me bypass this step. This is where it locks up. I try safe mode and it still asks for the network password, I lock up and then I force a shut down.  Can someone help me. I'm trying to get to safe mode so that I can get rid of the printer drivers.
Thanks
Donna

[Broni]

Then I get to enter network password

What happens when you click Cancel?

[stella150]

The same thing happens when I click cancel, ok or escape. It just locks up and freezes.  I then force a boot and try to get it into safe mode but nothing.

[Broni]

Do you have Windows 98 CD? Since you don't have anything personal on that computer, I'd just reformat it, and reinstall Windows.

[dahlarbear]

1.  Operating System.  Windows 98 Original or Second Edition?

2.  The Plan.  You should be able to boot to "Command Prompt" from startup menu.  Then you can and should verify the integrity of the file system.  You can also reload an older version of the registry (one dated before your problems occured).  You should be able to recover from this problem.  If you are able to successfully boot into Windows (safe mode), I would recommend you defrag the file system since it probably hasn't been done in a while.

3.  Startup Menu.  Hold down the F8 function key (or tap it about once per second or faster) as you power on the system.

If F8 doesn't work for you, restart your computer and hold down the CTRL key during the Power On Self Test (POST).  Holding down CTRL may interfere with some POST chores, such as setting up the keyboard or initializing a SCSI controller.  If this happens just release CTRL until the POST resumes, and then hold it down again.

Once the POST is complete, the Startup menu should appear:

Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu
============================

    1.  Normal
    2.  Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT)
    3.  Safe mode
    4.  Step-by-step confirmation
    5.  Command prompt only
    6.  Safe mode command prompt only
    7.  Previous version of MS-DOS

Select the "Command prompt only" option and hit "Enter".

4.  Scandisk.  At a command prompt enter "scandisk /all" and hit "Enter".  It will scan and attempt to correct the file system integrity on "all" of your hard disk drives.  This will frequently fix many "startup" problems.

You can try to restart your Windows 98 system in "normal" or "safe mode" or you can continue to checking and possibly restoring the Windows registry to an older version.

5.  Scanreg.  At a command prompt enter "scanreg" and hit "Enter".  It will check the Windows registry for corruption and load a backup version if problems found.  If registry scans Ok, you have option to view backups.  You can "View" the backups and select backup with date before your problems began.  If you then select the "Restore" option this will rollback your registry to that date.

By default, your system saves the last "five" backup copies of the registry.  It automatically makes a backup every day the computer is on.

Other useful variations of the "scanreg" command are:
    > scanreg /opt
    > scanreg /fix

Google them for details.

6.  Defrag File System.  Boot into Windows Safe Mode.  Left click "Start", left click "Run", enter "defrag /all", hit enter.  Sit back and watch the "cluster" movements.

[stella150]

Hello, SOrry I forgot to mention it is WIn98SE.
As said before though, it locks up before I can get past the network password in order to go into safe mode. I would try dos mode but I don't know what to look for or do when I get there.
If anyone knows please help.
Thanks
Donna

[dahlarbear]

2.  The Plan.  You should be able to boot to "Command Prompt" from startup menu.  Then you can and should verify the integrity of the file system.  You can also reload an older version of the registry (one dated before your problems occured).  You should be able to recover from this problem.  If you are able to successfully boot into Windows (safe mode), I would recommend you defrag the file system since it probably hasn't been done in a while.

3.  Startup Menu.  Hold down the F8 function key (or tap it about once per second or faster) as you power on the system.

If F8 doesn't work for you, restart your computer and hold down the CTRL key during the Power On Self Test (POST).  Holding down CTRL may interfere with some POST chores, such as setting up the keyboard or initializing a SCSI controller.  If this happens just release CTRL until the POST resumes, and then hold it down again.

Once the POST is complete, the Startup menu should appear:

Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu
============================

    1.  Normal
    2.  Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT)
    3.  Safe mode
    4.  Step-by-step confirmation
    5.  Command prompt only
    6.  Safe mode command prompt only
    7.  Previous version of MS-DOS

Select the "Command prompt only" option and hit "Enter".

Have you tried booting into the "Command Prompt only" mode yet?

Once you've successfully booted into "Command Prompt only" mode, you can execute the "scandisk" and "scanreg" commands mentioned in my earlier post.

To the best of my knowledge there isn't a "network password" requested when booting into "Command Prompt only" mode.