Safe Mode Loop

[zipulrich]

I'm stumped (no surprise there).

Tried to open NAV2002, and it wouldn't load. PC seemed sluggish, too. In frustration, rebooted. Further frustrated, I did a scanreg restore. Now, I can't get out of Safe Mode. Believe I've tried everything I know.

No recent downloads/installs, anti-virus is updated and recent scan run. Used HouseCall and Tauscan too, for good measure. Clean.

AdAware and SpyBot, RegCleaner run faithfully. No probs there.

98SE, fresh install about a year ago, on Duron 950 (notOC'ed) w/20G and 256Mb.

Looked at Config.sys, Autoexec.bat, things seem normal. But they're not!!

Help? :(

[Spider]

Mr. zip, welcome to cyber...oh yea ;)

Try sfc in Run...

this is lame but what-the-blazes...Add/Remove Programs IE repair

After running those two I'd boot F8, dos only, at the prompt type win
and see if Windows98 starts that way.

[zipulrich]

Done both. :(

But I'll do 'em again. :)

[Spider]

dos prompt, cd to windows, type del wininit.ini

If that fails

ren config.sys config.sys.old (in C: of course)

in Msdos.sys is the BootGUI=1 ?

[zipulrich]

Machine's at home, I'm @ work.

I'll let you know in a few hours. Thanks!!

[GretaP]

If the above doesn't work out, navigate to the Windows folder and look for a file named Wnbootng.sts
If that file exists, delete it, then restart.

[zipulrich]

Will do.

Keep the fixes coming. I'll let you know what works this evening. I have to pick up a PC on my way home from work, and freeway traffic's going to be nuts. Maybe post what happens around 10:30 EST. :)

[zipulrich]

OK, an update. Just got back to working on that PC last night.

Looked for wnbootng.sts - didn't have it.

Looked for Bootdos=1, Bootsafe=1, Bootmenudefault - couldn't find 'em.

In msdos.sys, BootGUI=1 was there.

Checked config.sys for dos=single - nope.

During 'step-by-step confirmation' boot, replied No to config.sys and autoexec.bat loading. No joy.

In msconfig, unchecked the startup group.

Still kept booting to dos, if I chose 'Normal' it boots to Safe Mode. Poked around in Device Manager, no double entries/weirdness going on in there.

Tried 2 more dates from scanreg/restore, with the same results.

I had a Win98 disk in my right hand, and I wasn't afraid to use it. I was pretty much on the edge by this time, and I figured no one would blame me if I used it - I'd plead self-defence.

In the corner of my desktop (partly hidden by the words 'Safe Mode') was a registry I had saved there for some unknown reason at some unknown date. Think I merged it?

Yup.

So, everythings back to normal, or reasonably so. Sorry I don't know what the real fix may have been. Thanks to all who helped tho!!! :)

[GretaP]

You're welcome for the help, zip. Glad that everything is somewhat back to normal now.
I had a Win98 disk in my right hand, and I wasn't afraid to use it. I was pretty much on the edge by this time, and I figured no one would blame me if I used it - I'd plead self-defence.
I wouldn't have blamed you at all for using it...........heck, if it had been me, I woulda gone for the whole enchilada, wiped the disk and then put WIN98 back on.........but that's me (and people think I'm weird for being like that :confused: )

[zipulrich]

Well, I'm going to Ghost this thing tonight.

Something tells me I'm gonna need it. :p