sasmith
July 28th, 2005, 02:26 PM
Please bear with me -I'm a new member and never had any real problem w/windows in many years of use. I have been trying to resolve this problem for days and have spent much time searching this and other forums for fixes and am finally running out of options. Here goes:
A few days ago, after uninstalling an old game from the computer, Windows lost my desktop (at the completion of Uninstall of game, desktop is blank and get message that Windows can't access it) I try to reboot and my computer failed to boot into Windows 98. Instead, I got what appears to be a fairly common message:
"Himem.sys (&Ifhshlp.sys & Dblbuff.sys) missing or corrupted" also "Can't find Win.com . . ." I was able to use the Windows98 boot disk and my Windows 98 CD that came w/computer to extract all of these files successfully from the Cab files.
OK. Then I get a message that "Vmm32dll.vxd" is missing. Stupid me, I tried extracting it from Cab files as well and after doing so learned that that may not be such a good idea. Now I got message that "System.ini" is missing.
Been scanning these forums, Microsoft Support and Dell for answers and found several possible fixes for System.ini problem. Tried to rename System.ini to System.old and then run "copy CB System.ini" to System.ini. No go because dos can't find System.ini and "copy CB . . . " gives me "Bad Command" message. Tried to run scanreg /restore command but continually get Bad Command message. (Should note here that I cannot get to just command prompt by holding CTRL key at startup. Can only access "Safe Command Prompt" or use startup disk).
Found a version of "System.ini" in C:\Backup and, in desperation, copied it to C:\Windows. Windows started to boot up beyond the point of the other error messages but then I get the "device not found" message (I think something like Config.sys or System.ini is referencing application that doesn't exist") Keep hitting enter and just getting more and more of these missing application messages until Windows shuts down with a "protection fault" (I think, forgot to right down the exact words.) Anyhow, went back in at Safe Command Prompt and renamed the System.ini to System.old. Tried the copy command again but nothing again (still telling me Bad Command or file not found w/regard to CB System.ini)
So, thought I would just try a Windows reinstall over the old system. No go here, too. I try to run it w/the boot disk and Windows CD in and get a message that Windows requires largest executable to be ....
So, tried to run scandisk. The first time, it made it through checking the space on the C Drive and reported that the free space was being reported wrong, gave me option to fix, did so. However, Scandisk could not complete because it claims I don't have enough conventional memory. I had already done a complete system scan with a Dell Resource disk earlier and it reported no problems so I felt pretty comfortable that my hard disk was OK. So, I tried bypassing scandisk in Setup by typing Setup /is at the prompt. Doesn't appear to work. Still getting message about the "largest executable" windows needs to run setup.
WHat do I do now?
Thanks for your patience and any help. Sorry for the lengthy post.
Scott
A few days ago, after uninstalling an old game from the computer, Windows lost my desktop (at the completion of Uninstall of game, desktop is blank and get message that Windows can't access it) I try to reboot and my computer failed to boot into Windows 98. Instead, I got what appears to be a fairly common message:
"Himem.sys (&Ifhshlp.sys & Dblbuff.sys) missing or corrupted" also "Can't find Win.com . . ." I was able to use the Windows98 boot disk and my Windows 98 CD that came w/computer to extract all of these files successfully from the Cab files.
OK. Then I get a message that "Vmm32dll.vxd" is missing. Stupid me, I tried extracting it from Cab files as well and after doing so learned that that may not be such a good idea. Now I got message that "System.ini" is missing.
Been scanning these forums, Microsoft Support and Dell for answers and found several possible fixes for System.ini problem. Tried to rename System.ini to System.old and then run "copy CB System.ini" to System.ini. No go because dos can't find System.ini and "copy CB . . . " gives me "Bad Command" message. Tried to run scanreg /restore command but continually get Bad Command message. (Should note here that I cannot get to just command prompt by holding CTRL key at startup. Can only access "Safe Command Prompt" or use startup disk).
Found a version of "System.ini" in C:\Backup and, in desperation, copied it to C:\Windows. Windows started to boot up beyond the point of the other error messages but then I get the "device not found" message (I think something like Config.sys or System.ini is referencing application that doesn't exist") Keep hitting enter and just getting more and more of these missing application messages until Windows shuts down with a "protection fault" (I think, forgot to right down the exact words.) Anyhow, went back in at Safe Command Prompt and renamed the System.ini to System.old. Tried the copy command again but nothing again (still telling me Bad Command or file not found w/regard to CB System.ini)
So, thought I would just try a Windows reinstall over the old system. No go here, too. I try to run it w/the boot disk and Windows CD in and get a message that Windows requires largest executable to be ....
So, tried to run scandisk. The first time, it made it through checking the space on the C Drive and reported that the free space was being reported wrong, gave me option to fix, did so. However, Scandisk could not complete because it claims I don't have enough conventional memory. I had already done a complete system scan with a Dell Resource disk earlier and it reported no problems so I felt pretty comfortable that my hard disk was OK. So, I tried bypassing scandisk in Setup by typing Setup /is at the prompt. Doesn't appear to work. Still getting message about the "largest executable" windows needs to run setup.
WHat do I do now?
Thanks for your patience and any help. Sorry for the lengthy post.
Scott