BleepingComputer.com: Win98: Freezes on bootup

My old Win98 computer has suddenly become relevant. But it won't boot.

It goes through the routine up until the "Enter password" frame, then after a few seconds it freezes and won't proceed.

It will boot in safe mode, only, but then I don't know what to do to fix things. I tried:

• removing a WHOLE LOT of programs that I no longer need, with no joy.
  
• Removing and replacing the soundcard
  
• removing and replacing the video card

None of these seat-of-the-pants measures changed anything. Once it gets to the password screen, it will freeze in a few seconds whether I enter anything or not.

NVidia video, 500Mb memory.

Thanks for any help.

Welcome to BC Dlelthba.

Dlelthba, on Oct 22 2008, 07:55 AM, said:

Password, why are you using the password? Not that its going to make any difference to your problem.

You need to start your computer up in DOS mode. Keep the Ctrl key pressed as the computer is starting up until you see the DOS menu. Then choose number 5 Command Prompt Only then just type in Scanreg /restore with a space in between and enter. Then choose a date from the dates that are listed when the computer last ran correctly or a date before that. Then do a restart and try it again.

Now if it only locked after you type in the pasword then I would try this next part first,

If you don't want to use this password then while you in DOS type in cd windows and enter. The prompt show say C:\Windows, type in Dir *.pwl and enter. Now it should only show 1 pwl file. You can either type the full filename Del your.pwl or Del *.pwl and enter.

Now when you computer does start up it will ask for a new password. If you don't enter anything in the password box and just click OK you won't be asked for this again.

If this is a 98se version(?) when you are in Safe mode can you see if it will let you run a Scan Disk?
What is (was) the installed antivirus program?
Did it previously get an infection on it that was not properly cleaned off ?

Keithuk,

Thanks for the help. I gather you're in UK? So is my daughter and her husband. Perhaps you've met?

Keithuk, on Oct 22 2008, 04:51 AM, said:

Thanks very much.

Dlelthba, on Oct 22 2008, 07:55 AM, said:

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It was my office computer before, and I needed a little bit of security.

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You gave me a good idea here. I couldn't find a date in the list that would work. But I remembered that from time to time I had backed up the registry, and found a fairly late version that seems to have put everything pretty well.

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Not the case. Locked whether or not.

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Thanks for this. Haven't remembered to do it on bootup, but I'm going to explore it. I now have a pretty good computer, albeit starved of memory and with Win98. I need to upgrade as cheaply as possible, I thin,