Computer won't start - forever...

[drtom]

I have a friend's computer and it will not move past the "Please wait while Setup updates your configuration files. This may take a few minutes". It should read a few hours!!!
He doesn't remember getting any warning about a virus last time it ran and it shut down normally. I get one post beep and can get into setup but it won't finish booting.
I have tried to boot into safe mode but I still get the "Please wait while Setup updates..." message.
I'm stumped, has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks

 

[drtom]

Should have mentioned it is a PIII 450, 128MB, WinME

 

[KevinADC]

sounds like the registry has become corrupted. But I don't know how to fix stuff for ME, which is a horribly crippled version of Windows. Urge your friend to upgrade to at least W98 or better yet to XP if possible. This is probably a software issue too, not a hardware issue. Is the computer running all that time it is trying to update or is it froze?

 

[drtom]

Update what for instance?

 

[cyberspace]

Well the "Please wait while Setup updates..." message referrs to new Windows updates usually, or indeed any other software updates!

What I suggest you do is get a Windows ME Boot Disk - use it on your friends PC, and at the DOS promt run the Check Disk utility (type 'chkdsk /r') which will hopefully find and repair any problems with the current Windows Installation.

When you put the boot disk in it will be read before you get to the screen with the update message!

I am not that familiar with repairing Windows ME installaions - I have only used about 3 PC's that actually have it (it's awful) so the info here may not be 100% correct but definatley try the bootdisk!

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Hope this helps

Should that work (it will take a while), the PC will (well, should...hopefully) boot as normal.



'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[drtom]

Thanks, I am running Norton Emergency disks at the moment to see if it will help.
I did run a chkdsk but without the /r so it wasn't any help. I shall see what the Norton process comes up with and go from there.
You're right about this awful OS... even when it was running.

 

[cyberspace]

Indeed, it's a dog of a product IMHO.

I would reccommend running the chkdsk /r - it's suprising how many times that that command has solved a problem for me

Saves you having to try several other methods first!

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[drtom]

When I run chkdsk /r I get "Incorrect DOS version"
Any thoughts?

 

[cyberspace]

Ah - In earlier versions of DOS, chkdsk was used with the /f switch to 'fix' errors (chkdsk alone just finds them)

So try 'chkdsk /f'

Alternatively, you can try 'scandisk' which was included in later versiond of DOS, which I beleive does the same thing!

Failing that, take a look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q182358/

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[KevinADC]

Not sure about ME, but when the system is booting up, press and hold down the CTRL key and maybe you will get the boot option menu, but maybe not with ME. If it does you can go into DOS (command prompt) and try running any disk utilities (fdisk for example) from there.

 

[drtom]

checkdisk /f - won't run
cannot access any system files from dos prompt
From what I can gather the _restore folder has most likely been infected with a trojan. Trying to scan with Norton emergency disks and CD casues the machine to count through the _restore folder (it might take a week to finish). When I remove the HD and look at it from my XP machine I cna see 49,000 .cpy files in _restore. I cannot delte these files from Windows Explorer (get a "cannot find the specified file" even though I am looking at it). When I try to delete them from a dos prompt when I return the HD to his tower it seems to sit there.
I'm coming to the conclusion that this puppy can't be saved without reformatting and reinstalling the OS.
Any thoughts out there?
Thanks

 

[bygeek]

Try booting from your ME boot disk to a dos prompt. Then run scandisk /restore. It will bring up a list of saved registries. Select a date that was before the problem occurred and let it roll back the registry. If the saved copy is not corrupt. you should be able to boot.

 

[bygeek]

Sorry, I meant scanreg, not scandisk.

 

[KevinADC]

I would reformat that drive and upgrade the OS. ME is the worst of the worst, I'd rather use Windows for Work Groups (windows 3.12) than ME!

 

[drtom]

AMEN !!!
I finally gave in and tried to load W2Kbut if you read my next post at

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1163568

you will see that I haven't had much going for me there either. I now find that the video card is toast... time to use this as a boat anchor I think...
Thanks