Invalid long filename - Win98 no longer loads

[darkfuries]

I installed a "Tetris worlds" game from CDROM to a 700mz PIII. The installation included Direct X 9 and the game worked properly.

The next time the computer was turned on, Windows loaded to the network password frame as usual, but the task bar only flashed momentarily at the bottom of the screen and no icons appear. Ctrl-Alt-Delete brings up the task manager, otherwise the screen shows only the mouse cursor and the default Windows' light blue blank background.

I rebooted with F8 to the MS Dos prompt and ran scandisk. Scandisk reports an invalid long filename that it cannot fix. It recommends running Scandisk for Windows to fix the problem.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[edfair]

I suspect that the long filename is unrelated to your problem. There is one file in the install that gives this error in the DOS scandisk. I've never traced the problem, just ignored it.

Sounds like the first step is removal of directx for diagnostics.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[smitee]

FWIW

You can have SCANDISK ignore LFN checking..
----------Entries in Scandisk.ini------------
LfnCheck Activates Scandisk to validate Long File Names, if they exist.
; The default is ON, to check Long File Names for problems.
--------------------------------------------------------
Boot with EBD
Run EDIT
Change Scandisk.ini LFN to OFF
Run Scandisk

See if you can boot to Windows


smitee