ms-dos compatibility mode/safe mode 1

[jeffwright]

i have a friend whose win98 computer just started booting into only safe mode. i looked for wnbootng.sts and could not find the file, so i could not delete it.

i tried hitting f8 and selecting normal on startup and the machine starts to boot, shows the win98 splash screen, then goes to a black screen and freezes.

everything in device manager looks ok (ie no yellow flags).

i ran scanreg and it found no problems.

the performance tab of control panel>system shows that the a and c drives are running in ms-dos compatibility mode. there is also a note that says compatibility mode paging reduces overall system performance.

i think my next step is to fdisk /mbr and see if that fixes it. my friend assures me he has not installed or deleted any programs recently (yeah, right...)

anyone have any thoughts? could the compatibility issue be forcing the machine into safe mode? could this be a mbr virus?

 

[rockerfellerz]

If you hit escape when the splash screen comes up, it will allow you to see what is going on in the boot process, there could be a clue there. Also you can start with bootlog.txt enabled, then after it freezes, start in safe mode and check out the log file. It should show what is loading successfully and what is failing to load, and where it stopped; more clues.
Just a hunch really but I would try to reinstall the video drivers from safe mode and then reboot normal, and see if that does it. If you suspect a virus then a full scan is in order of course.

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[jeffwright]

thanks for the suggestions. bootlog.txt shows some fonts are failing to load, and then further down stops with four htree\reserved lines. i searched the net, and found an article at:

http://securityresponse.symantec.co...to.htree.in.bootlog.txt.indicate.a.virus.html

they say there should be 8 htree lines, not four. urgh.

so, they say it is bad hardware or a driver issue. i have also seen other articles in google that say failing to load system fonts could be an issue. unfortunately, i am at work now and can't look at his bootlog.

the escape key trick didn't work. it went to a blue screen while booting with now text on it. i say it is a blue screen, it is more of a blank screen, and it is not the bsod.

anyone have any other ideas?

 

[rockerfellerz]

I had the same symptoms; fonts failing to load, and the 4 lines instead of 8. I reinstalled the video drivers and it then was able to boot normally. So I would try the vid drivers, it might not be the problem but it can't hurt to try.

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[mattjurado]

In safe mode, you are always going to see the message that the a and c drives are running in ms-dos compatibility mode. I agree, sounds like a video driver issue. You can also hit the F8 key, and do a step by step confirmation bootup.

Matt J.

 

[jmatt]

These have been copied from previous posts & my own experiences .
Overkill I know , but there are a lot of reasons .

-------------------------------------------

If it's not to late , go back to a good copy of the registry
( before your problem )

Press F8 during bootup ( when , verifying DMI pool message comes on ) or Press
Ctrl during bootup , depends on your computer .

Select , Command prompt only . ( NOT Safe mode Command prompt )
After the C prompt , type , scanreg /restore
Follow the prompts and select a registry dated prior to the problems .
When finished , type win & press Enter .

When you get your comp. up & running , use the system below . It gives
you 14 days of registry backups .

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/regback1.html

--------------------------------------

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager , click on the + next to Disk drives .
Double click on the drives you have installed ( 1 at a time or if you know which drive is the
problem ) , click on Settings & untick DMA .

----------------------------------------

Go to Start > run , type in msconfig , on the general tab , click on
advanced and check if the Force Compatibility mode disk access box is
checked , uncheck if it is .

-----------------------------------------

FOR WINDOWS 98/98SE only!
GO TO > START > RUN: key in "msconfig" > hit "ENTER."
At the "System Configuration Utility" (GENERAL) Tab,
UNCLICK both "Process Config.sys file" & "Process Autoexec.bat file," then Restart.
This fix does away with the conflicts between the two equally troublesome Intel and Microsoft
IDE controller drivers.

-----------------------------------------------

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q190303

The Windows 98 Startup disk includes a set of generic real-mode CD-ROM drivers. These drivers
work with most Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) ATAPI-compliant and Small Computer System
Interface (SCSI) CD-ROM drives.

This article describes how to configure your computer to use the real-mode CD-ROM drivers from
the Windows 98 Startup disk. This may be useful when you need real-mode drivers for your CD-ROM
drive, or when you are unable to configure the Windows 98 protected-mode CD-ROM drivers to
function correctly.

---------------------------------------

http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/tech/0,39006407,39084405,00.htm

If you view the information on the Performance tab (Control Panel >
System), you may see a message:

Compatibility Mode Paging reduces overall system performance

Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility

This means that your floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive are operating
in MS-DOS compatibility mode. We'll discuss only hard disks operating
in MS-DOS compatibility mode here.

To force Windows to attempt to reinitialize the protected-mode IDE
driver you'll have to remove the noide entry from the registry:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services
\ VxD \ IOS
3. Delete the NoIDE entry
4. Search your registry for BAD_IDE (You can Search the registry by
pressing F3 while working in the registry editor.
5. Delete any BAD_IDE values you find
Or,
1. Select NOIDE.INF in the \Tools\MTSutil folder on the Windows 98 CD.
2. Right-click NOIDE.INF
-or-
Hold down the Shift key and press the function key F10.
3. Choose Install to remove the NOIDE entry.
From,

http://members.home.net/scotterpops/fixes/fixes8.html

After you update the registry, restart Windows. Windows will then
attempt to initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller.
If no problems are encountered, the file system and virtual memory
will operate in 32-bit mode, and Device Manager will not display an
exclamation point in a yellow circle for the IDE channels.

If the protected-mode driver is not initialized properly, an error
message will be displayed and the NoIDE registry entry will be
re-created.

---------------------------------------

There are several reasons why your Hard Disks might be running in
MS-DOS compatibility mode:

An "unsafe" device driver, memory-resident program, or virus hooked
the INT21h or INT13h chain before Windows loaded .
The hard disk controller in your computer was not detected by Windows.
The hard disk controller was removed from the current configuration
in Device Manager .
There is a resource conflict between the hard disk controller and
another hardware device .
The Windows protected-mode driver is missing or damaged .
The Windows 95 32-bit protected-mode disk drivers detected an
unsupportable configuration or incompatible hardware .

Microsoft recently released an update for Windows 95 OSR 2 & OSR 2.1,
to fix a problem that would stop the computer from responding (hang)
while the hard disk was being accessed, when using an IDE (ATA) hard
disk and controller that support Ultra DMA mode.

To install this update, follow these steps:

1.Download the Remideup.exe [143KB] file to an empty folder
2.In Windows Explorer, double-click the Remideup.exe file you
downloaded in step 1
3.Follow the instructions on the screen

-----------------------------------

You can lock and unlock a hard-drive from the A:\>_ prompt in REAL
mode DOS?

LOCK sets it in a DOS compatibility mode so disktools can directly
access the drive.

UNLOCK unlocks it .

For instance
UNLOCK C:

You have a problem whan it says unlock failed...or you are running
DOS from a dosbox .
You don't do disk jobs like that in protected mode... THAT's a NO-NO
(you should not run fdisk in a dosbox...)

In case you did not know , FORMAT needs to lock a drive to be able to
format it .
After formatting a hard drive in DOS , you must reboot .

_____________________________________

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/028152.html

My 2 cdrom drive are missing
in system/performance I get message:
Performance status
Memory: 64.0 MB of RAM
System Resources: 72% free
File System: Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility
Virtual Memory: MS-DOS compatibility mode
Disk Compression: Not installed
PC Cards (PCMCIA): No PC Card sockets are installed.
Select an item, and then click Details for more information.
Compatibility-mode paging reduces overall system performance.
Drive C is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system.
Drive D is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system.
Drive E is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system.

Last time this happened I did an over the top re-install is there an
easier way ?

Well there are a few possibilities here.
Re-installation of Windows is not really necessary.
Try these suggestions first.

Go to Device Manager ( Windows key + Pause/Break keys together, then
select Device Manager tab) and see what Conflicts you have in there.
Most probably Hard Disk Controllers will have exclamation marks on
some entries. IE. yellow!

Also check your Autoexedc.bat and Config.sys files for CD-Rom entries,
(Start/Run and type in sysedit) this is normal when you install the
Dos CD-Rom drivers, you don't need them for Windows. Type rem in front
of the entries followed by a space if found, IE. Rem Cd rom blah blah
blah etc. there may be 2-3 entries concerning the Cd-Rom. Then close
down, wait 15 seconds and boot the PC back up again.

Next the Registry, go to this key and see if you have the NOIDE entry
there, in the righthand window.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\IOS

If you have the Win98 CD handy, there is a file on the CD called
Noide.inf ( \tools\mtsutil) right click on the file and select
install, this will remove the NOIDE entry in the registry. Close down
and again wait 15 secs, then boot up the PC again.

No cdrom , copy Noide.inf to a floppy from another
computer & install it .

------------------------------------------

Another possibility .

1 . Press Delete at bootup .
2 . Press Enter on Standard CMOS Setup .
3 . Use the arrow buttons to get down to Primary Master .
4 . Use the Page up or Down buttons to set on Auto .
5 . Repeat for Primary Slave .
6 . Press Esc .
7 . Use the arrow buttons & go to IDE HDD Auto Detection .
8 . Press Enter .
9 . Should select correct drives .
10 . Press y & Enter , for all drives .
11 . Arrow down to Save & Exit .
12 . Press y & Enter .

If Auto in steps 4/5 dos'nt work , manually put all the info for the
HD in by using the page buttons . The info is usually on the back of
the HD .

--------------------------------

http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/tsmsdos.html

http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/mscompat2.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;130179

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q175/6/29.ASP

http://search.microsoft.com/us/Sear...i=06&i=08&i=01&i=03&i=05&i=07&i=09&p=1&nq=NEW

http://search.microsoft.com/us/Sear...i=06&i=08&i=01&i=03&i=05&i=07&i=09&p=1&nq=NEW

http://www.infinisource.com/techfiles/msdos-compatibility.html

http://216.167.71.32/techfiles/msdos-compatibility.html

 

[jeffwright]

urgh---i just went to the video driver download page, and the driver is 10mb. since the computer only boots in safe mode, and without cd-rom support, any ideas on how i can get the new driver on the computer? i am going to have to see if the owner has the original video drivers on floppy disk...

 

[rockerfellerz]

If the owner doesn't have a cd drive then floppies it is I guess. Otherwise I'd burn a cd and use that. Or temporarily connect a cd to install the drivers. A Zip drive would do the trick as well.

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[jeffwright]

sheesh--it is still happening.

i zipped up the most recent video drivers and installed them from 9 floppies (fun). no luck.

i scanned the registry for problems. none found.

i restored the registry to the last 3 saves. no luck.

i did an fdisk /mbr and sys c:. no luck.

i checked for noide and badide in the registry. no entries.

the only thing i can still show is that bootlog text is showing it can't load certain fonts...like marlett.ttf, a bunch of nwgthcX.ttfs, lsansi, bkant, etc. however...i went to the font control panel and the fonts are showing up!

any other ideas short of doing a clean install?

URGH!!!

 

[jeffwright]

well, it is fixed, for now...

the pc saw me take the system cd out of the wrapper and it got scared!

actually what happened is that before i reformatted the hard drive, i decided to start removing startup programs. the first to go was norton antivirus. after removal, i restarted and things appear to be back to normal. it boots fine!

so now, the question is, was norton corrupt and causing the problem, or was another program or dll causing norton to force safe mode boots? i'll never know.

anyone have advice on what to do now?