Windows 98 startup problems 1

[Bloke152]

Hi guys,

I have a machine running 98 se, well it did.

Everytime I try and start, it goes into the startup menu where it says windows didnt shut down properly and gives you options of starting it into safe mode etc etc.

If I try to start it in normal mode it hangs on the windows logo screen and wont go any further.
I have tried to boot it into sfae mode it it gets passed the windows logo screen but then just shows a cursor in the top left and hangs there instead.

I have tried scandisk and it comes up with no errors. After getting really annoyed with this i tried to boot from the cd and setup windows again but it gets to the point of copying the files and hangs there.

I tried a step by step confirmation boot up and it seems to be hanging on ptvcd.vxd what ever that is, i have no idea. I can get into dos and i have located this file in the system folder. I have looked on the cd and the boot disk to see if i could find another copy of this file but couldnt find it.

As far as im aware no new hardware/software has been installed on the computer (im not 100% as im not the only person who uses it but no-one can remenber installing anything!) any help would be much appreciated, i have already tried copying some files over fromt eh boot disk but nothing seems to help. I dont know much about this sort of stuff so any ideas you can suggest no matter how obvious or basic would be much appreciated. let me know if you need more info but i think i have covered everything.

Cheers Guys

 

[Rick998]

It looks like 'ptvcd.vxd' is a PCTell modem device driver. Whilst a Google search shows loads of hits about recovering from problems with it not loading at startup, the posts all assume you can actually get into Safe Mode.

As you can't boot into Safe Mode, I suspect your only option may be to find the driver and extract a fresh or updated copy of 'ptvcd.vxd'.

Do you have a drivers CD that came with the PC? Do you have any documentation that came with the PC that shows what model of modem it is?

If not then you'll probably need to remove the modem to find out what information is marked on it.

Hope this information helps...

 

[Bloke152]

thanks for you help. dont think i have a drivers cd other than the drivers on the windows one. i will have a double check tho.

do you think changing the registry so that it doesnt load that driver would help with this problem?

 

[Rick998]

If you can get to the registry then yes. Have a look at Method 2 here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296240.

Hope this info helps...

 

[Bloke152]

i was thinking of scanreg/restore but just drove home and tried that and it didnt work!

The only way i can get to the registry (and im working on my limited knowledge from college that i can hardly remember so im not actually sure this is possible) is the regedit command in DOS??

i have an external modem on the computer provided by the isp, if i disconnect that will the computer still try and load the drivers?

one other idea i had was, i have another computer that is running windows 98, if i took the hard drive out of that one and put it in the faulty machine making it master and the fauly drive as slave do you think i would be able to boot from the good drive? i no its a long shot! that way i could copy all the files across and format the faulty drive.

 

[Rick998]

To answer your second question first, your PC will try to load the driver irrespective of whether the device is attached.

Yes, you can use regedit fom DOS. Keep hitting F8 at startup until you get to the Win 98 Startup menu then select option 6 (Command prompt only).

At the command prompt, enter 'regedit /?' to see examples of syntax. You would need the /D switch and, accordinging to the MS KB article, specify 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000' to delete the entire key containing the call to load the modem driver.

It might be easier to create an un-install REG file and just import it using Regedit from DOS.

Copy/paste the following into Notepad and save it to a floppy disk as 'fix.reg'.

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000]

Boot the Win 98 PC to the DOS prompt, insert the floppy disk then enter regedit a:\fix.reg. If all goes well you'll see 'Importing file (100% complete)'. Reboot with the floppy disk and see what happens.

You won't lose anything by trying this and if it doesn't work then, yes, you can always remove the hard disk and put it into another PC as a slave so you can get the files off.

Hope this helps...

 

[Rick998]

Oops... I meant 'Reboot without the floppy disk' in my previous post! <grin>

 

[Bloke152]

Thanks for your help Rick, i'll give this a try this evening.

 

[Bloke152]

lol, i tried this and it worked! well it stoped the computer from hanging tring to load ptvcd.vxd

BUT it now hangs on msmouse.vxd!!!!

Im thinking the next option has to be hook the drive to another computer to copy data then format the drive.

If anyones got any other ideas im willing to give them a shot. i dont know what order the drivers load but im thinking maybe the msmouse.vxd driver might always load after ptvcd.vxd and thats why it appeared to be hanging on that? that might just be me being optermistic!

 

[edfair]

Add the bootmenu option in msdos.sys with bootmenudefault=2 and you end up with a bootlog.txt that will show you the load order and problems.

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

 

[Rick998]

When you first install Windows 9.x all the system files it needs to boot, including device drivers, are compiled into a single VMM (Virtual Machine Manager).

If your PC is now hanging on another VXD then it sounds like the VMM may be corrupt. If so then it's likely that, after fixing the problem with msmouse.vxd, you may get subsequent errors with other VXD's (virtual device drivers run from within the VMM).

Bear in mind that you may have other filesystem problems. A real quick check is to enter DIR at the C:> prompt and see whether you have any files ending with .CHK. These are damaged files that the Scandisk utility was unable to fix automatically. A small number of .CHK files are usually file fragments from programs that were open when Windows crashed. A large number can indicate physical damage, i.e. data stored one or more hard disk sectors that have become un-readable.

It might be an idea to download a disk check utility from the hard disk maker's website to check for physical integrity before spending any more time trying to fix errors.

If the utility shows physical damage then it's time to copy the data off the drive before there's any more damage. If the utility shows little or no physical damage then I suggest formatting the drive and starting again.

Personally, I always use FDISK before formatting because the FDISK utility will identify damaged sectors and mark them as 'not to be used' by the operating system.)

See

http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/fdiskformat.html

for use of FDISK.

Hope this info helps...

 

[Bloke152]

I end up having to turn the computer off when it hangs because it does nothing at this point, is this still going to create the bootlog file if i switch it off when it hasnt finished booting? sorry if im asking stupid questions!

 

[Rick998]

It's not going to finish creating the bootlog file nor close the file properly.... and it's not a stupid question.

Hope this helps...

 

[edfair]

It may destroy the bootlog.txt from not closing it correctly. But possibly not.

It sounds like it might be time to do an over-the-top reinstall. Or multiple reinstalls. I've had to do up to 4 to get things right on really screwed up machines. If you decide to go that route you might want to consider putting the load stuff on the hard drive as that speeds things up considerably.

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

 

[Bloke152]

Hi, I checked the drive last night for .chk files but didnt find any. Im still going to get hold of a disk check utility and try that anyway. if i still cant find anything then its getting formatted this weekend. Thanks for your help!!!

 

[Bloke152]

hi guys!
managed to fix it at last! I put the good hard drive into the not working computer and booted it from that, than i ran some registory fixing program and it sorted the dodgy hard drive out!

All is ok now but the computer has randomly rebooted for no reason twice since. This happend after being on for a couple of hours. It seems to be when the computer is online, although im 100% sure its only when the computer is only because the computer isnt really used for much else. I was wondering if taking that ptvcd.vxd driver of the registory might be causeing this?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Rick998]

Glad to hear that your drive is working again.

Did you carry out a disk check after the registry repair?

One possible cause of a random reboot is if the OS tries to access cross-linked files or data stored on a damaged sector.

I suggest you shutdown to DOS then run SCANDISK /SURFACE. This will let Scandisk carry out its normal checks fo damage to the filesystem then it will check the physical integrity of the disk afterwards. Warning... the surface scan is very slow!

Have a look at

http://www.computerhope.com/software/scandisk.htm#03

for more info on Scandisk switches.

Hope this helps...

 

[Bloke152]

no, havent done the disk check since the registry was fixed,
i'll do the scandisk /surface as suggested tonight.
The computer seems to be booting alot quicker now so maybe this whole expirence isnt such a bad thing!
Thanks again Rick