Windows Startup issue

[leda]

Hi there!
I had this similiar issue on 12/18/01, and got help for it. I have fixed the problem, but I would like some insight as to why this keeps happening.
The computer I have fixed runs Win98, and it was brought in to me, because it wasn't booting up. It would get past the POST, and then power off. This happened before, like I said, and I deleted the wininit.ini file and it worked fine after that. Now the same thing has happened, and I have once again deleted the wininit.ini, and the computer is now fine.
The user downloaded IE 6, just before the glitch. I think it's weird that the computer created the wininit.ini file again. Any thoughts as to why this keeps happening??

 

[dxd]

wininit.ini along with the executable wininit.exe are used to replace files that are in use after an installation requests a reboot.

For instance, the IE6 install surely encountered locked files during its installation. It will note the locked files and add entries to the appropriate sections of the wininit.ini to allow those files to be replaced during the next boot up sequence.

Now, in your case there appears to be files of a certain version that cause problems if replaced. What you need to do is examine the contents of this file and see which files it is looking to replace...this would give a better idea on which file(s) could have versioning problems. Doug
dxd_2000@yahoo.com

 

[vop]

Reappearance seems to suggest the existence a worm/virus possibility. What is wininit.ini - certainly does not exist in my WIN98SE desktop (wininit.exe - yes). Is this peculiar to a laptop?:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...40e03b80353a&seekm=3A6E4BA8.7F390FD@telus.net

EXCERPT:

--------------------
Subject: Re: Wininit
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win98.apps
Date: 2001-01-24 03:26:54 PST


You may want to read this link:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.hllw.bymer.html

As having it in the system folder is an indication of infection by a virus called W32HLLW.Bymer.

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

Try a free online virus scanner, if needed:

http://housecall.antivirus.com/

 

[dxd]

after reading the above articles I don't think leda is suffering from this virus.

The "wininit.ini" file will be created when you install an application which needs to replace files that are in use or locked. It will create entries in this file indicating what needs to be replaced during the next boot. When you boot Windows and it sees the "wininit.ini" and the file in not 0 in size then it will run "wininit.exe" and perform the tasks in "wininit.ini".

Now....I won't discount the possibility of there being a virus here...it could be in one of the files that is attempting to be replaced and protecting itself by crashing the system.

At any rate, you should examine the contents of "wininit.ini" to see what files are flagged for deletion/replacement. This would give an idea of where the problem or virus may be.
Doug
dxd_2000@yahoo.com