Win98 stuck in Safe mode

Hi everyone.

I am befuddled by computers but I manage to muddle through - mostly. I presently have an old Gateway running Win98 2nd Edition and it is in "Safe Mode ". My ?? is: How can I get it out of Safe Mode?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.


Chris

 

Chris,

Welcome to the board! Restart your system and when the Windows logo comes up, hit your F8 key. That will give you a screen that allows you to change the startup mode. Choose normal mode and enter. If that doesn't help, post back.

Mike

 

still in safe

mike

Thanks for the suggestion, but it did not work. I tried going through start to system configuration utility but it reverts back to safe as soon as I restart the drive. I appreciate any advice you have.
Thanks again, Chris

 

Go to Start and click Run. Type: msconfig and press your <Enter> key. Click the Advanced button under the General tab. If the Enable Startup Menu box is checked uncheck it and restart the computer when prompted. You should be able to boot into Normal mode.

 

Chris,

If Wiskeyman's suggestion doesn't help, take a look at this page to see if it will solve your problem. Let us know how it goes.

Mike

 

Safe Mode

Safe mode in case it has not been explained is a diagnostic mode with minininal drivers to at least get you going
Say you changed the screen resolution and you could not read your screen when it booted - in safe mode you would not load the video card driver and you could see the screen and make necessary changes
If on bootup you see an option - use last known good configuration - then try selecting that
Failing that there is a conflict with your hardware
Try removing one card at a time to isolate the conflict
You may want to try disabling various pieces of add on hardware in the device manager if that does not work
If not actually uninstal those if possible in the device manager
Ignore the warnings
reboot and let the device manager reinstall the item/s
You may want to do a number of these uninstalls at once to save time ( ignore the reboot request after the uninstall and go to the next)

 

Boot the computer, use Windows Explorer to find this file in the Windows folder.
Wnbootng.sts
If there, delete it.
The existance of this file will cause Win98 to automatically boot into Safe Mode.

If, after you do this and following the instructions in MinnesotaMike's link, and it still goes into Safe Mode, you have some hardware problems.

 

no luck

Whiskeyman
Enable not checked. No difference

Mike
No msdos.sys in files

Visionof
Sorry. too technical for this illiterate

Mark
wnbootng.sts not there

Thanks to one and all. Appreciate advice, just can't grasp it. Will keep pluggin.

 

Try holding down the Ctrl key during boot up to see if the boot menu appears. If it does select Normal mode. Tapping the F8 key during boot up should also bring up the boot menu.

 

Chris,

Odd that you don't have that file. I just ran a search on my 98 system and popped up under my C: drive. One thing to try. Go to Start then Settings then Folder Options. Under the View tab, find Hidden Folders. Make sure "Show All Files" is selected. If it isn't, select it and hit apply. Then run another search for the file. It should be there.

Mike

 

I have to ask. Are you sure it's in safe mode? Does it say safe mode on the desktop?

 

Chris - are you ready, yet?

Okay, Chris, are you ready for me to come out and FORMAT that old GW yet? All it will cost you is a hamburger or two & a Bud - or four.

The new Dell is working and has all your old stuff from the GW in it. Don't you think it's time to clean up the old GW and begin anew? Your choice, Dude.


Mike


OBTW: Chris is my mother-in-law's better half. Thanks for the help everyone. It only took me 5 years to get Chris signed up at WindowsBBS and actually post something. He's lovable - but a bit hard-headed.

Chris - read Zander's signature and see if it sounds familiar!
Zander - It IS in Safe Mode. I've seen it.

 

A couple of burgers and a few Buds - it sounds like an expensive fix. As long as the promise of on-site help is available, we might as well go for broke.

Here's a little sequence that can be followed to clean things up, compliments of Mike Flynn:

Boot to DOS (not shutdown to DOS). While booting hit F8 to startup menu. Chose "command prompt only ".

Type these commands exactly hit enter at the end (do not type the notes that are in parenthesis like this).

del c:\*.swp (may get file not found, is ok)

del c:\windows\*.swp

deltree /y c:\windows\shelli*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\temp\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\history\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\spool\printers\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\taskmon.exe

deltree /y c:\windows\applog

NOTE: deleting of taskmon and applog above are optional and may be skipped but they are well known to be useless and actually slow a defrag and waste disk space and also rob CPU resources since it runs in memory all the time. I would clear them!

Then boot to safe mode and do the following

Configure CleanMgr to max settings
Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sageset:1
the above need only be ran once (these settings will be remembered as the default until another sageset is ran).

It will present a menu select all, then

Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sagerun:1
As long as /sageset above has been ran on this computer from now on the /sagerun:1 is the only thing that needs to run.

NOW do the scan and defrag WHILE IN SAFE MODE!

If still no joy ......... boot back to a command prompt and type the following: scanreg /fix This may take some time, so you can run out to the store and buy some ground round, buns and Bud (just in case).

 

Safe mode is a diagnostic mode with limited drivers
Try starting the computer again
After 3 failed attempts or so it will automatically go into safe mode
Next time should go into regular mode
If not there is a conflict somewhere
Try taking out any add in cards and see if you can start if that way
This can tell you what device driver to reinstall or since it is an older computer what is not working after all these years