Computer hangs on bootup and several more problems

Windows 98 Se will have no support after a few more months

Who cares. Most venders will more than likely support it for some time yet.

and I don't have it anyway, and wouldn't know how to install it if I did have it.

Good point about not having. SE is just as easy if not easier to install than ME.

As they are withdrawing support it would be foolish to buy it, if you could even find one.And I hate even to think of the weeks it would take to dl all the updates and patches. And for what...it is almost dead.But

I have seen no problem finding SE around here. I am still seing it in stores. And there are very few updates or patches needed. Other than the ones from Windows Update site. And again as long as venders support SE who needs Microsoft anyway. I myself have not used MS for any support at all. And some of their help sites that I have looked at are so mis-leading that even I had trouble understanding them.

The original Win98 is the one that needed all the patches and updates. That is about the only reason I went to SE. I got tired of loading 2 CDs. The OS itself and the the Cust Svc. Pack.

I hate ME and most definitely do not want XP, so even a new computer is out of the question.

I agree with not liking ME. If you do not like ME I do not think you would like XP either. It has more of a mind of its own than ME. But then again XP ( for the few days I had it installed ) did not seem to do anything any better than SE. At least not for what I use the machine.

SE is better then the First Edition and FAR more solid and reliable than ME. And is MUCH more user controlable.

And as far as support goes you are looking at it right here on this BBS. We tell what is does ( or don't ) do along with what it is supposed to do. I have seen many a PC brought back from the dead with help from here.

As far re-installing goes and you having a HP ( OEM ) machine I Can't be of much help. But on my home built machines I just booted to a floppy and put it right back in on top of itself. And then wound up dumping it entirely a few days later anyway.

So, from what I gather, my computer is no longer any good?? The only solution is to delete everything and lose it? I hate to do that as I have spent a lot of money to dl things that I will now lose.

Totally the wrong way of thinking. But I do fully agree about not wanting to lose all you have done. When I said re-install I was not refering to a wipe out and start over. At least not for the first attempt.

As I said B4 I can't be of too much help since you have an OEM machine. They do have their own way of doing things. And all you need to to is grab the proverbial Bull by the horns. Find someone that knows about HP machines and can help you get ME back in properly. And I strongly believe the same can be done without losing anything ( or very lirttle )

But one thing I will say. DO NOT FORMAT THE Hard Drive. If you did that then you do stand a chance of losing it all. Some ( I think most ) OEM machines have a lot of stuff on the HD in a special partition. And any so called Recovery CD may but you right back where you were the day you brought the machine home.

About msconfig.

If you can get into the safe Mode. ( which I believe you say you can ) Uncheck everything that is not needed by the OS. Which should be every thing other than Explorer and Systray. Then shut the machine down ( power off ) Then restart and let us know what happens.

BillyBob

 

Well the whole thing is moot now.

Several months ago my computer went back to HP because the floppy disk
drive did not work!! At the time it was still under warranty!! Not using
it frequently, I just tried it, for the first time.
It did NOT work and had the same problem that it had when I
sent it in for repair. The floppy disk will not go in.Something is there that will not allow it to be inserted. It was never repaired at all!
Needless to say, I am disgusted with HP!!

 

Memory/resource is not a problem in SE. As long as the user controls what is loaded and runs in the background.

The few days that I had ME I found memory and resource problems to be due to WINDOWS ME and all the **** that it wants to load at startup and run in the background.

I shut quite bit of it down and that ended memory and resource problems.

BillyBob

 

I may have missed it somewhere in this thread but have you tried disabling the windows startup sound?

 

Zander...Thanks...but the only option that is presented is *delete*, there is no option for *disable*

Billy Bob... You cannot install the Windows ME on this HP computer without reformatting and using their Recovery Disk...You lose everything! It always has the computer back to the original factory installation and all the things that have been installed are lost...including many things that are not replaceable. You cannot put a different OS on it unless you throw away the HD and buy a new one and have a store install it for you, as well as buying a new OS and paying for that to be installed, also. With all the things downloaded and paid for lost also, the resulting cost would be more than the computer cost originally. Unless you are skilled enough to build your own computer, you are just plain out of luck.
And it is no use trying to back things up to a CD-R, and I have many, because I have tried that in the past and it doesn't work because everything comes out *Read Only*...

The floppy is working again for some unknown reason, but I still don't know what is supposed to be being *cleaned and I don't want to get stuck in the middle of it with a completely unusable computer as I don't know how to get out of it once I start it.

Thanks for all the suggestions but nothing works and the computer is no good and I will use it until it won't boot at all and then it will go into the attic where it belongs...

 

I don't have ME so maybe I'm wrong but I would think you should be able to disable the sound. To disable the startup sound you simply (in 98 anyway) open the sound control applet in the control panel, click once on "start windows" and then select none in the box with the list of sounds.
To use your floppy boot disk, put it in the drive and then reboot. If it's set to do so, it'll boot from the floppy. If it stops at a menu, choose start without cdrom support. When it's finished booting all you'll see is an a: prompt as shown below.

A:>

Now, you simply type each line that Mike posted (one at a time; leave out anything he put in parenthesis) and after each line hit the enter key. You'll be prompted as to whether or not you want to delete the files. To confirm yes, type y and then hit the enter key again. Once you've done them all, remove the floppy from the drive and use Ctrl-alt-delete to reboot the computer. That's all there is to it.

 

I very deffinetly understand not wanting to lose everything.

But I am sure there is a way around using the recovery disk to get ME re-installed without formating. Again, I am not sure as I have only had one OEM machine and will not have another.

But I am 90% sure I have seen the procedure somewhere on this BBS.

As to the startup sound causing problems. That is possible. I had one at one time that was too long. And it throughly messed up the startup of Windows.

I had problems the other day with a machine not shutting down. It wound up to be the stupid screen saver that I had selected. It did not even have to run. After I changed it all is well.

I have found it quite amazing as to what will mess up what.

BillyBob

 

Thanks Zander...It booted normally this AM. It doesn't hang every time, just some of the time and that's when I get the Blue Screen.

If I try to boot with a disk in the floppy drive, won't I get *non-system disk in the drive* as I do if one is left in there accidently? I don't know how to boot with a floppy.

Why do you use A:, and Mike said a:, or c:, not capitals. What is c? The only drives I have are a, and two CD Rom drives.

I have Adaware, Spybot, and RegClean. I use them. I also use Scandisk, and Disk Defrag. So *what is supposed to be cleaned with this complicated procedure that is called cleaning??? Cleaning *what???

If a thing called sage will be the only thing that will run on the computer, how will I use the computer to get back here or anywhere else on the computer? I need to run more things than whatever a sage is.

That is the cause of my total frustration. I don't know what I will be doing as I don't know what the terms mean...and if you don't understand what you are doing, that is how you foul things up.

I blame Symantec for the trouble in the first place. NAV 2003...they refer you to about 40 docs to uninstall 2001 and install 2003. The documents are contradictory and finally caused a Windows Protection error that Daizy very kindly got me out of.I wonder if this problem is an offshoot of the original NAV problem?(I have had problems caused by Symantec software before.)

 

Sorry, forgot one more thing.

Mike said:
If you can not get to this point we need to do something else. So if you can get
here let us know before you try to get back to full mode!

If I am not in full mode, then how can I connect to get back here??? Not possible from Safe Mode...

 

No; not if the floppy disk is a boot disk. A floppy boot disk has the files on it that are necessary for the computer to be able to boot from it. A regular floppy disk does not.

Because it will work using a: . To use c: adds more commands and just makes it more confusing for you, so why not use the easy one? As for what is c, it's your hard drive.

A: = floppy drive
C: = hard drive

Your cdrom drives will most likely be D: and E: but they can be different depending on how you have things configured.

I think you misunderstood. Mike was saying that you only have to do this once and after that when you run cleanmgr /sagerun it will use the same settings you chose in the sageset command by default. It's really no big deal to do. The only way for you to really understand is to do it. When you run the command from the run line it runs the windows disk cleanup utility. In fact you can do the same thing (in win98 anyway) by clicking on start\programs\accessories\system tools\disk cleanup. Much less confusing for you. Run it this way if it's available in ME and when the window opens, select your c: drive and then in the next window select everything except compress.

As for your question about getting to full mode, here's Mikes original quote.

I think that at first he had the impression (as did I) that you couldn't get into windows normally. Notice he mentions the fact that we need to get you back up in full mode so you can download. Oh, and I know that should be she and not he but in the interest of accuracy......

 

Thanks Zander...

I run disk cleanup every few days, after I have cleared the cache, uninstalled something, sent something to the recycle bin,deleted temp files etc. Are you saying that if I run disk cleanup then I don't have to use the floppy boot disk? I hope that is what you are saying!!
But I printed out Mike's directions just in case.
Maybe he is saying to use the bootdisk to clean when Windows hangs and won't boot and I get the BSOD that says the system is busy??
Please excuse my stupidity but I am just not experienced enough to know.

I regularly use Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, Disk Defrag, AdAware, SpyBot, RegClean, Am I overdoing it.

(My CD drives are M and N, but that is not relevant here.)

 

I would urge you to still boot from the boot disk and run the commands Mike gave. You'll get rid of some things that you can't delete while in windows. They are files that if deleted, windows will recreate when you reboot the computer. Why delete them when they're going to recreated anyway you ask? Because they can become corrupted and give you grief. This way you start with new ones that you know are good. Here are the lines that you should type and what each one does.

del c:\*.swp - this one deletes a swap file located in the root of your c: drive. Sometimes windows puts one there, why I don't know but it takes a lot of space and windows doesn't use it. Unless windows is set to have the swap file there it won't be recreated and you'll gain some free space on your drive. If you don't have one there you'll get a file not found message. Ignore it and move on to the next. Note, after each command you have to type the enter key in order to make the line run.

del c:\windows\*.swp - this one deletes the swap file located in your windows folder. This one will be recreated after you reboot.

deltree c:\windows\shelli*.* - this one has me a little confused. The deltree command is used to delete a folder and all the subfolders and files that are in it. Unless win ME is different I don't know of any folder that would fit that name (shelli*.*). Perhaps he was wanting to delete the shelliconcache file in windows. It's a file that stores window's icon cache. If it becomes corrupted it can cause problems such as shortcuts not showing the correct icon. So, you can type the deltree command but don't be surprised if you get a file not found message. Maybe Mike can confirm or deny this. To delete the shelliconcache file type the following line. You might want to write it down as it's not referenced in Mikes post.

del c:\windows\shelli~1

deltree c:\windows\temp\*.* - This one deletes your temp folder and all the subfolders and files within it. If windows is using any of the files when you run disk cleanup in windows they won't be deleted. This way they will. The folder and anything in it that windows needs will be recreated when you reboot.

deltree c:\windows\tempor~1\*.* - this one deletes your temporary internet files. The advantage to doing it in dos is you'll also delete the index.dat file that doesn't get deleted when you delete the TIF's in windows because it's always in use. If it's corrupted it can cause problems.

deltree c:\windows\history\*.* - this one deletes all the files in your history folder. Windows will again recreate anything it needs.

deltree c:\windows\spool\printers\*.* - this one deletes everything in the printer folder. Don't believe this one gets done in disk cleanup.

Doing this won't guarantee that things will run better but it will at least eliminate these possibilities so we can move on without wondering. Give it a try. Once you do it, you'll probably be doing it again later as you'll see how easy it really is. Only a matter typing the command and hitting the enter key. When done, ctrl-alt-delete to reboot (unlike in windows there's no harm in doing this at the dos prompt). One more thing. If, while deleting the files from dos it seems to hang, just let it go for a while. Things can take a bit more time in dos especially your temporary internet files if there's a lot of them. Be patient and wait after each command until you see the a: prompt. There are ways to speed things up but it would just add extra steps which i don't think you need to mess with at this stage. That's about it for now. The rest is up to you!

 

Zander, Thanks for taking the time to type all of that...I will print it.

Why woudn't the Emergency Boot Disk that I made for my 98SE computer when I first got it, work the same way that a downloaded one works? How would they be different? That computer was an OEM also. Does that make a difference?

Before I attempt any of this I think I should spend a few days backing up stuff to CD in case I foul it up completely. The stuff should be backed up anyway; I just have never gotten around to it...

Thanks again...that was a lot of typing for you to do!!!

 

From another post.

The recovery CD was showed in and when the machine restarted from it we had the option to repair WinME.
We clicked that option and a few minutes later it was running fine again with all our software and documents unaffected.

Wouldn't this possibley work for you Dixie ?

 

See reply on the other thread...

 

If you have a Win98 boot disk it will work. I assumed that since you had Windows ME that you only had an ME boot disk.

Hi Zander

The reason I was useing Deltree to del the Shelliconcache file even though it is a single file is because it is a readonly file.

Deltree will delete single files as well as full trees reguardless of attribute.

As typed deltree c:\windows\temp\*.* only deletes the contents of c:\windows\temp (including all nested subfolders irreguardless of their attrib) not the c:\temp folder itself.

If you you use del shelli*.* then it needs be preceeded by attrib c:\shelli*.* -r. Deltree is a 1 step to this end.

You do good work Zander.

Dixie before I step back out of the way here I stress that you get the Startup and Shutdown sounds back to default as these can cause your problem.

Mike

 

OK...I will see if I can find the defaults...this was the first time I had looked at any sounds...I didn't know you could change them until somebody told me that you could...
Thanks

 

Well, I just tried to get the sounds back the way they were originally, but it does not work. I changed the scheme to default and I changed the sound to Microsoft, but the sound never went back to what it was originally when I clicked on the sound button to hear what it sounded like. Also, I didn't know whether to click save or not so I did. I got the message that the scheme could not be saved...The thing really does not give any directions on how to do it...anyway, it did not work...so I do not knoiw how to get the default back...

 

Tried again but the sound is still the same..
Does anyone know how to get the default sound back...should I just uninstall *sounds* or delete it??

 

No, don't delete it. When you choose the default scheme you don't need to save it (it's already saved as a scheme). The save button is there so you can create your own schemes. If you want to learn how to do that we can tackle that later. You have to select the default scheme and then click the apply button. That should do it. Another thought. Are you using desktop themes? If so, change the theme back to windows default and that would take care of it also. Some of the themes you get off the internet for some reason don't always get along with windows. If you get the default sound back and the problem goes away there's most likely something wrong with the sound file you were using before. If it doesn't take care of the problem then go back to the sound applet in the control panel and disable the startup sound. You do this in the top part of the window in the box where it says events. Scroll down until you see start windows. Click on it once so it's highlighted and then in the box below this where it says sound, click the arrow to the right of the box and scroll until you see none. I believe it's at the top of the list. Click on it and then click the apply button and see if that takes care of the problem. Run it for a while this way to see if the problem goes away. Post back either way. If the problem goes away after you disable the sound there could possibly a problem with your sound card driver or maybe a conflict between it and something else that's loading when windows start. If that's the case we'll worry about that later.

This is for everybody that reads this. If you have ME and see something wrong with the directions above be sure to speak up. I'm just going by how it works in win98 and am guessing it's the same in ME.