HELP! No Safe Mode in Win 98

One of the most important one that I can think of is Video.

Right click on My Computer. ( AW Shucks I gotta go to a Win98 Machine to get what I need.)

Select properties.

Select Device Manager and see what your Video card is listed as under Display Adapter.

Do the same with Sound Video and Game controlers and other things throught the list shown.

Once you find what Video card name I would search the Internet for drivers BEFORE formating and download them to the D: drive.

Do the same for any other drivers that you may need.

It will depend on whether you are on a Dial-up, DSL or Cable Internet as to what drivers you need there. I do not know about DSL but for Cable there should be a Network adapter listed under Network adapters.

For Dial up you will need Modem Drivers.

Also if the machine is fairly new you * MAY * need Motherbaord drivers.

Do the best you cna to get all needed drivers download and stored on the D: drive before formatting.

BillyBob

 

Well, I consider it all good news - you aren't worried about losing anything from your HDD other than drivers and believe me, they are very replaceable.

So, my ammended recommendations - get a phillips head, flashlight and magnifying glass. Yank every card out of that machine except video. Find out what the MB is - Manufacurer, model # and version #. If no discernable markings, we'll need to find the FCC # on the board to trace it that way. Then, same with any cards.

Were going to need MB chipset drivers, video drivers, audio drivers, modem and or NIC drivers and quite possibly a few others - the MB mfg is going to lead us down the right path.

Once you have a few things identified, then we can begin. If you get antsy, go ahead and do your install, but lets get those components identified. Post back with your findings or lack therof.

 

Rockster2u[\B] wrote you aren't worried about losing anything from your HDD other than drivers .... get a phillips head, flashlight and magnifying glass. Yank every card out of that machine except video. Find out what the MB is...[\I]

....... Ok now I am worried...

But I am curious about something BillyBob[\B] wrote: I would search the Internet for drivers BEFORE formating and download them to the D: drive. [\I]

Why can't I copy the drivers that are already on harddrive to D: Drive, rather than download from the internet?

 

OK Sherlock, let me know when you get it figured out.

 

I think there is a bit of confusion concerning this D: drive.
When the computer was working right, did you ever have a D: drive? and your CD was E:?
If yes, your hard drive is partitioned, then you would need to know that names of the driver's files to copy them.
If no, you are wondering where this D: drive came from. When you use the startup floppy, it creates what is called a Ramdrive and is assigned the letter D:. This Ramdrive uses some of your Ram to make what is like a hard drive in memory. Files are then extracted from a file named Ebd.Cab on the floppy, and copied into the Ramdrive, you see the message 'the tools have been transferred'.
When the computer is shut off, the Ramdrive disappears, along with everything in it.
In other words, when using the startup floppy with one partition on the hard drive, your hard drive is C:, the Ramdrive is D:, the CD is E:.
If you did have two partitions on the drive, when using the startup floppy, the hard drive will have the letters C: and D:, the Ramdrive will be E:, and the CD will be F:.

 

from dlmars 7/7 post:

Shouldn't be too much confusion about that when he's booting from a floppy. One drive, one partition - but you knew that too.

 

Any record of which "critical Updates" these were? Check your C:\Windows\Windows Update.log file.

You originally wanted to enter safe mode in order to remove the updated video driver you had downloaded/installed, before all these problems began. Later on you mentioned getting the startup menu containing six choices.... one of them should have been Safe Mode.... here is a mskb on starting a Win98 computer in Safe Mode, for the record:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q180/9/02.asp
More on troubleshooting video problems here:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q127/1/39.ASP

You can also run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, dxdiag.exe, to check Display settings - See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;190900

 

If the second quote is indeed TRUE then you have no D: drive to copy them to. Unless the CDROM is a CDRW ( burner )

Plus unless you have the Master install file(s) for the driver they can not be copied.

Windows drivers are not like an automobile. Instead of one ( unless you have a back set one ). There are several seprate steering wheels that must all turn together at the same time. Otherwise it is CRASH time.

Plus I doubt of you could find them all anyway. They are scattered from here to hell and back throughout the Windows folders. Unless you have downloaded them before. And have the master install file.

That is for darn sure. But booting from the floppy says there is no D: on the HD.

But one thing that just might work and save some trouble would be to;

1-Know where the Setup files are for Windows.
2-Boot to the Startup Disk.
3-Change the path so it point to the folder where the setup files are.
4-Type setup.
5-Hope you have the Product Key. ( will be needed regardless of install method. )
6-During the install Process, watch carefully to make sure Windows gets installed to the Exisitng Folder.
7-This will ( or should ) preserve and use all of the existing drivers.
8-This should also repair the Safe Mode Problem.
9-PRAY That this all works.
10=But even if it does not you really have not lost anything.

Good luck
BillyBob

 

Just for the hello of it I just booted to a Win98 SUD.

Right at the very beginning while processing the Config.sys it says.

" Creating RamDrive I "

And Later in the Autoexec. it mentions two CDROM as being S: and T:

And that the utilities have been copied to I:

Now unless I am thinking wrong ( again ) anybpdy reading this reply can plainly see that I have a Hard Drive(s) with partitions C: thru H:

BillyBob

 

Hi! Billybob, Markp62, Rockster2u,& Alice -

Many thanks to all of you who responded to my frantic cry for help! You will be pleased to know that windows 98 is back up and running - and that I am a teeny bit more informed than I was 2 weeks ago!

To summarize my situation I was pretty much stuck in dos after trying to re-install win98 over itself (about a week ago) and the computor would not even make it to safe mode even when chosen. It would give me some error and tell me shut it down. I also had errors regarding the vmm32 file and memory failed messages. These messages made most of these dear mentors begin encouraging FDISK & a clean install.

And I was nearly to that point (getting my phillips and my flashlights and ready for fun and worried as hell) but then one saving grace link from Alice kept me from having too much fun. It says you can start the windows in safe mode from DOS with the command: c:\win /d:m (not sure what those switches are for, but not going to question it becasue it worked.)

While in safe mode, I removed the game; I checked the monitor colors which were back to 16 or 256 - the machine said it had to restart to apply or something.

Well, strangest thing was it took me back to the middle of the Setup at the hardware setup and just continued to reinstall as if nothing was the matter at all. The Beast. Anyway, now it has reinstalled and I am seeing no errors on bootup anymore. Apparently something had interrupted it during reinstall and that is why everything was beserk!

I still want to update the display driver to the one which allowed me to change the properties to High Color as this is what that game requires. I may need to know how to turn back the time if that doens' t work right again and leave it where it is until maybe we can add some more physical memory on both harddrive and video . Somewhere I thought I read that there is only 1 mb of video memory on that machine and wonder if that could have caused all the initial problems when the game was installed. Or when the video driver was downloaded. who knows - I sure don't!

I did seem to start a bear of confusion about the D: drive. Having never use the startup disk before, I did not realize that the new drive (D:ramdrive on harddisk) and the renameing of CDRom to E: was NOT permament. So that was my first misunderstanding!

And in my ignorance, I thought I could use this new D:ramdrive like a partition to store the drivers which I would copy from DOS and when I was done, I could format C: drive and do a new install.

But thanks to all your explanations, I realized that is was all temporary (just to mess with my head) and that it was going to be darn near impossible to find all the drivers and their entourage in DOS in order to get all these files copied to one place.

So I wish to send a special thanks to all of you who responded. I was so stuck (and stupid) and you were all giving me really good advise of what to do or what might be causing it and I just want to say, I for one am so glad there are people out there who are willing to share their talent and expertise and help us dummies out in these kinds of situations. I appreciate all of you!

So as I get to looking and checking more as to how different things are running on it. you'll probably be seeing new posts as I find new things to ask about!.

You have all been great!

Deb

 

Great news I'm glad I posted that mskb link "for the record" and that you checked it out!

 

Excellent news. Your summation is great and oh, that Alice - (going to have to read that kb writeup myself - never heard of that fix before - unbelievably good news from your perspective)

Now that you are back up, one little tool you might want to add to your arsenal of new tricks comes from JerMar Software - called WinDrivers Backup. Simple install and it will copy all (yes, all) of your drivers to a new folder on your machine. You can then burn them to a disc or back them up on a spanned set of floppies or whatever. Point is, you'll have them should you ever need them. (no flashlight or screwdriver required)

 

dlmars

That is good mews for sure.

Rockster2U

I have just one thing to say about the driver backup program that you suggest.

IF the user changes drivers for ANYTHING. make a NEW ( not an overwritten one ) backup.

If this is not done the user could be right in the same spot that dlmars started out this thread at.

Backups are great if handled correctly. If not then they can be trouble.

This is a mistake that MANY users forget.They make changes and then forget to make new backups.

Been there. Done that. And HOPE ( and PRAY ) that I never do it again.

I myself have shutdown and restarted System Restore in XP at least twice in the last three days.

Deleted and rebuilt the RB00X.cab files in 98SE. And just for the reason of changes being made. AV software and Firewalls were the biggest changes in both.

BillyBob

 

Glad everything turned out good.

 

BB et al -
Try that program- you'll call it a "keeper ".