Problems with Restart and Reboot

Hey you awesome guru and guruettes !

Elsie again. Fresh with a new problem.

First:

I have been working on a recent problem with fresh restart. The computer would load Windows (98 SE) fine and go through the Win logo screen fine. But when it switches from the logo screen to the desktop screen it will temporarily black screen. The computer began getting stuck RIGHT at that black screen transition and all I'd get is a DOS prompt in the upper left hand corner. Nothing else would load and my desktop screen would not come up.

I don't know for sure that I've completely resolved that problem, but since disabling Auto Protect in NAV, initial bootups seem to be behaving. But now ............

My "restart" command is doing something wacky. I'll hit restart and the screen will tell me Windows is shutting down, then the black screen ....... I wait to see the RAM loading up but the monitor goes to standby and I can't proceed. Shutting the monitor off and then back on does NOTHING. The machine continues to run, but I can't see whether it's actually going into restart mode or not.

I have checked my power mgmt settings on the monitor, but don't think anything's amiss there. Do you think this is something in the BIOS that perhaps got changed ?

Thanks in advance !

Elsie

 

Elsie.
- boot in Safe Mode (press the CTRL or F8 key whilst booting)
- right click the Start button and click Explore
- click the View tab
- click Folder options
- select Classic Style, or Custom .. to change the way your
desktop appears
-reboot the PC

any better ? or still a black screen ?
regards

 

Thanks Merlin

It didn't help the situation, but doing other things seemed to improve the situation. Now I'm back where I was before the computer completely crashed on bootup.

It seems to be conflicting with an HP 5300C series scanner I've been using successfully for at least 8 months. I'm going to do some more research and see if there's a clue as to why this is happening.

I appreciate your response. Thanks again

Elsie

 

Just as a follow up, I've finally discovered what was going on. I needed to dl newer drivers for the HP 5300 C scanner. The original installation disk had bugs in it. Didn't show up for more than a year, but the "fix" was already published on the site.

I learned something here ...... keep my hardware drivers UPDATED, huh ? Better go work on my sound, video, and USB cards I guess. LOL

Thanks again for all your help and I'll tune in next crisis I can't resolve solo. You're all the BEST !

Elsie