Win98SE shutdown problem

I'm trying to put together a PC with an older FIC PA-2005 motherboard. It has a P200MMX chip, 64 meg FPM ram, primary HD is a Seagate 1.2 Gig, secondary is a WD 850 meg, CD-Rom is a Creative 36X set as master on second IDE channel, video is a 2 meg Jaton PCI card with a Trident chip (ProVidia 9685), standard serial mouse and 104-key keyboard. I flashed the BIOS to the latest available from the FIC ftp site (6201J900).

Here is the problem. I can install Win98SE successfuly, but when I try to shutdown it just hangs at the 'windows is shutting down' splash screen, even on the first shutdown after the install.

What I have tried; applied the Win98 shutdown patch, the IDE HD cache fix, the VIA 4in1 drivers, reset BIOS to defaults, tried another HD, fdisked and reformatted and reinstalled Win98SE. None of the above fixed the problem.

If I choose 'restart' instead of just shutdown, it restarts just fine. When it hangs, if I power off and on, Windows restarts just fine and does not run scandisk as it usually does if it doesn't successfully shutdown.

There are no error messages on startup or shutdown, device manager is clean, no exclamation marks, no IRQ conflicts, etc.

I have encountered this problem before and have successfully fixed it with a BIOS update, driver update, shutdown patch, etc., but this one just does not want to go away.

Does anyone have any idea what I can try that I haven't already to fix this? I really would like to get this working without this annoying problem.

Any idea or help would be welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill

 

Try Start > Run > [Type] msconfig [Enter] > General Tab - click on the Advanced button and check - Disable Fast Shutdown. If it's already checked, un-check and re-check it and click on Apply then OK. Good luck!

 

Luga's advice is the way to go. I have an old system such as you describe, if I do not Disable Fast Shutdown, it Restarts instead.
It is trying to shut off the computer during this time, and your MB does not support this according to this page. It will support Doze/Sleep/Suspend Modes; HDD Powerdown.

 

Luga, Markp62 thanks for the replies.

I think I already tried that once and it didn't work, so I applied the 98 Shutdown Patch which disables the option to check or uncheck fast shutdown. But, I have tried so many things I may be mistaken, so I will re-install and try it this weekend. I'll post back with the results. I sure hope it works.

Thanks again.

 

Check Your Anti-Virus program to see if it is checking the floppy drive at shutdown.

Or put a floppy in at shutdown just for checking.

If it is set to check the floppy with no floppy in the drive it CAN hang forever at shutdown.

I know Norton and McAffee do this but I am not sure about others.

BillyBob

 

Read through this

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q238096

 

Luga and Markp62,

Tried disabling fast shutdown after fdisk and format and reinstall of 98SE, no luck.

Billbob,

I haven't installed any anti-virus software yet, this is happening right after the install of 98SE.

Sunny,

Been there, done that too. Nothing in that MS document has helped either.

I did receive an answer from FIC support (after I had all but given up on getting a response) about this problem, they suggested the latest VIA 4in1 drivers which I found and installed, as well as changing the memory if possible. I swapped the memory for some different 72 pin simms, didn't make a difference.

I have also gone into the APM settings in system devices and checked both the troubleshooting items there (one at a time and then together) no luck.

This problem is becoming a royal pain in the #$##%. I am definitely open to more suggestions.

 

Have you tried installing a different release of Win98 ?
Some are notorious in their ability to defy a clean shutdown.
This one of mine is an example ! That is why I use a third party
shutdown app called exits95.
regards

 

Merlin,

Unfortunately, this is the only version of W98 I have. I'll take a look at the exits95 program you mentioned, I may have to resort to something like that if I can't resolve this any other way.

 

Here is Jim Eshelman's classic shutdown troubleshooter page for Win95/98/Me. Maybe you'll find something there:
http://aumha.org/win4/a/shutdown.htm

 

Alice,

Thanks for that tip. I've been to that site before and printed the information, but it looks like it has been updated recently. I'll go through it again and see if there is anything new that I have not tried.

One fix that is mentioned in the troubleshooting site that Alice mentioned is to use the CONFIGMG.VXD file from the original Win98 release. I know that Microsoft does not support this 'fix', but does anyone here have an opinion about using it?

 

The page at http://aumha.org/win4/a/shtdwnse.php#configmg warns you about attempting the configmg.vxd fix.

Have you tried a clean boot, or safe mode, then shutting down, to see if you still get hung up? At least that will help narrow things down a bit.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;180902
How to Start a Windows 98-Based Computer in Safe Mode

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q192926&ID=KB;EN-US;q192926
How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98

 

I remember a patch which microsoft had out there for this issue but disappeared. I've found that all of our Compaqs here had the same issue and this patch worked for a few shutdowns but the PC reverted back to their old trick. Compaq and MS started to point fingers at each other. What I do to workaround this issue is:
- Before shut down, click on an open area of the desk top so no icons have the focus.
- press F5 to refresh the screen. My icons refresh slowly sometimes.
- use ALT+F4 to get the shutdown screen and shut down.

This works for me 99% percent of the time. I know it's a workaround but if it works for you we have another clue as to why....

 

The patch is still there, if Bill wants to give it a try:
Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp

However, MS does say:

Microsoft recommends the troubleshooting steps outlined in the KB article How to Troubleshoot Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Problems. If, after following the steps outlined in this article, the system continues to exhibit shutdown problems, then Microsoft suggests applying this update.

Even tho this patch was already installed on my PC when I purchased it, I did go ahead and download the patch. As spaceman_spiff stated, these patches tend to disappear....

Ramona

 

I'm happy to report that after several hours of troubleshooting last night, the problem is finally solved.

I printed off fresh copies of all the troubleshooting documents yesterday and went through them step by step (fortunately the clean boot one was the third one I tried) until I figured it out. I did the selective startup as the clean boot document says and determined that it was the system.ini file causing the problem. Then using sysedit, I started at the bottom of the file and commented out the lines in each section, re-applying them one at a time. As luck would have it, it was the boot section at the top of the file that was the culprit. With all the lines commented out, the problem disappeared. When I reapplied the statement 'Display.drv=pnpdrvr.drv' the shutdown problem re-occurred. The PCI video card I was using had a Trident chipset on it and windows loaded it's default drivers for it. I switched the card for another one with a Cirrus Logic chipset on it and no more problem! I even formatted and re-installed Win98 and the shutdown problem is no more. This was a new one for me, but you can bet it will be something I check in the future.

My thanks and gratitude to everyone here for your replies and suggestions, with special thanks to Alice for the reminder on the clean boot troubleshooting document.

 

Hey, that's great! Glad you got it fixed and that I was able to help point you in the right direction