Windows 98 Startup Problems

You turn on your PC, go to get a cup of coffee, and return to your desk expecting to see the Windows desktop. But today is different. Instead of a familiar desktop, you're facing a blank screen or an error message. What now?

First, see if you can narrow down the time during startup that the problem occurs. If a message or crash occurs before the Windows splash screen, it's most likely a hardware or BIOS problem.

Disk Problems
Right after the memory check, your BIOS may report a message to the effect of "disk failure" and halt. Try a couple of simple fixes before you give up on the disk. First, open the case and check that the cables on the disk are connected firmly. Check the data cable at both ends (the hard disk and the system board) and the power cable to the disk.

If the cables are snug, then a second possibility is a phenomenon called "stiction". When older disks are left off for long periods of time--for example, while you're on a two-week vacation--the lubricant in the drive can act as a mild adhesive, just strong enough to keep the drive motor from spinning the disk platters. To see if that is the problem, put your ear close to the disk drive. If you don't hear sound coming out of the drive, it may be stuck. To break the platters loose again, tap the side of the disk drive gently once or twice with the handle of a screwdriver. Or, give the side of the PC a gentle thump with your hand while the power is on. (Neither technique requires a significant amount of force!) If all goes well, you should immediately hear the high-piched whine of the disk spinning up. Reboot the PC and it should start normally.

Safe Mode
If Windows tries to start up but never makes it to the desktop, try starting the PC in safe mode. Right after the BIOS finishes its testing, but before Windows starts to load, hold the Ctrl key down. You should get a menu of options to select. Choose Safe Mode from the menu. If you are lucky you will make it to the safe-mode boot screen. From there, right click My Computer and select Properties. Then click the Device Manager tab. If any hardware is misbehaving it will be shown here with a yellow exclamation point. You can also use Device Manager to manually disable hardware and see if that lets you boot normally.

Missing Files
If you see the message "a file needed by Windows is missing" during boot, it's often due to a botched de-installation of an application. This can sometimes occur when you uninstall and then immediately reinstall without first rebooting. Take a look at the name of the missing file and see if it yields any clue to the application that might be causing the problem. If the name doesn't seem familar to you, try an Internet search to see if anyone else has had trouble with that file. Then try to uninstall, reboot, and reinstall that application.

For experts only: If the file relates to an application you no longer need, you can use RegEdit to find and delete the registry keys that refer to the file. Be sure you have good backups before trying this. As a last resort you may need to reinstall Windows to fix this problem cleanly.

Windows Protection Error
Sometimes, Windows may refuse to boot and gives the message "Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer." At this point, you're dead in the water unless you boot from a floppy disk.

One cause in Windows 95 is an interaction between SmartDrive and having a large number of device drivers installed. If you see something about "initializing IOS" in the error message, try this fix: Boot from a floppy, find the file Smartdrv.exe (It's usually in the Windows directory), and rename it to Smartdrv.bad. Now try booting the system from the hard disk. The problem is documented in article Q157924 but doesn't give much information about why the problem occurs.

There is a known problem in Windows 95 that affects AMD K6 processors that run at 350MHz or higher speeds. This will sometimes give a Windows protection error message. See Microsoft's document Q192841 for more information.

A complete set of troubleshooting procedures for other causes can be found in Q149962 - Troubleshooting Windows Protection Errors.

Windows is Updating Files
During boot, you may see the normal Windows startup screen change to a black-background DOS screen with the message "Windows is updating files." This occurs when you have installed or uninstalled programs the previous time you ran Windows, and is normal.

Other Startup Problems
Here are more problems and fixes for startup issues from the Microsoft database.

• Q143053 - Mouse Systems Driver May Cause Windows Protection Error
• Q186351 - Norton Antivirus 4.0 May Cause Windows Protection Error
• Q186844 - "Windows Protection Error" with EZ-SCSI 4.0 and Easy-CD Pro 95
• Q175930 - Illegal Operations or Access Violations When Starting Windows
• Q141898 - Windows 95/98 Boots Directly to "Shut Down" Screen
• Q187524 - MS-DOS-Based Program Starts When You Start Your Computer
• Missing device or computer hangs with DOS=NOAUTO in Config.sys

http://support.microsoft.com/support/ServiceWare/Windows/Win98/EA0RM3S2K.ASP

Cannot load COMMAND.COM, system halted

Explanation:
When you boot up DOS, you are placed at what is commonly called the "C: prompt", where you can type commands or run programs. The part of DOS that reads what you type and executes commands is called the command interpreter, which is stored in the file "COMMAND.COM". This interpreter is loaded when you start the system or when you start an MS-DOS session under Windows 95/98, and is also reloaded in some cases when you finish running a program. In this case, the system was unable to find COMMAND.COM and therefore halted the system.

Diagnosis:
Part of COMMAND.COM resides in conventional memory under normal circumstances. It uses memory that might be needed by DOS programs. To make sure that these programs can use as much conventional memory as possible, COMMAND.COM allows the memory it uses to be overwritten by a DOS program that needs it, and then reloads itself when the program completes. The error message occurs when the COMMAND.COM file cannot be found to reload. The most common cause of this problem is renaming or moving COMMAND.COM on the hard disk, and then forgetting to reboot the system. It can also be caused in some cases by booting from a floppy disk and then removing the disk from the system after running a program. When the program completes the system will try to go back to the floppy disk to find COMMAND.COM, see an empty drive, and hang up.

Recommendation:
Make sure that COMMAND.COM is in the C:\ root directory, or if it somewhere else, that there is a line in AUTOEXEC.BAT that reads "COMSPEC=X:\PATH" where "X:\PATH" is wherever COMMAND.COM resides. Edit the PATH command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, if you are trying to run a command in another directory that should be accessible from anywhere.

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Spontaneous Rebooting Could Be Caused By:

As far as I know, these main culprits are heat (overclocking or faulty fans/ventilation)

1. Defective power supply
2. Bad power input (from the electrical socket or power company)
3. Defective memory (or memory installation) (related to a short between the Ram and the mainboard)
4. Defective mainboard (internal short)
5. Bad case installation (something is a hair away from shorting)
6. Having DMA on when your Motherboard or Bios doesn't fully support it.
7. Your PC is plugged into a AC plug that may be marginal or have a cycling appliance on it like a heater or air conditioner
8. I've seen anti-virus programs cause this also, in the last problem I worked on, PC-Cillin, was the source of the spontaneous rebooting.

Reboots are usually caused by electrical shorts.

Troubleshooting Windows Protection Errors

This is an excerpt from MSKB ARTICLE-ID: Q149962

A Windows Protection Error means that an error occurred loading or unloading a virtual device driver (VxD). In many cases you can tell from the error message which VxD did not load or unload, but in other cases you may not be able to determine which VxD caused the problem.

1.Windows Protection Errors can occur when any of the following conditions occur:
2. A real-mode driver and a protected-mode driver are in conflict.
3. The registry is damaged.
4. The Win.com or Command.com file is infected with a virus or is damaged.
5. A driver is being loaded from the System.ini file for which a protected-mode driver has already been initialized.
6. There is a physical I/O or RAM address conflict.
7. There are incorrect CMOS settings for a built-in peripheral device (such as cache settings, CPU timing, hard disks, and so on).
8. The Plug and Play feature of the computer's BIOS is not working correctly.
9. The computer contains a malfunctioning system cache or memory.
10. The computer's motherboard is not working properly.
11. You installed Microsoft Office 97 and you are using the Novell Client 32 software.

To resolve a Windows Protection Error, try the following steps:

Start your computer in Safe mode. If the error does not occur when you start in Safe mode or when you shut down from Safe mode, see the appropriate article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Windows 95:
ARTICLE-ID: Q136337
TITLE : Troubleshooting Windows 95 Startup Problems

ARTICLE-ID: Q145926
TITLE: How to Troubleshoot Windows 95 Shutdown Problems

Windows 98:
ARTICLE-ID: Q188867
TITLE: Troubleshooting Windows 98 Startup Problems

ARTICLE-ID: Q238096
TITLE: How to Troubleshoot Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Problems

If your computer is a Plug and Play computer, reinstall Windows using the following command:
setup /p I

For information about installing Windows 95, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: Q129260
Windows 95 Setup: Description and Troubleshooting Steps

If you are using the Novell Client 32 software, remove it and install the Microsoft Client for Novell Networks.

Make sure that the computer's CMOS settings are correct. For information about changing CMOS settings on your computer, please refer to the computer's documentation or manufacturer.

Install a clean copy of Windows in an empty folder. Choose the Custom installation option and do not let Setup detect the hardware in your computer. Install only a mouse, a VGA video adapter, and a keyboard.

If the error still occurs, it is most likely caused by faulty hardware.

The VxD that is generating the error message can be any VxD--either a default installed VxD or a third-party .386 driver being loaded from the System.ini file. If you do not know which driver is causing the error message, create a Bootlog.txt file and check to see which driver was the last driver initialized. This is typically the driver causing the problem.

NOTE: You may also receive a Windows Protection error message when you restart Windows 95 after installing a program or making a configuration change to your computer. For more information about this issue, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
157924 Err Msg: "IOS Failed to Initialize" on Boot

For information about resolving Windows protection issues, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
131431 How to Troubleshoot Registry Errors