Windows 98 freezes, unplug cd rom

[fatal]

Hi,

A little help would be great.

My friend just got given an old pc. It had some os on it called 98lite.
We put windows 98 on, every thing goes fine until the 2nd reboot. This is when it freezes at the splash screen. I've tried all sorts of things. The only thing that stops it from freezing is to unplug the cd rom. I've tried a different cd rom and same thing, and of corse if i unplug the cd rom i cant put on the drivers for anything.

Has anyone got any ideas??????

Thanks.

[FatalException0E]

Go to system properties (right-click My Computer, Properties) and look at the "troubleshooting" tab. You can try decreasing the CD-ROM cache. Also, check in your autoexec and config (Start>Run"sysedit") and remove any CD-ROM drivers that are showing there. (look for mscdex.exe in autoexec or something.sys with a name that includes CD in config.sys)

[fatal]

ok, I've tried them things and it didn't work

I did step by step start up and it freezes on msmouse.vxd, does this mean anything

[Garak]

try looking at the IDE ribbons, maybe frayed or broken. failing that maybe memory.

[fatal]

I've tried new ribbons and memory sticks.

Could it have anything to do with old bios drivers??

[Tekboy]

Just for giggles, try booting to safe mode, and see if you get all the way to the desktop.
You can also try booting without a mouse attached (you haven't said whether it is Serial. PS2 or USB) and see if you can get to the desktop.

The other thing you can do is make a folder on C:\ called Drivers, boot to the startup disk, and transfer all the drivers to there, disconnect the CDROM again,
and install them from Windows.

Some of this should get you there. Best of luck.

[bookmarkmns]

Could look into the BIOs. If you see the setting "Plug'n'Play aware OS" (or similar phrase) choose No.
Good Luck

[geoscomp]

Could look into the BIOs. If you see the setting "Plug'n'Play aware OS" (or similar phrase) choose No.
Good Luck

Why in the world would you want to do that on win98???

[geeksRus]

Dma?

[fatal]

I put 95 on just to see what would happen and it went on without a hitch. Do you think my 98 is corrupt or just conflicts with hardware???

[Garak]

can you give us your system specs??

[confus-ed]

Why in the world would you want to do that on win98???

Because it depends on the bios implementation as to whether the plug & play value needs enabling or not for ACPI to work right is why ! Sometimes it needs to be on & sometimes off, it depends on how the guys who wrote the bios interpreted all the calls & its down to my 'favourite feature' the M$ specification table which makes a lie of the claim that windows 98 is plug & play & infact should be called Plug & Pray {that it works } !

So another misconception to clear up on this thread, windows 98 generally does not need 'real-mode' CD drivers

Hows the thing wired up ? Is this errant CD on the same channel (wire) as the harddrive ?

I put 95 on just to see what would happen and it went on without a hitch. Do you think my 98 is corrupt or just conflicts with hardware???

It tells me that 95 is using real-mode drivers 'fine' (thats how its designed & meant to go) & that as currently setup 98 doesn't want to use 'protected-mode' drivers (how its usually meant to work) as most likely your 'old' cd rom unit can't support them - if you maybe repeat this excercise with the 'newer' cd rom you might find a difference - confirmation of just what 'stuff' we have here though would help 'muchly' to decide what is amiss ..

[Tekboy]

If that is an older VIA chipset, many of them will not run Win98 without a patch from VIA. I think I have it around here somewhere.

You can PM me with an email address and I will send it to you. It is not very large.

Note: This is "archaic" information, and it took a while for me to remember that one. I also encountered one board with an old ALI chipset that will not run Win98 no matter what I do. It has now been my firewall for 3 years, running Freesco.