Windows 98 won't boot start menu flashes...

**windowsblows** · April 6th, 2004, 12:11 PM

What a ball-buster this one is!

Everytime I go to boot up win 98 my wallpaper comes up, no icons appear and then the starup menu (Explorer bar) flashes on then off for a brief second......Then nothing!

I have a compaq deskpro-EN that used to work just fine....
I don't have the original 98 CD-ROM
I've used every boot disk I could get online

I have tried so many things:

FDISK /mbr
xxcopy
Loading from boot disks
other DOS based Boot Sector tools

I can't figure what the heck went wrong.
There is also a message in one of the DOS lines while the machine trys to boot up that says Start-menu Trojan detected.

could this be it? Is there a MBR virus that is prohibiting the launch?
Is there a good anti-virus or other DOS Based program that can help me?
I can't even boot in safe mode so I can't use any Windows based apps to try and fix this thing

IT'S A NIGHTMARE!
Am I the only one having this problem???

**NooNoo** · April 6th, 2004, 01:28 PM

Welcome to Windrivers Windowsblows.

Do you have the compaq restore cds?
With a boot disketee - or boot to command prompt only
Edit win.ini

check that run= and load= have nothing after them. If they do put a ; at the start of the line to prevent it executing. Alt FXS to save.

Now Edit system.ini
Look for shell=
It should say shell=explorer.exe
If it doesnt, put ; at the start of the line and underneath type in shell=explorer.exe
AltFXS

Reboot. What happens?

**windowsblows** · April 6th, 2004, 04:33 PM

Unfortunately I don't have the restore disks from compaq
I got the computer from a friend who was buying a new one.

Will a 98 boot disk or a Ultimate Boot Disk work?

I will try your suggestion tonight when I get home.

Thanks for your knowlage if this fixes it -YOU ROCK!

**windowsblows** · April 6th, 2004, 10:13 PM

Hey this is weird both my win.in
and my system.ini are blank!

There is nothing written in there at all.

Is this my problem? Would you even get to the startup of windows if both of these are blank?

What should I do?

**windowsblows** · April 6th, 2004, 10:16 PM

Hey this is weird both my win.ini
and my system.ini are blank!

There is nothing written in there at all.

Is this my problem? Would you even get to the startup of windows if both of these are blank?

What should I do?

**Ferrit** · April 6th, 2004, 10:39 PM

Well it isnt good if those 2 files are blank
You could try to boot to a boot disk then switch to the C: drive the chnage directories useing
cd windows
cd options
cd cabs
and the do a dir and see if the cab files by some miracle got copied to that folder
If they did then run setup from there

**NooNoo** · April 7th, 2004, 02:55 AM

OK, something you may not be aware of, if you bought the computer and the seller did not give you the restore disks, you didn't buy the 98 licence either.

So you are currently operating a computer without a valid licence. Either get the restore disks or buy an original copy of 98 from ebay or similar.

**windowsblows** · April 7th, 2004, 08:16 AM

Oh yeah I forgot you're from the U.K. where they follow rules and have respect for Corporate America....

Here in the states we don't give 2 sh__ts about Bill Gates the guy is running a frigging monopoly for god's sake.

I'm sure I'm not hurting Microsoft's profits by using my "Un-licenced" computer to check my e-mail.

THANX DUDE