In most instances, installing Windows 98 should be a trouble-free experience. As you will soon learn, Windows 98 makes it easy to recover from problems when they do occur. This chapter explains general troubleshooting techniques for the Windows 98 installation and how to specifically troubleshoot Setup and system boot. The following topics are covered:
In addition to learning about techniques for troubleshooting Setup and startup, you also will find information designed to help you locate information about known bug fixes, new and updated Windows 98 files, and other sources of information that are helpful in troubleshooting your system.
In troubleshooting it is best to begin with a detailed understanding of the Setup process.
Setup goes through several distinct phases for the installation of Windows 98. These include the following:
The following sections detail these four Setup phases, explaining their purpose and outlining any potential problems.
The Setup wizard is designed to automate the Setup process. It prompts you for input during the installation process in order to determine the configuration of the Windows 98 system. As a sequence of initial configuration steps, the Setup Wizard determines which support files to copy to your system, and which Windows 98 utilities and applications to install. This phase of the Setup process involves the following:
TABLE 4.1 Windows 98 Minimum Hardware Requirements
| CPU | 80386 or higher, or equivalent non-Intel CPU |
| Memory | 4 MB is the minimum to install |
| Hard Disk | At least 110 MB* |
| Video | Minimum VGA, Super VGA recommended |
*Setup hard disk space requirements.
The necessary amount of available drive space required by an upgrade from Windows 95 or Windows 3.x is determined by the size of the clusters on the installation partition and the number of core components already installed in the pre-existing Windows system. Windows 98 requires a minimum of 110 MB of available drive space with a system implementing the smallest cluster size and one with the minimum system components to install. This number can grow to be as much as 289 MB if installed on a newly formatted partition implementing the largest cluster size and one with all available system components selected for installation.
After the initial configuration phase, Setup begins hardware and system detection. As part of this phase, Setup checks the system for software components such as installed Windows drivers. Setup also performs hardware detection to determine the internal and peripheral components for which it must install support.
NOTE: Setup prompts you before it begins hardware detection, giving you the option of bypassing hardware detection. If you bypass hardware detection, you must manually specify and configure hardware components and settings.
On systems that do not have a Plug and Play BIOS (referred to as legacy systems), Setup scans the system's interrupts, I/O ports, and memory locations for hardware components that Setup can detect based on its internal database of hardware profiles. Setup also checks legacy systems for any Plug and Play compliant devices. On these systems, Setup checks for installed Plug and Play device support, as well as any connected Plug and Play peripherals.
Although Setup often can detect a hardware conflict and step you through the resolution of the conflict, the Setup process will occasionally hang due to a conflict between devices or other problems in detecting a certain item. If Setup hangs, the status indicator will stop moving, and there will be no disk activity for an extended period of time. You then can reboot the system and Setup will restart automatically, giving you the option of using Safe Recovery. Safe Recovery enables you to bypass the hardware detection phase and specify hardware settings manually. Manual hardware configuration is explained later in the section "Overcoming Hardware Conflicts."
After the configuration and detection phases are complete, Setup begins copying files from the distribution files to your system as required, based on your hardware and software selections. If, during initial configuration, you directed Setup to create a startup disk, it copies to your system the minimum number of files required for the startup disk, then creates it. (For more information on creating and using a startup disk, refer to the section "Creating and Using a Startup Disk" later in this chapter.)
After the startup disk has been created, Setup continues the file extraction process, copying all required files from the distribution disks, CD, or shared network folder to your computer or home directory (in the case of shared network installations). Setup then adds settings to the Registry to support your hardware and software selections.
After Setup completes the file-copying process, Setup incorporates your existing WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI settings, as appropriate, into the Registry. Setup also replaces many of your existing MS-DOS files with updated versions that are compatible with Windows 98 (particularly with Windows 98's long file names). A number of DOS files are deleted, some are renamed, and others are replaced. For more information on how Setup affects DOS, refer to the section "The Effects of Setup on DOS" in Chapter 2. If you are upgrading over Windows 3.x, you will want to become familiar with the changes made to the Win.ini and System.ini files during the upgrade. An upgrade from Windows 95 is less troublesome because the Registry on the 95 system remains intact.
In addition to modifying your DOS files during the final configuration phase, Setup also uses a set of wizards to step you through the process of configuring various options such as local or networked printers, the Outlook Express messaging client, and other options. Many of these options are configured automatically without any input from you.
After the system reboots, Setup combines individual VxDs (virtual device drivers) to create VMM32.VXD. The individual device drivers are determined by the hardware and software selections you make during the setup process. If upgrading from Windows 3.x, Setup converts Windows 3.x program groups to Windows 98 folders, creating shortcuts in the Programs menu to each program group and objects they contain.
As stated previously, Windows 98 divides devices into two types: Plug and Play, and legacy. Setup uses two methods to detect the hardware in your PC. On systems with a Plug and Play BIOS, Setup polls the system for installed Plug and Play devices. Setup also can identify Plug and Play devices on legacy systems that don't have a Plug and Play BIOS.
To identify legacy devices, Windows 98 Setup divides hardware into different classes. Sound cards fall into one class, SCSI host adapters fall into another, and so on. Setup uses these distinctions to simplify hardware detection and reduce the possibility of hardware conflicts during detection.
Through the use of an internal list of devices and their signatures, Setup detects hardware based on classification. Setup scans ROM strings, con- figuration files, and device drivers in memory to detect the signatures of various devices. These signature hints enable Setup to scan your system for various types of devices with relatively little chance of locking up the system during the detection phase. This is because the hints narrow the list of possible devices to further avoid the possibility that Setup might direct a driver to poll the wrong device. If no hints are found for a particular class of device, Setup skips detection for the entire class. If Setup finds no hint of a sound card, for example, it does not perform hardware detection to locate and identify a sound card. Microsoft uses the term safe detection to describe Setup's capability to perform detection through hints rather than direct hardware access.
Setup provides safe detection for the following four classes of devices:
Setup scans memory for LSL.COM and IPX.COM to determine whether to scan for network settings, and also scans the Windows, Windows for Workgroups, and LAN Manager directories for PROTOCOL.INI. If Setup locates PROTOCOL.INI, it extracts network settings from the file.
Most SCSI host adapters do not require a driver in CONFIG.SYS (pre-Windows 98) to support a SCSI hard disk. Device drivers are typically required, however, to support other SCSI devices such as tape drives, CD-ROM drives, scanners, and other devices. Therefore, Setup scans the ROM address space for hint strings that indicate the presence of a SCSI host adapter to provide support for SCSI hard disks. Setup also scans CONFIG.SYS to provide support for other SCSI devices.
Proprietary CD-ROM adapters typically require a device driver installed in CONFIG.SYS, so Setup scans CONFIG.SYS to locate hints for safe detection of these adapters. Windows 98 supports proprietary CD-ROM adapters from Mitsumi, SONY, and Panasonic.
Sound cards are one type of device on which Setup relies heavily for safe detection. Rather than poll I/O addresses for sound cards, Setup scans CONFIG.SYS and SYSTEM.INI for sound card hints. If Setup finds no sound-related device drivers or other hints in CONFIG.SYS or SYSTEM.INI, it completely skips detection of sound cards.
Now that you have some background in the Setup process and in how Setup detects hardware, you're ready to begin troubleshooting your Setup problems. The following section explains how to use Safe Recovery to troubleshoot and overcome a failed installation.
When Setup experiences a problem, it attempts to automatically correct or compensate for that problem. How Setup proceeds after a failed setup attempt depends on the timing of the failure. But no matter when the problem occurs, Setup relies on two log files that it creates during installation to determine the cause of the failure and overcome the problem. These log files--SETUPLOG.TXT and DETLOG.TXT--are described in the following sections.
If the failure occurs prior to the hardware detection phase, Setup reads the file SETUPLOG.TXT to determine the point at which the problem occurred. SETUPLOG.TXT is an ASCII (text-only) file to which Setup writes status information during the installation process. When a failure occurs and you restart Setup, it scans SETUPLOG.TXT to identify processes that started but did not complete. The processes that failed are skipped. Although it is possible that Setup could fail multiple times, the fact that Setup skips failed processes on subsequent tries ensures that the installation process always progresses, even though some items might not be installed completely. The end result is that Windows 98 often can install basic support and run, enabling you to incorporate the skipped items manually. Unfortunately, Setup does not inform you of which items it has skipped.
NOTE: Setup creates SETUPLOG.TXT in the root directory of the boot disk.
If you experience a problem with Setup, check your system for a copy of SETUPLOG.TXT (this can be a large file) and scan the file to determine if you can identify the point or points at which Setup failed. If you were able to install a minimal Windows 98 configuration and boot without support for certain devices, you can open Notepad or WordPad in Windows 98 to read SETUPLOG.TXT. If Setup was unable to install a minimal working copy of Windows 98, you should be able to boot your system to DOS and use the EDIT command to read the file. If you are unable to boot the system from the hard disk, you can boot using a DOS system disk.
The following list explains the majority of sections you might find in a SETUPLOG.TXT file:
In addition to the sections described in the previous list, the SETUPLOG.TXT file also can contain additional sections and settings. If you scan through SETLOG.TXT, you will notice that the entries in the file follow the logical progression of the Setup process, with initial Setup actions appearing near the top of the file and actions that occur near the end of the Setup process appearing near the end of the file.
During the hardware detection phase, Setup creates and writes to a hidden file name DETLOG.TXT, storing in DETLOG.TXT the hardware that was detected and the parameters for each device. The DETLOG.TXT file also is modified when you use the Device Manager or Add New Hardware Wizard from the Control Panel. DETLOG.TXT, therefore, serves as a common hardware detection log for each of the functions that adds hardware support for Windows 98. If a DETLOG.TXT file already exists, it is renamed DETLOG.OLD, and a new DETLOG.TXT file is created. Setup creates the DETLOG.TXT file in the root directory of the boot disk.
NOTE: Hardware detection occurs only if you specify the auto-detection option in the Add New Hardware Wizard or in Setup. Otherwise, a device must be added manually. Windows 98 updates the DETLOG.TXT file only if automatic detection takes place.
Although Setup can track and overcome hardware detection errors, it doesn't use DETLOG.TXT for that purpose. Instead, DETLOG.TXT serves only as a log that you can use to identify hardware detection problems. If a detection error occurs, Setup creates a binary file named DETCRASH.LOG and reads DETCRASH.LOG in subsequent installation attempts to overcome the hardware detection problem.
If your system locks up during the hardware detection phase, Setup will bypass the failed device during the next installation attempt. If you want to track down the source of the problem, you can boot the system to DOS and scan DETLOG.TXT for possible problems. Table 4.2 describes settings you will find in a typical DETLOG.TXT file.
TABLE 4.2 DETLOG.TXT Settings
| Setting | Function |
| Parameters | Lists command-line switches that were used to start Setup |
| WinVer | Lists DOS and Windows versions detected by Setup |
| AvoidMem | Specifies upper memory blocks that Setup avoids during detection |
| LogCrash | Specifies whether or not a valid DETCRASH.LOG file was found |
| DetectClass:Skip | Indicates that Setup Class found no hints for a class of devices and is skipping the class |
| Detected | Lists a component that was detected |
| UserOverride | Records classes that you directed Setup to skip during installation |
In previous releases of Windows 3.x, the loss or corruption of a single system file could require that you completely reinstall Windows. Just as is the case in Windows 95, Windows 98 has a much better mechanism for recovering from damaged or overwritten files.
If you run Setup on a computer on which Windows 98 has already been successfully installed, Setup detects the existing copy of Windows 98 and displays a dialog box inquiring whether you want to perform a complete setup or simply verify your current Windows 98 installation. If you indicate that you want to verify your current installation, Setup runs through the installation process, but instead of recopying all the operating system components and files, Setup verifies the files. If a file is corrupted or is a different version, Setup recopies the file from the distribution disks or CD.
The following sections provide tips for overcoming specific problems during Setup that are not discussed specifically in the previous sections.
This might occur when you are running setup from DOS and is generally due to a lack of sufficient free RAM. Setup requires a minimum of 420 KB of free conventional memory. Issue the MEM /C command at the DOS prompt to determine the amount of free conventional memory. If your system has less than 420 KB free, check CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT for device drivers and TSRs that you can eliminate to acquire enough memory to run Setup. In general, you need to retain your extended memory manager (such as HIMEM.SYS) and any device drivers that are required for your system to recognize critical devices such as CD-ROM drives (if installing from CD). If necessary, eliminate device drivers for nonessential devices such as sound cards.
You have the following three options for eliminating the unnecessary device drivers and TSRs from memory:
To comment an entry in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT, place a semicolon at the beginning of the line.
NOTE: If you are using a version of DOS prior to 6.x, you must comment out the lines in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT--these versions of DOS do not support single-step boot.
If you don't have any device drivers in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT that are required to access critical hardware, such as a CD-ROM drive, you can bypass your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files altogether. Setup will load its own extended memory driver and continue with the installation process. To bypass your startup files with MS-DOS 6.x, press F5 when you see the message Starting MS-DOS. With earlier versions of DOS, rename CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to CONFIG.OLD and AUTOEXEC.OLD and then reboot.
Other problems starting Setup include the lack of available extended memory and the inability to access the source disk (floppy or CD). Windows 98 requires a minimum of 3 MB of extended memory, which means that the absolute minimum amount of RAM required in a system to run Setup is 4 MB. If your PC contains less than 4 MB of RAM, you will not be able to run Setup or use Windows 98. Also, verify that you can access the drive you are using to install Windows 98.
If you receive the B1 error during Setup, you are installing Windows 98 on a 386 PC with a B1 step CPU. The B1 step chip, manufactured prior to April 1987, contains a bug that causes incorrect 32-bit math operations, rendering the chip unusable for Windows 98. You could replace the CPU with a later 386 chip, but upgrading to a faster processor is a much more effective solution.
If Setup experiences problems while in the file copy phase (copying files from the distribution disk or CD to your hard disk), the problem could be due to virus detection and protection software. If you are running virus software, disable it and retry Setup. If your PC has virus protection built into the BIOS, run the PC's BIOS setup program and disable virus protection, then run Setup.
If you receive an error similar to Incorrect DOS version, verify that you are running MS-DOS 3.2 or later, or the equivalent OEM version of DOS as discussed previously in this chapter. This problem also can be caused by 386MAX. If you are running the 386MAX memory manager on your system, disable 386MAX in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, reboot, and retry Setup.
This error generally is the result of a memory conflict. To overcome the problem, check your CONFIG.SYS file and remove EMM386 from the file, if one exists, and reboot. After you've re-booted, you can run setup again.
If you receive an error message similar to this one, you might need to free some additional memory. Exit Windows 3.x or Windows 95, remove SmartDrive from CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, then reboot the system. Restart Windows 3.x or 95 and try again to run Windows 98 Setup. If the problem persists, make sure you are not running any other programs in Windows when you try to run Setup. Also, remove other nonessential programs and TSRs from CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Remember that freeing-up as much memory as possible is always a good installation tactic.
If Setup generates the error message Setup unable to find valid boot partition, you do not have a valid, bootable partition on your hard disk. Verify that you have a valid boot partition--if you can boot the PC from the hard disk, you do.
After you get Windows 98 installed, you shouldn't encounter any problems starting it. If Windows 98 does fail to start, you can use some standard troubleshooting techniques, such as scanning the BOOTLOG.TXT file to locate the source of the problem.
BOOTLOG.TXT is created the first time Windows 98 starts up. The file is hidden and located in the root directory of the system. Windows 98 uses the file to write initialization and completion status information for all aspects of the startup process. On subsequent boots, however, Windows 98 does not write to BOOTLOG.TXT automatically--you must direct it to do so.
To prompt Windows 98 to write to BOOTLOG.TXT during startup, press F8 as the system begins to boot. This displays the boot menu. Select option 2 from the menu, and Windows 98 will create a BOOTLOG.TXT file during startup. If you are starting Windows 98 from the command prompt, enter WIN /B to start Windows 98 and to enable it to create a BOOTLOG.TXT file.
Windows 98 logs the initialization of each process with an entry such as Loading, LoadStart, *INIT, or a similar indicator that a process has been started. The completion of a process is marked by an entry containing a string such as SUCCESS or DONE. Each process should therefore be marked by a pair of entries, one for the initialization and another for the completion of the process. The first two lines in a typical BOOTLOG.TXT file, for example, are the following:
Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
The secret to effectively using BOOTLOG.TXT for diagnosing startup problems is to search the file for processes for which there is a startup entry but no corresponding completion entry. For example, if you find an entry that reads Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS, but there is no entry that reads LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS, double-buffering for your SCSI hard disk failed to load, indicating a possible problem with the SCSI subsystem.
This section of the chapter describes problems you might encounter during Windows 98 startup and offers suggestions for overcoming those problems.
If your Windows 98 system hangs the first time it attempts to boot after installation, the problem could lie in Windows 98's capability to detect ISA-based adapters that support a limited Plug and Play capability. Windows 98 uses a software module referred to as the ISA enumerator to detect these devices, but the detection process can be hung by the ISA enumerator attempting to access a port that is in use by another device. If Windows 98 hangs the first time it tries to boot, boot the system to DOS, remove the line device=ISAPNP.386 from System.ini, and attempt to reboot Windows 98.
The Registry is comprised of two files: SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT. When the Registry is modified, Windows 98 makes a backup copy of the two Registry files, naming them SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0. If a problem occurs with the Registry files during startup (files are corrupted or missing), Windows 98 attempts to restore the backup (.DA0) files to create a working Registry. If Windows 98 is unable to restore the files, it starts in Safe mode and displays a dialog box you can use to initiate the Registry recovery.
TIP: If you receive a Registry error message during startup, boot to the command line and check the MSDOS.SYS file for the setting WinDir. Verify that WinDir points to the directory where the Registry files are located. If the WinDir setting is blank or missing, correct the setting and resave the file. Then, reboot the system.
Without a valid Registry, Windows 98 will be capable of only very limited functionality. If Windows 98 is unable to recover the Registry from the backup files, you must either copy the Registry file(s) from a backup set to the directory specified by the WinDir setting in MSDOS.SYS, or run Setup again to enable Setup to create a new Registry.
If your system BIOS includes a virus protection feature that prevents applications from writing to the boot sector of the hard disk, you will experience problems with Setup failing near the end of the installation process and with Windows 98 not starting properly. Run your BIOS setup program and disable virus protection until you have Windows 98 installed and working properly. Then, re-enable your BIOS virus protection and retest Windows 98 to verify that it works properly.
During installation, Setup copies a number of individual VxDs to the file VMM32.VXD in the \Windows\System folder. A missing or damaged VxD, whether an individual VxD or one included in VMM32.VXD, can cause Windows 98 to abort startup. Normally, you will see a message informing you of which VxD caused the problem. One solution is to run Setup again and choose the Verify option. Setup will restore the VxD.
You also can simply copy the VxD to the \Windows\System\Vmm32 folder. Then, add an entry to the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI that reads device=file.vxd, where file.vxd is the name of the VXD you copied. If two instances of the same VxD are loaded, the second one takes precedence over the first and intercepts and handles all calls to the VxD. Therefore, if a copy of a VxD in VMM32.VXD is damaged, copying the individual VxD file to the \Windows\System\Vmm32 folder can overcome the problem. Running Setup again and performing a verify operation, however, is preferable because other files could have also been damaged.
During the installation process, Setup gives you the option of creating a startup disk. This startup disk is a bootable Windows 98 disk containing a selection of utility files and programs such as FDISK, ScanDisk, Edit, and so on.
TIP: It's important that you create a startup disk to enable you to boot the computer if your hard disk fails or your Windows 98 startup files become corrupted.
Hopefully, you created a startup disk when you installed Windows 98. If you did not create a startup disk, and Windows 98 is running properly, you can create one yourself. To create a startup disk, open the Control Panel and choose the Add/Remove Programs icon. Then click on the Startup Disk tab from the Add/Remove Programs property sheet to display the Startup Disk property page (see Figure 4.1). Choose the Create Disk button to direct Windows 98 to create a startup disk.
FIGURE 4.1 Creating a startup disk.
In addition to the specific solutions outlined in the previous sections, a number of general troubleshooting techniques exist that can help you overcome a variety of problems with Windows 98. The following sections discuss general troubleshooting and optimization techniques and offer some tips to help you get your system back in working condition.
Unless you've been living in a vacuum, you know that Murphy's Law states "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Computer systems are to some degree subject to this "law" in that over time their performance degrades as a result of changes made to the system. These changes can either be hardware- or software-related. In other words, the system might be optimized and work perfectly well on day one of the installation, but after users have had a crack at the system, performance tends to decrease, even to the point of a total system failure.
Whatever the cause of your PC's problem, following some general steps will generally help you resolve the problem and get your PC working again. As you are troubleshooting, keep the following ideas in mind:
The last point in the previous list is perhaps the most important for effective troubleshooting. A methodical approach generally brings results. The following sections explain some of the procedures and techniques you should use when troubleshooting a problem in Windows 98.
The Registry consists of two files: USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT. These Registry files generally reside in the Windows directory or in the directory specified by the WinDir setting in the MSDOS.SYS file (which is located in the root directory of the boot disk). If you have configured Windows 98 to support multiple desktop configurations, however, a unique USER.DAT file resides in each user's profile directory. If your user name is JoeJ, for example, your USER.DAT file resides in the \Windows\Profiles\JoeJ folder. In all cases, however, only one SYSTEM.DAT file is used.
You should seriously consider backing up the Registry. If a problem does occur and Windows 98 is unable to successfully restore the Registry, you can boot the computer to the command prompt and restore the backup files yourself.
Windows 98 provides two methods for backing up the registry. You can choose to use either ARCserve Agent or the Backup Exec Agent to back up the Registry. Just be sure to check the Allowed Registry to be restored box. After this is done you can then back up the system's Registry settings (see Figure 4.2).
FIGURE 4.2 The Backup utility.
The method you use to back up your Registry files depends entirely on your preferences and whether you perform regular backups of other files. If nothing else, back up your Registry files to a floppy disk at least once a week and always before you begin installing new hardware or software.
One of the best tools in troubleshooting a system is to have that system thoroughly documented. Although this might not be practical with a workstation, it makes good sense on a system used as a file or print server in peer-to-peer mode (Windows 98 workstation as a server). Although few people do so, it is a good idea to maintain a set of logs for your computer. These logs should list the hardware installed in your PC, the settings of each hardware component, changes you have made to the hardware or software configuration, and any other changes, however minor, that you make to your system. When a problem occurs, you can scan the log to identify a related change that might be causing the problem.
TIP: Although you could easily keep a log on your PC as a Notepad or WordPad file, you should also keep a hard copy of the log in case you are unable to boot your system to read the log.
Windows 98 supports a number of command-line switches you can include with the WIN command to start Windows 98 with various options enabled and disabled for troubleshooting purposes. To start Windows 98 with a command-line switch, first boot the system to the command prompt. To do so, press the F8 key while the system is booting (any time after the PC completes the power-on self test). When the Boot menu appears, select option 6, "Command prompt only," to boot Windows 98 to the command prompt, then enter WIN /D followed by the appropriate switch as described in the following sections. For example, you would enter WIN /D:F to start Windows 98 with 32-bit disk access turned off.
As a method of dealing with many possible problems, Windows 98 includes a Safe mode, which boots a minimal operating system environment. By eliminating the majority of drivers, Safe mode typically enables you to at least boot your system so that you can run Setup or the Control Panel to correct the problem. If your network adapter is improperly configured, for example, Safe mode enables you to boot the machine and use the Control Panel to remove and add drivers and configuration settings as necessary.
Windows 98 actually supports two Safe modes: one without network support and one with network support. If you are experiencing a network problem, you should use Safe mode without network support. If the problem is not related to the network, you can boot using Safe mode with network support in order to access a server and driver files as necessary to correct your problem.
To boot Safe mode without network support, press F5 during the boot process or press F8 to display the Boot menu and choose option 3, "Safe mode." To boot Safe mode with network support, press F6 at the beginning of the boot process or press F8 to display the boot menu, then choose option 4, "Safe mode with network support."
When Windows 98 boots using Safe mode, only the minimum drivers required to get Windows 98 up and running are loaded. Windows 98 also uses a standard VGA driver to enable you to boot the system when a video driver is the problem.
Windows 98 eliminates much of the need for a CONFIG.SYS file or loading real mode drivers in CONFIG.SYS, but some devices still require real mode drivers. If you believe that a real mode driver is causing your Windows 98 problem, you can single-step through the boot process to possibly identify errors that occur when the driver is loaded.
To single-step through the boot process, press F8 at the beginning to display the Boot menu, then choose option 5, "Step-by-step confirmation." Windows 98 displays each line of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files in turn, enabling you to confirm the execution of each one. You also can bypass entries in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT that you feel might be causing the problem. If you bypass an entry and Windows 98 boots and runs normally, it is a good indication that the bypassed driver is the cause of the problem.
If you are an experienced DOS user, you probably are familiar with the term clean boot, which means to bypass the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files altogether during boot. In DOS 6.x, you can accomplish a clean boot by pressing F5 during the boot process. In Windows 98, there actually are two ways to perform a clean boot. Booting Windows 98 in Safe Mode bypasses the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, effectively performing a clean boot.
You might, however, want to bypass your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and boot Windows 98 in Normal mode to retain network support or other normal Windows 98 features that are not available in Safe mode. In this situation, you need to rename your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files so that they will be bypassed during boot. For example, rename CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.OLD and AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOEXEC.OLD and then reboot the system.
NOTE: If you boot your system to DOS to rename the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, you must rename CONFIG.WIN and AUTOEXEC.WIN. These two files are renamed CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT when you boot Windows 98. The CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files you see when you boot the system to DOS are the DOS configuration files that are stored in CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS when the system is booted to Windows 98.
The startup disk, which you can create during Windows 98 installation or after installation through the Control Panel, provides a means to boot your system from a set of known good files. To boot from the startup disk, simply insert the startup disk in your PC's boot floppy disk drive and reset the computer. The Windows 98 command line will boot from the floppy.
After the system is booted, you can use the tools on the floppy disk to begin troubleshooting and clearing up your computer's problems. The startup disk includes ScanDisk, FDISK, and other utility programs you can use to fix disk and other types of problems.
TIP: If your computer's boot sector becomes damaged for some reason (such as a virus infection), you can re-create the master boot record using the FDISK program on the startup disk. Write-protect the startup disk to avoid possible virus infection, then boot the system using the startup disk. Make the hard disk active, then, at the command prompt, enter A:FDISK /MBR. Remove the startup disk and reboot the system.
Many other good sources of information can help you identify and overcome a variety of problems with your computer. The following list describes just a few of these resources:
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