blim Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Hi All,Really just a "new odd behavior" from the Famous Possessed Gateway!! As most of you know, we reformatted the beast but something happened day before yesterday that never happened before.Started PGDisplayed Gateway Screen (BIOS, right?) , then Windows98 ScreenThen black screen with a blinking line in the upper left corner--speaker was off, so I don't know if there were any beeps (but it never has beeped on startups)Said, "well, that's weird"Restarted it with the restart button on the tower (that button is such a Godsend....)DOS screen saying something like "windows did not fully load, you might want to check things out, do you want to start in normal mode, safe mode or have a ham sandwich?" (Ok, no ham sandwich, but a third choice that I can't remember, Start in DOS, maybe??)Chose Safe Mode and it started right up in Safe Mode--Everything looked normal, had no idea what I was supposed to check, so we restarted it with the start button on the screen.Normal restart and normal behavior--normal Windows...Yesterday it started normally.Today it never got turned on.Sooo, just a weird possessed glitch? Hard Drive failing? Goofed up the reformat somehow? Dust Bunnies? (Nephew opened the case 2 years ago to install a CD Burner and proclaimed "this house is clean", I'm afraid to open the case!!) It was a cool day and we shut it down each night, so I don't think its overheating... Any ideas? Really just curious as this never happened before and looking for a "heads up".*Oh, I forgot, we haven't connected the PG online yet, unplugged the Cable modem from it before we reformatted, and have been too busy to connect the durned thing to the Net, so I'm assuming it's not viruses or Spyware*Thanks, Liz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Sounds like it was just one o0f those things that happens when you have Windows...If its up and stable now, it must have been just a bad driver load or something that caused it to abort. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimras Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 You're running Win 98, right?One thing you can do when the computer is booting is get rid of that Win98 log on screen and watch what's being loaded. You can do this by just hitting the Esc key when you see the Win98 screen. Then you see what's going on in the background. Sometimes programs get errors when they load and it might show up here.Just a random thought but it might be worth a look for a few bootups.Hope this helps. See ya............. Jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blim Posted August 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Thank you both!! And Thank Heavens a reinstall of the reinstall isn't needed!!Nice tip, Jim, that sounds like it would be interesting to see, although I wouldn't know anything about what I'm seeing (except "ERROR", of course!!). Still would be fun to watch Now after pressing Esc, I won't have to do anything tricky to "get out of that screen", would I? Would Windows continue to load normally?Thanks,Liz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimras Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Yes, windows will continue normally. It's just that the loading of drivers and such goes on in the background and you wouldn't normally see what is happening if you let the "starting Windows 98" screen show. I remember one time that my wife's computer was having a problem starting because the computer was looking for a program that was supposed to load at startup and she had accidentally deleted it. If I hadn't been looking at startup, I would never have known about it.I once knew a way to completely dissable the startup screen but I don't remember what it is now. I like to see what's going on behind the scene. Can't do that in XP but XP is a whole lot more stable that 98 (or 95) ever was. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bearskin Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 hi liz...I can send my shaman exorcist over if you need him.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blim Posted August 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 Thanks Bearskin! I'll take you up on it, as my Gypsy curses aren't working so well. Liz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 I always defrag Win98 in Safe Mode after a fresh install. Once that has been done I get all the updates downloaded and defrag again. That behavior is usually caused because Win98 needs to finish off the installation of files when it is fresh. It may even do it a few more times. When it happens just boot to Safe Mode so it can complete it's task. You will even notice this occurring when you install a bunch of programs. Remember to reboot into Safe Mode and defrag after installing programs. Win98 fragments easily. I just refreshed my install a month ago and my PC will do the same now and then. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blim Posted August 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 Thanks, Terrorist!! Never thought of defragging so early into an install--figured it wouldn't be necessary, but I suppose it is needed after installing all the "basics". Will do! Liz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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