Computer startup problem
 

Relative called tonight. She can't start-up to Windows. Only goes to MS-DOS (won't start into the Windows 98 showing). She has Windows 98.

I know ZERO about something like this. She tried F8 same MS-DOS came up, and she also tried CTRL-ALT-DEL, and finally reset, with all the same results that the MS-DOS (mode?) keeps coming up.

Ideas? Is it a startup virus?

Thanks

She doesn't happen to have a boot-disk in the floppy drive, does she?

When you say MS-DOS, is she going to a C:\ or and A:\ ?

Randy

Thanks Randy, she did not have a disk in there, but she somehow managed to get to Safe Mode.

Then did diagnostics and got to Windows. But now her graphics and display are off.

So tonight she says she will scan disk and see what happens.

Thanks

If it goes to "safe" mode then reboot it and hit F8 again. When given the option again tell it to boot in "normal" mode and see what happens.

It its still running in safe mode you might have her run the defrag and diskcheck programs to make sure that there is not a problem with the hard drive then programs. If it finds errors it will tell her.

To tell the truth, W98 is a really old OS and not supported for a long time. I like it but like W2000 more and absolutely hate XP because it wants to do everything for you. Might be time to either upgrade the OS or the entire computer if its having problems. The holiday season is a good time to get good deals on computers.

Try that and get back to us. Lots of computer knowledge on the board.

JoeA

I'm right there with you on that one, Joe! Most of my machines (4 at home & 1 at the office) run on W2k except my laptop and the wife's that came pre-loaded with XP. W2k is such a stable platform that I really do not look forward to the day when I eventually will have to replace it.

Win98 OTOH is buggy but not like the WinMe dog that MS unleashed on us.

L