[Psycho_Ninja]

I have a Inspiron 3500 with 98 on it. Whenever I try to start it up, it gets to the Microsoft Windows 98 screen, and the blue/white bar at the bottom just keeps running forever. Booting in Safe mode doesn't get around it, so the most I can really get to is the command prompt. How should I fix this?

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type "chkdsk" at your your command prompt, this should start checking your HD for any errors.

[samiko]

type "chkdsk" at your your command prompt, this should start checking your HD for any errors.

[Psycho_Ninja]

This is what I get with Command Prompt:

Warning: the system configuration manager failed to run. Some of your real-mode device drivers may not initialize properly.

So I went into Safe Mode Command Prompt.

c:\>chkdsk

CHKDSK has NOT checked this drive for errors. You must use SCANDISK to detect and fix errors on this drive.

After that it has some stuff on how much drive space is used, and another message saying to use scandisk.

c:\> scandisk
Error in EXE file

[makai]

However you can, get to the C: prompt (dos)

Once at the C: prompt, type in "scanreg /restore" (no quotes)

Note that there must be a "space" between the word Scanreg and the foward slash for this to work.

Once the restore screen pops up, select one of the restore points. Hopefully, one of them will work and let you boot up.


makai

[Psycho_Ninja]

That just got me another "Error in EXE file" error. So, still no luck. I looked in my Windows folder, and found scandskw and scanregw, neither of which work, the former say "This program requires Microsoft Windows", and the latter saying, "This program cannot be run in DOS mode."

Edited by Psycho_Ninja, 11 July 2005 - 11:16 PM.

[makai]

Since you didn't say how you tried to run this, Did you run this from "pure" dos environment?

You cannot run this from the dos prompt window. Nor can you run this while in Windows.

The Scanreg.exe app should be in C:\window\command
See if you have it.

Also check C:\windows\sysbckup and see if you have 5 cab files (they look like zip files) with the names rb001 thru rb005. These are scanreg restore cab files.

makai

[Psycho_Ninja]

I was working through Safe mode command prompt only, as Normal, Safe mode, and Command prompt only don't seem to work. Also, in the sysbckup, i only saw one CAB file, it being rb000.

[makai]

Having only that one cab file on your computer may mean you might be out of luck, but why don't you try anyway.


Do you have a Win98 Start disk?

If you do, boot with it. You may have to change your bios to boot from the floppy drive.

Once the computer boots up to the a:\ prompt, type in C:

Once at C:\, type in scanreg /restore (remember there is a space between scanreg and the foward slash).

Select a file from the list to restore to.

If you get a message that windows cannot use that file, then you're out of luck and need to find another way to fix your computer.

good luck,
makai