Unofficial Tex Murphy

Hey guys,
I keep a relatively old computer on hand that is running Win98. Among other things, I run my Tex Murphy games on it.

Yesterday, it started doing a very weird thing. It seems to boot up normally, but as soon as it finishes, the screen goes black and the system locks up. Even the reset and power buttons don't respond. I have to pull the plug and reboot again but, same thing.

I recall that Win95 used to have a Safe-Mode or a Boot to DOS option. I can't find these options for Win98. The closest thing I can find is to hit 'del' at the beginning of the boot to get to 'setup' mode. But I don't see any options to boot to DOS or Safe-Mode in the setup. There is an option to load a fail-safe configuration, but this is nothing like safe-mode and the system still siezes.

Do any of you 98 guys know how to boot to DOS or safe-mode in 98? Is there such an option? If I can do that, I can at least get access to the files. My only other alternative is to remove the hard disk and connect it to another computer to get access. But I woul rather try DOS or SAFE first, if they are available.

Thanks.

Not an expert at computers (or anything else for that matter) a friend told me to push F8 during the reboot but before the reboot finishes. Then you can set the computer to Safe Mode which probably won't help anyway.

BTW, the foregoing will be free of charge unless it actually works.

Paul, when does it freeze? I mean, what's your definition of "when the boot finishes"? Is that before the "Starting Windows 98" message or after the Windows 98 splash-screen?

Jim,
I had tried F8 earlier, but it didn't work, so I thought I was remembering the wrong key. But my keyboard is pretty old and some of the keys don't work unless you press them pretty hard. So I tried F8 again, but with some gusto and it did indeed get me to safe mode. Thanks.

SeuLunga,
What I mean by "the boot finishes" is after the splash screen, after the music plays, after all the icons are put on the screen and even after all the little icons in the lower right corner (clock, volume, RealPlayer, etc) are complete.

Eventually, the hard disk activity stops, and the computer sits there looking all ready to go, then suddenly the screen goes black and computer locks up.

It seems to run ok in safe mode but only lasts a matter of seconds in normal mode.

Then it may be something in the msconfig.

Go in Safe Mode, go to "Run", execute msconfig.

In msconfig check all files selected to run for something unusual.

Thanks for the msconfig idea. I have been deselecting files and rebooting to try and zero in on the problem. No luck so far. I'll keep you posted if I find something.

I had a very similar problem on a new machine, and it was due to my video card giving up.

A new one fixed the problem.

You might also find it could be caused by a bad stick of memory. Or perhaps some hard drive failure.

Try running a checkdisk and a defrag in Safe Mode. Make sure that you choose to do a full surface scan with Checkdisk... it will take many hours but it will fix most if not all disk related errors that could cause your problems.

If it still persists... perhaps it is time to say bye-bye.

-Cub. =o)

Shouldn't this be in the 'Support' Section?

Anyway, if it's Windows 9x, check the task manager immediately after bootup (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and make sure the only processes running are 'explorer' and (if you have the Volume Control app running on the taskbar) 'systray'. Isolate ALL other progs from running on startup (Startup folder, registry, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT). If it still happens when no other apps are running, it could be a OS software problem.
Is it 98 First Edition? If so, and you have ANY USB devices/controllers on the computer you could have problems where they're concerned. Fixes have been released by Microsoft that supposedly fix the USB issues, as well as a serious data cache flushing bugfix for the hard drive that prevents data loss on shutdown. In short, is it up to date?
If it's none of the above, it could be the hard disk itself crapping out. Any strange noises/lousy disk access or other strange behavior from it? Most modern motherboards have a utility that runs as soon as you turn the PC on that checks the hard drive(s) for telltale signs of going out of service. Run Scandisk using a boot disk and use it to perform a surface scan on the drive.

Let us know how you get on.

I experienced some of the same problems when I had my old comp and it was due to my cpu getting overheated as the cpu fan was malfunctioning for some reason - when the cpu is overheated the computer either locks up or reboots the computer on its own but I guess it doesn't have anything to do with that seeing as how things work fine in safe mode and not in normal mode - the problem would occur in both if it was the fan that was the problem

Thanks for all the advice. It will take some time to try all these things.

I posted this in 'General' instead of 'Support' because Support is for 'Tex Support', and this isn't a game problem. As you recall, General is for everything from Aunt Martha's blueberry pie recipie to unified field theory, or something like that. So that's why I posted it here.

Actually the "Tex Support" section is also meant to house Technical Support.... its actually a play on words:

"Tex Support" sounds like "Tech Support" when soken

But don't worry... I won't tell if you don't.

-Cub. =o)

Hey Cub! I gave up once (like your sound card)....36 years ago when I said "I do."

Kind of a final update.

I was only able to try some safe-mode operations for a couple days, then the system would sieze up before I could even get to safe-mode. Later, it wouldn't even begin to boot.

I took out the hard disk and connected it my laptop (with a USB/IDE adapter) and the hard disk seems to work fine. I copied most of it to CDs. So I probably have a hardware problem.

Maybe just loose memory. I haven't tried it yet.

Otherwise check to see if the CPU gets overheated because of a slow running fan or something ... it sounds a lot like a problem like that. Hope you figure out the problem

really?