Windows 98 not working and need help!

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LightingBird

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Saint Louis, Missouri
I need help.

One of my pcs for some reason will not log all the way to the desktop. It will load up to the scandisk and slowly try to check the harddrive. It will get to the 20% mark after 20 mins or so and It bogs down after that. I have tried to get into safemode and as it is loading I get a error for the explorer and it crashes.

I have tried to use kill disk and a win 98 boot disk but it will not read from the floppy or any disk that I put in the disc drive. I have tried to go into the bios but it is asking for a system password that I do not have.

All I am trying to do is to get this pc working. Can anyone help me?
 
looks like you have a few corrupt files or a bad hard drive
I have had a problem like this when I had 98, I did a reinstall and it didn't overwrite any of our user files, it also didn't overwrite corrupt files either!
I had a friend who tried to get it networking with his 2000 machine, and he uninstalled the driver, planning to reinstall it but it wouldn't boot
I ended up buying XP

there are limited ways you can fix this:
1. install 98 to a different directory - you will lose user names and profiles, but not your files, they are in C:\Windows\Profiles

or

2. reformat the drive and install 98 fresh, backing up what you can if you have extra hard drives, a CD burner or if you're networking you can move files to another PC
 
try quitting out of scan disk before it finishes scanning, see what type of error it gives you, or if it works fine. corrupt files are most likely the culprit, you can reset the bios/CMOS password. im not quite sure about the exact way to go about doing this, but here is the general idea: take out the cmos battery, turn system on. Then turn it off, re-insert the battery, then turn your system on again and you should not be asked for a password. There might also be a jumper on your motherboard pertaining to the setup password or something along those lines.
 
comp_guy225 said:
... im not quite sure about the exact way to go about doing this, but here is the general idea: take out the cmos battery, turn system on.

By removing the CMOS battery you are resetting the BIOS and therefore it's unnecessary to turn the PC back on/off .

Sounds like to me the BIOS might not be set to boot from the A:\ drive. The Win98 setup CD is bootable; try booting up w/ the CD inserted in your CD-ROM and when it boots up to the menu, press F8 for Safe Mode.

Alternatively, you can boot upto Safe Mode by pressing the CTRL key at the first sign of any text on the screen during boot until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears.
 
unable to remove cmos password even then ,, use this ones i think this will work

For Award Bios

AWARD_SW
AWARD_PW
j262
HLT
SER
SKY_FOX
BIOSTAR
ALFAROME
Lkwpeter
j256
AWARD?SW
LKWPETER
syxz
ALLy
589589
589721
awkward
CONCAT
d8on
CONDO
j64
szyx


For AMI BIOS

AMI
BIOS
PASSWORD
HEWITT RAND
AMI?SW
AMI_SW
LKWPETER
A.M.I.
CONDO
589589

For Phoenix BIOS

Phoenix
 
just look for the MBD cmos. There usually is instructions etched on it that will tell you the jumper numbers and also a table for the pin out. Look for "clear password" and if you can't find that then look for either "reset cmos/bios", "clear cmos/bios", "clear/reset NVRAM". Set the jumper to those, reboot. You'll probably get a beep code and then it may something to the effect of NVRAM clear success or whatever. Then power off, put the jumper back into normal operation position (just keep note of the original position BEFORE removal), reboot and it'll do a beep again and say bios not configured and it'll take you into it. At that point set up as needed. If the floppy still doesn't work then reset the ribbon. You may want to get the HD diagnostic tools (example is first aid by WD). Run a test drive. It takes awhile, so be patient. It will give you a code at the end of it. look up that code and it will tell you of any physical defects. DO NOT tell it to fix it unless its a diagnostic tool for your specific manufacturer HD. If you do have a manufacturer tool, then go ahead and see if its able to. Itll tell you if it's physical and if it is it may fix it, but be warned that your HD is probably on its way out.
 
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