Windows 98SE PC is shutting down before booting to desktop

[edong]

What is the first thing I should look at/replace? Pentium 2, 128 MB RAM. Well, it's booting to safe mode. Looks like it does not want the normal mode anymore. Thanks.

[mh2360]

All safe mode does is to boot the system without installing most of the device drivers, so it's probably a driver problem. Finding out which device driver is causing the trouble might not be easy.

I'd start with the graphics, but it could be anything really.

[JerryB]

hi,
the most common reason that a system will automatically go into safe mode is because the graphic card drivers are messed up.... to verify this... change your resolution to the basic 640x480 and see if it boots up to regular mode , if it does then reinstall the drivers...

another common reason is that there some startup program that badley corrupted...
what you can do here... is go to your msconfig. and set it up to for diagnostic mode or selctive mode to where it will allow you to see and act on each step of the loading process and then try to go to regular mode windows... and hopefully find the cullprit.. good luck

What is the first thing I should look at/replace? Pentium 2, 128 MB RAM. Well, it's booting to safe mode. Looks like it does not want the normal mode anymore. Thanks.

[nic2k4]

Try booting in DOS (push F8 when you see "Starting Windows"), then type scanreg /restore and pick a date prior to when the problem started happening. If that doesn't help you can go back, just repeat the process and pick the latest date (that was created when you did it the first time).

Is this an internet PC? If so, you might have picked up some spyware. To clean it up, install both Ad-Aware and Spybot Search&Destroy (both free). Then go to their websites and download the latest updates manually. You will be able to update and scan in safe mode.

[gll99]

Like JerryB

There's one or more bad drivers.

Go step by step mode and keep track of each file as you say yes to continue. When it locks on you will know which driver is causing the problem so next time you boot just skip that file by saying no until you get a good desktop. Once you know the file (or files) that is causing the problem you can remove the related program or reinstall the hardware or software etc...