AboutKevin Expertise I`m familiar with Windows 95/98/XP problems and will try my best to assist you. Feel free to ask any software or hardware related questions.
Experience I started using computers over 10 years ago and have grown to both love and hate it to say the least. I have studied computer programming and graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science.
Education/Credentials Bachelors in computer information science
Question My normal boot (which I have not seen for a long time!)uses two splash screens and then direct to desktop. First screen is the Dell logo. Second screen is the Windows 98 logo. Next I should go directly to desktop.
However,
For a long time now, I go from the Win 98 logo to a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the upper right corner for about 15-30 seconds and then my desktop comes on. On rare days the blank screen just hangs there and I must crash the system and start over from scratch - then no problem.
I ran Dr. Watson and it came up with two items which it commented have changed the program files:
KB891711.EXE
KB918547.EXE
I know that I downloaded these from the now defunct Windows 98 support site on Microsoft's information that these files were to improve the security of my system. Could these be causing this boot issue? Would it be dangerous to remove them (they are on my Add Remove Program list available under control settings. I am not a computer expert and if I get myself into a jam by removing them it would be a disaster. Please advise as you would advise a novice. Do I make the change or leave all as it is and live with it?
Thanks for your valuable time,
Mark
Answer Hi Mark, the underscore usually means that it can't find the bootable device or can't boot from it. We can try resetting the master boot record to see if it helps out. Before you do that though, do you have more than one version of Windows installed on this computer or is it just Windows 98? If it's just Windows 98, proceed with the below.
Save it to your desktop. Insert a blank floppy into your computer. Then double click on that boot98se.exe file that you saved to your desktop. It should give you a prompt telling you that it will erase everything on the floppy. Proceed unless you have data on the floppy that needs to be backed up.
Once that's done, restart the computer and boot from that floppy diskette. If it doesn't bootup from it, you will have to go into the BIOS (aka Setup) to change the boot sequence so the floppy is the first bootable device.
When you boot from the floppy successfully, you may follow the prompts on the screen. Enable large disk support...etc. At the prompt now, type in the following:
fdisk /mbr
Then hit ENTER key. Hit ctrl+alt+del on your keyboard and eject the floppy. See if the underscore problem still exists now.
