[pcollins]

Over the last week or so, my computer has sometimes booted up normally and sometimes in safe mode. Now it only boots in safe mode.

Rache, replied to a similar question recently (Mar 26) and said “it’s just a corrupt driver issue with 98 if it doesn’t get past safemode. If there’s a yellow in device manager that’s the one to change.”

I have looked at device manager and do not see a yellow. How can I find the corrupt driver and how do I re-install the driver?

Thanks,

Phil Collins

 

[Miz]

I've recently worked on several computers that would only boot into Safe Mode and the problem on all but one turned out to be spyware. The other had a virus.

If you have Spybot or Ad-Aware installed, run either (or both) while in Safe Mode. If you have an up-to-date anti-virus program installed, run a full system scan with it while in Safe Mode.

If you have neither, try running Scan Disk (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools) in Safe Mode. Select "Thorough" and tell it to automatically fix any problems it finds. That may straighten things out enough to get into Normal Mode so you can get online to download Spybot and/or Ad-Aware.

Install them, read the help files to familiarize yourself with how they work. I recommend you use them both since each tends to find things the other misses. Let them clean up any spyware found.

You can get a good, free, anti-virus program from Grisoft or run a free scan online at either Panda or Housecall.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

It helps to let us know the Windows version when asking such questions. If you have WinME you can try a System Restore; but if you are using Win98 first try restoring a registry to a date when the system booted normally.

Press and hold the ctrl key starting up, you should get a startup menu. Choose the command prompt option and at the c:> prompt enter:

scanreg /restore

use your arrow keys to select a started registry from one of the first four displayed.

If this helps, obtain a copy of HijackThis, unzip it to a permenant folder, run it and select Scan. Save the Scanlog and copy/paste the results here.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

You can also follow the instructions in these troubleshooters from a safe mode boot.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q188867

see also the "clean boot" troubleshooter in the link above.

Also check for the presence of a Wnbootng.sts file and delete it if found:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q143/2/83.asp&NoWebContent=1