[Resolved] It's now safe to shut down your computer

[plibitz]

I have a gateway pentium 2 computer that I was trying to set up for my daughter. After putting in a golf game that she likes, this happens: When I turn on the computer it goes through the motions and then displays the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" and will not go anywhere else. This computer has win 98se and didn't show that screen before. Now thats all I get. Help please, I am a novice.

 

[johnhammond]

its not a problem. all you need to do is push the on/off button on the pc.

 

[rkselby98]

When you set up the golf game it change something that it should not have. My suggestion would be to boot up in safe mode, uninstall the golf game and see if that corrects it.

Do you get to win 98 or does it shut down before then?

Another thought is when you boot up in safe mode, go into msconfig and see if anything unusual is listed in the startup tab.

 

[plibitz]

It will not go into safe mode or anything else. I can press f-1 at start-up and get into bios, but I don't know what to do when I get there. I can also press f-8 and get the options, command prompt etc. If I choose open in safe mode it goes right to the "It's now safe to shut down your computer. thanks.

 

[rkselby98]

I am sorry but I have never heard of one doing this and I don't want to tell you what I am thinking.

I don't know maybe you will be very lucky and someone will have had this problem before that can help you but I cannot. Sorry,

 

[Rollin' Rog]

According to this MS link it could be due to a damaged wininit.exe file in c:\windows

You can extract this file from a Windows98 CD by booting with a startup disk (watch to see what drive letter gets assigned to the CD-ROM -- normally it will bump up one)

Insert the Windows98 CD and use the command:

extraxt /a e:\win98\base4.cab wininit.exe /l c:\windows

This assumes 'e' is the letter that gets assigned to the cd-rom drive

Alternatively you can try copying that file from your Win98 installation to a floppy disk, substitute that for the startup floppy (after booting with the startup floppy) and enter:

copy wininit.exe c:\windows

If restoring wininit.exe doesn't help, I would try restoring a previous registry. To do that, press and hold the ctrl key starting up (no boot disk here) until the boot menu appears. Choose the "command prompt" option. At the c:\> prompt enter

scanreg /restore

use the arrow keys to select a prior started registry.

If that doesn't work, you will probably have to reinstall Windows. You can do that by booting with the startup disk, inserting the Windows system CD and entering (from the a:\ prompt)

e:\setup

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q141898

 

[plibitz]

the scanreg/restore gave me a failed notice. how do i reinstall windows without a startup disk? is it possible to uninstall and reinstall from dos mode?

 

[John Sparkman]

My Gateway came with a System Restore disk. If you have one of those restart your PC with the recovery disk in the CDROM drive. It will boot to the CD and give you options from there.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

You could create a boot disk using the files at www.bootdisk.com

If the system you are on is the same Windows version you can also go to Add/Remove programs and follow the prompts for creating a boot disk.

If you don't have a Win98 System CD to reinstall from, it might be posssible to reinstall from the cab files on the hard drive (if they are there). Normally this would be c:\windows\options\cabs

You can try running setup from there by doing this:

>> access the boot menu as you did before. Select the "command prompt" option. Enter each line:

cd c:\windows\options\cabs
setup.exe

If setup starts, you may be prompted to acknowledge or select the folder to which Windows will be reinstalled. Make sure the choice is c:\windows (with no extension)

 

[plibitz]

I have the windows 98 cd. when i typed in cd c:\windows\options\cabs setup.exe I got "invalid directory. I made a start up disk from my computer (also win 98) but it will not run. when I go to windows 98 startup menu and choose command prompt only, before getting the c prompt I see the following: "The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS.000\EMM386.EXE There is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file on line 2" then it gives cd-rom info and then says "The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\CDROM\CDROMDRV.SYS There is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file on line 9
C:\>lh\MSCDEX.EXE /d:mscd001
file not found

C:\>REM lh \MSCDEX.EXE d:mscd001

C:\>SET MGA=C:\MGA\SETUP\

C:\>REM REM lh \MSCDEX.EXE /d:mscd001

C:\>SET BLASTER=A220 17 D1 T2

C:\>REM REM REM rem - By Windows Setup - LOADHIGH C:\WINDOWS.000\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:CD1

Then I get the C:\> prompt

 

[Rollin' Rog]

It sounds like the files on your hard drive are thoroughly corrupt.

The fact that you are getting a message referencing Windows.000 indicates that there has already been an overinstall of Windows and it installled into an alternate directory name because the old one contained corrupt system files.

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q142545

However, regardless of the condition of files on the hard disk, a good bootdisk should load cd-rom drivers and allow you to install from a Windows system CD.

Can you be more specific about what is happening when you try to run it? Sometimes bad floppies will prevent it from being read. Is the floppy drive being accessed when you try to start with it?

If not, you may need to set the floppy to be read first in the BIOS boot order.

 

[plibitz]

Rollin Rog,
I give my hearfelt appreciation to you for your help thus far. the bootdisk does nothing at all in the other computer. I checked it in this one and it seems to be ok. (checked properties, type-Application, MS-Dos Name BOOT98.EXE, File Version 5.00.5001, description: WinImage Self Extractor file, There is some other info in the version section of properties for this. I then went into bios and found the list of boot devices.

1.[Hard Drive]
2.[Atapi CD-Rom Drive]
3.[removable devices]
4.[network boot]

there is nothing in there about floppys.

I have the ability to copy this bootdisk file to cd-rom. would that work? I Still would have to know how to reinstall windows.
thanks

 

[Rollin' Rog]

It sounds like what you have there is a self extracting zip file to create a boot disk -- not a boot disk itself. These are .exe files: self extracting zips. (no zip program needed)

If you downloaded that off the internet, it needs to be on the hard drive. Then you place a clean, formatted floppy in your floppy drive and click on the self extracting exe. Follow the prompts and it will install the boot files to the floppy in your drive. That floopy can then be used as a startup disk.

 

[plibitz]

Rollin Rog,
I did as you said and successfully made a startup disc, but when I tried it in the other computer it would not start when i rebooted with the floppy in the drive. I then tried to use command prompt only from start menu and typed A:\autoexe.bat out of desperation. Bad Idea. "Invalid system Disk" "Replace the disk and then press any key" is now all I can get. I have tried inserting a windows 95 startup disc, and a windows 98se disc I made from the computer I'm using now. same result. Now, when I shut down and restart after the gateway screen it goes right back to the same invalid system disk screen. this is with no floppy in at all.

 

[plibitz]

I just tried to force the windows 98 install using device list in bios. The CD started, went through checking system, and then said, "your computer already has an operating system installed, which cannot be upgraded by this version of setup. You need to obtain the Windows 98 Upgrade. Message SUO168"
Would getting this upgrade help, and if so do you know where to get it? Thanks