Can't create bootlog.txt

[JoplinMo]

One of our customers has a system running Win98SE that developed a problem after a power outage. They messed with it for a while, then called us. When I got to his office, the PC would only boot into a "safe mode with networking" state. The video is restricted to 16 colors, but he can access mapped drives on his server.

I decided to set it to produce bootlog.txt so I could see more of what's happening, but it does nothing. Neither can I get it to boot normally.

He doesn't want to reformat and reinstall. I think he has some software of dubious legality.

Any ideas?

 

[gargouille]

Try Start/Run/scanreg(space)/restore.
Dunno' how useful that'll be...sounds like the OS is hosed and maybe he has hardware problems. I know that's not news to you.
For sure, make sure you're showing all files...
Is he a friend or is he just willing to pay you tech rates to keep from buying a legit copy of a now defunct OS that would only cost him a few dollars to buy?
Rhetorical ?, take the money and run!
Don't use TweakUI, but understand it MAY give you a bootlog.txt every time it boots...maybe you have the download laying 'round? Worth a try.

 

[gargouille]

Something else that crosses my mind is the old .dat file reassignments:
Renaming user.dat and system.dat to xx.old and using user.da0 and system.da0 as the new ones to get a good boot.
Clunky, because you have to pass attribute reassignments to files (-h -r -s -a and all that)
But so many things have crossed my mind since I've used it I can't remember for sure if it works in 98SE...seems like it.
Just a thought.