PC starts as if in safe mode !!! 98SE 2

[skipholiday]

I'm running win 98se. I restarted my pc and it had the safe mode looking display without the actuall words (safemode).I tried reinstalling video drivers and it said dispaly settings are limited to trouble shooting only. I also noticed it would'nt notice my modem or any other driver required devices.I restarted quite a few times and nothing changes. I thought possibly the cmos battery had gone ,but my bios settings were all as I had set them.I'm clueless as to what happened to cause this.
Any suggestion's would be greatley appreciated. And any ideas on how to prevent this from happening again would also be nice.Is there a way to force one to start in normal mode?
Thanx as always
Skipholiday
I'm so slow

 

[Wirdo]

Your best bet would probly be to try to figure out why your in safe mode. If you have added any software or hardware (drivers ect...) Just before this occured you may want to remove it and see if that fixs the problem. Also check device manager for exclamations points or disabled devices and see if you see anything that needs to have a driver or be changed.

 

[gargouille]

This happened after the install of the new video drivers?

 

[skipholiday]

I did`nt add anything at all and the pci bus in the device manager is checked with exclamation point. I tried reinstalling the drivers and it acts like it works. But still will not come out of the mode it is in.It does not say safe mode ,just looks like it.The pc was running perfect, I turned it off and then the next day on 1st start is when it happened.Then I tried reinstalling the drivers.It still starts up in the safe (looking) mode.
Thanx again
Skipholiday
Im so slow and clueless
I know I can reinstall windows.But,whats to keep it from happening again?I would like to know how to back out of it if possible.

 

[ikayak]

I have this happen several times. I have found that deleting the smartdrv.exe from C:\windows and rebooting has resolved this issue several times. You do need to have the cabs on the computer so smartdrv.exe can rebuild itself.

 

[skipholiday]

I will try that,
and what is the cabs?
Thanx again
Skipholiday

 

[ikayak]

The cabs are installation files. They are usually in a folder on you hard drive called Win98.

 

[gargouille]

Not all installers write the cabs to the hard drive...but I always copy them there...along with the drivers directories...each in their own directory and point the system to it when it wants the CD.

 

[skipholiday]

I found the cabs in windows/options,I hope this is them
Also is ther a place where all your system drivers are stored?So I could back them up as well.
Thanx again,
Skipholiday
I'm so slow.But determined

 

[gargouille]

I was talking about copying them from the install CD to the hard drive...only if you have lots of unused space...but saves digging it out when you need it.