My son has a computer that is starting up in safe mode. I dont have the details but it sounds like he cannot get it to start in normal mode. Does anyone know what would cause this or where he should start to diagnose the problem? Thanks in advance for any help.
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Starts in safe mode 1
- Thread starter Beretta22
- Start date
first checked the Device Manager (right-click on the My Computer icon, then the Device Manager tab; or click Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager). Click the + in front of a category to see the devices in that category. When a device is not working properly, there is usually a yellow circle with an exclamation point in it or a red X through the icon.
Jot down which devices have conflicts or which are disabled. If you have recently installed new hardware, try disabling it and restart the computer.
3. If the computer starts normally, uninstall the new hardware.
Jot down which devices have conflicts or which are disabled. If you have recently installed new hardware, try disabling it and restart the computer.
3. If the computer starts normally, uninstall the new hardware.
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1
- Thread starter
- #4
It sounds like the MSDOS.SYS file may have been modified.
Click on Start,Find, Files or Folders.
type in msdos.sys
Right click the Msdos.sys file, and then click Properties.
Click to clear the Read Only and Hidden check boxes to remove these attributes from the Msdos.sys file, and then click OK.
Right click the Msdos.sys file, and then click Open With.
Select WordPad, and then click OK.
Change the value in the BootSafe=1 line to BootSafe=0.
Click on File menu, click Save.
Close WordPad.
Right click on the Msdos.sys file, and then click on Properties.
Click to select the Read Only and Hidden check boxes to set the attributes for the file, click OK.
Then restart the computer.
Click on Start,Find, Files or Folders.
type in msdos.sys
Right click the Msdos.sys file, and then click Properties.
Click to clear the Read Only and Hidden check boxes to remove these attributes from the Msdos.sys file, and then click OK.
Right click the Msdos.sys file, and then click Open With.
Select WordPad, and then click OK.
Change the value in the BootSafe=1 line to BootSafe=0.
Click on File menu, click Save.
Close WordPad.
Right click on the Msdos.sys file, and then click on Properties.
Click to select the Read Only and Hidden check boxes to set the attributes for the file, click OK.
Then restart the computer.
Another common cause for this is a corrupt video display driver. This is the drivers for his graphic card. Remove the display adapter from Device manager. Cold reboot, let Windows plug & play detect and start to set it up and use the latest driver you can get for his card (manufactruer's web site).
Also determine through Device Manger>Display Adapter>Graphic card>Properties>Drivers>show files idf he has a driver indicated by VMM32(XXX.XXX)...where the X's are a file name like kern.vxd...name doesn't matter...the fact that the driver is listed in ()'s is what you are looking for. These drivers are built by the VMM32 driver builder (which isn't very good). When the drivers are stressed with a high refresh rate/resolution the driver crumble. The drivers in ()'s are on the Windows CD and if you extract them and place them in the VMM32 folder (C:\Windows\System\VMM32) then it will use this extracted driver rather than make on...this makes the system more stable.
HTH, Dana
)
Also determine through Device Manger>Display Adapter>Graphic card>Properties>Drivers>show files idf he has a driver indicated by VMM32(XXX.XXX)...where the X's are a file name like kern.vxd...name doesn't matter...the fact that the driver is listed in ()'s is what you are looking for. These drivers are built by the VMM32 driver builder (which isn't very good). When the drivers are stressed with a high refresh rate/resolution the driver crumble. The drivers in ()'s are on the Windows CD and if you extract them and place them in the VMM32 folder (C:\Windows\System\VMM32) then it will use this extracted driver rather than make on...this makes the system more stable.
HTH, Dana
)
dalincerguy
Technical User
I checked what drcard had wrote on my machine and found that the driver in ()s was in c:\windows\system, not in c:\windows\system\vmm32.
If I extracted the file from the Win98 CD and placed it in the VMM32 folder, nothing changed. The driver still showed up with ()s around it.
However, when I moved it up to c:\windows\system, the driver now shows up properly without ()s.
Hope this helps...
David
If I extracted the file from the Win98 CD and placed it in the VMM32 folder, nothing changed. The driver still showed up with ()s around it.
However, when I moved it up to c:\windows\system, the driver now shows up properly without ()s.
Hope this helps...
David
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