Win98-SE erratic startup

[Acclivity]

System often freezes during normal boot-up of Win98-SE. My standard work-around is to restart with step-by-step confirmation. This always works - it's just tedious. Maybe it's the delay introduced between loading different drivers etc. that makes it work? How can I find where it's hanging? Could I insert some startup task that just invokes a delay, if that is what's needed?

 

[tahoe2]

does the pc start in safe mode? If so, try updating video, nic and modem drivers. If not, it's probably a system file.

did you install any new software or drivers recently? or has this been going on for some time?
Corie

 

[Acclivity]

Tnx fer reply. I'll try updating drivers and let you know what happens. Has been going on for many months. Has spates of stalling on most boot-ups, and times when it's OK. It's the family computer / internet sharing server, and gets quite a few software changes with various games etc. being tried.
Mike.

 

[Cirrus9]

You can also go to start/run, type msconfig and go to the startup tab. Deselect the progs you don't absolutely need. Start with the minimum startup programs and add the ones that you use back one by one, you can find out if the culprit is a program starting up.
You may also want to reseat your RAM.
You may already know this...but most of the programs that run in the background are just running so that if you decide to launch them, they will load more quickly. They can be a serious resource hogs.
There are exceptions however, like Anti-Virus software. A good rule of thumb is if you don't know what the program is then leave it checked. You can usually look at the path displayed to see which directory it is in and figure out what it is. Hope this helps somewhat.