W98 - System busy

pompey

I will try and summarise my problem as best as I can and hope someone can help...please!

After booting up w98, I get the desktop along with the mouse pointer and a permanent egg-timer. I am unable to access any of the programs and therefore struggling to check out the problem.

I have tried CTRL+ALT+DEL, but this does not bring up the task manager it brings up the blue screen message SYSTEM IS BUSY.

"The system is busy waiting for the close program dialog box to be displayed. You can wait and see if it appears or you can restart your computer.

** Press any key - doing this the screen goes a funny mosaic
** CTRL+ALT+DEL - to restart"

Any suggestions as to what to do?

Thanks

P.S. I can boot in safe mood if this helps

Rex_Mundi

Boot the computer up in safe mode. Click Start>Run then type msconfig a box will appear. Look at the tabs at the top and select startup (on the right). This will list all the programs that start straight away when you switch on your computer.

You can go through the list and check out with THIS site to see whether you need the programs to start straight away, untick the ones you don't need. When you've finished, click apply then OK. Restart your computer normally and see if this makes a difference.

pompey

Rex,

Thanks for the response.

I do not have access to the pc at the moment but will try this out and let you know what happens.

Cheers

newfoundglory

Have you installed anything or made an system changes recently?

When you boot into normal mode... does it hang immediately or does it start hanging only when you "click" something?

Is the system doing any I/O... such as writing to the hard disk?

If you configure with msconfig in safe mode, be careful which ones you disable. For windows 98 you MUST keep: ScanRegistry, TaskMonitor, SystemTray and LoadPowerProfile. If you have an antivirus program, you should see that in the list.

Disabling antivirus can cause problems in some cases, so I suggest you leave that on and disable everything else that you recognise in the list except the ones listed above. Then boot back into normal mode and see what happens. It can be very much trial and error to locate the program which is causing the problem, which is why its helpful to see if you know of any system changes you might have made recently.

If that still doesnt work, then disable everything in list except the ones you must keep and try again.

pompey

It hangs immediately when the desktop appears. I have now had a chance to boot in safe mode and have disabled the non-required items in the start-up. However it is still hanging.

newfoundglory wrote:

Have you installed anything or made an system changes recently?

A week ago I installed broadband (via USB)...due to the age of my machine, prior to installation, I did install additional memory and a network card. For whatever reason the network card was not working, hence the reason that it is now via USB. I suppose it would make sense to remove the network card (I did have plans to look into this, but as it worked fine via USB it probably will not happen)!

The broadband and pc has been working fine for a week or so?

pompey

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I have managed to get the PC up and running by playing around with the start-up settings in safe mode. As well as the useful advice in this thread I also used the Troubleshooting Windows 98 Startup problems - Q188867.

I now have a further problem. I use IE as a browser and it is now hanging on occassions. I have checked with my broadband provider and there is a connection and my email is working...however they suggested that I may have spyware running. Is this a symptom of spyware?

I am now going to get a download of adaware or spybot. They also recommended using another browser firefox/opera rather than IE.

Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks in advance.

T4i

This sounds like sound advice.

Spyware progs to get

1) Spybot http://spybot.dalnet.com.fr/spybotsd13.exe
2) Adaware http://dw.com.com/redir?pid=10319876&merid=69274&mfgid=69274&lop=link&edId=3&siteId=4&oId=3002-8022_4-10319876&ontId=8022&destUrl=ftp%3A%2F%2Fftp.download.com%2Fpub%2Fwin95%2Futilities%2Faawsepersonal.exe
3) M$ Anti-spyware http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&genscs=&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2f8%2f1%2f5%2f815d2d60-49b5-44dc-ae35-fca2f2c6f0cc%2fMicrosoftAntiSpywareInstall.exe

Online Virus Scanner http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Spyware Blaster (prevents it from getting installed) http://files4.majorgeeks.com/files/016669d2649ea531365419cc792ef8bc/spyware/spywareblastersetup34.exe

Firefox and Opera seem to be the favourite browser at the mo....You may find something else.

Firefox http://205.188.221.241/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.0.4/win32/en-GB/Firefox%20Setup%201.0.4.exe

Opera http://www.tucows.com/preview/193751

pompey

T4i,

Cheers.

My first plan of attack is the spyware. As I am struggling for internet access on my home pc - I am hoping to download a copy of spyware programs from a friends pc or get a copy from a computer mag.

I will then look at the others in your list. Once I have IE up & running I will download Firefox or Opera.

I do appreciate the advice. I understand the importance of security but the difference between firewalls, anti-virus, spyware etc does confuse me?!

T4i

It baffles all of us!

Spyware can be installed via other progs. It can also be downloaded on the sly when visitng certain pages (dodgy pages, !!!!!!, warez etc)

Spyware can slow the p.c and internet connection speed. This is because the spyware can track your internet usage to see what your interests are.

---

Anti-Virus is a prog to prevent virus's been downloaded/used on a p.c, its most handy for scanning POP3 (ISP email)

Anti-Virus can also offer real-time scanning which basically means it will run in the background unnoticed and monitor for anything dodgy, if something is picked up it will *should* prevent any damage been caused.

---

Firewall is a prog to monitor internet connections. Your p.c has thousands of ports, some used some not used. When you open a browser port 80 is opened and essentialy this is a vunrability. A Firewall will monitor ports and there activity vs progs trying to use those ports.

---

This is a brief explanantion, you could write about each one all day. No p.c is 100% safe when its connected to the internet. My best advice for security is a router with SPI/NAT. This will cost money, and not so easy to setup if your not farmiliar with TCP/IP.

Rex_Mundi

I wouldn't bother trying to download the MS antispyware. It would be a waste of time for you. It only works on W2000 and up. They don't do a version for W98. The others are fine though.

pompey

Once again thanks. I am slowly beginning to understand!!

Even after using spybot and installing firefox, I am still getting the issue that the internet just hangs after 5-10 mins.

If I restart the PC, I get another 5-10 mins (I am typing this as quick as I can!).

Any ideas what might cause this and how to resolve?

Cheers