Safe Mode Mad at Me

I haven't been able to launch into Safe Mode from Startup for some weeks.
When I select it, the HD starts grinding & winding and then re-prompts me to
chose which load mode I want. If I select SM again, the buzzing starts
again. The last time I let this proceed, I got into major 'merde'. [Display
This,Turkey!]

My best guess is this has to do with having disconnected a rogue mouse
without having shut down. I didn't know any better at the time. This little
oversight caused a divot in my HD (Asus) which I was able to repair from
cab files.

I haven't tried to boot into SM using "cntrl" or F8.
I have no problem booting into Normal or Command Prompt Modes.
Scandisk (Advanced) is OK.
Defrag: current

Is there a way to check/reset USB legacy settings; or something? Or perhaps;
do I need to find an on-line HD analyser?

rooster

boundayr bay, b c

"rooster" wrote in message ...
I haven't been able to launch into Safe Mode from Startup for some weeks.
When I select it, the HD starts grinding & winding and then re-prompts me to
chose which load mode I want. If I select SM again, the buzzing starts
again. The last time I let this proceed, I got into major 'merde'. [Display
This,Turkey!]

My best guess is this has to do with having disconnected a rogue mouse
without having shut down. I didn't know any better at the time. This little
oversight caused a divot in my HD (Asus) which I was able to repair from
cab files.

I haven't tried to boot into SM using "cntrl" or F8.
I have no problem booting into Normal or Command Prompt Modes.
Scandisk (Advanced) is OK.
Defrag: current

Is there a way to check/reset USB legacy settings; or something? Or perhaps;
do I need to find an on-line HD analyser?

Check/set USB legacy settings in the BIOS. If(?) you're using a USB mouse
and your BIOS doesn't have a setting to enable USB support, you may have to
update your BIOS. If you're using a USB keyboard(?), you may have to plug in
a PS/2 keyboard temporarily, (or use a USB to PS/2 adapter) to get around in
the BIOS setup program, until you can enable the setting.

http://support.intel.com/support/per.../cs-011939.htm

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message ...
"rooster" wrote in message ...
I haven't been able to launch into Safe Mode from Startup for some weeks.
When I select it, the HD starts grinding & winding and then re-prompts me to
chose which load mode I want. If I select SM again, the buzzing starts
again. The last time I let this proceed, I got into major 'merde'. [Display
This,Turkey!]

My best guess is this has to do with having disconnected a rogue mouse
without having shut down. I didn't know any better at the time. This little
oversight caused a divot in my HD (Asus) which I was able to repair from
cab files.

I haven't tried to boot into SM using "cntrl" or F8.
I have no problem booting into Normal or Command Prompt Modes.
Scandisk (Advanced) is OK.
Defrag: current

Is there a way to check/reset USB legacy settings; or something? Or perhaps;
do I need to find an on-line HD analyser?

Check/set USB legacy settings in the BIOS. If(?) you're using a USB mouse
and your BIOS doesn't have a setting to enable USB support, you may have to
update your BIOS. If you're using a USB keyboard(?), you may have to plug in
a PS/2 keyboard temporarily, (or use a USB to PS/2 adapter) to get around in
the BIOS setup program, until you can enable the setting.

http://support.intel.com/support/per.../cs-011939.htm

"enable USB support", meaning of course ""legacy""

Hi Bill;

"Check/set USB legacy settings in the BIOS"

Everything looks fine the PS/2 Mouse function control on, "Auto".

I tried launching in Safe Mode again today. It succeeded, but not smoothly.
The HD seemed to have great difficulty making it happen and it took about 2
minutes to complete. I ran AVG (no problems) and checked all my startup
settings ... almost all of them were changed in one way or another. This has
been happening consistently for some time now.

Start Menu; changed to = large icons and "always on top"
In msconfig:
AVG Boot Scan = unchecked in autoexe.bat
Startup Items = The sequence of items changed, random deselection of some
items and selection of items not checked before. (e.g. msnmngr checked even
though I never use it, AVG_CC unchecked, PCD Realtime unchecked ... and like
that)
In Display Properties (Control Panel):
Colour Setting changed, # pixels setting changed.

When I rebooted, I selected Normal (1) Enter, but the prompt kept
reappearing with Safe Mode (3) hilighted no matter how many times I changed
it back to Normal .... accompanied by long periods of grinding and winding
and sput, sput sputtering. I eventually did a hard shut down, unplugged for
a minute and tried again. I got the mutliple prompts again exactly as
before. On the 6th or 7th attempt it did cycle into Normal and began
loading, accompanied by more impersonations of a bumble bee in a tin can by
my HD.

When I got back into Windows, my Start Settings were randomized again and I
had to load some programs from Programs in order to proceed.

This is driving me nuts. AVG says there are no viruses appearing on the Boot
Scan. Ad-Aware, Spybot are nominal. Temps, tifs, history and cookies are all
nominal. Heck; At this point, I'd even consider having the dog de-wormed if
I thought it might help; and if I had a dog.

rooster

"rooster" wrote in message ...
Everything looks fine the PS/2 Mouse function control on, "Auto".

I tried launching in Safe Mode again today. It succeeded, but not smoothly.
The HD seemed to have great difficulty making it happen and it took about 2
minutes to complete. I ran AVG (no problems) and checked all my startup
settings ... almost all of them were changed in one way or another. This has
been happening consistently for some time now.

Start Menu; changed to = large icons and "always on top"
In msconfig:
AVG Boot Scan = unchecked in autoexe.bat
Startup Items = The sequence of items changed
In Display Properties (Control Panel):
Colour Setting changed, # pixels setting changed.

When I rebooted, I selected Normal (1) Enter, but the prompt kept
reappearing with Safe Mode (3) hilighted no matter how many times I changed
it back to Normal .... accompanied by long periods of grinding and winding
and sput, sput sputtering. I eventually did a hard shut down, unplugged for
a minute and tried again. I got the mutliple prompts again exactly as
before. On the 6th or 7th attempt it did cycle into Normal and began
loading, accompanied by more impersonations of a bumble bee in a tin can by
my HD.

When I got back into Windows, my Start Settings were randomized again and I
had to load some programs from Programs in order to proceed.

Sounds more like a hardware issue rooster. Have you checked hte memory and HD?

Here's a decent free memory tester. Do a "burn-in" test and let it run for
some hours-
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/docinfo.asp

On the HD, you can find the drive manufacturer's diagnostics on their
web-sites.


This is driving me nuts. AVG says there are no viruses appearing on the Boot
Scan. Ad-Aware, Spybot are nominal.

The randomness doesn't sound like virus activity, but if you pass the hardware
tests you might want to do a "formal" virus scan from DOS.

http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/virtest.htm
http://www.claymania.com/f-prot.html

Hi Bill;

I'm going to follow your diagnostic advice viz. memory test and HD test,
provided I can locate an appropriate Asus site. It sounds like a good
maintenance tip; my current woes notwithstanding.

Just for the record, I installed the latest AVG DB UD this a.m. and the same
thing happened that occured with the previous DB UD: I lost my email
connection to my ISP as soon as I rebooted. (It goes without saying at this
point that other settings also got changed) I phoned my ISP tech dept., and
really got an earfull.

They have been getting a lot of similar complaints from AVG Free users since
January. So many, in fact, that they have adopted a policy of recommending
clients change to a different anti-virus program. The chap I spoke to was a
militant AVG supporter for years until this Winter, but even he had to
switch his personal array of home & laptop computers over to, "AntiVir", and
something else whose name I didn't quite catch. He said that the problem
seemed to involve W95, 98, 98SE users for the most part, although not
exclusively, and that the only way to fix it is to do a "double uninstall"
of AVG (whatever that means), disconnect from the internet, reset the OS
back to a date prior to the AVG 7 install, and install different av-ware. He
said he changed one of his computers running XP Pro because AVG auto-update
wasn't working on it either.

Specific to my call, he told me one of the glitches with AVG is that it
resets some personal/advanced email access port settings back to default
settings (port 25). In my case, I use anti-spamware that uses a different
port... hence on reboot = reset, I lose my access.

At present, the AVG Forum (Update Issues) seems to be experiencing technical
difficulties and hasn't been accessible for the last 5-6 hours. But, the
lack threads I've seen which would support what my ISP is telling me leaves
me baffled. A few people are posting routine problems; i.e. incompatabilies
with ZoneAlarms Firewall and the occasional faulty build install, but
nothing like what I am hearing from my cable guy. I find this very peculiar;
he recited problems being reported to him that matched mine with almost
isomorphic perfection. So, he couldn't be just making it up, nor would he
have any reason to.

So, I'm not at all sure what to make of it all. And since there don't appear
to be a lot (any?) of W98ers in this forum having these problems, I am even
more confused. The forums look like "Walden Pond", my computer and my ISP
look like Danté's "Inferno". If the problem is indeed widespread, these are
the 2 places the screaming would be loudest. Unless I am really misreading
the signals, a fair chunk of y'all are running W98, AVG, Ad-Aware, Spybot,
SWB, and either ZA or eTrust .... and you aren't affected ... so whassup
already?

rooster

"rooster" wrote in message ...
Hi Bill;

I'm going to follow your diagnostic advice viz. memory test and HD test,
provided I can locate an appropriate Asus site. It sounds like a good
maintenance tip; my current woes notwithstanding.

HDD read/write errors and memory read/write errors can manifest themselves
in any number of ways. Even if you have half a GB of memory it only takes
one bad bit to cause software flakiness. Not sure why you need to find
an appropriate Asus site. You can determine your HDD's manufacture by
either watching the POST, device manager, or popping open the case and
looking at the label on the HDD (usually). Or use something like Everest.

But do the memory check first.


Just for the record, I installed the latest AVG DB UD this a.m. and the same
thing happened that occured with the previous DB UD: I lost my email
connection to my ISP as soon as I rebooted. (It goes without saying at this
point that other settings also got changed) I phoned my ISP tech dept., and
really got an earfull.

They have been getting a lot of similar complaints from AVG Free users since
January. So many, in fact, that they have adopted a policy of recommending
clients change to a different anti-virus program.

You might try Avast. I've never used it, but it's been highly recommended.


Specific to my call, he told me one of the glitches with AVG is that it
resets some personal/advanced email access port settings back to default
settings (port 25). In my case, I use anti-spamware that uses a different
port... hence on reboot = reset, I lose my access.


So, I'm not at all sure what to make of it all. And since there don't appear
to be a lot (any?) of W98ers in this forum having these problems, I am even
more confused. The forums look like "Walden Pond", my computer and my ISP
look like Danté's "Inferno". If the problem is indeed widespread, these are
the 2 places the screaming would be loudest. Unless I am really misreading
the signals, a fair chunk of y'all are running W98, AVG, Ad-Aware, Spybot,
SWB, and either ZA or eTrust .... and you aren't affected ... so whassup
already?

Software runs on hardware. _Assuming_ you are having hardware problems, you're
never going to get all your software, including the OS, to run with no errors.
At this point it's an unknown. You're wagging the dog...