Windows Protection Error

Wait 'till you hear this one!!
I have an older home built pc running W98 from a client who said it
would only boot to safe mode. I brought it to my shop and everything
worked fine (I couldn't NOT get it to boot normally). Just for the hell
of it I cleaned his registry, ran a defrag, scandisk, virus scan,
spyware removal, etc. Took it back to his house, and it boots to a
"Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer. Press any
key to continue......". Pressing a key shuts it down, the restarting it
brings up the boot menu. It will boot into Safe Mode. I unplugged
everything except the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Same thing, Windows
Protection Error. So I brought it back to my shop and it works fine. I
thought to bring his keyboard and mouse, which work fine at my shop, I
didn't bring his monitor.
So I think I'm down to two things: his monitor or 110 v ac power at his
house.
I did a search of the forums at this site and found one other similar
situation that appeared to be a monitor issue.
Any other ideas or anything I'm missing?
Thanks.

At his house, boot to Safe Mode, & eliminate duplicate drivers in Device
Manager. There may well be a duplicate now of everything of yours,
including the monitor, that was plugged in. Following is how to do the
monitor & display adapter.

ONE THING: I personally would hate to do this for my hard drives. For
that, you'd better speak to Terhune, the Great Devastator of Drives &
Drivers.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...39&Product=w98
Troubleshooting Video Problems in Windows

"START, Run, MSConfig, Advanced button". If checked, then uncheck "VGA
640x480x16", & reboot.

"Control Panel, Display, Settings tab". Select as you wish from the
Colors dropdown menu & the Size slider. Really, you should need nothing
higher than "High Color (16 bit)", for speed/resource considerations.

If you move the Screen Area slider to 1024x768 there, be sure to click
the Advanced button, & select Large fonts.

Try to get your colors/size at least twice that way. If it continues to
fail, you may need to reinstall your Monitor or Display Adapter...

For the Monitor...
(1) Boot to Safe Mode
(Hold F5 as you boot or CTRL for the Startup Menu)
(2) "START, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager tab"
(3) Open the Monitors branch, & Remove all entries. You must remove all
of them, because there is no telling which is the "ghost".

Perhaps, FIRST, even in Normal Mode, note what is installed
similar to below for the Adapter. That is...
(a) D-Clk the monitor there for Properties, Driver tab.
(b) Click the Update Driver button, then "Next".
(c) Bolt "Display a list...", & click "Next".
(d) Bolt "Show all hardware".
Examine the two panes to see what is currently installed.
That is likely what you wish to end up with, after step (4).

(4) Boot to Normal Mode.

Hopefully, it will be rediscovered & installed. Then, if still
necessary, here is the rigmarole of the Display Adapter...

.......Quote..........
The first thing to do is to remove the video adapter you have
installed. Right-click on the desktop; choose "Properties" from the
drop-down menu; select "Settings;" click on the "Advanced" button; and
click on "Adapter". An adapter is a program that tells Windows how to
deal with a specific video card. Make note of the adapter that is
currently installed. Then, change the adapter to "Standard Display
Adapter (VGA)" and restart the system.

[That is: Click "Change, Next, bolt 'Display a List...', Next, bolt
'Show all hardware', scroll left pane to top, select '(Standard display
types)', select 'Standard Display Adapter (VGA)' in right pane, click
'Next'"... PCR]

This will remove the current adapter and replace it with a generic VGA
adapter that works with all video cards. You will not like VGA because
it supports only 16 colors, but the purpose of installing it is to get
rid of whatever was there before.

Next, return to the adapter screen and install an adapter that matches
your video card. This may or may not be the adapter that you are
using now. Examine the materials you received with your computer to
see if they include a CD-ROM or floppy disk that contains the correct
video adapter. Or go to the Gateway website and see if they have an
adapter for you to download. Or check the website of the company that
made your video card.

Bill Starbuck (MVP)
.......End....of quote....


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"depawl" wrote in message
...
| Wait 'till you hear this one!!
| I have an older home built pc running W98 from a client who said it
| would only boot to safe mode. I brought it to my shop and everything
| worked fine (I couldn't NOT get it to boot normally). Just for the
hell
| of it I cleaned his registry, ran a defrag, scandisk, virus scan,
| spyware removal, etc. Took it back to his house, and it boots to a
| "Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer. Press
any
| key to continue......". Pressing a key shuts it down, the restarting
it
| brings up the boot menu. It will boot into Safe Mode. I unplugged
| everything except the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Same thing,
Windows
| Protection Error. So I brought it back to my shop and it works fine. I
| thought to bring his keyboard and mouse, which work fine at my shop, I
| didn't bring his monitor.
| So I think I'm down to two things: his monitor or 110 v ac power at
his
| house.
| I did a search of the forums at this site and found one other similar
| situation that appeared to be a monitor issue.
| Any other ideas or anything I'm missing?
| Thanks.