Many thanks to all those who replied to my earlier posting with suggestions and commiserations! It's comforting to know that others have had identical problems with umpteen aborted attempts at loading Win98.
I've tried the step-by-step procedure with autoexec.bat and config.sys (no apparent problems), I've tried safe mode (unsuccessful), bootlog (unsuccessful), command prompt (ALWAYS successful as far as the actual c: prompt but after I type "win", still no windows loading). There is always a black screen with a flashing cursor, but no disk activity - nothing. The same thing happens if I need to do a "soft boot" or restart after software install or crash. Just a black screen and not even ctrl.alt.del will work. Then suddenly out of the blue, for no apparent reason, the system will continue to load successfully, and once loaded causes no further problems until a crash or some such occurs. On earlier occasions when I have selected "bootlog", the log often showed that everything hung during the loading of fonts. Yesterday, I logged four successive aborted attempts all within half an hour; the bootlog in each case showed the following results, stopping at the same file: "IOS.vxd". I wonder if this is significant. [0009973C] Loading Device = C:\ESSOLO.SYS (Logo disabled) [0009973F] LoadFailed = C:\ESSOLO.SYS [0009973F] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS [00099740] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS [00099740] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE [0009974B] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE [0009974B] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS [0009974E] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS [0009974E] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ANSI.SYS [00099750] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ANSI.SYS [00099750] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE [00099752] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE [00099752] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DISPLAY.SYS [00099753] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DISPLAY.SYS [00099754] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE [00099755] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE [00099756] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DRVSPACE.SYS [00099757] LoadFailed = C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DRVSPACE.SYS [00099757] Loading Device = C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS [00099758] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS [0009975E] c:\windows\command\DOSKEY.COM[0009975E] starting [00099760] c:\windows\SMARTDRV.EXE[00099760] starting [00099763] C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE.COM[00099763] starting [00099766] C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE.COM[00099766] starting [00099767] C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\KEYB.COM[00099767] starting [00099850] Loading Vxd = VMM [00099851] LoadSuccess = VMM [00099851] Loading Vxd = c:\windows\SMARTDRV.EXE [00099852] LoadSuccess = c:\windows\SMARTDRV.EXE [00099852] Loading Vxd = vnetsup.vxd [00099852] LoadSuccess = vnetsup.vxd [00099852] Loading Vxd = ndis.vxd [00099854] LoadSuccess = ndis.vxd [00099854] Loading Vxd = ndis2sup.vxd [00099854] LoadFailed = ndis2sup.vxd [00099854] Loading Vxd = JAVASUP.VXD [00099854] LoadSuccess = JAVASUP.VXD [00099855] Loading Vxd = CONFIGMG [00099855] LoadSuccess = CONFIGMG [00099855] Loading Vxd = NTKERN [00099855] LoadSuccess = NTKERN [00099855] Loading Vxd = VWIN32 [00099856] LoadSuccess = VWIN32 [00099856] Loading Vxd = VFBACKUP [00099856] LoadSuccess = VFBACKUP [00099856] Loading Vxd = VCOMM [00099856] LoadSuccess = VCOMM [00099856] Loading Vxd = COMBUFF [00099856] LoadSuccess = COMBUFF [00099856] Loading Vxd = C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IFSMGR.VXD [00099858] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IFSMGR.VXD [00099858] Loading Vxd = C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IOS.VXD Does anyone know what this IOS.VXD is (obviously some kind of driver?) and why it should cause loading to hang at this point? As soon as I can, I intend to swap the hard drive in this machine with another known good Win98 drive containing almost identical programs and drivers to see if the problem persists. Any further comments about the above bootlog text and VXD file will be more than welcome. Thanks! Virginia Virginia Da Costa - Thatched Cottage - Kent - UK [EMAIL PROTECTED] ** [EMAIL PROTECTED] Net-Tamer V 1.09.2 - Test Drive ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
