Member Avatar for kimberlyfaye

Had a e-machine brought to me, was told it was garbage. Installed a floppy drive, booted to 98 startup disk, fdisk(fat 32), formatted drive and started with win 95. ran setup, said it was rebooting , then it hung during "starting windows for first time", Sigh, so I finally found a 98 setup disk, reformatted, clean install, and it too hangs after rebooting to start windows for first time. I'm stumped. Please if anyone could help.

AMD Sempron™ 3100+ processor
(1.8GHz, 1600MHz system bus, 256KB L2 cache)
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home (SP2)

Chipset: NVIDIA® GeForce® 6100
Memory: 512MB DDR (1 × 512MB), 400MHz (PC3200)
Expandable to 2GB
Hard Drive: 100GB (7200rpm, 2MB cache)
Optical Drive: 48x CD-RW/DVD combo drive
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® 6100 GPU
Up to 128MB of shared video memory
PCI Express (PCIe x16) slot available
Sound: 6-channel (5.1) AC'97 audio
Network: 10/100Mbps integrated Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
Modem: 56K ITU V.92-ready fax/modem (RJ-11 port)
Peripherals: Standard multifunction keyboard, 2-button wheel mouse, amplified stereo speakers
Ports/Other: 6 USB 2.0 (2 in front, 4 in back), VGA external connector, serial port, parallel port, 2 PS/2 ports (keyboard and mouse), 5 audio ports (2 in front, 3 in back)
Dimensions: 14.25" H x 7.25" W x 16" D
Weight: 22.5 lbs

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by sittas87

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Brief, practical diagnosis and next steps that build on and : when a clean Win98 install finishes, reboots, then stalls at the black "Starting Windows" banner, the problem is usually BIOS/driver incompatibility on newer motherboards (SATA/AHCI, ACPI/PnP, or an unexpected device driver). The fastest check is to put the SATA controller into IDE/Legacy (or Compatibility) mode and disable nonessential onboard peripherals in the BIOS, then retry the install. If the board has no legacy mode, a different controller (PCI SATA card with its own option-ROM) or driver injection is usually required. (rmprepusb.com)

Video and chipset notes (expands ): GeForce 6–era GPUs do have legacy Win9x ForceWare drivers (e.g. the 81.98 Win9x builds), so the display adapter can often be handled after the base install — but chipset/IDE/SATA drivers or PnP/ACPI detection are the usual blockers that prevent Windows from ever getting to the point of letting those drivers install. If setup completes but normal boot fails, boot the Windows 98 startup menu (hold CTRL after POST or press F8) and select a Logged/Safe mode boot; examine C:\bootlog.txt for any LoadFail lines to identify the offending VxD/driver. Also consider the classic Win9x memory caveats (MaxFileCache/MaxPhysPage) if RAM is unusually large. (nvidia.com)

A concise troubleshooting checklist:

  1. Set SATA to IDE/Legacy (not AHCI) in BIOS and disable unused onboard audio/LAN/modem.
  2. Remove extra PCI/PCIe cards and USB devices while installing.
  3. If setup still hangs, boot the Startup menu → Logged to get bootlog.txt and identify LoadFail entries.
  4. After a successful base install, install chipset and then the appropriate ForceWare Win9x driver if needed.
  5. If no BIOS legacy mode exists, either use a PCI SATA adapter with its own BIOS or perform driver injection/slipstream methods for Win98.
    If none of the above works, installing XP on that hardware (as @sittas87 suggested) or using a VM for legacy apps is often the pragmatic alternative. (manualzilla.com)

Useful quick commands/tweaks (apply from Safe Mode or a recovery prompt):

setup /p i

Add to SYSTEM.INI (if RAM-related boot hangs occur):

[386Enh]
MaxPhysPage=40000

[Vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288

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Member Avatar for sparkax

I'm not sure that GeForce 6 series video cards are compatible with win98.
you may have to downgrade your card to set up on Win98.
However, your system info says that the os is XP ?

Member Avatar for kalam88

formatted drive and started with win 95. ran setup, said it was rebooting , then it hung during "starting windows for first time", Sigh, so I finally found a 98 setup disk, reformatted, clean install, and it too hangs after rebooting to start windows for first time. I'm stumped. Please if anyone could help.

Member Avatar for sparkax

This is the classic sign of a hardware conflict.
For instance -if you have a graphics card installed in a pci slot, and the onboard graphics is not disabled , then a conflict can occur.
The same could apply to a sound card.
In such a case disable onboard controllers by jumper or through the CMOS setup.

Member Avatar for sittas87

Hi
Thi machine is compatible to run XP. Try installing XP. Due to HW these conflicts might happen.
Cheers
sittas

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