Windows 98 startup problem

Post #27,090 by admin 2/3/02 4:05:58 PM Reply	Windows 98 startup problem My parents have something that wants to run when the computer boots (in a runonce key, judging from the error message) that GPFs, completely fubaring the machine and preventing them from getting into Windows 98. Any ideas on how to get the machine to boot without running the runonce stuff, so that I can talk them through deleting it out of the registry? Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #27,093 by andread 2/3/02 4:20:45 PM Reply	Re: Windows 98 startup problem Can they get into safe mode? Can they boot from a 98 startup disk? A Play I Some Music w/ Papa Andy Saturday 8 PM - 11 PM ET All Night Rewind 11 PM - 5 PM Reggae, African and Caribbean Music [link\|http://wxxe.org\|http://wxxe.org]
Post #27,097 by bepatient 2/3/02 4:55:30 PM Reply	Boot into safe mode (hold f8 b4 splash) then either edit the registry (hard way) Or start>run>msconfig then toggle off anything that doesn't look necessary and start again. Also...theres and option to allow you to confirm each step of the boot...but sometimes the runonce or startup crap slips through that. You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! _{Laurie Anderson} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]
Post #27,099 by admin 2/3/02 5:23:23 PM Reply	Safe mode crashes too. Same error, something to do with a runonce and mobsysb.exe Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #27,101 by Meerkat 2/3/02 6:25:08 PM Reply	Ew. Can you temp. replace mobsys.exe with something benign? On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #27,145 by bepatient 2/4/02 4:42:38 AM Reply	Try getting to CL with f8 boot... ...and rename then delete this mobsysb.exe...which is not a system file that I'm aware of. See if that gets you in so that you can trace where that came from and run msconfig and/or regedit to keep it from running at startup. You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! _{Laurie Anderson} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]
Post #27,163 by admin 2/4/02 9:56:39 AM Reply	That's the plan of attack. I just hate doing this stuff over the phone. :-) Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #27,108 by nking 2/3/02 8:18:42 PM Reply	Windows 98 Trickery Did you try booting into Windows 98 Command Prompt Safe Mode? Boot into the command prompt safe mode, and run scanreg.exe or rename the system.da0 as system.dat (this should restore to a local backup) make sure that you do this: cd c:\\windows\\ attrib -s -r -h system.dat copy system.dat system.bad copy system.da0 system.dat attrib +s +r +h system.dat But run scanreg.exe first to see if it can fix the registry. This should back up to the previous registry, your current one will be renamed as system.bad if you want to inspect it later. You can always copy it back later. Also sometimes if "shift" is held down while booting, it bypasses the default settings. "Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
Post #27,137 by pwhysall 2/4/02 2:35:21 AM Reply	The Shift Thing In my experience what that does is bypass running the stuff in the startup folder - registry-based thingies still run. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #27,161 by admin 2/4/02 9:53:50 AM Reply	Confirmed. :-p Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #27,316 by nking 2/4/02 10:30:45 PM Reply	MSCONFIG Too bad there isn't a DOS version of MSCONFIG.EXE that will let you debug what gets run when Windows starts up? "Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
Post #27,136 by pwhysall 2/4/02 2:32:27 AM 2/4/02 2:34:45 AM Reply	Re: Windows 98 startup problem Boot into safe mode (whack F8 when the computer starts to get the menu), jump into regedit, and delete the offending key. Alternatively, if you've got a filename, just rename or delete the offending file. Third way involves a set of Red Hat CDs and fdisk, but I guess you don't wanna go there just yet :) Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] Edited by pwhysall Feb. 4, 2002, 02:34:45 AM EST Expand All History
Post #27,138 by pwhysall 2/4/02 2:36:28 AM Reply	And Anyway WTF are you doing letting your parents run Windows 98, anyway? Don't you WANT in on the will or something? ;) Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #27,162 by admin 2/4/02 9:54:57 AM Reply	Needed the USB Couldn't find my later 95 disks, didn't want to give them WinME, and they don't have the machine for Win2K. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #27,234 by andread 2/4/02 3:16:51 PM Reply	Re: Needed the USB If you can boot from the Windows 98 startup floppy (or another boot disk) then you should be able to search the hard drive(s) for the offending file and delete it (there are ways to edit registry from DOS but I don't know them) I don't don't know what (if any) AV they're using but this might be the time for an AV boot disk A Play I Some Music w/ Papa Andy Saturday 8 PM - 11 PM ET All Night Rewind 11 PM - 5 PM Reggae, African and Caribbean Music [link\|http://wxxe.org\|http://wxxe.org]
Post #27,458 by folkert 2/5/02 10:27:14 PM Reply	Re: Windows 98 startup problem Look for a file called: `wininit.ini` Should be in "c:\\windows" If it is there, rename it. If that takes care of it, then find out what was in there. IF it appears to be important, keep it handy. If the machine works as required, then MAYBE it was a "cleanup" effort from a program that never finished installing. As we all know Windows like to not allow you to delete things while loaded into memory.(NIX doesn't have that issue if you be root...) Good luck... `greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!` In 2002, everyone will discover that everyone else is using linux. * Linux: Good, fast AND cheap. Failure is not an option: It comes bundled with Windows. "Two rules to success in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know." - Sassan Tat
Post #27,505 by admin 2/6/02 11:17:11 AM Reply	Tried that, wasn't it. I renamed the file that was dying (MOBSYNB.EXE), but that didn't work either, so I told them to take it into a tech. There's only so much Windows debugging I can do over a phone. :-) Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #27,584 by nking 2/6/02 9:16:44 PM Reply	Let someone else deal with it I did a search on MOBSYNB.EXE and I am not sure what it is? Nobody has ever heard of it before. I hope it isn't some sort of virus or something? Maybe one that does SYN attacks? [link\|http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q188867\|Microsoft's KB on Windows 98 not starting] lists that it could be a virus, but I doubt it in this case. Most likely just a bad EXE file? Only other thing that I can think of is to create a .REG file that deletes the RUN entries and place it into winstart.bat or whatever gets run before RUN statements. Maybe it will edit the registry and take out the bad entries? Or find a way to rename the RUN as "RUN-" or "RUN--" so it ignores it? "Will code Visual BASIC for cash."*
Post #27,508 by ChrisR 2/6/02 12:07:29 PM Reply	Registry entries I usually just export the registry to a text file and use a decent text editor to search for whatever I'm looking for. You might try: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\RunOnce

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