Win 98 Bootup Problem

Jeff Richards wrote:
> I think in this context it refers to what computer technicians would
> know as a certain presence or power in the ether that is typically
> controlled by holding your mouth in the right shape while pressing a
> button or waiting for something to happen (or not happen, as the case
> may be.)

I liked that response!!
Buffalo

Scott wrote:
> My Win98 desktop has had a problem booting up twice recently. After
> recognizing
> the CD ROM, it starts displaying lines and lines of drivers, plus
> MSD, MSD MSD
> MSD, etc. After shutting it down a few times, it reboots normally.
>
> Is this a registry problem?
>
> Other than entering "scanrag /restore" the next time this happens, is
> there something I can do to prevent this from happening again?

After Lee asked about it & before Richards made his post, I did a search
& found...
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/training/standard/standard.htm#Easy
Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Handbook
By Rose Nelson
Last Updated 1/31/99

...............Quote..................
Running Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) Windows 3.x or DOS machines only

This is a utility program that gives you information about the type of
computer you have. MSD provides information on RAM, hard drive space,
operating system, version of DOS, peripherals and much more. MSD is
shipped with certain DOS versions and Windows 3.1. If you are upgrading
your computer or troubleshooting problems, MSD is a helpful tool.

1. From Windows drop to an MS DOS prompt or from
DOS simply type MSD at the "C" prompt.
C:>MSD (lowercase or uppercase)
2. Press the enter key and this will launch MSD.

A message will appear that MSD is examining your system resources. You
will then see a screen with a listing of computer components you can
select and examine. Simply follow the commands at the bottom of the MSD
screen to view details of the individual components such as operating
system, video, disk drives, etc...
.................EOQ....................

I don't have any such thing in Win98SE. Does that sound like what you've
got? It may not be as useful now that you've upgraded to Win98.

"START button, Run, SysEdit", & post your Config.sys & Autoexec.bat
files so that we may remove MSD from your boot. After that, to examine
your stuff, use "START button, Run, MSInfo32".

> Thanks!
> Scott

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp.RemoveThis@netzero.net

PCR wrote:
> Scott wrote:
>> My Win98 desktop has had a problem booting up twice recently. After
>> recognizing
>> the CD ROM, it starts displaying lines and lines of drivers, plus
>> MSD, MSD MSD
>> MSD, etc. After shutting it down a few times, it reboots normally.
>>
>> Is this a registry problem?
>>
>> Other than entering "scanrag /restore" the next time this happens, is
>> there something I can do to prevent this from happening again?
>
> After Lee asked about it & before Richards made his post, I did a search
> & found...
> http://skyways.lib.ks.us/training/standard/standard.htm#Easy
> Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Handbook
> By Rose Nelson
> Last Updated 1/31/99
>
> ..............Quote..................
> Running Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) Windows 3.x or DOS machines only
>
> This is a utility program that gives you information about the type of
> computer you have. MSD provides information on RAM, hard drive space,
> operating system, version of DOS, peripherals and much more. MSD is
> shipped with certain DOS versions and Windows 3.1. If you are upgrading
> your computer or troubleshooting problems, MSD is a helpful tool.
>
> 1. From Windows drop to an MS DOS prompt or from
> DOS simply type MSD at the "C" prompt.
> C:>MSD (lowercase or uppercase)
> 2. Press the enter key and this will launch MSD.
>
> A message will appear that MSD is examining your system resources. You
> will then see a screen with a listing of computer components you can
> select and examine. Simply follow the commands at the bottom of the MSD
> screen to view details of the individual components such as operating
> system, video, disk drives, etc...
> ................EOQ....................
>
> I don't have any such thing in Win98SE. Does that sound like what you've
> got? It may not be as useful now that you've upgraded to Win98.
>
> "START button, Run, SysEdit", & post your Config.sys & Autoexec.bat
> files so that we may remove MSD from your boot. After that, to examine
> your stuff, use "START button, Run, MSInfo32".
>
>> Thanks!
>> Scott
>

yes I sure recall MSD from those win3x machines I've worked on
but it's not part of Win98

the OP never did answer Jeff's question as to whether or not he had a cd
in the drive or anything else.

who knows maybe he has a win3x boot disk in there ???

MSD was a Windows 3.1 utility. Machines upgraded from 3.1 to W95 and then to
W98 would almost certainly have MSD. Any W95 machine where someone once had
to do some diagnostic work would probably have it, and it might or might not
exist on a W98 machine that was originally a fresh install. It depends on
the history of that particular installation. Microsoft System Information
contains much of the same information, but is much more complex, and not a
lot more helpful when chasing down basic machine details.

I would be fairly sure, as per your guess, that the reason that MSD is being
displayed is that the DOS command to start MSD is being invoked from a
startup script that is designed to execute MSD when the startup fails for
some reason, either because the wrong startup is being executed, or because
some test procedure in the startup failed, and that MSD does not exist on
that machine. Then the script loops. This sort of startup scripting used
to be common, but is less so now. It was typical for business
installations, where the end user would ring up tech support and instead of
just saying "my machine won't boot!" they would be able to describe a screen
that already showed all the information that the technician needed to start
working on the problem.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Jerry Martin" <abc.RemoveThis@zoominternet.net> wrote in message
news:e9izSPVFKHA.1248@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hi Jeff:
>
> I was looking up MSD (Microsoft Diagnostics) in the Wikipedia, out of
> curiosity. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Diagnostics .)
> There it seems to say that MSD was replaced with the "Microsoft System
> Information" utility beginning in Win 95 . Is that correct? And could that
> account for the Win 98 system not finding it?
>
> (Note that my questions are coming out of ignorance and may seem a bit
> naive.)
>
> Thanks,
> Jerry
>
>
> "Jeff Richards" <JRichards.RemoveThis@msn.com.au> wrote in message
> news:uDU%23uHVFKHA.1252@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> MSD is a Microsoft utility used to examine the PC hardware arrangement
>> and Windows setup. It is fairly primitive compared to newer
>> investigative tools (and simply ignores some hardware, such as USB), but
>> is adequate for some preliminary troubleshooting steps.
>>
>> Any W98 installation that is something like original will probably have
>> MSD installed, especially if it was upgraded from W95.
>>
>
>

Hi Jeff:

Thanks for the clarification.

Cheers,
Jerry

"Jeff Richards" <JRichards.DeleteThis@msn.com.au> wrote in message
news:%23dkKnwVFKHA.4432@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> MSD was a Windows 3.1 utility. Machines upgraded from 3.1 to W95 and then
> to W98 would almost certainly have MSD. Any W95 machine where someone
> once had to do some diagnostic work would probably have it, and it might
> or might not exist on a W98 machine that was originally a fresh install.
> It depends on the history of that particular installation. Microsoft
> System Information contains much of the same information, but is much more
> complex, and not a lot more helpful when chasing down basic machine
> details.
>
> I would be fairly sure, as per your guess, that the reason that MSD is
> being displayed is that the DOS command to start MSD is being invoked from
> a startup script that is designed to execute MSD when the startup fails
> for some reason, either because the wrong startup is being executed, or
> because some test procedure in the startup failed, and that MSD does not
> exist on that machine. Then the script loops. This sort of startup
> scripting used to be common, but is less so now. It was typical for
> business installations, where the end user would ring up tech support and
> instead of just saying "my machine won't boot!" they would be able to
> describe a screen that already showed all the information that the
> technician needed to start working on the problem.
> --
> Jeff Richards
> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
> "Jerry Martin" <abc.DeleteThis@zoominternet.net> wrote in message
> news:e9izSPVFKHA.1248@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Hi Jeff:
>>
>> I was looking up MSD (Microsoft Diagnostics) in the Wikipedia, out of
>> curiosity. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Diagnostics .)
>> There it seems to say that MSD was replaced with the "Microsoft System
>> Information" utility beginning in Win 95 . Is that correct? And could
>> that account for the Win 98 system not finding it?
>>
>> (Note that my questions are coming out of ignorance and may seem a bit
>> naive.)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jerry
>>
>>
>> "Jeff Richards" <JRichards.DeleteThis@msn.com.au> wrote in message
>> news:uDU%23uHVFKHA.1252@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> MSD is a Microsoft utility used to examine the PC hardware arrangement
>>> and Windows setup. It is fairly primitive compared to newer
>>> investigative tools (and simply ignores some hardware, such as USB), but
>>> is adequate for some preliminary troubleshooting steps.
>>>
>>> Any W98 installation that is something like original will probably have
>>> MSD installed, especially if it was upgraded from W95.
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

philo wrote:
> PCR wrote:
>> Scott wrote:
>>> My Win98 desktop has had a problem booting up twice recently. After
>>> recognizing
>>> the CD ROM, it starts displaying lines and lines of drivers, plus
>>> MSD, MSD MSD
>>> MSD, etc. After shutting it down a few times, it reboots normally.
>>>
>>> Is this a registry problem?
>>>
>>> Other than entering "scanrag /restore" the next time this happens,
>>> is there something I can do to prevent this from happening again?
>>
>> After Lee asked about it & before Richards made his post, I did a
>> search & found...
>> http://skyways.lib.ks.us/training/standard/standard.htm#Easy
>> Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Handbook
>> By Rose Nelson
>> Last Updated 1/31/99
>>
>> ..............Quote..................
>> Running Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) Windows 3.x or DOS machines only
>>
>> This is a utility program that gives you information about the type
>> of computer you have. MSD provides information on RAM, hard drive
>> space, operating system, version of DOS, peripherals and much more.
>> MSD is shipped with certain DOS versions and Windows 3.1. If you
>> are upgrading your computer or troubleshooting problems, MSD is a
>> helpful tool.
>>
>> 1. From Windows drop to an MS DOS prompt or from
>> DOS simply type MSD at the "C" prompt.
>> C:>MSD (lowercase or uppercase)
>> 2. Press the enter key and this will launch MSD.
>>
>> A message will appear that MSD is examining your system resources.
>> You will then see a screen with a listing of computer components you
>> can select and examine. Simply follow the commands at the bottom of
>> the MSD screen to view details of the individual components such as
>> operating system, video, disk drives, etc...
>> ................EOQ....................
>>
>> I don't have any such thing in Win98SE. Does that sound like what
>> you've got? It may not be as useful now that you've upgraded to
>> Win98.
>>
>> "START button, Run, SysEdit", & post your Config.sys & Autoexec.bat
>> files so that we may remove MSD from your boot. After that, to
>> examine your stuff, use "START button, Run, MSInfo32".
>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Scott
>>
>
> yes I sure recall MSD from those win3x machines I've worked on
> but it's not part of Win98
>
> the OP never did answer Jeff's question as to whether or not he had a
> cd in the drive or anything else.
>
> who knows maybe he has a win3x boot disk in there ???

That's right, more feedback needs to trickle in. He did say he ran the
Western Digital Tool & Scandisk & both were OK. It could be he's got
complex startup files as Richards suspects that bears examination as PA
Bear might suspect.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp.DeleteThis@netzero.net