Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

98SE Won't Boot

Mar 6, 2004 1:00AM PST

While trying to boot I get ATAPI CD-Rom not found then "error loading GDI.exe" then computer shuts down. Have tried ?bootdisk.com? and ?allbootdisks.com? with and without Win98SE in CD-Rom drawer with no success. Bios settings have been A:>CD-Rom>C: and CD-Rom>A:>C: with no success. Boot disks mentioned no high memory file found, and will use low memory. Also while booting: ?Non system disk ? Replace the disk and press any key when ready." Also this error message while booting without the boot disk "device driver not found: CDI. No valid CD-Rom device drivers selected, run time error 200 at 0950:0091." All of this started after deleting the Windows font folder. Because neither the CDRom or floppy drives are accessible what do I do?
Thanks,

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:98SE Won't Boot
Mar 6, 2004 1:12AM PST

While restarting the computer, press F8. Choose Command Prompt. At the C;> prompt, type in "cd Windows", without the quotes. Then type in "Command". You should have a command line that looks like this>>>
C:\Windows\Command>

Now type in scanreg/restore and choose a time prior to the onset of the problem.

- Collapse -
Re:Re:98SE Won't Boot
Mar 6, 2004 2:07AM PST

Michael,
Followed your instructions. After restoring the next window stated these three items: Can't find a device file to run Windows applications. Windows registry or system.ini refers to this device. Try reinstalling PTUDF.VXD. I hit enter and next window displayed "error loading GDI.EXE."

- Collapse -
Re:98SE Won't Boot
Mar 6, 2004 4:29AM PST

PTUDF.VXD seems related to a cd-burner. Let's dismiss it for the moment.

GDI.EXE is the 'graphical device interface' (for the monitor). It's likely the program will give a fatal error (such as 'load error') if it can't find any font, because some smart person thought it a good idea to delete the font folder.

So better face the consequences of what you did, and go about to format the hard disk and reinstall Windows ,if you can't restore the font folder from a backup. I hope you regularly did a backup of all data you don't want to lose. It really takes a lot of time to copy everything to a second computer via diskettes Wink.

Which brings us to the boot diskette. Whatever the state of the system (especially hard disk and cd-rom) is, you should be able to boot from a boot diskette, provided mobo and memory and floppy drive are working. Try it with the diskette you can make with software from www.memtest86.com.
If the hard disk functions and has a file system on it (check with fdisk), you should be able to access it with dir c: or chkdsk c: or even simply c:

A boot diskette with CD support has generic drivers for the most common CD-drives. If you have a special one, it no doubt came with it's own DOS-driver, which you have to put on the diskette yourself (possibly changing config.sys and autoexec.bat also). Try locating bootdisk.bat on your hard disk (from MS-DOS)and run it to make the original bootdiskette for your machine.

If the system can boot from CD, try two tools recommended by Bob Proffitt, the Knoppix CD or the Ultimate Boot cd (or a bootable Windows XP CD). Booting from a CD requires no DOS and no Windows, only a good BIOS and functioning hardware. I suppose you don't have the original restore CD?

Hope this helps you to get out of the mess.

Kees

- Collapse -
Re:Re:98SE Won't Boot
Mar 6, 2004 5:09AM PST

Hello Kees,

Well i'm the culprit who did the unthinkable and removed the font files. Actually i was trying to install Print Shop 12 and couldn't due to a locked font file so guess what happened. Good lesson learned. And yes i do have the recovery disk and can access fdisk and know what to do from there. I do thank you so much for your insight and taking the time to help. You have been the most knowledgeable tech i have spoken with.

I have another issue on my own computer, the font problem was my lady's friend. If you have time i would appreciate it, if not i understand.

Anytime i try using "send to" i get an Outlook box titled "Choose Profile" that blocks all options to send, such as to mail recipient. I have removed this from mail in control panel and also reinstalled and removed Office 97 without solving the issue. I am running XP Pro. Maybe a cure in the registry?

Thanks,
Mike

- Collapse -
Three points.
Mar 6, 2004 6:30AM PST

1. Thanks for your reaction. Very kindly spoken.

2. Hope the lady is still your friend after your treatment of her computer. People have been killed for less Happy

3. I know the Choose Profile box pops up when opening a mail session in VBA in MS Access (with some MAPI-interface), but then I just click on the proposed 'Microsoft Outlook' profile (the only choice) and then my VBA-routine happily loopes through a whole recordset to put a personalised mail in Outlook's outbox for e-mail address it encounteres. But it didn't frustrate anything, and I didn't really find it unreasonable either. Your problem seems to be very different, although it's the same box.

I'm sure that if you pose your question on either the MS Office forum or the Win XP forum (we've got both) Bob Proffitt will answer that Office 97 is not supposed to run under Windows XP. So upgrade (from Office 97) or downgrade (from Windows XP), and you'll get it working. I can just as well answer it here, I think.


Kees

- Collapse -
Re:Three points.
Mar 6, 2004 7:09AM PST

Kees,
What i would like to do at this time is remove the profile box so i can access the send to feature. I have no practical use for Office. I use only Word and load it separately from another disk. Your assistance would be appreciated again if you care to take on the task, otherwise i will visit the other department as you suggested.
Thanks +++ Mike

- Collapse -
Work around the issue.
Mar 6, 2004 7:35PM PST

Mike,

Save the file from Word, open your e-mail program, and send the saved file as attachment.

Regarding the Windows 98 problem: did you try to copy all fonts from your XP machine to diskette, then (using MS-DOS) from diskette to the fonts-folder of Windows 98? Reboot and see what happens. It's riskless and might very well help.

Kees

- Collapse -
Addition.
Mar 6, 2004 4:39AM PST

Sorry, previous post was full.

You can still boot in MS-DOS. Than you should be able to edit config.sys and autoexec.bat to call the MS-DOS CD-driver that came with your CD-drive or system. Make sure it works, so you can access the Windows 98 CD.

Then time for the big step (MS-DOS knowledge required). Make a new font folder in Windows, and extract all fonts into it from the Windows CD. Scanreg /restore to the latest day everything worked, cross your fingers, and boot into Windows.

If this doesn't work, time for an even greater step, if you can't get a working boot diskette. Make sure you can still access the CD, and that neither config.sys and autoexec.bat reference anything in the Windows folder (command.com should be in the root folder). Then deltree c:\windows, and run setup from the Windows 98 CD to reinstall Windows.

Afterwards, install motherboard drivers, device drivers and go to Windowsupdate for security patches.

Hope this helps.


Kees