Safe Mode is a troubleshooting tool for Windows, much like the command line switches were for Windows 3.X. Safe Mode allows access into Windows using only the most basic drivers.
In Safe mode Autoexec.bat and Config.sys are not loaded.
The main portion of the Registry is not loaded.
In Win.ini, the "load=" and "run=" lines are not loaded.
In System.ini, the [Boot] and [386Enh] sections are not loaded.
Four ways to get into Safe Mode.
Option 1. - To start Windows 9X / ME in Safe mode using the F8 key:
1. Choose Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer.
2. When you see the message, "Starting Windows. . . ," press the F8 key. (this comes immediately before the Windows startup screen.)
3. Choose Safe Mode from the Windows startup menu. (Do not select Safe Mode with Network Support.)
4. Click OK in the Desktop dialog box that indicates Windows is running in Safe Mode.
If "Safe Mode" does not appear in each corner of the Desktop, repeat steps 1 through 3.
Option 2. - Go to the Start button > Shut Down > Restart in MS-DOS mode. Once in DOS, at the command prompt, type "win /d:m" without the quotes, but with the space after "win". This will automatically load Windows in Safe Mode.
Option 3. - Go to Start > Run > type MSCONFIG > click OK. On the General tab click the Advanced button. Put a check beside 'Enable Startup Menu' and click OK close all boxes. Restart your computer. You will be on the Startup Menu select 'Safe Mode' from the options. Uncheck the box you checked in MSCONFIG later, so that your computer doesn't always begin with the Startup Menu.
Option 4. - To start Windows 98 in Safe mode using the Ctrl key:
1. Press the Ctrl key and choose Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer.
2. Release the Ctrl key when you see the Desktop dialog box that indicates Windows 98 is running in Safe Mode.
If you can get into Safe Mode, the first thing to do is to check Device Manager (Control Panel / System / Device Manager) for any hardware devices that may be conflicting (for help in this area, check out the Device Manager page). If there are conflicts, you may have to change some IRQ's, DMA's or something to get your system working properly. Check out the section on Hardware for more. If you don't see any conflicts, your problem is probably software, and the three steps below may help.
OPTIONS
Safe Mode is the best troubleshooting tool Windows has, but Safe Mode doesn't tell you exactly where the problem is. Some common things to do if Safe Mode works are: Turn hardware acceleration (Control Panel / System / Performance / Graphics) down to none; turn read-ahead (Control Panel / System / Performance / File System) down to none; and change the video driver to a standard VGA (Control Panel / Display / Settings / Change Display Type). Restart your computer, booting to normal mode, each time you change something. If none of these options work, try the three steps below.
DO STEP BY STEP CONFIRMATIONS
When restarting the computer and hitting the F8 key, there are many options to choose from. One option is a Step By Step Confirmation. This option will ask you to confirm every command that loads when Windows loads. These three different steps will help to narrow down where the problem may lie.
Step A
Step A loads everything but Windows drivers. To accomplish this, choose the Step By Step confirmation from the Startup Menu. Say yes to every line except the line that asks whether you want to load "all windows drivers". This will boot you into a hybrid version of Safe Mode. This version does not load the run= and load= lines in the win.ini, and does not load the [boot] and the [386Enh] sections of the system.ini. If the system boots (into safe mode), using this option, you know that the problem is in one of these two areas. If Step A doesn't work, go to Step B. If it the system hangs, or doesn't let you into Safe Mode (there is a good chance that you will get errors, but try to go beyond them), try these two things:
Rename win.ini. Win.ini is located in the root\Windows directory (Unless you have installed windows into a different directory). Go to DOS prompt ,and go to your windows directory and type ren win.ini win.xxx. When you restart your computer, Windows will notice that win.ini is missing and will create a new one. If your system boots normally, you know the problem was in there. If it doesn't boot normally, Rename system.ini. System.ini should be in the same directory win.ini was in. Go to DOS Prompt and type ren system.ini system.xxx. Then type copy system.cb system.ini. System.cb literally means system.cleanboot. This is the file that loads in Safe Mode.
Step B
Restart your computer and go to the Startup Menu again. Choose Step By Step Confirmation, and say no to loading the autoexec.bat and config.sys . Say yes to everything else. Step B does not load the autoexec.bat or config.sys (real mode drivers). If the system boots, search the autoexec.bat and config.sys for problem lines, or even lines you don't recognize. If it doesn't boot, go to Step C. Quite often, there are lines like virus detection, caches for Cyrix chips, and other junk loading in the autoexec.bat or config.sys. Removing these lines out usually doesn't hurt, but you might want to make a copy of these two files before you play with them.
Step C
The only thing Boot D does is not load the registry. This will not allow you the option to load Windows drivers, but will put you directly into Safe Mode. The only thing Boot D will tell you is whether the Registry is working okay. If you get into Safe Mode, it works. If you don't get into Safe Mode, read Microsoft KB article Q131431(Windows 9X) on the Registry. This article will give good steps on creating a working registry. If all else fails, you may need to rename all the registry files and rerun setup.
Ini Help
If you've determined the problem to be in win.ini or system.ini, here are some helpful hints:
Win.ini
There are only two lines in the win.ini that don't load in Safe Mode; the run= and the load= lines. Remark out these lines by putting a semi-colon (;) in front of them. If this solves the problem, then something being loaded on these lines is causing the problem. These lines load programs. Old versions of After Dark and other programs can cause problems with Win95.
System.ini
There are two sections in system.ini that need to be looked at: the [Boot] and [386Enh] sections. These are the only two sections that are not loaded when you boot into Safe Mode. In general, and line that has a .exe is a program that is loading. This can be the cause of all your troubles. You can remark these lines out by putting a semi-colon (;) in front of them. Also look for lines that access files with a .386 in them. These are old "legacy" drivers. You may need these to run things like sound cards, modems, and such, but most companies have updated drivers now. Aside from those, here are some specific lines to look at.
In the [Boot] section:
comm.drv=
This line, most likely, should say comm.drv=comm.drv. If it says something else, remark it out and type the above below it.
Shell=
This line is loaded whether you're in normal mode or Safe Mode. If you start your computer up, and all you ever see is the clock, someone may have played a trick on you and changed this line to read shell=clock.exe.
Drivers=
If you're not getting any sound, or you get errors from your sound card, check out this line. It most likely should read Drivers=mmsystem.dll. There may be more to it, like a mouse driver, but that's okay.
In the [386Enh] section:
This is the section where you will find most of the *.386 files. Remark these out. Like stated previously, if you remark these out, but a certain program doesn't work after that, call the program vendor and see if they have Windows drivers.
ComAutoAssign=
If you're having modem troubles, look at any lines in this area that start with COM. These lines can change your com ports around. Remark all these lines out and see if it helps.
Troubleshooting Files
As Windows installs, it creates 3 files to track the installation process and to log any problems that may occur during installation.
These files are: BOOTLOG.TXT, DETLOG.TXT and SETUPLOG.TXT. Each of these files is described in detail below
BOOTLOG.TXT
From a troubleshooting standpoint, BOOTLOG.TXT is probably the most useful of the files covered here, although it's more what BOOTLOG.TXT doesn't tell you that's important than what it does tell you. BOOTLOG.TXT is a hidden ASCII file in the root directory of the hard drive. It is created during the first boot after setup. After that, a user can force the creation of a new BOOTLOG.TXT by hitting F8 at startup and choosing "Step by Step Confirmation" or by booting to a command prompt and starting Windows by using the "win /b" command. The previous copy of BOOTLOG.TXT will be renamed to BOOTLOG.PRV. Windows will keep only the current and most recent backup of BOOTLOG.TXT. There are four main classes of events that are logged in the BOOTLOG.TXT:
Real-mode driver loading
VxD loading/initialization
dVxD loading/initialization
SysCritInit initialization of VxD's
The first ten lines of the file deal with the loading and success or failure of real mode drivers like HIMEM.SYS, EMM386 and SETVER. The rest of the file references the loading and initialization of VxD's, dVxD's, core files, and other protect mode Windows files. Examination of the BOOTLOG.TXT file can give a good deal of insight into the boot process. Listed below is an example of what the file looks like:
[00106CA1] Loading Vxd = vpd
[00106CA1] LoadSuccess = vpd
[00106CA1] Loading Vxd = vkd
[00106CA2] LoadSuccess = vkd
[00106CA2] Loading Vxd = vpowerd
[00106CA2] LoadFailed = vpowerd
[00106CA2] Loading Vxd = enable
[00106CA2] LoadSuccess = enable
As you can see, VPOWERD failed to load. This does not mean that there is a problem with the system, however. VPOWERD is Windows version of Power Management, and, if this is disabled in Device Manager, this will fail to load. Whether an item succeeds or fails to load may or may not have an impact on why Windows will fail to load in general. If Windows hangs on boot, the first place to look at in BOOTLOG.TXT is the end. Generally, there will be a line saying LOADING � but no line indicating whether the item successfully loaded or not. In this case, that item is causing the system to hang. More common, however, is a line at the end of the BOOTLOG.TXT saying LOADSUCCESS. This means that whatever item loads after this item is the cause of the hang. Taking a look at the BOOTLOG.TXT of another, system may give some insight as to what was trying to load when the system failed.
DETLOG.TXT
Detlog is actually a combination of two files; DETLOG.TXT and DETCRASH.LOG.
DETCRASH.LOG
Is a binary file that is used directly by setup during the hardware detection phase to record the hardware detection process. It is repeatedly appended during the detection prosess so that if setup hangs during detection, Smart Recovery can interpolate the cause of the hang and avoid performing the same problem action twice. DETCRASH.LOG cannot be modified.
DETLOG.TXT
Is the ASCII counterpart of the file DETCRASH.LOG. It is not used by setup, and is only created for users to read. This file is really only useful in determining the cause of a failed hardware installation.
DETLOG.TXT is created under any of the following conditions:
- During the hardware detection portion of setup
- Detection is invoked from Control Panel | Add New Hardware
- Laptop is booting for first time after changing docking state
- PCMCIA support is enabled (by using the PCMCIA Wizard)
During the setup process, or whenever hardware detection is run (Add New Hardware), Windows loads specific detection modules based upon information in the MSDET.INF. Most of the DETLOG.TXT is filled with entries such as:
QueryIOMem: Caller=DETECTSONYCD, rcQuery=0 IO=250-253
QueryIOMem: Caller=DETECTSONYCD, rcQuery=0 IO=270-273
QueryIOMem: Caller=DETECTSONYCD, rcQuery=0 IO=290-293
QueryIOMem: Caller=DETECTSONYCD, rcQuery=0 IO=300-303
In this example, the DETECTSONYCD module of the SYSDETMG.DLL file is querying a range of I/O addresses for the Sony CD ROM drive. It is not uncommon to find up to 200 consecutive entries for a call to a piece of particular hardware, even if that hardware is not installed on the system. DETLOG.TXT is a cumbersome way to determine why a piece of hardware failed detection, but it can show you if an I/O address is conflicting, as well as other failure causes.
SETUPLOG.TXT
The SETUPLOG.TXT file is a hidden ASCII text file that resides in the root directory after running setup. It has information gathered and logged during the setup process that could be useful if setup is hanging. This file records all the options the user chose during the setup process. The [Optional Components] section shows which of the optional components the user chose to install. The next two lines show an example of how SETUPLOG.TXT looks:
"WordPad"=1
"Dial�Up Networking"=0
This shows that Word Pad was selected for install, while Dial-Up Networking was not. Similarly the [System] and [NameAndOrg] sections demonstrate that because of it=s text format, the meaning of many settings in the SETUPLOG.TXT are immediately evident. To view the directories that have been, and will be, used by setup, view the [Destination] section. Each of the directories listed in this section is assigned a numerical value. From this point, directories are referenced by these values.
The [Detection] section is built following the hardware detection portion of setup. It indicates whether the detection phase of setup completed successfully or not. If setup hangs during detection, this section will be blank. The file DETLOG.TXT will be a good one to look at in this scenario.
The [FileCopy] section logs the files that were copied onto the hard drive, along with their destination directories (in numbered format as defined in the [Destination] section). This section is used in Maintenance Mode Setup to verify the presence and integrity of the files which were copied to the hard drive during Setup. Toward the beginning of the installation process, setup looks for a SETUPLOG.TXT file. If found, it then searches for the [FileCopy] section. If this section is found, the user will be prompted with an option run Safe Detection. Therefore, deletion of the SETUPLOG.TXT or the removal of the [FileCopy] section will disallow Safe Detection (which can sometimes be a good thing). If setup was originally done from a network, and the system crashes, removing the [FileCopy] section can also allow Windows to gather files from a CD ROM, rather than looking over a network drive for them.
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