Decided to blow the dust off an old computer I have and hook it into my home network.
It currently has Windows 98 on it. (problem #1--LOL)
Anyhow, I got it talking to the network, updated Windows via the net, and started blipping off unused programs. Rebooted about a dozen times, no problem.
The last thing I zapped was the software for video conferencing and such and during uninstall it said (something like:) "Some files can become locked during uninstall, reboot now to free them..."
So I did.
Here's the BIG problem. Upon reboot, just after the Windows 98 logo screen, it goes black... hangs a few seconds, I get a "blip" across the screen and it locks up (appearantly with no signal as the monitor light turns yellow as in "standby" mode).
The system only boots in safe mode now.
I have switched out monitors. No good. Same thing.
I have completely reinstalled video drivers. No good.
There are no obvious conflicts in the system manager.
I would just nuke it and start from scratch, but there are files I need to recover before doing this.
In safe mode I cannot access the CDs, so I cannot just burn disks of what I want to save. And, because I have no CD support, I cannot attempt to reload Windows. And, I cannot talk across the network in safe mode either.
I'm now, officially, out of ideas.
Has anyone seen ANYTHING like this before?
I really don't THINK I blasted dll's or other files needed, but, I guess I could be mistaken.
I'm open for ANY suggestions on how to recover my files prior to reinstalling a new operating system or two.