Trisha

Try a Logged Boot. See if you can pin down more closely the source of the delay.

Click Start, and then click Shut down., click Restart, click OK, and then press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Start-up Menu appears. For some machines, you can use F8 instead of CTRL to bring up the Microsoft Windows 98 Start-up Menu. Enter the number for Logged Boot, and then press ENTER. At the end of the boot the system will have created a bootlog.txt file.

A bootlog.txt file can be quite difficult to interpret so you need to use a freeware utility called bootlog analyser to interpret the results. Bootlog analyser details failures and delays. You will be interested in both.

You can download a copy of bootlog analyser through the link which follows:
http://www.vision4.dial.pipex.com/

Have a empty Folder ready on your desktop and download into the folder. Double click the downloaded file to extract and run the utility.

Boot Log Analyzer for Windows 95/98 from Gemini Affinitas Ltd    (v1.22)

FREE Boot Log Analyzer utility to help in identifying Windows95/98 boot-up problems.
Looks at your Windows95 BOOTLOG.TXT file and calculates the time taken to load each driver etc, in order to help in locating any cause of lengthy boot-up times. The displayed result can be sorted by loading duration, filtered to show only those items with long durations or which reported failure, and saved to a text file.

Post a copy of the report on failures / delays provided by Bootlog Analyser ( no attachments please ) and see what comments you get.

How large is your hard disk and how much free space? In Windows Explorer
right click on your C drive and select Properties. How much ram memory?

Download Adaware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove parasites.

How good is your housekeeping?

1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder.

2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE.

3. Remove Temporary Internet Files by selecting Start, Settings, Control Panel, Internet Options, General tab, Delete Files and check box for "Delete all offline content".

4. Empty Recycle Bin.

5. Run Disk Defragmenter in Safe Mode.  Running in Safe Mode may be slower than in normal mode but generally is more certain to eliminate the restarting problem coming from other programmes writing to disk.

To start Windows in safe mode Click Start, and then click Shut down. Click Restart, click OK, and then press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears. For some machines, you can use F8 instead of CTRL to bring up the Microsoft Windows 98 Start-up Menu. Enter the number for Safe mode, and then press ENTER.


~~~~~~

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA
gcjc@yesit.co.uk
Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have seen particularly slow input/output due to "clashing" ide devices being
on the same ide ribbon cable.  Had nothing to to with windows or any other
software.  Opinions don't fix this.
Dave