Very annoying, apparently random problem.

Hi,

I actually have exacly the same problem. Except for me, it always says that. Dell already replaced my hard drive (this did not help) and now they are sending me a new motherboard (coming in tomorrow or Friday). I hope this fixes the problem, it's a real pain in the @$$.

Good luck.

Having had Win98SE and experiencing every kind of start error there was (normal for 98 it seemed) most of the solutions were in software and startup programs either conflicting with windows startup, or fouling the registry. Look at some of these articles, there are a number of ways to isolate what the problem may be. I found most of mine were due to conflicts with Zone Alarms agent function. I finally solved 98 percent of the problem by gettting a new PC with XP! (not perfect, but a heck of a lot better then 98).

http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/nlsearch.aspx?Catalog=LCID%3d1033%26CDID%3dEN-US-KB%26PRODLISTSRC%3dON&Product=w98&Query=windows%2520hangs%2520on%2520on%2520startup&Queryc=windows+hangs+on+on+startup&REF=false&srchstep=0&KeywordType=ALL&Titles=false&numDays=&maxResults=25

here also is a prompt troubleshooter that may or may not be helpful:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2Fsupport%2Fwindows%2Ftshoot%2Fstartup98%2Fdefault%2Easp

Good luck.

When you get the message to press delete to continue, look at the back of your computer and see if any of the diagnostic lights are lit. These give a code, which, if you know the model of your computer, can be deciphered to tell you what the problem is. If you report back the color codes of the lights and the model of your computer, we can find the information you need to begin solving the problem.

Steve