Win98 hangs at startup

I take it that you are able to get into Windows in Safe mode, but not in Normal mode.  If this is the case, there is something loading (or not loading) that is killing the bootup sequence of Normal mode of Windows.  What is hanging it up?  It could be just about anything (including a virus infection).

If you have kept your virus definitions current and run the antivirus program in the background all the time, you could possibly eliminate this as an option.  Otherwise, your computer may be infected.

A good place to start is in Safe mode, go to Start -> Run -> type in msconfig and click the OK.  This should give you an indication of what's normally loading in Windows.  If your system fails to get into Windows in Safe mode, you might want to hit the F8 during bootup (immediately after the beep and memory countoff), then choose the option to boot with 'Step-by-Step Confirmation'.  At this point, you'll want either a *very* knowledgeable friend or another comparable Win98 machine, to compare what the 'non-working' machine has (or doesn't have) loading.

As for the mouse, you have a USB mouse.  Unfortunately, with Win98, USB support is not available until you reach the (Normal mode) Windows environment.

Hope this helps.

Thx for the advice. After trying many things, I finally discovered through the step by step confirmation process that it was a bad .vxd driver that was causing the startup problem. Fortunately, it was not a Windows driver, it was a Gravis driver that went bad for some reason. After I uninstalled the Gravis program, the problem went away.

Not sure I understand the mouse problem in SafeMode. I get a message saying Windows doesn't recognize that I have one installed (even though its in a PS2 port). What is the workaround for this when I'm in SafeMode?

You guys should update to windows 10. win 98 is long gone. I know im posting this after 17 years but if you still use windows 98 you should seriously consider updating to win 10 or buying a new pc

Can you start your computer in Safe mode? 1.Restart the computer. 2.Press and hold down the CTRL key as the computer starts. 3.On the Startup menu, choose Safe mode. THEN Enable the Diagnostic Startup option in the System Configuration utility.

1.Click Start, and then click Run.

2.In the Open box, type msconfig, and then click OK.

3.On the General tab, click Create Backup to back up your current system configuration files with System Configuration utility.

4.Click Diagnostic Startup, and then click OK.

5.When you are prompted to restart your computer, click OK.

6.On the Startup menu, choose Step-by-step confirmation.

7.When you are prompted to process the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files, press the ESC key to bypass the files. Press ENTER to load all other items.

Thanks 

@nathanmay