can't load user.exe. must reinstall windows (help)

[jrfan]

New member here trying to salvage an old emachines t2778 pc.

I'm trying to load Windows 98 from a cd-rom.

It goes through everything fine until it's time for restart.

Upon restart The 98 logo comes on the screen and then can't load user.exe. must reinstall windows.

If I remember correctly we stopped using this pc because of viruses and wouldn't run well.

I don't think it has any hardware related issues and originally had windows xp.

I had a windows 98 operating system cd and was just trying to get this thing working if possible.

Please bear with me as I'm barely computer literate, LOL.

Thanks for any help.

[G8YMW]

Do you have a boot floppy?

Did you reformat the drive?

You might need to use Fdisk (from the floppy)

fdisk/mbr This will fix the boot sector of the hard drive

You may need to use fdisk to remove the partition off the hard drive and re partition again, that way your hard drive SHOULD be clean.

But for starters boot the machine from the boot floppy and then "format c:/s" then reload the CD

You may have a damaged CD???

[jrfan]

No I don't have a boot floppy disc.

I did use a cd-rom program called wipedrive to overwrite the hard drive prior to installing Windows 98.

Had the same error message before and after clearing the HDD.

After using the wipedrive disc I reinstalled win 98 and it reformatted the HDD.

[lightning slinger]

No I don't have a boot floppy disc.

You can download boot floppy disc for 98 from http://www.allbootdisks.com and after that go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221829 and follow the instructions contained on that page.

Edit: After a quick look at the eMachines website, I don't see drivers for the T2778 for Windows 98 listed. If not, the whole excersice may be pointless.

HTH

Edited January 3, 2010 by lightning slinger

[jrfan]

Thanks, like I posted I'm a real noob at this and don't really understand about drivers and all that but I want to learn.

The microsoft link was very helpfull.

I found a desk drawer with a bunch of old floppy disc in it and I'm sure the boot disc is among them.

[Kwibus]

I took a look at the specs of your computer and i think there should be official drivers for your mainboard and graphics card.

Your mainboard has an nforce 2 chipset, you can download a driver for all its components from the website of nvidea. The driver for your gforce 4 mx card you should also be able to find on the website of nvidea or you could try a newer un official driver see http://www.msfn.org/board/nvidia-drivers-82-69-t97140.html

[Fredledingue]

I wonder if it's not a problem with io.sys.

On large HDD, io.sys must be replaced in DOS mode with an update. Not sure thought.

see here

Edit:

I remember having had this error because user.exe was simply absent at the time of reboot.

Find user.exe from another machine, put it on a floppy or second hard drive and, in DOS copy it to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\USER.EXE.

HTH

Edited January 6, 2010 by Fredledingue