Windows 98 hangs after entering password on fresh install

Question

I am doing a fresh reinstall of Windows 98 SE on a Dell Optiplex GX1 550Mbr+. I previously had this very same version of Windows on this machine. The install works perfectly, but when I get to the login screen, I hit escape (or type in the password and press enter), and it just hangs.

I have tried:

1. Changing hard drives
2. Changing CD drives
3. Changing the RAM
4. Swapping the hard drive into another machine
5. Removing the password

The first 3 points result in no improvement, event if I re-install from scratch.

When I swap the hard drive into another computer, I can log in just fine, so it doesn't seem to be the installation at fault.

When I remove the password (using another computer), it just hangs at the green desktop background. The mouse will move, but nothing ever loads.

CTRL + ALT + DEL will bring up the task manager, and I can restart the computer, or kill the only process (Hidserv).

Running the computer in Safe Mode works.

Answer 1

I found the answer! Using Safe Mode, in msconf, I disabled all the options in the startup tab except:

• Scan registry
• Task Monitor
• System Tray

That worked, so then I re-enabled the following:

• Load power profile
• Load Power Profile
• Scheduling Agent C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mstask.exe

That was still working, so I restarted again after enabling

• Welcome
• Hidserv

Since that did work, I finally enabled the last option in msconfig:

• Scheduling agent mstinit.exe /firstlogon

And it worked!

I tried again on another fresh install on the same computer. This time, I only disabled hidserv, and I got the same success (Windows started normally, and I was able to re-enable hidserv in msconfig). So the problem was hidserv.