(98SE) Windows Protection Error after Defrag

[sedrosken]

I have 98SE installed on ye olde Pentium 4, and I had everything just about set up when I went to defrag...

It told me that it encountered an error and to run a Thorough scan on ScanDisk. Okay, so I do that, and defrag again. This time, defrag completes without an issue. I reboot, and I get the Windows Protection Error.

Now, you might need to think pretty hard on this one, since it's probably been several years since you've had to service a 98SE machine, but do any of you know what could possibly be causing this? I've done the usual boot troubleshooting, running a logged boot and then booting into safe mode to look at the log to see where it ran into the protection error, and from what I can tell all it's failing to do is load fonts.

Wait, what?! Since when did failing to load fonts of all things lead to a protection error? Is there something else at play here? Please help me out here... I don't think I can sit through another install process...

I mean, booting into safe mode works fine. I can access all of my fonts, all of my everything. Except for any graphics settings higher than 640*480*16, and sound.

 

[Mercutio]

It's probably a registry issue rather than a problem with the font files themselves. There's are a couple programs that are supposed to Fix Windows 98's fonts folder, but the standard practice for fixing anything about Windows 98 was to just do an in-place reinstall and that's what I'd suggest in this case as well since you obviously have the install media sitting around.

 

[sedrosken]

Well, I'm letting ScanDisk run another lap from safe mode. It's much slower running in safe mode, I've noticed. It's been going for about a half hour and it's just short of 10% done. It took all of twenty minutes running it normally.

Anything to not have to do yet ANOTHER reinstall...

I guess if it doesn't pan out I'll put DOS 7 and Win2K on it. Win2K is almost as light as 98SE, and has about the same level of compatibility. Much faster than XP on ye olde Pentium 4, anyway.

 

[sedrosken]

Well, I just ruled out a registry issue. I used scanreg /restore, rebooted, and I'm still getting a protection error.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 

[Mercutio]

There are "lite" versions of XP. One that I've used in a couple specific circumstances would load on an original Pentium and only required 40MB RAM. Of course, it wouldn't take updates and had a lot of functions stripped out, but in most other respects it was functional.
I believe it was called XPlite, if you want to go digging for it.

 

[sedrosken]

I have one such lite version, I think they called it "Performance Edition" or some such. I've tried it and I can honestly say I don't like it. It certainly performs faster than XP, and boots faster too. But it strips a lot of the miscellaneous tools and utilities that I happened to like very much.

I tried to put 2K on it but the damn thing up and died on me halfway through. Literally. Died. Won't boot anymore, I can turn it on but all the access lights stay on and I get no response from the monitor. I think I'll put it out to the curb next trash cycle. Keeping the GeForce2 MX card though. That thing has lived through a lot and the last thing it deserves is the trash.