Problem with 98 install, krnl386.exe, blue screen?

I just built a new PC and had Windows 98 installed (after several failed attempts it finally installed).
I wanted to ghost the hard drive with just Windows 98 installed, so I started over last night and tried to install Windows 98 from scratch (after formatting drive). I continue to get the same error message.

When I attempt to install from the CD-ROM, the Win98 files copy over, and then when the PC reboots to finish the install, I get the following blue screen:
”While initializing device, shell cannot find or load required file. Device shell KRNL386.exe. System halted.”

I have tried several times and keep getting the same message. After each failed attempt, I format the hard drive to wipe out all install files, and that does not help.

Does anyone have any ideas? It is not the CD install disk, cause I have used the backup disk, and also tried Windows ME with the same error message.

Config. Is:
Asus P4C800
Asus recommened 512meg. Ram.
Intel P4 2.4
6.4 gig hard drive on primary as master
Cd-rom as primary slave
Video card, ATI 9700 pro.
Nothing else installed.

thx for the info.

I called Asus this morning.

They told me I have the wrong memory, and that could cause the problem most likely.

I have the new P4C800 board that supports 800mhz chips.
I bought 400DDR 3200 memory, but I was supposed to match the memory speed to the Intel chip (2.4 P4 533 mhz), not to the board.
I thought I was supposed to match memory to motherboard, so I got the fastest memory recommended by Asus.
So I was told by Asus to buy 2700 memory, luckily memory.com will accept an exchange.

I will post the results and if this solves the problem.

too much RAM. Windows 98 doesn't like too much RAM. I would say either downgrade your ram to 256 or upgrade your OS.
windows me is the samethign as windows 98 but win-me is a lot more buggier.

try windows 2000 or XP and i bet you won't have that problem.

Women defines the word irrational!

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

Jump into BIOS, switch from the 'Main' to 'Advanced' in the menu bar at the top.

From the 'Advanced' menu select 'JumperFree Configuration'.

From the 'JumperFree Configuration' menu select 'AI Overclock Tuner'.

Change 'AI Overclock Tuner' from 'Standard' to 'Manual'. This will open up a whole bunch of new items to change.

Select 'DRAM Frequency' and change it from 'Auto' to '333MHz'.

Hit F10 to save and Exit. Congrats, you're now running PC3200 as PC2700.

<font color=blue><pre>I'm proud to be an American,
who served my country in the US Air Force,
to protect the rights of my fellow Americans,
to hold protests against others like me.</pre><p></font color=blue>

Once again xxsk8er101xx proves that his incompetence. I've installed Win98SE on several machines that have 512MB and never once run into any problems. Win98SE does <i>not</i> have problems running 512MB.

Again, complete ignorance. WinME was a severe rewrite of Win98 to eliminate as much of the dependence upon 16-bit code as humanly possible. Theoretically it wasn't such a bad idea. Realistically however WinME and Win9x still use an awful lot of 16-bit drivers. And since WinME ran very poorly when it actually did have to run 16-bit code, these 16-bit drivers often made WinME incredibly unstable. If however you could manage to stick to purely 32-bit drivers (which was rather difficult and often involved pure blind luck), WinME performed significantly better than Win98SE.

This is quite possibly the first and only sensible suggestion from xxsk8er101xx. His reasoning on why however is completely wrong. If changing the OS resolves the problem at all, it would only be because the default drivers that Win98 uses until you can install the <A HREF="http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/inf.htm" target="_new">Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility</A> aren't compatible with the 875P chipset.

"It is better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." - Sammuel Clemens

<font color=blue><pre>I'm proud to be an American,
who served my country in the US Air Force,
to protect the rights of my fellow Americans,
to hold protests against others like me.</pre><p></font color=blue>

Hey, it's not <i>my</i> fault if <i>you</i> make <i>yourself</i> look stupid.

<font color=blue><pre>I'm proud to be an American,
who served my country in the US Air Force,
to protect the rights of my fellow Americans,
to hold protests against others like me.</pre><p></font color=blue>

There's no harassment here, just the simple acts of correcting inaccurate information and making observations. For example here's another observation: Why don't you just stop writing whiny posts and get on with your life already?

If you don't say anything stupid then I can't possibly reply to that and point out how you are wrong, now can I? It's a simple solution.

True, I could just stop correcting you every time that you post something that isn't correct so that other people don't do something stupid based on your bad advice, but then people might make the mistake of taking your bad advice and that'd be rather unfortunate for them.

Besides, I might get bored and we just <i>can't</i> have that. This is far more entertaining.

<font color=blue><pre>I'm proud to be an American,
who served my country in the US Air Force,
to protect the rights of my fellow Americans,
to hold protests against others like me.</pre><p></font color=blue>

Possible, not likely

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

OK, you've heard the imatures, and hardly anyone else has spoken, so I'll give you a more experienced opinion: This problem is normally caused by bad RAM.

Now, I have no idea what kind of RAM you bought, but "Asus Recommended" is not a brand name!

PC3200 (DDR400) works fine in PC2700 (DDR333) mode, so not even Asus is helping you out here.

Asus might have a weird timing issue with automatic settings, so going into BIOS and changing it to the PC2700 (DDR333) setting was a good suggestion. If it still gives you problems, it's most likely bad RAM.

You can also check your voltage levels in BIOS for any anomolies, just to be certain it's not a voltage problem. You didn't say what kind of supply you had.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>