This is the case...Every time I try to startup 98...it just hangs...and then I manually turn the power off and start it up again, and then I go into safe mode. that's the only way I can get into 98. I also have xp on this machine but in a different partition...now xp can boot up and it won't shutdown properly...It shuts down but the powers still on...everything turns off but you can still see the shutdown screen...now i have to hold the power button to manually turn xp off...so then i tried reformatting my machine(thinking it would solve the problem)i don't have xp on the machine anymore just 98...now after reformatting my computer, it still hangs on the boot screen...can anyone help me?!?!

What was on it before the failed 98 install?

Can you boot into safe mode? If so, go into device manager and check for resource conflicts.

Sometimes a corrupted swap file can cause windows to hang on startup. To fix this, boot in safe mode.From desktop, right click My computer icon. click properties. now select performance tab. click virtual memory button. select "let me specify my own virtual memory settings" then put a check next to "disable virtual memory.click OK and reboot.after reboot, repeat same steps to reselect "let windows manage my virtual memory settings" .reboot again.this will recreate the swap file.