This happens on every subsequent power up. We have found that if you disable fast shutdown in Win98, this problem goes away. When you shut down Windows 98, all device drivers are uninitialized. When fast shutdown is enabled in Windows 98, device drivers are not uninitialized. This results in a faster shutdown.
Fast shutdown is enabled by default.
Disabling fast shutdown may be necessary when you are troubleshooting shutdown problems in Windows 98. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System tools, and then click System Information. On the Tools menu, click System Configuration Utility. On the General tab, click Advanced. Click the Disable Fast Shutdown check box to clear it, click OK, and then click OK again.