New Question for Computer Gurus?

[Brian_D]

Re: New Question for Computer Gurus?

Originally posted by TopCatGr58

She thought she had a virus, wouldn't run. Brought home, turned on, would come up to loading windows 98SE screen, freezes!

Originally posted by TopCatGr58

Rebooted and able to get thru POST Ram check to 63, wiped HD with FORMAT /S, and then loaded Win98 Setup, sometimes would hang during loading/copying files to HD at various percentages, then repeated and finished, would REBOOT, but then would NOT finish loading Win98 First Time Reboot, etc.!

Checked CPU HS/FAN and was very cool NOW! But it will not let me reload windows98SE(was OEM for computer), and wondering IF previous HS/FAN problem could have caused it to burn/damage CPU, or is the MoBo suspect?? I don't have a spare computer that can use the 370 CPU so I can't test, Ram is known good chips!!!

T.C.,
Would first try a *GOOD* low-level format of the hard drive as the FORMAT /S will not clean most viruses. Can use FDISK in a pinch - if it does not show the correct partition size info with FDISK then definitely have a virus on hard drive. For the low-level format, I like to use PartitionMagic (of course the version before it was bought by Symantec).

[Ljay40]

TC


Quote"Before you spend a dime though be sure ALL cards are unplugged, ie, modem, sound, etc. (except video)"Quote

Bingo this is exactly what I'd do first
If this fails You say you have already
reformatted the hard drive, Well just for info that if the MBR (master Boot record) is corrupted or/virused up a regular format will not recreate/repair a MBR, So before you run your format utility do C:\ Fdisk from Msdos Prompt from your windows startup disk
From there Delete the Primary Partition then Recreate Primary partition (all it is select 1,2 3,4 then hit enter) thihs will recreate teh (MBR)It will ask you to select which partition to delete Select primary it will say are you sure you say Yes It will say primary partion deleted From there select Create a Primary partion and follow along with it if you want to make the primary partition the full size of the hard drive just select yes(if your not using other partitions on this drive) If you are then you you will have to make those partitions and sizes from fdisk as well)
Sounds complicated but really it isnt After you have recreated the partition/s to your satisfactory, reboot
let windows startup disk reload and from there do Format C:\
this will format it back to Fat32 file system.
Reboot with the startup disk in and it should load your cdrom drivers so you have access to you cd drive and install windows from there
If you find that it will run thru the fdisk and format utilties I would say nutting wrong with Cpu or MotherBoard (MPO)
If windows Installs let it go all the way then start adding your other hardware (one card at time and install Drivers then restart) then move on to the next If machine pukes or stall out
you may have found your problem as one of the cards,
Usally modems are very suspected they like to share IRQ's adresss
Make sure you have the up to date drivers as well because some of these new programs nowadays will not run onWin98
You did not mention what version of Win 98 you have
try and find the second addition if you dont have it has better support for larger hardrives I can send you a copy
Hope all this makes sense trying to type it all out is a lil difficult
If you have more questions PM me and Ill call you
and try and walk it over the phone with you.
Good luck
Ps Windows 98 will run easily bye itself on 64 megs of ram its when we load all our programs that it has harder
They sold a billion comps with only 64 megs ram Hp Compaq Dell ect..
They all wanted us to spend more money upgrading these things all the dang time which we did least I did
Ljay

[Ljay40]

Hes got faster fingers than Me

[Jerry]

Actually, there is probably another explanation for random "hanging" anywhere in the boot process.

Quite often this is due to a bad capacitor on the motherboard. In the last 2 months I have replaced a Dell and an off-brand motherboard because of this issue. Sometimes the systems would boot, other times not, when not boot it would happen at different times and stages of the boot (or run) process. Just depends on how bad the cap was. Not a power supply problem; changing out power supplies did not make any difference. Not a memory problem either, though I wouldn't try booting with only 64mb, put in at least 128mb. FWIW, I order in all new PCs with 1gb of Ram and have upgraded all my older workstations, most Compaq Evo pentium 4s, to 512 mb. I'm running a mix of Win 2K and Win XP operating systems.

The Dell happened to be my workstation, so I was on the phone to their tech support people, they diagnosed the problem based on my description, and sent me a new motherboard under warranty. I made the swap, including moving the processor from the old board to the new, and the system has been runnng fine for a couple months now. Similar thing happened to a co-worker; same symptoms, same cure.

If it is a bad capacitor it is probably not worth trying to track down the bad component. Either buy a surplus unit or get a new motherboard and put it in the old case.

[greywolfe555]

try tigerdirect.com they have some good deals on there.i purchased a new mobo & cpu for 150.00 including shippingalso got a new power supply 500 watt 50.00. now i run @ 3200+ with 512 mg ram cheaper then a new machine.......

[Incubus]

Been there, done that. Fried CPU.

Solution, reconnect chain to side of case, toss over side, resume fishing.

You have been using that antique for an anchor, right? It might be OK of you were planning to reinstall DOS 3.1 and type using Wordstar 5.0.

Patrick

[LoserShoes]

Actually could be any of the above. I think I still have a socket370 cpu kicking around at work, I'll check on monday and see what it is.

I'll bet its the PS, since it works better with less ram, reducing the load.

Can you see what make the harddrive is? If so go the their site and pick up their diagnostic suite, they all have them for the download. Run the long version of the test and make sure the drive is ok. If the computer dosen't lock up while you're doing this the PS and cpu are ok.

They also have an option for a complete low level wipe of the harddrive.

Fdisk has an undocumented /mbr option to rewrite the master boot record.

Steve

[TopCatGr58]

Further Diagnostics!

Hey Steve, Patrick, Jerry, etc,

It's looking more like the mobo! I pulled the modem and NIC, the only 2 pci cards in it, everything else is Onboard. In just turning it on and off, it would hang even during POST and wouldn't even show the flash screen or send signal to the vid card! Then when it did boot, it recognized the 128MB ram chip fully, I then entered the BIOS, ran the HARD DRIVE IDE DPS test, ran for 22 minutes, didn't crash!

Then ran Fdisk, removed the Primary partition, and then rebuilt and reactivated it. Then during reboot, the BIOS hung on the same memory chip at 73!!

So it looks like when it's cold, it's okay, but once it runs for 10 minutes or so, like Jerry said, "something" is loosing connection and causing it to hang, and since it's happening even during or BEFORE the POST, I think it points to the MOBO more than the processor.

I've found an Intel Micro ATX mobo on Ebay, waiting for reply from seller as to the exact model # so I can tell whether it can support the P3 CPU I have, the seller says its a Celeron mobo, but many from Intel can support both Celerons and P3's!

So....we'll see! My time is fairly cheap.....look how long I'm on here! The owner is a poor working single mom with 2 kids, and so buying a new one just isn't an option! I'll probably end up donating the cost of the MOBO for her, may only be 10-15 bucks, I just won't eat out one night!

Steve, thanks, and I hope you do have a P3 "JUST IN CASE" it's not just the mobo!? I'll let you know if I'll need it! Jerry, thanks for the info and probably confirmation of my symptoms! I also don't have the expertise to troubleshoot or replace capacitors. I can do + and - circuits on the bike, but thats about it!
T.C.

[Jerry]

I have a couple Gateway P3 computers I keep on hand for parts, was getting ready to surplus them but could rob a motherboard out of one and ship it down. Can't send the complete PC as it a county assett and there are rules I have to follow, but parts are not a problem. Let me know what memory you could use, have a small selection of ram that I could check and see if suitable. Also have a couple old hard drives, 1 - 4 gb if you need a replacement.

Would not make this offer to just anyone, but can't ignore a working mom with kids, particularly if the parts I have are just destined for the junkyard and you are willing to donate time and labor.

[xswilly]

hey tc i would still lean towards the ram or power supply
both react once they are warmed up

[HobbyMan]

Had similar problems on 2 computers. I suggest just dumping the compaq and getting a dell or gateway. I have had soo many problems with my compaq that I just fixed it enough for my family and buit a "good" computer for myself out of trash computers. I once had a problem when formatting because the floppy and cd drives skip files. THen after the nth time trying to format, I finally got to the instalation process. A day later of constantly trying to install windows, I finally got it going. Now my "trash built" computer is an intel celeron processor at 700 MHz. A properly cooled and maintained computer will run better than a fast computer overheated and unmaintained. I run a "free" version of win xp, because on soo many computers, I can't afford to buy XP for all my comps.

[HobbyMan]

In some cases, we can't afford to pay for the same software more than once. That is why I have a legit version of windows, but I end up using it on more than one computer. In case anyone was wondering and to clear up confusion "free" does not mean pirated.

[LoserShoes]

Found it, Celeron FV524RX500. It's a 500mhz celeron. Let me know if its of any use to you and I'll send out to ya.

Steve

[LoserShoes]

Oh yea, forgot to mention that you can test that board with a regular ATX power supply if the board is indeed a uATX. They have the same PS connector on them. You should be able to find a good ATX PS that you can borrow somewhere.

Steve

[LoserShoes]

Hey there, me again. You might want to look at This

Steve