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Need ideas for PC problem

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by kat120

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Hi- am having a PC problem that I have some ideas I haven't tried yet, but I figured I would see if yall have any- Had MP3 player connected to PC via USB, software to save MP3s to player wasn't coming up, so I rebooted (running Win 98). Puter reboots past POST, and dies at splash screen. Get only flashing prompt, cannot type, but can use keyboard to Ctrl-Alt-Del and that restarts puter. Cannot boot from Windows CD or HD. Put in Windows Disk 1 (floppy), only got message stating that a certainfile wasn't present and to look for it on another disk. Put in every other disk I have, none work. The only time I got anything on the screen was when i put in a western digital recovery floppy, but I couldn't run any of the diags on the floppy because my current C drive isnt Western Dig.
Been having a few video problems and bought a new PCI video card, but haven't installed it yet- the video problem was just that the screen would distort for a while at random times. Dont think this is video related since I cant boot from CD.
Motherboard is a 450, Intel Pent III.
I would love to hear any ideas yall have...
kat

4 replies

by madmark

I would like to clarify a few things.

You installed a USB MP3 player, and then started having the issues? Do you have the boot up issues without the USB device attached?

It sounds like more than a USB device issue. Could be a bad device driver or just good old corruption in win98. Can you boot into safe mode? Use it to remove the software and reboot.

Do you have a DOS boot disk handy? If not, can you get one? If you can, copy the cd drivers to the floppy and load them in the autoexec.bat and config.sys on the floppy. Reboot and try to access the CD. Might want to do a clean install of '98 to a different directory. If that works, don't delete the old Windows directory until you have backed up your data and re-installedany missing drivers that are usually found in the "INF" and system directories.

You should find out what is causing the video distortion problem. I once had a call to help a user with something similar. Turned out to be his monitor was inches from the monitor on the other side of the cubicle. Everytime his colleague rebooted or changed video modes, the magnetic field would interfere with his monitor. Just about any electrical or magnetic device will do this for you... Another guy had a slightly leaky plant above his monitor...

by kat120

thanks for your thoughts, my monitor isn't having any interferance issues and I have used the MP3 player and the USB ports many times with no problems- Was thinking it *might* be a factor since I had never rebooted with it being connected before. Idid disconnect it and try booting after the PC crashed, and I tried reconnecting it and booting- no effect either way.
I cannot get to safe mode and cannot boot from CD to reinstall 98. I found a dos disk and a spare hard drive last night managed to get to fdisk and partitioned and set active partition, when I rebooted to format the partition, the partition was gone and couldn't get to fdisk again. I tried so many configurations last night, with different indications each time. Some times Icouldn't get to the CD, once I could. My hard drives were unaccessible except for the one fdisk session, and my Bios was found half the time and gone the other half. I think I somehow toasted my motherboard and am going to get a new one today. Ifthat doesn't work, I'll repost, in case you're interested. Thanks,
Kat

by madmark

Man, that's an ordeal. If you haven't replaced it yet, verify that all of the cables are on correctly, (redstripe on HD Pin1, etc.) and that the RAM and processor are all seated. Sometimes heat or jarring can move these components loose.

Replacing the MB or handing it over to a tech-depot is the final and ultimate fix. Let me know what comes of it.

by adamjedgar

A friend once demanded of me "b'fore you write it off remove everything cept da video card, RAM, and then restart your machine. Keep reconnecting devices and rebooting until you have tested every device(or found the gremlin). It might keep them precious pennies in your pocket, and you might learn something you can use on another dark, dreary day in the IT world (cos God knows there''ll be plenty more like this one!)."
After all there's nothing like a new device for messing up your old faithful bios settings!

It seems unlikely that plugging a device into an external USB port would affect HDD cables (but you just never know).

Cheers

Adam Edgar TAS Dept - Davidson High School, NSW Australia

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