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System Wont Boot

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11 replies

by richard.sherman

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I have a problem with a Packard Bell computer running Windows 98. I ran scan disk and defrag a couple of weeks ago and the system became sluggish and had trouble shutting down. Last night the system crashed. I tried to re-boot and all I got was the BIOS screan showing the Packard Bell logo. I tried F1 to change the boot sequence so I could boot off the 98 CD but it would hang at the "Entering Setup Now" script line. I was thinking it was the BIOS flash since It wont go any farther but It does load and recognize my key board and mouse so I think it is getting through the BIOS. Do I need to get the latest Flash BIOS and if so, is it an autorun from the disk? I have never updated the BIOS and am not sure how to do it. Also, if it isn'tthe BIOS, do you think hte HD is fried? Can it be recovered?

11 replies

by quintar51

Hi, I don't think it's a BIOS problem. Normally, you don't need to flash the BIOS unless absolutely necessary. I don't think you need to do that in this case. I would try booting off the Win 98 CD, but don't start the setup. I would run scandiskto see if there are any lost files and also do a surface scan to make sure there are no bad clusters. If everything seems fine, go into Fdisk, make sure you have an active partition. If everything seems fine, but it still won't boot, you can try reinstalling win98.

by richard.sherman

I am sorry but this didn't help me. I don't think I clearified my problem well enough. I can't access the hard drive at all and I can't boot of the CD-ROM. I can't access anything. The system feezes before I can get that far.

by dmiles

If you have a Windows 98 startup disk insert in floppy drive and boot computer,select option to run setup without cd-rom support,eject the floppy and reboot system

The Master Boot Record may have become corrupt or the Hard drive is going bad

by richard.sherman

I don't have a boot disk. 98 is supposed to be plug and play and I didn't think I would require a boot/recovery disk considering 98s versatility. I still think it is a BIOS problem.

by edsdave

Open case and pull BIOS battery and reboot. While case cover is off check the CPU fan and see if still running. Possible overheat problem.

by richard.sherman

Worked like a charm. Pulled the BIOS battery and allowed me to get into set-up so I could run from CD first. Reformatted the HDD and re-installed OS. Thanks a bunch!

by thechas

Clear the CMOS settings.

Double check that all RAM modules and plug-in cards are properly seated.

Swap out RAM, Video, CPU to narrow down device with the problem.

Chas

by richard.sherman

Sorry, but thanks for the help. I didn't need to get this far. I pulled the BIOS battery and that did the charm.

by walter_loh

try to unplug your hdd to check if its booting up properly (somtimes it might crash with other drive) ,

1 . if it is not working then try to flash the bios by going to packard bell web site down your version .

2 . if it works , i have face the same problem weeks ago , it was some virus in the boot sector area that cause the problem , it is not easy to clean this virus , you need to do low level format on your hdd

by richard.sherman

Sorry, but thanks for the help. I didn't need to get this far. I pulled the BIOS battery and that did the charm.

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