# Solved: Computer will not start need help please



## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Hello All,
My girlfriend's mother's computer (what a mouthfull) is experiencing some problems. It is an older Pentium II windows 98 computer. It had been running slowly/coming up with some errors, so I was scanning it for viruses when it restarted randomly. It then booted up, passed POST, but could not find the Hard drive. I figured the drive was probably failing, and my next step was to try to run scandisk. I have the orignial windows 98 disk should I need to reinstall as well.

Here's the problem: The computer will pass POST, scan IDE (and for the most part, find the harddrive), then go to a blank screen with a blinking cursor. From this point on, the computer is not responsive. It stays at the blankscreen with a blinking cursor, and the floppy disk light goes on as well which is quite odd. 

I have successfully accessed bios, and told it to boot from the CD, but it will not do this. I do not know how to get into a dos prompt since the usual tricks (F8 during startup) do not work. Any suggestions? 

Thank you

EDIT: it should be noted that I do not have a computer that can write floppies (our newer laptops just have cd burners). I tried sticking a floppy into the problem computer, if only to see if I could get a "remove non-system disk" error and I didnt. The computer was set up to boot from disk, but still just went to the black screen with a blinking cursor


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

Instead of F8 try pressing CTRL and keep it pressed until the start menu appears.

If that works, select Command Prompt and at the C:\ prompt type:

SCANREG /RESTORE (note space between G and /)

Press Enter, select a date just before the problem started and reboot when finished.

See if that helps.

Zee


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Thanks for the fast reply. Unfortunately it did not work.

As soon as it detects the harddrive, the screen goes black, normally where the windows loading screen should be, and just leaves me with a non-dos blinking cursor

Holding down Ctrl or tapping F8 does not work.

I went to the HDD manufacturer's website and downloaded an ISO for a dos based repair. It would not load the CD. I set the first boot device to CDROM, but it did not work.

Here's my question: When I was first trying to get the computer to work, I would restart and I would get the windows loading screen. It would stay here forever so I would restart. I was also able to get it to read the windows 98 disc that I have as I tried to see if there was a repair option. In my troubleshooting, there was a lot of restarting. Now it won't do these things, and I'm wondering if something could have been corrupted from all the restarts. Any suggestions? As I said, I can get into BIOS,but that's about it. Anything else and it will just go to that blinking screen. I can't even get it to read the windows disc to reinstall if necessary. Any help is greatly appreciated


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

Is the Bios correctly reporting the drives (floppy, CD-ROM and HDD)?


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

In bios, it reports the HDD as the IDE primary master and the cd rom as the IDE secondary slave (why the manufacturer put the CD rom on slave, who knows)? Note that no jumper settings or drive changes have occurred at all, and that this configuration has been working for at least 2 years. 

The floppy is also reported

The computer beeps as it passes POST, but after it detects the drives, it goes to the black screen with a flashing cursor.

To recap, this all started with it not detecting the hard drive. After 2 restarts, it detected it, but would hang on windows loading....then after a few restarts of it not working, I put in the windows 98 disk, thinking that there might be a repair option (like xp). Now, after all the restarts, it doesnt even seem to want to do these things any more.

Boot order is:CD-rom, A:, C:

When it is at this flashing cursor, the HDD afctivity light tends to be on, which is odd.

Thanks again Zee and I'll keep posting/trying new things


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

You must get a boot floppy...

That seems to me the only way to confirm the HDD can be accessed or not.

The other possibility is failing hardware, which wouldn't be a surprise considering the age of that system.

Maybe you have a friend, neighbor, coworker that can create a Win98 boot floppy for you?


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Bleh, as of right now I do not. The only computer users I know are mac users. Maybe by some luck a circuit city or office depot will have a floor model PC with a floppy drive. 

What would the fact that it was allowing me to get to a dos prompt before, but not after many restarts indicate? Could this be bios corruption on top of the failing HDD? What if I was to disconnect the HDD from the computer, then try to boot and see if I still get the flashing cursor?

Like I said, I have not been getting any kind of "non-system disk" error when I put in a floppy, so I do not know if it will read it (this was when the A was set to be the first drive up)

Before I was able to at least get it to boot from the windows CD to reinstall, now I can not even get that.


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Also, why is the HDD activity light coming on right from the start, even though I am telling it to load from the CD first. The CD light does not indicate that the disk is being read before the HDD. Maybe I should move this thread to hardware as it is not necessarily OS related at this point


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

UPDATE: When I go into bios, and set primary IDE to "none" instead of AUTO, I can get it to boot from the windows CD. From the windows CD, after telling it to "start windows with CD support", I get to an dos prompt (A:\)

I can not get it to switch to C. I have tried typing cd c:\ 
with no luck. At least this is a start


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

Windows 98 CDs are not bootable, Win98SE are....

But... it may be failing hardware.

You can try opening the box resetting the IDE cables, maybe change the CD-ROM to master on the secondary IDE cable, confirm the floppy cables are OK and tightly in place.

Check everything, close box, power up.

See what happens now.

Zee


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Zee, thank you so much for your patience. Here's the latest. I burned a bootable repair ISO from western digital's website. Now that bios is set to essentially ignore the HDD (By setting primary IDE to "none"), the disc is booting. I ran a quick test and it came up with a read error probelm and told me to turn a full media scan to detect the damage and possibly repair. It is testing right now so I will post back when it's done. Still, I know this drive will have to be replaced, just trying to buy as much time as possible


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

Listening with interest.


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

"unable to correct the errors found: Please contact technical support. error/status code 0226"

I looked up this error, it means "sector relocation error: Unable to relocate a sector during drive repair, the drive has to be replaced"

I will try the test one more time to see what happens. I will also try to boot to windows again just to see if I can get to its scandisk program to maybe move system files to a non-corrupt sector. Looks like I will have to shop for a new drive. Its funny, her mom only uses the computer for word processing and internet, today's hard drives are huge yet cheap compared to what she needs.

It does seem odd to me that a bad drive would prevent the computer from reading a CD. It was only able to read the CD in dos after disabling the primary IDE channel in windows.


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

Probably because the CD drive is set as slave?

Just me thinking aloud.

Zee


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

I guess the next problem is, finding a hard drive that is small enough for this BIOS to recognize. It seems most hard drives that I am finding in store are 160gigs.


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## Blue Zee (May 18, 2007)

Maybe time has come to buy a new system?


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Haha, while I would most certainly agree, I am in town visiting from Chicago and will be leaving shortly. I would build her one before I would buy one, and right now she doesnt want to spend the money.

I found some 80 gig eide drives that are overpriced compared to the 300gig drives you can get cheap today, but what can you do? It should be compatable with this system


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

well, after getting the drive scan disk to load and repair as much as possible, here's where we stand:

I enabled the primary IDE channel again so that the HDD was visable. Now, it gets past the point where it hung, and starts to load windows. Before it can get anywhere, it asks me to type the name of the command interpreter. Of course, I know a bootable floppy would help, but as we know I am without it. 

My goal is to get on long enough to back up some word documents. I need maybe 5-10 minutes tops. Is there anyway to get this command interpreter off of the windows 98 install disk?

If I hold down control, I get to the windows 98 start up menus, but both the command prompt and safe mode command prompt still get me to the "type the name of the command interpreter". Any suggestions? LIke I said, I do not need full functionality


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## blues_harp28 (Jan 9, 2005)

Hi rosh325.
Again you wil need a boot disk and at the a: prompt
type.
SYS C:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000012.htm


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Thanks for the reply. Since I do not have access to a computer with a floppy drive, I have downloaded an ISO for a bootable win98 cd

It contains the same files as a floppy would, including sys, command.com, and fdisk

I have tried the "sys C:" command from the A: prompt, and the CD spins up....a minute later it says "data error reading drive C: abort, retry, fail"

I have tried the "fdisk /mbr" command from the A: proompt and recieve and error saying "the master boot code has NOT been updated"....again it can not seem to find the C drive

I tried typing A:\command.com C:\command.com to try and get it to copy from the boot cd to my HDD, but it says "cannot make directory entry-C:\command.com"

I have also tried letting windows start up on it's own until I get the "type the directory for command.com". I tried telling it to look at the cd, but that did not work, as "A" is the floppy drive and D is not recognized


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## blues_harp28 (Jan 9, 2005)

Hi try.
C:\Windows\Command.com

Or.
SYS A:\ C:


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Thank you blues_harp28

Where should I do this? From the command prompt that pops up after I boot from the cd I made? If so, it does not work.

From that command prompt, If I get to C, and type dir, it comes up with "file not found"

If I type "sys A:\ C:" from the command prompt I get after it loads from the boot cd, I hear the CD throttle up, but then am told "data error reading drive C"

At this point, I'm ready to just cave and buy a new HDD. I found out my girlfriend's mom has paper copies of the files she needs so she can bite the bullet on the loss. Thank you guys for all your help. I always know I can come to the forums for help. Sorry this didn't have a happier solution.

I might be able to go down to my college and find a computer with a floppy disk drive to make a real bootable cd. I just don't know if it will be able to access the C drive or if it will have the same problem. We'll see


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## rosh325 (Jan 30, 2003)

Just for the record, it turns out that it is a P3 system, not a p2. I have looked up the motherboard on Aopen's website, and with its current bios, it supports a drive up to 137gigs. There is a bios update that will allow it to support over 137, but I can not update until I can get a stable version of windows going on the new drive.

Here's my question, if I install a new drive that is >137, what is the best way to do this? Do I partition it to 137, install windows, then try to expand the partition to the extra size?


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