Could there be a virus?
I asked a question before about the same computer and finally got it up with Windows ME.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20861294/Himem-disabled.html
After it was up I started to get a BSOD and some other errors I should have wrote down. This is a seven year old system that won't recognize larger hard drives. It is a 166Mhz pentium processor. I went into fdisk and deleted the partition and then created a new one. After rebooting I did a fdisk /mbr and then from a:\ sys c:
After rebooting I chose cd-rom support (option 1) and got my a:\ cd to e:\ and went into setup. There were more than several times with Windows 98 & ME disks where it will start installing and get to different points or only so far and give up. The system will become locked. The last time I tried Windows 98 I got it showing 100% of the Windows files loading but then I got a USER.DAT file error. That took me out and I don't know if I have to start over again.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20861294/Himem-disabled.html
After it was up I started to get a BSOD and some other errors I should have wrote down. This is a seven year old system that won't recognize larger hard drives. It is a 166Mhz pentium processor. I went into fdisk and deleted the partition and then created a new one. After rebooting I did a fdisk /mbr and then from a:\ sys c:
After rebooting I chose cd-rom support (option 1) and got my a:\ cd to e:\ and went into setup. There were more than several times with Windows 98 & ME disks where it will start installing and get to different points or only so far and give up. The system will become locked. The last time I tried Windows 98 I got it showing 100% of the Windows files loading but then I got a USER.DAT file error. That took me out and I don't know if I have to start over again.
ASKER
I am booting up from Win98 Startup floppy.
I just took my floppy out and booted from my hard drive. I started to get the 98 splash screen but then I got a blue screen that said:
Windows found an error in your system files and was unable to fix the problem. Try deleting some files to free up disk space on your windows drive. If this doesn't work re-install windows under another directory.
And then it gave me an OK to press
After the OK I got my c:\ . However, before it showed that I got a few error messages on the screen.
1. Registry file was not found
2. XMS cache problem
3. System.ini cannot be found
There were a couple more words but after maybe 10 seconds the screen just said it is safe to turn your computer off now.
I just took my floppy out and booted from my hard drive. I started to get the 98 splash screen but then I got a blue screen that said:
Windows found an error in your system files and was unable to fix the problem. Try deleting some files to free up disk space on your windows drive. If this doesn't work re-install windows under another directory.
And then it gave me an OK to press
After the OK I got my c:\ . However, before it showed that I got a few error messages on the screen.
1. Registry file was not found
2. XMS cache problem
3. System.ini cannot be found
There were a couple more words but after maybe 10 seconds the screen just said it is safe to turn your computer off now.
ASKER
And formating my hard drive I have done it with "Format c:" and "Format c: /u/s" and either way I'm still don't know what is wrong.
>>This is a seven year old system that won't recognize larger hard drives.<<
What size is the HD?
Try creating a much smaller partition and format it...
What size is the HD?
Try creating a much smaller partition and format it...
If you have a system whose BIOS does not support large disks, you may need something like the Ontrack overlay to be able to use the disk properly. Check with your disk manufacturer's site.
JohnT
JohnT
ASKER
The hard drive that I'm trying to get to work, if that is the problem, is 2.5 Gig and is a FAT16. The two that I have tried more than once are 40GB Maxtor and 30GB WD. When I go into the BIOS it won't recognize either one.
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ASKER
Well I have a MaxBlast 3 CD. I had only the easy option to select of formating the whole hard drive. The advanced option would give me the choice to add partitions. There was only one partition on there and I couldn't add another on even if I deleted it. I just formatted the whole drive and it mentioned when I reboot it will show a blue banner and load my OS from there. About half the time when I reboot I can see the memory testing up to 64MB and sometimes it doesn't show it but it still moves on. Next it is showing that it is trying to detect the primary master (which is my hard drive) and press F4 to skip. I have left it on that for thirty minutes and it didn't detect so I never got to the blue banner. I am using my MaxBlast II CD now and doing some tests. The only two failures I've gotten so far are:
1. BIOS Extension Support
2. BIOS Large Drive Support
Besides that maybe rebooting every 1 out of 4 times I get three beeps, one long and two short, when I reboot and I can't see the screen my A:\ light is on and active but I don't know what it is doing.
1. BIOS Extension Support
2. BIOS Large Drive Support
Besides that maybe rebooting every 1 out of 4 times I get three beeps, one long and two short, when I reboot and I can't see the screen my A:\ light is on and active but I don't know what it is doing.
ASKER
I just found this about the beeps for AWARD BIOS
Beep Code Description
1 long, 2 short Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information
Beep Code Description
1 long, 2 short Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information
Well, that's not going to help. When windoze setup searches for new h/w, it tests fairly rigorously and will lock up / BSOD / crash if it finds
problems it can't handle. If you get the error on 25 percent of reboots, setup'll probably hit it most times you run it. [I had one the other
week that took 5 attempts to install W98. After that, it'd screw up on re-boot every time you installed any s/w and revert to the previous
registry settings. Completely ****** useless. ]
Do you have a spare video card? If your m/b has an on-board card, you'll need to disable that in the BIOS - if it'll let you.
This is beginning to look like it's time to consider some new kit.. :-(
JohnT
problems it can't handle. If you get the error on 25 percent of reboots, setup'll probably hit it most times you run it. [I had one the other
week that took 5 attempts to install W98. After that, it'd screw up on re-boot every time you installed any s/w and revert to the previous
registry settings. Completely ****** useless. ]
Do you have a spare video card? If your m/b has an on-board card, you'll need to disable that in the BIOS - if it'll let you.
This is beginning to look like it's time to consider some new kit.. :-(
JohnT
ASKER
I'm still trying to get Windows 98 working. I used some diagnostic software that booted from DOS and everything was ok. Everytime I start booting, or when I'm booting setup.exe, I the system locks up in different places.
My autoexec.bat file is:
File Edit Search View Options Help
┌──γ
│C:\cdrom\mscdex /d:NECCD
│@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
│@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
│
And my config.sys is:
devicehigh=C:\CDROM\NEC_ID
Lastdrive = Z
If this is the problem what can be done?
My autoexec.bat file is:
File Edit Search View Options Help
┌──γ
│C:\cdrom\mscdex /d:NECCD
│@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
│@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
│
And my config.sys is:
devicehigh=C:\CDROM\NEC_ID
Lastdrive = Z
If this is the problem what can be done?
ASKER
My autoexec.bat is:
C:\cdrom\mscdex /d:NECCD
@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
C:\cdrom\mscdex /d:NECCD
@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
@if exist C:\WININST0.400\SuWarn.Bat
If for any reason Setup does not finish and the computer needs to be restarted, the following lines in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file prompt you to run Setup again:
@if exist c:\wininst0.400\suwarn.bat
@if exist c:\wininst0.400\suwarn.bat
ASKER
I have 4 16MB DIMMs in this computer. I went ahead and took out the last two and did a setup/is/ig and tried it several times but I got an error with User.exe to begin with. I took those out and put the other two back in and did the same setup with the /is/ig and everything works I guess I just need to do more tests on this memory. Hopefully it will stay up.
Thanks for the feedback and good news.
Zee
You are booting up with a Win98 startup floppy, correct?
After fdisk, go for "format c:" and after formating try installing Win98 from the CD (setup...).
Zee