Can't reinstall Win98. PNP hardware.

**mattman** · 17th April 2004

Hi everyone

A friends computer. Has given (me) problems since he got it (second-hand about 1 1/2 years ago)

Asus P2-99 mobo
Seems to be a 400mhz Celeron processor
96mb RAM
Trident 2X AGP
4.3gb Seagate HDD
Win98SE

Up until now it "loses" things. I have worked on it 3 times now. Previous problems were: Won't boot to OS, "no RAM" beeps, no video.

I've gotten past all those recurring faults currently, but still won't boot to Windows. It would only get to a desktop with 256 colours, no taskbar and just freeze/crash, so I am trying to reinstall Windows. Windows reinstall stops at "setting up plug and play devices".

I have changed video to a PCI card. Taken out the second stick of RAM. Removed all extraneous hardware. Run diagnostics on the harddrive. Even reseated the CPU.

Next step is format and reinstall, but maybe there is a fault in the motherboard.

Anything else you can think of?

If the format doesn't work, I suppose I will try to find a second-hand (slot 1) motherboard.

Anything I can run from a boot disk to diagnose hardware? mmm...I might have Norton utilities around here somewhere, anything else?

Matt

**PeteC** · 17th April 2004

Matt,

You may well be right - dodgy mobo, but have you checked out the BIOS under Boot Menu - Plug and Pray O/S? Try switching the options - if they exist.

**mattman** · 17th April 2004

Hi Pete,

I changed it to Plug and Pray, but the prays went unheeded. Scoured all the BIOS settings, there are one or two I might change "for kicks".

Norton Utilities only checks the HDD in boot mode. I found a program called Diag.exe, but I think it will only check the main hardware eg. CPU, memory etc.

Thanx
Matt

**Rockster2U** · 18th April 2004

mattman:

Will that MoBo let you manually set core voltage and/or memory voltage? - if yes, try bumping up your core voltage first and if that won't get you past your stall, try bumping your memory voltage. From what you describe, memory timings appear questionable - have you got any other sticks you can try?

**mattman** · 19th April 2004

G'day Rockster,

Vcore has two settings, normal and test. Test is the higher voltage. I did set it to test and had no luck. I/O voltage (includes memory voltage) also has normal and test. Do I set both to test or just the one for memory(I/O) now?...Although I may as well try both at the same time... I don't have much to lose now, it still refuses to install the OS (tried a blank HDD).

Tried some memory from fully functioning Asus board, same result.

Much thanks for your input

Matt

**mattman** · 19th April 2004

BTW,

This slot 1 CPU is some sort of a "bare bones" setup. It seems to be just a card with a lever type socket (370) CPU attached. I'm wondering if I might try installing the Pentium II 266 slot card from the "functioning" (Asus) motherboard. May get some STABILITY??

Matt

sparrow · 19th April 2004

mattman.

When multiple items fail intermittantly in an old computer, I think it's worthwhile to install a new inexpensive power supply, (or borrow one from a working machine as a test).

Good luck!

**mattman** · 9th May 2004

Hi fellas,

Looks like I may have found it.

I have had it in the corner and did some pricing on replacement motherboards. Decided I had time to give it one last try...check short from the motherboard to the case. Started taking it apart and noticed the previously invisble (haha) soundcard had to be removed. Removed the motherboard, blew out several large clumps of dust and put it back together without the soundcard. Reinstalled Windows (pretended I wasn't looking when it was detecting PnP hardware, but could hear the harddrive ticking over without a pause) and it worked.

Whether it was the clumps of dust or the soundcard I don't know, but I'm not putting either back in again

. Just hoping it is going to be stable now.

Thanks for your replies, I did some tests that I hadn't done before.

Matt