The reluctant booter upper

I have a privately assembled PC with a Phillips 107S monitor, built by my sone about 5 years ago running W95. A year or so ago I upgraded 95 to 98SE. Everything is connected to a surge protector and shut down after screen says it okay and startup are controlled by the on/off switch on the surge protector. A while back after deleting some stuff I thought was irrelevant, the machine started having trouble at startup. The processer will start drumming and the green light on the monitor will light, then within maybe a second or two the drumming stops, the green light on the monitor turns yellow and the blinking red light on the tower showing the hard drive is working will turn steady. The fan keeps running. Pushing Reset or the off/on button on either the tower or the surge protector produce the same result. But, after a while, I've never timed it I just go about my business elsewhere, if I turn it off and then back on, the drumming starts, the monitor light comes on green, and after a second or two I hear a Beep and it goes on and boots up like it had good sense.
I tried installing the full 98SE over the 95 to 98SE conversion and it still does it. Any suggestions for a throroughly confused old.........feller?

 

Sounds like loss of video signal due to failing video card.
But check this first, right click on My Computer and then select Properties. In the window that appears, click on the Device Manager tab. Does anything show up with a yellow ! or ? . If one does, double click the item, another window will open, click on Driver tab and post back what the item is and the error code.

 

Well I appreciate your response.
No Yellow ! or ?.

 

Thank You for your interest.
As for the "Drumming" sound. From the time I got this machine, some 5 or 6 years ago, when it is booting up a faint sound emanates from the speakers that sounds like drumming. I did not associate it with drumming until one day I noticed a small icon on the screen of a snare drum with sticks drumming it. It always is heard when the little red "HDISK" light on the front of the tower is blinking, which I have been told indicates the hard drive is working at something.

As for your suggestion that I unplug/replug connectors inside, I often do that with success in other non-computer related things I work on so I'll give it a try.

As to backing up stuff because the Hard Drive may be going, I have suspected that and am torn between replacing it and adding more memory, or junking the machine and getting a new one. The hesitation is in that this machine is only used by my wife to play games, (sometimes for hours on end), and she has no interest in the internet.

Again, Thanks, Jim