Windows 2K works great but....

I managed to buy myself a used edition of W2k, along with the four boot disks. I have always used windows 98 as my machine is rather old.

Anyway, the installation went well apart from for some reason I could not use my STB Velocity 4400 card (had a hard time getting the driver to work). So I stuck an older PCI graphic card which works fine.

Well, I updated all the security patches from Microsoft. It was only then that I noticed the hard drive light is constantly on. I can hear no noise from it. I never had this problem with windows 98SE, and I installed that on here several times.

This was a fresh install of windows 2000, the hard drive was fdisked and partioned.

My computer is an ABIT BX6, with a Pentium II 350, with 128mb ram, and a Maxtor 10gb HDD.

Like I say the install went well and windows 2000 runs fine apart from this, but i don`t know why the hard drive light stays on solid. It was fine this morning on windows 98.

When selecting to shutdown, the machine closes up and says `it is now safe to turn your machine off` or something like that! But the hard drive light still remains on. Also, I cannot shut my machine down via the on/off switch on the front of my tower, only way is by the main switch at the back. I never had this problem with 98 or ME.

I sure hope someone can advise, I have posted this in a few forums, but no one seems to be able to help

Thanks.

 

You're running about the minimum requirements for 2K. This doesn't really relate to you problem, but in my experience (I support about 1000 Win2K pcs at work) 128 megs of memory is to little. It causes almost constant reading/writing of the pagefile. 256 megs seems to about the min for smooth operation.

If you just installed 2K without opening the PC and messing with the hardware, the only explanation I can give is something finally just gave out on the MB.

I know this is a pain, but try reinstalling 98 and see if it's still acting up.
Maybe you could borrow a HD to install 98 on for testing.

There could be something fundamentally incompatible with your MB and /or BIOS and 2k. I've never seen this, but I do believe there problems between 2k and some hardware.

But if the on/off button won't shut it down, it sounds like bad hardware.

On another note, don't you think it's time to buy a new PC?

 

Thanks, yes a new PC is needed I know

Anyway, I checked on the ABIT website, and found my BIOS needs upgrading as the previous BIOS had compatability issued with W2K. Maybe this is where the problem is, but I have another PC that I can borrow the Sdram from and boost mine to 256mb.

Tried to flash my BIOS earlier, everything went as it should, the machine rebooted yet I still have my old BIOS I`ll have to ask ABIT about this one.

Ps. I stuck a spare 4GB hard drive back in with 98 on, everything works as it should.

I really should get a new PC

 

The shutdown issue is possibly an issue with the graphics card. Update the drivers for the PCI card. But I'd suggest finding drivers for the original card as it's an AGP card. As it's an Nvidia chipset card, try nvidia.com for a driver. Not sure if the current reference uni-drivers will work on this old card though?

Worth getting a new (low end) AGP card if no luck with the driver update.

Taking your RAM up to 256 will reduce disk activity and may help a little with the HD LED always being on.

Check the Abit site for W2K motherboard drivers for your model as well.

Have you installed W2K SP4. If not, install it. You will need to go to windows update and reload all the previous security updates after installing SP4.

Did you defrag the machine after the new install? A highly fragmented drive can cause more than usual disk activity. Defrag after installing all the updates.

 

I should add, that I flashed my BIOS successfully. The graphics cards now works fine, and the machine shuts down perfectly.

But, the hard drive light stays on solid. I noticed during installation, when the first floppy began loading up, this is when the hard drive light became `stuck`. It never flickered after this, just stayed solid right through installation, and now during operation. It`s like the light has stuck on. There is no noise from the hard drive, no clicking, no nothing. Yet, windows 2000 is working perfectly fine.

Just wondered what on that first installation floppy could cause this?

 

Hi britbob. I'm glad you solved your shutdown prob. I't just goes to show that keeping the BIOS updated is extremly important, especially when upgrading your OS.
But I'm curious about your last statement:
"Just wondered what on that first installation floppy could cause this? "
I assume you're referring to the HDD light. I don't believe the install floppies have anything to do with it. It's probably still an incompatibility with 2K and your MB, even after the BIOS upgrade. Some things the MB manufacturer just doesn't care about, especially when they want nothing more than to sell you a new MB.

 

My hard drive lights are on pretty much solid, too. Is this a problem? I installed Wondows 2000 about two years ago on a computer which originally ran Windows ME. And also, I only had (until yesterday) 128 megs of RAM.

Have I possibly been damaging my hard drives? One is solely for data storage so I particularly want to preserve it as long as possible. Thank you.

Gail

 

Gail,
With 128MB RAM disk caching will cause the disk the thrash away a LOT. I guess you've increased your RAM to 256? This will be fine for your system. Drives WILL eventually wear out and can last from 1 minute to 10 years+.

I wouldn't be too concerned with having worn out your drive. But you should have in place a good backup routine, so if you do loose a drive it only becomes an inconvenience and not a catastrophe.

Regular PC maintenence such as clearing out temp files and internet files as well as using the windows defragmenter can help with longevity.

 

Thank you, Paul. I suppose what I really should do is invest in an external hard drive and transfer the contents of my data hard drive to that. That way, if I get a new computer, at least I'll have my data files on two disks (I do have practically everything backed up to CD-R, but it would take even longer to try to copy all that back from so many CDs than from an external USB hard drive). Thank you, again, Paul. I hope I haven't damaged my disks too much.

Gail