98SE Won't go past Aptiva Startup Screen!

Hi everyone, as you can see i'm a newbie here! Anyways, I was starting up my 1998 IBM Aptiva w/ 98SE and it stopped at the IBM Aptiva startup screen. About 20-30 seconds later it asked me to 'insert a boot disk and press enter to restart'. Needless to say, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I created a boot disk from my other 98SE computer but when I restart the computer... it doesn't even try accessing the floppy drive to read the boot disk. I have the aptiva recovery disk and even the windows 98 cd but it won't read anything. I can't figure out what to do because the only real thing I can get into is by pressing f1 at startup. I even made sure the floppy & cd drives booted first. Still no success. =( Any help or suggestions for a newbie on this problem??

 

mlb585,

First of all, welcome to the board! Curious, what model of Aptiva do you have? Can you get into safe mode? Did you change anything just before this started happening?

Mike

 

Thanks Mike. I was actually just starting to tranfer files from a usb flash drive when it happened. The model of the Aptiva is the E Series 275. I can't get into anything...it won't get past the Aptiva startup screen. I've tried everything I could think of. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

mlb585, I have no experience of the IBM Aptiva. Is the Aptiva start-up screen
a replacement for the usual Win98SE start-up screen ?
I can only suggest you try :
1) look for a file named logo.sys and rename it eg to logoold.sys
2) Start Button/Run and type sysedit.exe
Look thro' the various files and add a ; before any reference to
eg Aptiva Start-up, or any line that refers to Aptiva logo
Reboot
regards

 

Did you try to boot from the CD-ROM with any bootable CD ?
Sounds like hardware if it won't boot from anything.
When you are in cmos setup ... can you do a hard drive detect ?

Best

 

mlb585,

Can you give me the complete model number? For example, I have a 2153-E2U and had a 2176-C66. Have you opened the case to make sure everything is tightly connected? I'll keep looking.

Mike

Edit, is your system a 2170-275? Were you using Symantec Norton Ghost to copy your drive? If so, you may want to look at this page. If not, how were you trying to copy the disk?

 

Thanks for the input on this. I will have to go home and find out a little later exactly what the model number is on this. The computer will not boot from a cd or a disk. I can hear the cd spin up...but it doesn't read it. Even when there is a disk in the a: drive, it will not even try to read it. I haven't opened up the case yet to see if anything is loose but I wouldn't think that anything could come loose like that.

I wasn't ghosting the drive (however, the drive was ghosted about 2 years ago when I updated it to the 40gb that I currently have). I was just using a MPIO 1.5gb usb drive to transfer data from that cpu to a laptop. It froze upon loading info and when I rebooted it is when it happened. I had to format the 1.5gb usb drive and it ask to image certain files (maybe even boot record files) to ensure proper formatting. But I did the same process to remove files from my 'other' ibm aptiva (win98se) computer and everything is fine. What gives??

 

This Aptiva screen may be coming from the BIOS, and nothing to do with windows at all. But do rename the Logo.Sys file to be sure.
The reason you cannot get a floppy or CD to boot is probably because the hard drive is the First Boot Device, or first in the Boot Order. You need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order. When the computer is booting you may see a message like 'Press DEL to enter Setup', or it may be F10 or something else entirely. This is how to enter the BIOS, look under Advanced CMOS settings for the boot order.

 

When you press f1 (assuming this is cmos setup), can you see any hard drive ?
Definately open it up and reseat cables.

Best

 

I have already made sure all connections are tight and intact inside the computer. I have already gone into the bios as well and changed the order to have the floppy first and then tried to do the cdrom first....nothing worked. It does show a hardrive as well. Any other suggestions? Should I try putting the hd in another computer and see if it will boot up?

 

The problem is at a lower level than the HDD, for example .. it should boot a floppy without a hard drive in the box. Something low level like drive controller or BIOS chip is shot. I'm somewhat surprized that the HDD shows in cmos setup. Next trick might be to clear the cmos memory totally ... but i don't know how on that machine. Maybe when you have the case open if you can identify a chip that has a "clear" printed next to a pin ...or if it has a lithium battery ... take that out (and all batteries) for an hour. Or search the net for method on that box (seem to remember something at overclockers forum) anyway "clear cmos" Google should find it.
If clearing cmos don't help .....

Best

 

To reset the CMOS, take the battery out for a couple hours.