computer freezes on boot up

Hi,
I have another computer dilemma, A friend of mines computer, Windows 98 (5 YEARS OLD), freezes when it boots up. No Icons or taskbar appears. I booted it into safe mode but once there it will not allow me to get beyond the safe mode screen. I did notice just before it freezes, the virus protection runs and then it freezes. I came across information that the virus protection could be a or the problem and I need to go into BIOS to disable the error finding file until I'm able to go back into safe mode and do some troubleshooting measures. I also notice that there's no fan inside the tower which really suprised me. After trying to get into safe mode a couple of times, a message appears saying the monitor works, check the video cable. I checked everything and then some. I feel as though this might be a video card problem but for some reason I'm in doubt. When the computer boots up there's no "beep" at start up either (which I think is not un-common for when there's a video card issue). Your help as usual will be greatly appreciated...

 

Is your friend able to afford a new PC ?
If so, I can recommend it. The PC that you are looking at is
going to cost you both a lot of grief.
regards

 

I had to laugh because I agree. Like I mentioned, I am not sure on what's exactly happening because of the issues I explained. The missing fan I felt may have been a small contributing factor but that there are other matters pending and because I could not get past first base sort of speaking, I was then not sure if this was a case where the computer would fair better on the yellow line of our nearest highway or not.

 

When you say there is no fan, do mean on the CPU or do you mean in the power supply? If its the power supply then that suprises me but if its the cpu then not as long as it has a heatsink on it, can you see if it has ***** (Wont let me say screww) marks on the heatsink indicating that it did indeed once have a fan?

Older cpu's, early 486 and Pentiums 1 and some early Pentium 2's sometimes never had fans, just huge heatsinks to dissapate the heat, this was for quietness in office situations and reliability as no fan could then pack up causing overheating.

Nowadays with such high speed cpu's they have to have them, some cpu's can give out the eqivalent heat of 80 to 100 watts!

Try restoring the registry to get it working again, if you have the windows 95 book that came with the disk, it tells you how to do it.

If you cant then get back to us and I am sure a lot of typing later I could put it on here.

Regards
tel33

 

Hi,
I guess a little education goes a long way, atleast in this case. When I looked inside the casing, I did notice the power supply had it's own fan, however I did not notice the heatsink (forgot to look). The education part I'm referring to is, My tower has just a fan inside seperate from the other stuff to keep the flow of air going out. I think thats what I was looking for in this case. Maybe you can bring me up to snuff and advise if because this unit is 5 years old (Gateway product) that maybe they were not essential then and as long as the power supply had one that was okay ? If so then that will help me in eliminating it's small contribution that I referred to in my original post. Now maybe I can try and figure out whats caused this computer to crash, the video card, hard drive or ??? Before placing it out on the highway (ha,ha)...Thank you for the info (and history lesson)...Appreciate it...

 

To be honest I have no idea what PC you have as you have not told me what you have, so I am second guessing you here.

Gateway made many different types but if its five years old then that was about the time for the end of the Pentium 1 and the start of the Pentium 2's.

What does the heatsink look like? Is it horizontal to the motherboard or standing veritcally upright and is about 3-4 inches long and very black?

If its horizontal then its a Pentium 1, an old design, max speed I think was 233mhz, if its long and black then its the Pentium 2, the Pentium 2 went from 233mhz upwards and was a better processor, though not by much.

Your problem, lets get down to it, it starts in Safe Mode ok but wont allow you to get past the safe mode screen correct?

Do you have a mouse that is not working to press OK?

Is the screen telling you its in diagnostic mode?

Do you have a Win95 cd disc?

If so put it in the cd drive and boot (Restart your pc) using a Win95 floppy disc, install the cd driver when the option appears. I think its option 1.

Once this has been done, reinstall Win95 by typing at the dos prompt that appears e.g. (A:/>) when all the cd drivers are loaded.

D:/setup

Then press enter.

(That is assuming your cd drive is the D drive, if its not then change the D:/ to whatever the cd drive is) Normally you main drive is a C drive and the cd rom is the D drive

Let windows load up and make sure you have the cd key handy, you will need it!!! You might need the drivers handy too.

Ok let the pc load windows back in and see if this solves your problem

Let me know asap on your results.

Regards
tel33

 

Here's what's happening:
(1) turn on the computer
(2) computer shows window 98 screen
(3) designated wallpaper screen appears
(4) virus loads up
(5) computer freezes

I re-start the computer and boot into safe mode, then:
(6) computer shows options
(7) I pick safe mode
(8) all 4 corners show safe mode
(9) computer freezes and does not allow anything to take
place. Mouse works but there's no taksbar to click on.
(10) I'm unable to bring up start menu by either with the
mouse or by pressing (I believe the trick is to press)
Ctrl and then Esc buttons.

There is no beep at startup and my attempts to access the
computer by other means has been extremely difficult at
this time...That's where my headaches lie for now. My postings
are primarily asking if a video card could be the culprit and it there are other tricks out there to get into safe mode ???

 

Ok, well it might be the graphics card, are there any signs of corruption on the screen? Is it seated properly in the slot?

I do somehow doubt it is the card though as you have a screen and in safe mode it uses basic drivers.

My guess is a corrupted registry, by reinstalling windows it might solve the problem, you will have to use dos to do it, can you get in to dos?

Just realised you said Win98? I thought you said Win95 in the first post? My mistake sorry, must be brain dead tonight!!

Go in to dos now, when the pc is starting keep pressing F8 and choose Ms Dos Mode by pressing the number it is.

When the dos prompt appears type in:

scanreg / restore

Choose the registry entry that is as far back as you can go date wise, there will normally be only 5 entries, it will say also if the pc started ok at that point, choose the one that says that it did start ok.

If that does not work try the reinstall trick, you have nothing to lose apart from time.

Let me know

Regards
tel33

 

Now we are cooking...I will see if I can try that this evening and report back to you in a couple of hours...I did fail to say, I took out the video card and re-seated it, nothing changed. The trick you suggested is kind of what I was looking to get and since it's the only option at this point, to work I go. Thanks

 

I am in the UK so a couple of hours is well past midnight for me so I will see if you have replied in the morning.

Goodluck

 

tel33,
Did you mean to say scanreg /restore rather than scanreg / restore? I don't know if that space will matter but.............?

 

scanreg /restore I meant but I dont know if the space will make any difference, thanks for pointing it out A bit tired this end! Off to bed I think!

 

I checked the CPU and the heat sink above it is vertical, approx 3 inches long, silver with 14 fins. First time I have seen one like this. I was able to boot to safe mode yesterday even thou I could not get beyond the safe mode screen but tonight I can't even do that. Instead a blue, green and red box pops up saying "Self Test ", your monitor is working, check the video cable and PC. I re-checked all cables, etc, etc and nothing is loose or appears damaged. I am unable to do anything at this point. The computer has a surge protector so for now I think I can rule out damage as a result of electrical. I also could not get the monitor to shut down when the computer was shut off, had to do so by pushing the button that shuts the monitor off. I am wondering is the power supply unit went south since all else can't be ruled in or ruled out ???

 

It sounds like a Pentium 2 you have there.

I take it that when you first turn it on you get a POST screen saying what is installed in the PC?

If you do not get a POST screen does anything happen on the pc when you turn it on, e.g. Hard drive making noises etc, Floppy chuntering, Power supply fan working?

You say you do not have a beep when you start it up? Have you checked to see if the memory is seated properly and all other cables connections etc are ok?

Try taking and disconnect the power lead for a while, sometimes power supllies have a fuse that can repair itself.

If that does not work then clear the BIOS by taking the round battery out, maybe that has become corrupted.

After ten mins put the battery back in and see if it works again, you might have to set up the BIOS though, mostly the date, type of hard drive etc.

I have to say this does not look good!

Let me know
tel333

 

When it starts it goes to the Windows 98 logon screen, then to the desk top wallpaper they have saved and from there when things are normal, the icons come up, etc, etc. In this case, all thats coming up in the following order is, windows 98 logon screen, desktop wallpaper they have saved and computer virus loads up then computer freezes. As of last night neither is happening, and now a self test box pops up that I explained in my previous post and thats the end of that ball game. I listened for the power supply and I don't beleive it's fan is moving and the hard drive not churning but however the floppy drive lights up and within seconds stops. I have checked all cables repeatedly, all chips including memory and video card. Un-plugged the power cord and so on and still nothing. I have that gut feeling like you previously had mentioned that this thing may not be worth it because it may get exspensive to fix. I think since this is going to be more of a headache then not that it's time to call a priest and give it, it's last rights...

 

Why not try booting with a Win98 (not 95) floppy as suggested earlier? Choose the "with CD" option (the first --and default--option listed ) and then try scanreg /restore. If you can boot to DOS this way, you will at least know that your problems are solvable eventually, albeit perhaps with some considerable time and difficulty. If you can't boot to DOS on a floppy with a machine of this age, your problems are significant....As for the suggestion from the computer that you have a monitor problem, it could well be that you do, but it is also possible that you don't. The computer has only a limited number of things it can say to you since it works only by rote, not by a true ability to articulate the situation. Unlike a bonobo using sign language, it can't make up a new reply to fit the changed circumstances.

 

Try booting to dos by pressing F8 on startup as I have said before and run scanreg /restore.

Let us know if you have done this, do not give up until you have tried this.

As regards to the power supply fan not working, look in the back vent when the pc is off, identify the fan then still looking at the fan start the pc up, you will see if its turning then.

With regards to the floppy light only coming on quickly thats normal, its the pc looking for a bootdisk on the floppy, if it cant find one then it tries the next boot device, normally the hard drive.

You sometimes have to listen very hard to hear the hard drive, listen for a whistling pitch sound as it starts to rotate on booting.

Regards
tel33

 

When you get this virus message, does it go something along the line of the MBR or Master Boot Record? This could be something simple as Win98 wanting to write to the MBR, and the Virus Protection is enabled in the BIOS, preventing this.

 

If it was the MBR that was damaged why can it boot into safe mode, even if it is corrupted? Surely the MBR must be intact?

I would not have thought the BIOS virus protection could cause this, usually you get a rather nasty beeping noise and a written warning that the BIOS protection is stopping something writing to the boot sector on startup, he has not mentioned any warnings or beeps to that effect.

His normal virus protection though might be damaged, Master Green can you disable the virus protection?

Have you tried the dos method yet by booting off a win98 startup disk? At least this will bypass the virus protection.

Have you also tried transferring your win98 system files to the pc by using a startup disk and typing sys c: at the dos prompt?

You dont have a lot of choice and anything you do is better than not trying at all.

Regards
tel33

 

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118996,00.htm

This maybe of some interest to you!