HELP! Windows 95 Nightmare Problem

Hi! I hope someone can help me, or more precisely my work colleague. If I explain the ssituation below, then perhaps anyone with any brainy ideas can get in touch.

She bought a second-hand computer recently. The previous owner had deleted all but the Operating System (Windows 95) and Microsoft Word. When she first started it up everything loaded fine.

A few days later her kids claim they tried to install the printer, and from then on it has only been able to load in Safe-Mode. They say that installing the printer was all they tried to do.

I had a look at it this evening, and the first thing I noticed is that once it had finished the RAM check and loading the Hard Drives/CD Drives, the following message appeared "CMOS Checksum error". I pressed F1 to continue, and it proceeded to load windows, but then just hung after loading the drivers (DOSKEY was the last successful command that it loaded) before entering Windows. The only way to get into Windows was to use the F8 option at startup, and choose Step-by-step confirmation. I did the yes and no's to all the usual things, and it loaded windows, but in Safe-Mode.


Once in Windows, I had a look in all the usual .SYS and .BAT files, having done a bit of research on the net previously, as to what might cause Windows to load in Safe-Mode every time without even asking which Mode you wish to try. I couldn't find anything to explain wwhy it was doing this.

I uninstalled the printer drivers, and every other program other than the compulsory ones (only using add/remove programs), tried rebooting a few times, but the same problem occured i.e. Without pressing F8, the computer would hang, with pressing F8 the only modes that worked were Step-By-Step and command prompt. Even safe-mode hung if that option was tried.

I decided the only thing to do was to format the hard-drive and reinstall windows, starting from scratch. With the computer not having anything of value on there yet I thought it was worth a shot. It formatted, and installed windows fine, BUT THEN, upon rebooting when prompted, it hung on the First Time You Have Used Windows screen. When I pressed escape, it showed that it had finished loading some of the drivers, but the last line to appear was the DOSKEY one.

The specs of the machine are: 200Mhz Pentium, 64 MB RAM, 3.3 GB Hard Drive, basic soundblaster card, modem, and graphics card (unsure of graphics card spec, but it would be one to match a standard desktop computer first sold in 1996). Unsure of motherboard specs too.

So... can anyone help in any way? Before I have to point her in the direction of an expensive computer maintenance man (incidentally, anyone know of a reputable computer repairs business based in Southampton, UK?)? Any help/advice/suggestions greatly appreciated.

ManyMany Thanks

Ian (Phew! sorry for the epic essay!)

 

Well it is an old computer, which means that the CMOS battery might be on the way out... I seem to remeber reading somewhere that this could be one of the causes of such errors (anyone correct me if I am wrong)

If you have a copy of the CMOS settings (maybe the person your friend bought it from might) try putting them in and it might sort you out...

Well, if I am no help, sorry, but thats the best I got
and if I am woo hoo

-Ciz