Startup problem

Hey, Geekers...

I have an old E-Machine/Athlon 333mh/Win98/40gbHD which serves as an invaluable, and reliable work horse for my older programs.

In recent days, there were a couple of instances when startup seemed to 'hang,' taking longer than usual.

Then came an instance in which it hung up interminably right after - if I remember correctly - locating the bootlog, or whatever it is that it looks for on each drive, finally locating it on the hard drive before continuing the boot process. In this case, I shut off the power and then successfully rebooted.

Finally, there came the instance in which, after what seemed a fairly normal boot sequence (log-in and password, etc), the desktop display came up in unpleasant complimentary colors (red=green, blue=yellow, etc), with several randomly spaced 1-2 pixel wide stripes running from top to bottom of the screen, like scratches on a film strip. The mouse, et al, were dead. ALT-CTR-DEL got nothing. So I shut the machine off.

Presently, after powering up, the screen remains black, the lights on the CD drives initially briefly flash in sequence as usual, but instead of the light on the floppy dirve then flashing, everything comes to a halt with the HD light remaining steadily illuminated until I run out of prayers and shut it down.

I tried using a bootdisk, but since the floppy drive never gets energized, that approach doesn't work. (I haven't tried starting it with the original Restore CD inserted in the CD drive, though.)

I suspect the fault is with the HD, which is about 4 years old. I can't imagine that it is overfilled; it should be at about half capacity. The weather has been quite hot and humid, so I wonder if that could be the problem.

Perhaps someone who has had a similar problem can tell me what its cause was, and how they fixed it. I have just completed an extensive CADD design project, the clients and builder are waiting, and I MUST get access to that drive. If I have a failed (crashed) hard drive, what can I do? What, in your opinion, is wrong with my computer?

Any help. PLEEEZE. Thanks!

 

i've had success in just changing the power plug to the harddrive with another plug thats free from the power supply.

also, try another ribbon cable from the motherboard to the hdd.

hope it works

kj
computer corrections
cookson, ok

 

Might try moving the hd to a different machine that allready has windows and you can probably move the file off that way.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The HD is working fine (on another PC), the cables, power connections, etc, seem to check out all right, and replacing the floppy drive with two others, I get the same result, meaning the problem isn't with the floppy drive itself, either. The problem, it seems, is that something isn't telling to floppy drive to do what it's supposed to do at this early startup point.

To recap the history: the problem developed over five or so startups. It began with a slow startup; then a startup that hung up during the drive check sequence; then a startup that ended with the machine frozen at a desktop of incorrect colors; and then, nothing but a black screen and the HD idly spinning.

Here's the sequence I'm getting: (1) Power on; (2) CD drive lights almost immediately flicker briefly, as usual; (3) floppy drive light never glows; (4) HD light remains steadily lit, HD apparently spinning, as the case gets warm (5) not so much as a flicker on the screen. I've given it as much as ten minutes, but nothing happens.

I have a 2nd-hand Win98 Resource Kit manual, 99.9 percent of which is completely over my head. My suspicion is that one of the files involved in the startup sequence is corrupted. This might be the Master Boot Record, or the Boot Sector of the HD. Or something else.

Does anyone know if I'm on the right track? Can I stick the HD on another machine, and edit the corrupted file? At this point, I need my hand held a little... like, what's the name of the file, what's it supposed to have in it, and can I edit it with Notepad? Or, can I download a patch from somewhere on the internet?

Thanks for any and all appropriate suggestions. I really need to get this machine running.