Serious computer problem?
February 18th, 2010
J.F asked:
We were given these old computers with various faults/errors on them and were told to fix them.I have tried everything I can think of and the damn thing is *still* not working.
All of us wiped the computers so there was nothing on them and we were starting from scratch,partitioning a hard drive,installing MS-DOS and then Windows 98.
My friend and I seem to have exactly the same errors on ours and we have no clue why. I have wiped mine a total of 5 times now and it still seems to think there is some of the old Windows OS left on it. When I try to install from the CD it will run through the process then restart at which point it asks for the CD again and re-runs it,this is a continuious loop.
We know that the MS-DOS floppy disk,the Windows 98 OS Disk and the hard disk are correctly connected and functioning,we’ve changed the floppy drive for one thats known to work and we’ve changed the bus cables for ones that are known to be working but still the problem persists.
If there is no disk at start-up the message “Invalid System Disk,replace disk and press any key to continue” appears,then once it has been inserted it still says Invalid System Disk.
I’ve changed every part in that computer save the Power Supply,Motherboard,CD-Drive and Sound Card,i’ve reset the BIOS battery and still nothing.Can someone please point me in the right direction,what’s causing this error,how can I resolve it,i’ve been at this thing for three days straight and I think i’ve developed a severe psychotic hatred of computers!
Sorry I need to point this out.The computer is *not* mine and I personally think it should be used as a paper weight at best.Its part of a course i’m on,we *have* to use windows 98 and the old computer parts we’re given,can’t get newer better ones >:(
Make Wind Power Turbine
We were given these old computers with various faults/errors on them and were told to fix them.I have tried everything I can think of and the damn thing is *still* not working.
All of us wiped the computers so there was nothing on them and we were starting from scratch,partitioning a hard drive,installing MS-DOS and then Windows 98.
My friend and I seem to have exactly the same errors on ours and we have no clue why. I have wiped mine a total of 5 times now and it still seems to think there is some of the old Windows OS left on it. When I try to install from the CD it will run through the process then restart at which point it asks for the CD again and re-runs it,this is a continuious loop.
We know that the MS-DOS floppy disk,the Windows 98 OS Disk and the hard disk are correctly connected and functioning,we’ve changed the floppy drive for one thats known to work and we’ve changed the bus cables for ones that are known to be working but still the problem persists.
If there is no disk at start-up the message “Invalid System Disk,replace disk and press any key to continue” appears,then once it has been inserted it still says Invalid System Disk.
I’ve changed every part in that computer save the Power Supply,Motherboard,CD-Drive and Sound Card,i’ve reset the BIOS battery and still nothing.Can someone please point me in the right direction,what’s causing this error,how can I resolve it,i’ve been at this thing for three days straight and I think i’ve developed a severe psychotic hatred of computers!
Sorry I need to point this out.The computer is *not* mine and I personally think it should be used as a paper weight at best.Its part of a course i’m on,we *have* to use windows 98 and the old computer parts we’re given,can’t get newer better ones >:(
Make Wind Power Turbine
Categories: Other - Computers | Tags: Computer Problem, Invalid System Disk, Old Windows
Make Wind Power Turbine
Well, for starters you should get a more recent version of Windows or better yet Linux. You also need to format the hard drives with a decent program like killdisk. Then if you are going to use windows, boot with a startup disk. then format the drive. then install the operating system.
Make Home Solar Power
You badly need a new computer!
How to Make Solar Power
sounds like billpark hit it right on the nose. killdisk is an excellent program.
i am having hard time figuring out the process of your installation, you install windows, it goes all the way, then it should continue setup, then its just a matter of finishing the process, better advice could be offered if you are more specific about where setup fails, saying endless loop makes no sense, and not sure where floppy drives fit into the whole setup process, like i said , more details about error messages would make it easier to help you, good luck
Make Wind Power Turbine
Hmm, sounds tough. I can give you some suggestions, but probably you’ve tried all of these. Still, if I were encountering the problems you’ve described above, I might think the problem may lie in any of the following:
(note, I listed the suggestions in terms of least work/least replacement cost to most work/highest replacement cost…)
1) Your sound card might somehow be the cause of the problem. Remove it and try re-installing the operating system without the sound card attached.
2) There might be a loose connection to the motherboard or to the back of one of your drives somewhere. Reseat all connections to your drives and the motherboard. Reseat the RAM while you are at it.
3) There may be excess dust in your computer, causing some key component of the system to overheat and fail. Remove any dust from on top the motherboard and try to remove all dust from any slots on the motherboard.
4) If you are running Windows 98 on a newer computer (to me, “newer” means anything designed for Windows XP or better) then there may be a setting in bios that will cause problems if used with Windows 98. Check google for any such setting and make the appropriate change in bios, if need be.
5) A virus might have got into the bios. (this is unlikely, since you wiped the bios, but I’d still check it.) Wipe the bios, Boot from a known-good read-only floppy, fdisk the hard drive, wipe the bios again, then try to re-install the operating system.
6) Your power cable or power equipment could be causing the problem. Replace the power cable / any power strips attached to your computer and try again. If you don’t have any such equipment on hand, then try swapping the power cords that goes to your monitor and your computer and see if that solves the problem. Also, try a different outlet if possible Additionally, check the back of your power supply to ensure that little red tab is set to the correct voltage setting.
7) Your CD drive or installation discs might be bad. It might not be that it’s dirty, it just might be bad. Clean your Hard Drive, then copy the installation files from your installation disc to your hard drive. (On Windows 98 installation discs, I believe that the installation files are located in D:\win98\*.*.) If the copy fails, then there is something wrong with the CD, Installation Disc, or the Hard drive. If the copy is successful, then run the install off of the hard drive.
It could be the power supply. In this case, there could be something intermittently failing in the power supply, and that could be causing the computer to periodically reset. You could test for this problem by booting the computer up using a boot disk and just letting the computer idle in the dos prompt. If you need the computer to do something, then you might try to locate some dos benchmarking software (which I have no idea where such software exists) and run it for several hours in dos. If the computer resets, then it’s either the power supply or the motherboard. Replace the power supply and try again.
9) The motherboard is bad. If this is the case, then it’s probably better to get a brand new computer then restore the old one, simply due to the cost of parts and the amount of labor that will go into restoring the computer.