Anyone come across this before?
Computer froze (not mine thank heaven) and "wouldn't work". Normal sort of call that can be traced quite quickly - not so this time.
Switched it on, splash screen came up and - it rebooted! Kept doing this so I went through the step by step option. Autoexec.bat was accepted but config.sys would fail at some stage (never the same point). Very odd.
Booted from floppy and got command prompt. Ran Scandisk but it locked again. DIR on both drives showed structure intact and TYPE would list TXT files. I could even run a DOS game OK - but many progs (OK those that I could get to work in DOS) would lock. Corrupt HD? Yes, I did find evidence - but it gets stranger.
Got the WIN98 CD and Start up floppy. Setup locked. Next ran FDISK and wiped the drive, then formatted it (drastic now). Windows setup still locks - as does Scandisk from the CD. Loads of other tests using both hard drives and then each individually. Result always the same - can get to DOS, list files and open some - but the computer just refuses to go any further.
At one point when I tried running Scandisk it started to print out directory lists and once it came up with "Program caused a Divide Overflow Error"!!
So what is it I haven't spotted? I think one HD is kaput and the other suspect but I am wondering what may have caused this. Also, could further components be damaged that might result in this odd behaviour?
I'll add that I've checked all floppies that I've used during these tests and they appear virus free - and reformatted one HD - but no luck there.
Any suggestions welcome!