I think I may have fried my hardware.....
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I think I may have fried my hardware.....
Noisy made a serious error the other day when he plugged in his new hard drive without the PC being off. (The PC was shut down, but the switch on the back of the PSU wasn't off).
When I went to boot up using the original hardware configuration, the HDD got as far as the windows 2000 splash screen, but then hung.
Attempts to recover the OS using scandisk and buggering about with MS-DOS have all failed. Interrogating the drive as a slave in another machine will allow me to recover my documents etc. but I haven't done that yet.
Using a known good HDD, I attempted to install win 98 on the machine, but it gets so far and then just restarts the machine. (I don't have a good win 2000 OS disk)
The BIOS appears to be OK. it identifies all of the hardware correctly. I have verified that the IDE cables are OK using an Ohm meter. The PSU is making all of the right volts. I can't see any damage on the HDDs driver board.
Is it possible that my motherboard could have developed a problem that means it cannot support an OS?
I've run out of ideas. The Mobo is an Asrock KS78X with a 2.8GHz Athlon processor and over a gig of RAM.
Are there any more simple tests I can perform before I start spending money?
Thanks,
N
When I went to boot up using the original hardware configuration, the HDD got as far as the windows 2000 splash screen, but then hung.
Attempts to recover the OS using scandisk and buggering about with MS-DOS have all failed. Interrogating the drive as a slave in another machine will allow me to recover my documents etc. but I haven't done that yet.
Using a known good HDD, I attempted to install win 98 on the machine, but it gets so far and then just restarts the machine. (I don't have a good win 2000 OS disk)
The BIOS appears to be OK. it identifies all of the hardware correctly. I have verified that the IDE cables are OK using an Ohm meter. The PSU is making all of the right volts. I can't see any damage on the HDDs driver board.
Is it possible that my motherboard could have developed a problem that means it cannot support an OS?
I've run out of ideas. The Mobo is an Asrock KS78X with a 2.8GHz Athlon processor and over a gig of RAM.
Are there any more simple tests I can perform before I start spending money?
Thanks,
N
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You've done everthing I would have done, but there's just an outside chance a full BIOS reset might clear a setting that has been forced out of sync with the powered up HD change.
Disconnect the PC from the mains (lets unplug it this time, eh?
), remove the CMOS battery from the mobo for at least 15 mins. Put it back in and see if that works.
Disconnect the PC from the mains (lets unplug it this time, eh?
), remove the CMOS battery from the mobo for at least 15 mins. Put it back in and see if that works.
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In addition to what Tim has suggested I'd try installing an OS to a 'bare-bones' machine.
I.e. RAM, CD-ROM and HD only. Remove all other hardware, PCI cards etc. etc. Have you anything unusual like a TV card or USB card ?
If you still have a problem it may be worth removing the RAM, stick by stick in case that's been upset - just to eliminate everything.
If you can get a stable OS running then reintroduce the hardware one component at a time.
My initial feeling is that it's very unlikely you have killed anything and that the Win2K registry possibly became corrupted. But then you've tried recovering the original OS and tried Win98 with a known good HD.
Good Luck
I.e. RAM, CD-ROM and HD only. Remove all other hardware, PCI cards etc. etc. Have you anything unusual like a TV card or USB card ?
If you still have a problem it may be worth removing the RAM, stick by stick in case that's been upset - just to eliminate everything.
If you can get a stable OS running then reintroduce the hardware one component at a time.
My initial feeling is that it's very unlikely you have killed anything and that the Win2K registry possibly became corrupted. But then you've tried recovering the original OS and tried Win98 with a known good HD.
Good Luck
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I will try getting things off the PCI bus first - (I have just realised I have a bl00dy firewire card!!!). If that fails then I shall have to try the BIOS reset. I take it that the BIOS is powered by that lithium cell?
Cheers,
N
Cheers,
N
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I take it that the BIOS is powered by that lithium cell
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Right, having got rid of all of the cards apart from the graphics card (this mobo has no VGA out) I attempted a new install of 98, which failed with the same fault as before - machine gets to the splash screen and then fails.
However, when I got rid of my Gig of RAM, leaving only 256 MB, the machine started in safe mode. I am guessing that win 98 was overwhelmed by the available resources (or possibly a faulty RAM strip.) . I have looked in the device manager and found no conflicts.
Is there anything else I ought to look at while I have the machine in safe mode?
My next inclination is to try for a restart.
However, when I got rid of my Gig of RAM, leaving only 256 MB, the machine started in safe mode. I am guessing that win 98 was overwhelmed by the available resources (or possibly a faulty RAM strip.) . I have looked in the device manager and found no conflicts.
Is there anything else I ought to look at while I have the machine in safe mode?
My next inclination is to try for a restart.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Maxell,
Windows 98 and ME can utilise 2GB of RAM, but there is a "bug" that affects systems with > 512MB installed.
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.
On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).
The workaround is to add add the following line to the [VCache] section of the win.ini file:
MaxFileCache = 524288.
The NT-based Windows O/S's do not have this problem.
SD
Windows 98 and ME can utilise 2GB of RAM, but there is a "bug" that affects systems with > 512MB installed.
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.
On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).
The workaround is to add add the following line to the [VCache] section of the win.ini file:
MaxFileCache = 524288.
The NT-based Windows O/S's do not have this problem.
SD
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Ladies & gentlemen,
I have achieved a stable install of 98 (or as stable as it can be
) and have spent the time since my last post farting around with driver disks. I think it may be time to go to XP.
At least I have proven that the motherboard is OK.
Thanks for all your help,
N
I have achieved a stable install of 98 (or as stable as it can be
) and have spent the time since my last post farting around with driver disks. I think it may be time to go to XP.At least I have proven that the motherboard is OK.
Thanks for all your help,
N
Plastic PPRuNer
Now install the UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware)
(17.430.016 bytes, md5: 10cde8dc76f00e78e874094580b70d2d)
"Features of 2.1a:
# 120+ updates and hotfixes (Detailed list will be prepared soon).
# Solves 512 MB of RAM problem.
# 256-color tray icons.
# Better Notepad: MetaPad 3.5 (Optional).
# Optimized swap file usage (Optional).
# Better WDM and USB support.
# Adaptec ASPI 4.60.1021 drivers (Optional).
# Windows Scripting Host 5.6.
# DCOM98 1.3.
# OLE Automation Libraries 2.40.4522.
# Dial-Up Networking 1.4.
# Microsoft Installer 2.0.
# HTML Help 5.0.
# TweakUI (Optional).
# Command Prompt Here (Optional).
# New Animated Boot and Shutdown Logo (Optional).
# Microsoft Layer for Unicode.
# Visual Basic 5.0 SP2 runtime library.
# Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 runtime library.
# Visual C++ 6.0 SP6 runtime libraries.
# Updates JET 3.5 files to JET 3.5 SP3.
# Supports 98lite 4.7.
# Windows 2000/ME desktop icons.
# Windows 2000 color scheme (Optional).
# Supports custom "Program Files" directory.
# Shows attributes column in details view on the Windows Explorer.
# Semi-slipstreaming support.
# Some tweaks (Optional)."
Available at http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html
(edited to put in blasted <CR>s)
(17.430.016 bytes, md5: 10cde8dc76f00e78e874094580b70d2d)
"Features of 2.1a:
# 120+ updates and hotfixes (Detailed list will be prepared soon).
# Solves 512 MB of RAM problem.
# 256-color tray icons.
# Better Notepad: MetaPad 3.5 (Optional).
# Optimized swap file usage (Optional).
# Better WDM and USB support.
# Adaptec ASPI 4.60.1021 drivers (Optional).
# Windows Scripting Host 5.6.
# DCOM98 1.3.
# OLE Automation Libraries 2.40.4522.
# Dial-Up Networking 1.4.
# Microsoft Installer 2.0.
# HTML Help 5.0.
# TweakUI (Optional).
# Command Prompt Here (Optional).
# New Animated Boot and Shutdown Logo (Optional).
# Microsoft Layer for Unicode.
# Visual Basic 5.0 SP2 runtime library.
# Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 runtime library.
# Visual C++ 6.0 SP6 runtime libraries.
# Updates JET 3.5 files to JET 3.5 SP3.
# Supports 98lite 4.7.
# Windows 2000/ME desktop icons.
# Windows 2000 color scheme (Optional).
# Supports custom "Program Files" directory.
# Shows attributes column in details view on the Windows Explorer.
# Semi-slipstreaming support.
# Some tweaks (Optional)."
Available at http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html
(edited to put in blasted <CR>s)
