help! my pc died!

[dalegen]

i have a sony pcv-e314ds. windows 98. with a 256mb memory and added 60gig hard disk. my pc always hangs but last night it just wont start up. could not even get to the bios by pressing pf2. i downloaded the boot98 i'll try that tonight. thanks

[degsy]

Welcome :)

Does the PC power up?
Does the monitor turn on or goto standby?

Where about do you get to?

[dalegen]

stops at the black and white sony screen. before windows

[dalegen]

everything is turned on monitor/pc.

[degsy]

boot with the boot disk and at the propmt type
dir
then press enter

See was is listed.


If the files are there and it is just a booting problem then type
sys c:
enter

This will transfer the boot files to the HDD.

See if the PC boots.

If it is a worse problem, then it may be a hardware fault.

[dalegen]

thanks so much . ill try it tonight

[Alfons]

I'm not sure it's a lack of system files - the BIOS should give an error message when it finds no bootable disk. I'd put higher odds on it being a hardware problem and would try starting with only essential hardware.

Essential H/W =

1. Motherboard & CPU,
2. One stick of RAM,
3. Video Adapter,
4. Keyboard, and
5. NOTHING ELSE.

If it starts with only the above, add one item at a time until you get to the problem.

If it doesn't start, you don't have much to test elsewhere - the above list plus the PS.

[dalegen]

you might be right about the hardware problem. i tried last night to boot from disk and the light went on at the floppy but nothing happenned. i will try tonight unhooking the hardwares. i got so many hooked up to it.( scsi,printer,dazzle movie maker). the last thing i installed to it was the yahoo instant messenger.
my one question though, can it boot from a floppy just by copying the boot.exe from bootdisk.com for windows 98? thanks

[degsy]

No,

You have to run the .exe in Windows and it will prompt for a floppy disk, then create the startup disk.

[dalegen]

can i use a bootable disk with a windows 2000?

[degsy]

If the drive is FAT32 then yes, but you must also use smart drive or the install will grind to a halt.


With 2000/XP you can boot from the CD and Format from within the setup.

[dalegen]

i dont have a win 2000 cd. i just use a win 2000 at work so i thought i could use the sys command to make the floppy bootable. i'll go to a friend and do this then. thanks

[degsy]

Sorry, I misunderstood that.

No, you cannot use a Win2000 disk.
Use a Win9x Startup disk.

[dalegen]

ok. i have a win 98 disk at home. i'll have to make a startupdisk then thanks

[dalegen]

here's what happenned. it turns out my friend has an original startup disk for win 98 but it still didnt work. before that it was going to the scsi bios so i took it out. now when i try to press f2 or f3 to get to bios or any settings it just clocks the memory ram to 256 and displays my hardware like harddisks/ram and then stops at the black/white sony screen. and i noticed that the primary fixed disk it was showing as zero but the slave is 1. so does that mean my c: hard disk (primary) is the problem?

[degsy]

Hi,
Computers and Programming use Zero as the starting number.
So IDE0 or HDD0 is the first device and IDE1, HDD1 is second.


here's what happenned. it turns out my friend has an original startup disk for win 98 but it still didnt work
Is it actually booting from the floppy disk?

[dalegen]

the light turns on at the hard drive then on the floppy but it somehow probably does not boot from it.
what does it mean when you said
"So IDE0 or HDD0 is the first device and IDE1, HDD1 is second."

[degsy]

You have two Harddrives.

Computers start at Zero, so

Harddrive 1 = HDD0
Harddrive 2 = HDD1


Check in the BIOS to see if it set to boot from Floppy.
Also, try a different startup disk, just in case.

[dalegen]

degsy, just want to let you know i appreciate everyone's help.
now back to the problem. i have also tried booting from the two versions from bootdisk(oem/custom win 98) in addition to the original win98 startup disk. i can't even get to the bios. do you think when it said fix disk = 0 for primary and then fix disk = 1 on slave it is just a hard drive count and not saying it could not see my primary hard drive? not having a pc at home is a disaster.

[degsy]

From what you've said it seems that the PC is detecting the drives.

Did you check to see if was set to boot from floppy disk?

[dalegen]

is the bios that dos setup screen? because i could not even get there. all i can get to is the display screen where it shows what my hardwares are and clocks from 0-256 ram memory.

[degsy]

Hi,

No, that is called the POST screen (Power On Self Test).

There should be instructions on that screen on how to get into the BIOS or Setup.
The key is usally DEL or F1.

[dalegen]

it says only pf2 for settings or pf3. i try both but just shows the list of hardware that i have. i should write down all that the screen has but i remember one is that fix disk = 0.... thing and 256 memory. then stops with the black/white sony screen

[dalegen]

degsy, is the post screen that where it's a one page list of your hardware like memory and fix disk? thanks

[dalegen]

i saw on some websites that other people had the same problem and that it may have been a memory problem and one of the things they tried that did not work was clear the cmos/bios. how do you do this? thanks

[dalegen]

here's the screen the i am getting to last:
phoenix bios 4.0 release 6.0.5m
copyright 1985-1998 phoenix technologies ltd.
all rights reserved
copyright 1998 by sony electronics, inc.

cpu = pentium II 400 MHZ
640K SYSTEM RAM PASSED
255M EXTENDED RAM PASSED
0512K CACHE SRAM PASSED
SYSTEM BIOS SHADOWED
VIDEO BIOS SHADOWED
UMB UPPER LIMIT SEGEMENT ADDRESS E927
MOUSE INITIALIZED
FIXED DISK 0: MAXTOR 91080D5-(PM)
FIXED DISK 1: MAXTOR 96147U8-(PS)
ATAPI CD-ROM: HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-500-(SM)

ENTERING SET-UP....

THEN STOPS THERE.

[degsy]

It would seem that you have a major problem if you cannot even boot from a floppy.

The drives seem to be detecting and so is the floppy drive.

[dalegen]

i know. do you think it would be better to pick a book that would help solve this? thanks.

[dalegen]

just want to let everyone know my pc just started working now. my friend said that maybe the memory cards and processor were just loose.

[degsy]

Glad it's sorted :)