startup porblems win98

Popster · #1 April 3rd, 2005, 04:15 PM

Newbie here.
Need help. Installed win98 on old pc (Pentium 1 running under win95) Upgrade went smoothly but after adding adapter for ethernet connection Plug & Play could not detect it. Aver several futile P&P efforts, I can no longer load Win OS. Re boot freezes in midst of startup.
System will not look at floppy dive for win98 recover disk, nor will it read cd drive containing install CD.
Startup freezes and displays this as final msg...
"Award plug & play BIOS extension A1,0a.........................................."
Keyboard/mouse frozen
msg at lower left "Press DEL to enter STARTUP"
W/o functioning keyboard, cna't press DEL.
Please help
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Popster · #2 April 3rd, 2005, 04:18 PM

best suggestion so far:
"throw it out and get a laptop"

Nick Grana · #3 April 3rd, 2005, 04:21 PM

Have you tried just removing the NIC and see what happens at boot?

Popster · #4 April 3rd, 2005, 06:06 PM

Thanks for you speedy response.
Will give ut a try
Pop

Popster · #5 April 3rd, 2005, 06:47 PM

Darth:
Thanks for your suggestion. Immediate problem solved completely in less than 1 hour since I posted help request. What a website!

Smoothie · #6 April 3rd, 2005, 06:57 PM

Which version of 98 did you upgrade to? You'll need to get the drivers for the NIC. Plug and Play used to be called Plug and Pray.

Nick Grana · #7 April 3rd, 2005, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Plug and Play used to be called Plug and Pray.

I say it still is.

Glad to help.
Try installing the NIC drivers before you install the card next time.
Good luck.

Popster · #8 April 4th, 2005, 02:58 AM

Darth, you got my desktop back for me. Now with local functionality. I will delay NIC install; in my myopic focus on NIC I failed to notice untill now that my CD drive is no longer recognized by Windows98. It was recognized after initial upgrade from win95.
Selecting "My Computer" reveals functioning Hard Drive (C) and floppy (A). as well as folders for printers, digicams, dialup, scheduled tasks, and control panel. No icon for CD drive (D).
I removed a communications adapter (already installed when machine was delivered to acccomodate dial-up networking). Could this account for "disappearance" of CD drive?
Of course, I can put comm card back in & see what happens--at this stage my system is reeling from reboots so I'm attempting to minimize the number of
iterations.
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Nick Grana · #9 April 4th, 2005, 01:00 PM

These computers are like women: Can't live with 'em........Pass the beer nuts.
Since you were in the case to install the NIC and back in to remove it, you may have cocked the cdrom drives ribbon cable from the drive side or the controller side. Inside case, make sure all connectors, plugs, and cards are seated securely.

Open device manager and see if it shows a cdrom drive or shows yellow or red marks indicating a problem.
If the cable thing doesn't work, try removing the cdrom drive from device manager, rebooting and see if windows can detect it and reinstall it.
Try these and see what happens.

Popster · #10 April 4th, 2005, 01:38 PM

Thank you, again! Never looked "under the hood" for years. Since I popped the cover, I have created all of the problems reported her. When all is OK may spot weld case shut.Pop

huggy_bear · #11 April 4th, 2005, 05:03 PM

boot to command prompt and type scanreg /restore select the earleyest date in the list and press enter. the pc will reboot and hopfully be ok
scanreg /restore is majic and get you out of a lot of bother.

Popster · #12 April 8th, 2005, 03:46 AM

Thanks to all your helpful advice. We are back in business.
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