Computer problems (wish I could be more specific, but I don't know what)

[Mr Computer]

Hello

I would be very grateful for the solution to this problem.

I have an old laptop (Dell Inspiron) that used to run on Win98SE, many years ago. One day it packed up when I installed new "updated" video drivers (Neomagic 128 display). When I say it "packed up" I mean that when Windows loaded, the computer froze and crash. Had to physically disconnect the battery to turn it off, then turn it back on again. I could run it in Safe Mode though, so I did. I reinstalled the old configuration with the old drivers, ran it in a basic hardware config, and did everything the Help file suggested. But no matter what action I took, from then on it always crashed when it was about to load up Windows.

There were surface areas on the hard disk before and after the crashing started. I used to ignore them, because letting scandisk try to figure them out would result in the computer crashing and nothing achieved. This has not changed.

Recently I attempted to reinstall Windows 98 SE on the laptop. This failed, because it kept saying I was interrupting the file copying from the CAB files. Of course I wasn't: it was the computer having trouble with the hard disk.

Last night I decided to boot the laptop up from the 98SE CD-ROM and format the hard-disk (using MS-DOS's format.com from the Win CD) in an attempt to sort out any bad sectors. This took many hours and then failed, causing it to crash again. I am attempting to format it once more, but as you can appreciate it is not likely to succeed.

I am now prepared to do anything to sort out the problem so I have some kind of useable device instead of a useless black box. It can still boot up from CD-ROMs and read, so can anyone suggest a good program to burn that's likely to fix the computer and not crash? I'm also looking at alternative operating systems, but the application I need runs from Windows, so obviously reinstalling 98SE would be ideal if possible. Any ideas on what to do to get it running again? Thanks in advance

[samy]

I said before that my scanner is not working. I want to setup my scanner. I want to download the software for doing that. My scanner is Artec e+ 48u.

[samy]

I said before that my scanner is not working. I want to setup my scanner. I want to download the software for doing that. My scanner is Artec e+ 48u.
Is there a quick solution to my problem, or I will spend a long time on the internet to waste the time and the money? please , answer me quickly.

[Mr Computer]

Samy, start YOUR OWN thread.

Repost of my own message:

I would be very grateful for the solution to this problem.

I have an old laptop (Dell Inspiron) that used to run on Win98SE, many years ago. One day it packed up when I installed new "updated" video drivers (Neomagic 128 display). When I say it "packed up" I mean that when Windows loaded, the computer froze and crash. Had to physically disconnect the battery to turn it off, then turn it back on again. I could run it in Safe Mode though, so I did. I reinstalled the old configuration with the old drivers, ran it in a basic hardware config, and did everything the Help file suggested. But no matter what action I took, from then on it always crashed when it was about to load up Windows.

There were surface areas on the hard disk before and after the crashing started. I used to ignore them, because letting scandisk try to figure them out would result in the computer crashing and nothing achieved. This has not changed.

Recently I attempted to reinstall Windows 98 SE on the laptop. This failed, because it kept saying I was interrupting the file copying from the CAB files. Of course I wasn't: it was the computer having trouble with the hard disk.

Last night I decided to boot the laptop up from the 98SE CD-ROM and format the hard-disk (using MS-DOS's format.com from the Win CD) in an attempt to sort out any bad sectors. This took many hours and then failed, causing it to crash again. I am attempting to format it once more, but as you can appreciate it is not likely to succeed.

I am now prepared to do anything to sort out the problem so I have some kind of useable device instead of a useless black box. It can still boot up from CD-ROMs and read, so can anyone suggest a good program to burn that's likely to fix the computer and not crash? I'm also looking at alternative operating systems, but the application I need runs from Windows, so obviously reinstalling 98SE would be ideal if possible. Any ideas on what to do to get it running again?

[Idnew]

Did you do FDISK before formatting?

[Miz]

It sure sounds to me like it needs the harddrive replaced. I've found 20 to 30 gig laptop harddrives online for anywhere from $50 to $100; smaller ones cheaper, of course. If you're at all mechanically inclined, you can replace it yourself. Some laptops make it easy to swap out harddrives through a removable panel on the bottom of the case, others require you to figure out how to open the case but once you get to the drive, removing it and putting a new one in is easy enough.

[Mr Computer]

Thanks for the responses.
I didn't do FDISK - I'll look into this and see what it does. I think you're right Miz - it is a hard-drive problem. However, it's an old laptop which isn't really worth spending any money on. If I can just turn it into a portable computer that runs ReBirth then I will be happy.
BTW I managed to complete a format of the hard-disk yesterday (without running FDISK though) but it still kept hanging up during the Windows re-install (same problem: it thinks I'm interrupting setup when in fact it's struggling with the hard disk).

[Nick Grana]

Samy, start YOUR OWN thread.
:rotflmao: :rotflmao: Good advice.
But to be fair, samy is very new here and may not have known.
He should know now though.;) :wave:

[Idnew]

Won't hurt for you to do FDISK then format again

[Mr Computer]

Thanks idnew. I did this (deleted the MS-DOS partition and created it anew with FDISK, and then formatted the hard disk again) but it's still not working. Strangely, it always reports that I'm interrupting the copying of the same few system and dll files to the windows/system directory. I'm beginning to wonder whether this is because the laptop (an OEM) might be hardwired to reject fresh Windows 98 installations. I know that originally it had Windows 95 installed, and was then upgraded to Win98 without problems. What I'm trying to do now is to install Win98, skipping those system and dll files and then later booting up to a command prompt and copying those files directly to the hard disk from a CD.

I also tried to install Win95, but the installation process failed because during the setup it hadn't set itself up to read the CD-ROM drive. When I tried booting up with this incomplete Win95 installation, it kept coming up with the blue screen of death Fatal Exception error messages. Not sure what this computer's problem is.

[Idnew]

ok formatting went ok, but you can't install windows, but you want to put window setup on your hard drive, right? Try this and see what happens


Copy these instructions for use during the install


Place your Windows Installation CD into the CD drive.

Place your Windows startup disk in the drive and start your system.
At the prompt choose option 1: Start computer with CD-ROM support

You will be brought to an A:\> prompt.
Change to a C prompt by typing C: and press enter.

You will now be at a C:\> prompt.
Type MD WIN98 and press enter.
( Make sure you leave a space between MD and WIN98. )

Back at the C:\> prompt.
Type CD E:\WIN98 and press enter.(or whatever drive your CD drive is)
( Don't forget the space between CD and E:\WIN98. )

Back at the C:\> Prompt,
Type E: and press enter.
( Where E is your CD-ROM, otherwise use your CD-ROM letter. )

You should now be at an E:\WIN98 prompt.
Type COPY *.* C:\WIN98 and press enter.
( Don't forget the spaces between 'copy and *.*' and also between '*.* and C:\WIN98' )
The files needed for Windows will now be copied from your CD to your hard drive.

Back to an E:\WIN98 prompt.
Type C: and press enter.

Back at the C:\> prompt.
Type CD WIN98 and press enter.
( Don't forget the space between CD and WIN98. )

You will now be at a C:\WIN98 prompt.
Type SETUP and press enter.
Installation of Windows will now begin.


Hope this helps

[Mr Computer]

Thanks idnew. I tried that and something changed, although the computer still does not work. First of all during the straight copying-from-cd process one of the setup files (CAB file 42) couldn't copy properly (I tried more than once), so I had to skip that file. Upon reinstalling Windows, there were lots of error messages. However, reinstalling Windows several times I managed to install it eventually without it generating any error messages. I did this by copying an entire working (i.e. extracted) version of the Windows/system and /system32 files from another computer with Win98.

The problem now is that it seems to almost start up Win98, but when it seem it's about to load up all the desktop icons, it reports a problem with explorer.exe and then just stops. I copied a working version of explorer from the other computer, but the same problem always crops up (explorer caused an Invalid Page Fault at blocks ... etc). Any suggestions?