HELP ME, COMP PROBLEM

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 14th, 2005, 1:10 pm

ok. i usually can fix all my comp problems myself, and i am semi-educated with computers i have windows XP on a comp that originally had 98, i know bad idea, if i get it working im gonna put on ME, but anyways ill turn on my computer, its all good loads up , then asks 1)start up in safe mode 2)start up in safe mode with networkind 3)start up in safe mode with command prompt 4)start up with last known good settings <<<that may not be exactly what is said 5)and start up normally 2 and 3 just give me a bunch of DOS crap then freezes and everything else it loads then goes to the scan screen because i had to do a hard shut down then if u let it scan or just exit right away it freezes for a few seconds then a dark blue screen comes up saying something about memory, i cant read it because it stays up for about 2 seconds then the comp restarts ive tried bootdisks and EVERYTHING.... can someone PLEASE help me, i need this computer fixed

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 14th, 2005, 2:10 pm

Sounds like you are crashing due to memory problems or lack of memory. You're best bet may be to put in a 98 boot disk reformat the drive and reload 98. Xp needs min of 128 meg and will crash with that little memory, 256 is good for just a work computer, if gameing 512 + The other option is get more memory, and try to boot up, it most likely will.

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 14th, 2005, 7:28 pm

how would i go about reformatting the drive... and i dont have a 98 boot CD if that is what you are referring to mine got destroyed

can u walk me through reformatting it and if theres a site you use for making boot disks and such can you tell me will i lose my information, it doesnt matter much but i would like to know thanks for your help

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 15th, 2005, 7:40 am

Here are the instructions on reformatting a hard drive. http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;221829 Now as far will you lose you're information YES, innless you have another hard drive around, if so you can make it a master and the current one a slave. Install the O/S on the new master and then you may move any data to the new master, then you can replace the O/S on the original hard drive. Now about the site for the boot disks? Sorry can't help on that one, maybe you could get a copy from a friend, make sure it's a full install disk. If you get an upgrade you will need either a copy of 95 or 3.1 to install. I don't know if someone else can direct you to a site. You didn't list you're computer specs, but you may be able to install more memory and have XP work, you also mentioned installing Windows ME, if you have the disk for that, you will only need a bootable 98 floppy with start up files on it. If you know someone with a 98 computer they can make you a boot disk. Here are the instructions for installing ME http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;272156

simon · Post by **simon** » June 15th, 2005, 9:00 am

braekdown wrote:how would i go about reformatting the drive... and i dont have a 98 boot CD if that is what you are referring to mine got destroyed can u walk me through reformatting it and if theres a site you use for making boot disks and such can you tell me will i lose my information, it doesnt matter much but i would like to know thanks for your help

One good way of getting a startup floppy disk is to goto Add/ Remove Programs in the Control Panel, then select startup disk tab. You will need to insert a new formatted floppy disk when asked. Follow instructions and within 5 minutes, you will have got yourself a bootup Win98 floppy disk. Do the above if you manage to get into windows otherwise ask your friend to do it for you. It is as simple as that.

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 15th, 2005, 11:49 am

now what do i do just format the drive then insert the cd and it will install?

simon · Post by **simon** » June 15th, 2005, 2:14 pm

Before you format your drive, you will need to ask yourself these questions: 1) Do you have any info/ data you really want to save? 2) Can you get around it without formatting the windows? If you have to save important files/ data/ codes etc then you will need to set this main hard drive as a secondary master so that your temp hard drive can be used as a primary master with your current cd-rom drive (primary slave). Format the temp drive and load in the OS. Once the installation is successful, you should be able to retrieve all your data from your main drive that you are about to format (usually d: , and e: being your cd-rom drive) to your temp drive folder, usually c: . I hope you can do this easily and be able to save all your data before formatting your main drive.

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 16th, 2005, 7:23 pm

i dont need to save anything, how do i go about formatting the drive, and how do i installl the OS with the cd

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 16th, 2005, 9:40 pm

How to Partition the Hard Disk After you decide which file system you want to use, run the Fdisk tool: 1. Insert the Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer. 2. When the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, choose the Start computer without CD-ROM support option, and then press ENTER. 3. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER. 4. If the hard disk is larger than 512 MB, you receive the following prompt: Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB. This version of Windows includes improved support for large disks, resulting in more efficient use of disk space on large drives, and allowing disks over 2 GB to be formatted as a single drive. IMPORTANT: If you enable large disk support and create any new drives on this disk, you will not be able to access the new drive(s) using other operating systems, including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as well as earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS. In addition, disk utilities that were not designated explicitly for the FAT32 file system will not be able to work with this disk. If you need to access this disk with other operating systems or older disk utilities, do no enable large drive support. Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)? If you want to use the FAT32 file system, press Y, and then press ENTER. If you want to use the FAT16 file system, press N, and then press ENTER. 5. After you press ENTER, the Fdisk Options menu is displayed. Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive option, and then press ENTER. 6. Press 1 to select the Create Primary DOS Partition option, and then press ENTER. 7. After you press ENTER, you receive the following prompt: Do you wish to use the maximum available size for primary DOS partition? FAT32 File System: a. If you chose the FAT32 file system in step 4 and you want all of the space on the hard disk to be assigned to drive C, press Y, and then press ENTER. b. Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt. c. Skip to step 10. FAT16 File System: a. If you chose the FAT16 file system in step 4, and you want the first 2 GB on the hard disk to be assigned to drive C, press Y, and then press ENTER. b. Press ESC to return to the Options menu, and then skip to step i. c. If you want to customize the size of the partitions (the logical drives) on the hard disk, press N, and then press ENTER. d. A prompt is displayed for you to type the size that you want for the primary partition in megabytes or percent of disk space. Note that for a Windows 98-based computer, Microsoft recommends that you make the primary partition at least 500 MB. Type the size of the partition that you want to create, and then press ENTER. e. Press ESC to return to the Options menu. f. Press 2 to select the Set active partition option, and then press ENTER. g. When you are prompted to type the number of the partition that you want to make the active partition, press 1, and then press ENTER. h. Press ESC to return to the Options menu. i. To assign drive letters to the additional space on the hard disk:1. Press 1, and then press ENTER. 2. Press 2 to select the Create Extended DOS Partition option, and then press ENTER. 3. The option that appears displays the maximum space that is available for the extended partition. You can adjust the size of the partition or you can use the default size. Note that the default maximum space is recommended, but the space can be divided between multiple drive letters. Type the amount of space that you want, press ENTER, and then press ESC. 4. The Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition menu is displayed. This is the menu that you use to assign the remaining hard disk space to the additional drive letters. Type the amount of space that you want to assign to the next drive letter at the Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%) prompt, and then press ENTER. 5. A table that lists the drive letter that you created and the amount of space that is on that drive is displayed. If there is still free space on the hard disk, it is displayed near the bottom of the table. Repeat steps 1 through 4 until you receive the following message: All available space in the Extended DOS Partition is assigned to local drives 6. After you receive this message, press ESC, and then press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt. 8. After you create the partitions, restart you computer with the Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive. 9. When the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, choose the Start computer without CD-ROM support option, and then press ENTER. 10. When a command prompt is displayed, type format c:, and then press ENTER. NOTE: If you receive a "Bad command or file name" message, you may need to extract the Format.com utility to your Startup disk. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER: extract ebd.cab format.com After the Format.com utility is extracted to your Startup disk and a command prompt is displayed, type format c:. 11. When you successfully run the Format.com utility, you receive the following prompt: WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Press Y, and then press ENTER to format drive C. 12. After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following prompt: Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)? This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the hard disk. Type an 11-character name for the drive, or leave it blank, and then press ENTER. 13. Repeat steps 10 through 13 for any additional drive letters that you created in step i.

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 16th, 2005, 9:41 pm

How to Install Windows 98 After you partition and format your hard disk, you can install Windows 98: 1. Insert the Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer. 2. When the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, choose the Start computer with CD-ROM support option, and then press ENTER. 3. If CD-ROM support is provided by the generic drivers on the Startup disk, you receive one of the following messages, where X is the drive letter that is assigned to your CD-ROM drive: Drive X: = Driver MSCD001 Drive X: = Driver OEMCD001 NOTE: If your CD-ROM drive is not available after you boot from the Windows 98 Startup disk, install the CD-ROM drivers that are included with your CD-ROM drive. For information about how to obtain and install the most current driver for your CD-ROM drive, view the documentation that is included with your device, or contact your hardware manufacturer. 4. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER X:\setup where X is the drive letter that is assigned to your CD-ROM drive. 5. When you receive the following message, press ENTER, and then follow the instructions on the screen to complete the Setup procedure: Please wait while the Setup initializes. Setup is now going to perform a routine check on your system. To continue press Enter.

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 16th, 2005, 10:03 pm

"How to Partition the Hard Disk After you decide which file system you want to use, run the Fdisk tool: 1. Insert the Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer. 2. When the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, choose the Start computer without CD-ROM support option, and then press ENTER." when u say startup disk, do u mean boot disk? when i put in a floppy and restart, it doesnt aknowledge that theres a floppy in there, usually it gives me a command prompt, but now it starts normally with a boot floppy in there if a windows 98 startup disk is different than a boot disk, how do i make one?

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 17th, 2005, 2:00 am

A start up or boot disk is one that when inserted into you're "A" drive, and then start up you're computer you will get a DOS "C" prompt. You should be able to type the command "format c:" without the "" You can download files to make a boot disk here http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm CREATING A WINDOWS 98/ME BOOT DISK An excellent feature of Windows 98/ME is its boot diskette. Using Windows to create you a Windows 98 boot diskette will give you all the needed files as well as CD-ROM support. To create a Windows 98 boot diskette click Start / Settings / Control Panel / double click the Add Remove programs icon / click the Startup Disk and create disk FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.EXE ------------------------ FDISK and FORMAT are utilities necessary for installing a new hard disk in your computer or for starting over fresh with a clean disk. FDISK is used first to create a partition and then FORMAT is used to make the partition available for use. WARNING: Using FDISK incorrectly can destroy all data on your hard disk. If you are unsure of how to use FDISK, consult your computer documentation. You can use the Windows 98 version of FDISK to create FAT32 partitions on drives over 512 megabytes in size. FAT32 reduces the cluster size for large drives and allows you to create single partitions on drives over 2 GB. To view your current drive status, type FDISK /STATUS at the MS-DOS command prompt. After you have partitioned a drive using FDISK, you will need to use the FORMAT command. To format a newly partitioned drive, type: FORMAT X: Where X represents the letter of the drive that you want to format. If you want to format drive C, you need to make this disk a system disk so that your computer can start. To do this, type /s at the end of the FORMAT command. For example: FORMAT C: /s System Startup files will be automatically copied after your drive is formatted.

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 18th, 2005, 8:02 pm

ok i formatted it using the ME boot disk when i ran fdisk, it did asked me the questions about creating a DOS partition and when its done it says "primary DOS partition already exists" and when i start the comp without a disk it says "invalid system disk" what do i do from here?

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 19th, 2005, 1:21 am

When you run fdisk ,you need to first delate all partitions first, then recreate one with ME. This way you start with a clean disk

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 20th, 2005, 3:52 pm

so delete all old partitions, then create a new one with ME, then do i format? do i need a CD too? because i dont have one,

richh0323 · Post by **richh0323** » June 23rd, 2005, 2:12 am

Yes that is correct, delate old partitions, and make a new one. Yes you will need a installation CD or disks to install

braekdown · Post by **braekdown** » June 24th, 2005, 6:32 pm

thanks guys for all your help, i sucsessfully got windows 98 to work on my computer but i have a new problem... i have a monitor from my windows ME computer its a phillips 107t it installed the plug and play stuff, then after i got everything worked out, the colores are all messed up, i went to change the colors to a higher setting, but it only has 16 and 2 colors, everything i do has distorted colores, can someone please help me with this