I would appreciate help ASAP with this issue because the computer concerned belongs to my mum and she is getting quite emotional about it. I’ll be as thorough and as chronological as I can. This is going to be a long post.

First of all, I'll list the specs of each computer involved:

PC 1:
Owner: Mum
Manufacturer: Time Computer Systems
OS: Was Windows 98SE, now none
RAM: 256MB DDR DIMM physically installed, but due to a thunderstorm several years ago, it has only been using 224MB for the past 5 years or so.
Processor: AMD Duron 1.2GHz
Hard drive: Seagate 19GB, not sure if it's a Baracuda or Momentus
Motherboard: American Megatrends Socket A model K7VMM
Graphics card: Onboard

PC 2:
Owner: Me
Manufacturer: Custom-built
OS: Windows XP Home Edition and SP2
RAM: 512MB DDR DIMM
Processor: 3.2GHz Pentium 4 with HT Technology
Hard drive: Maxtor DiamondMAX 10 120GB
Motherboard: Genuine Intel D865GBFL
Graphics card: Sapphire Radeon 9550

PC3:
Owner: My brother
Manufacturer: Custom-built
OS: None
RAM: Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Hard drive: Seagate Baracuda 80GB
Motherboard: Unknown
Graphics card: Unknown, AGP interface

The original problem was something simple, as follows:
On PC 1, if it was left unattended for a long time, it would go into sleep mode. After going into sleep mode, it would wake up if the mouse was moved or a key was pressed on the keyboard. However, if the computer was left in sleep mode for too long, it wouldn’t wake up and would need to be restarted. It’s mouse and keyboard are both on PS/2 interfaces.

Mum asked me to fix this problem, so what I did was open up Control Panel. I went into Power Management and set the two drop-down menus to “Never” for “Turn off monitor” and “Turn off hard disks”.

The next day, mum went to the computer, turned it on, and Windows would only boot to Safe Mode. So, naturally, I attempt to reverse my changes. In Safe Mode, open Control Panel and Power Management hoping to put the options back to how they were, but in Safe Mode, the options have disappeared! They aren’t disabled - they just aren’t there! So I’m unable to undo my changes.

The next thing I do is go into the BIOS to check that power management is also disabled there, which it is.

Then I boot Windows again in Safe Mode, still on PC 1, and I run System File Checker, which identifies setupx.dll as corrupted, so I restore it from the CD.

Now, Windows 98SE won’t boot at all, not even in Safe Mode. So I boot from the CD, preparing for a reinstall. I first format the hard drive to prepare it to install. That goes fine. Then when it comes to installing Windows, it stops responding on every attempt, usually in the same place, but not always. Sometimes it would freeze on the “Setup will now perform some routine diagnostic tests on your computer” message, but sometimes it would perform these tests just fine, and then stop responding at 54% of “Preparing setup to install Windows”. There were also possibly two cases of when it would also complete this part successfully, but then stop responding on the screen where it asks if you want to install to the default C:\WINDOWS directory or another one. The installation never gets any further.

A mate tells me that the CD is buggered, so I try using another copy of the same disc, which I copied for backup. That disc doesn’t even start Setup, and fails more often than the first one to boot at all into DOS mode, but did boot occasionally, with several messages reporting errors in the CONFIG.SYS file.

Then the same mate tells me it must be the CD drive then, so I swap the 24x CD ROM drive from PC 1 with the CD ROM drive from PC 3. The Cd ROM drive from PC 3 won’t even open it’s disc tray, not even if I do the paperclip in the hole trick, so we’re unable to get the CD into it at all to try. So I then try my 16x DVD ROM drive from PC 2, which is more successful with booting from the CD as any of the others, regardless of what disc I use, but setup still freezes at the “Setup will now run diagnostic tools” screen, and never gets any further.

I attempt to run Windows several time using my DVD Rom drive, each time I notice small glitches gradually appearing on the screen with each reboot during the motherboard’s post screens, like little blue square appearing in random positions, odd letters or numbers appearing in random positions etc, until eventually the mobo doesn’t even get through all of its post screens at all, and never reaches the stage where I attempts to boot from CD. Also, when I press DELETE to enter the BIOS, it will respond, but the screen just goes black and the BIOS never appears.

So I come to the conclusion that PC 1 has gradually buggered itself, and I move the 16x DVD ROM drive from PC 1 to PC 3 to see if we can get this one going instead. With this computer, our first problem is that we don’t get a picture on the screen, then find that my brother hadn’t connected the graphics card correctly. That’s simple enough to fix, and I do so. Now, all we get is a blinking DOS cursor in the corner, no BIOS posts screens or anything. Just simply a blinking cursor in the top-left corner of the screen.

And that’s where we are now. I’m just plain stumped for ideas, and I probably overlooked something really simple right back at the start, in which case, tell me.

Please could anyone help me with this problem?

Oh, and one last thing: After coming to the conclusion that both 98 CDs were knackered, mum went out and bought a copy of XP Home with SP2. I’ve been telling her for ages to upgrade anyway. So also at this point, we’ll be installing a copy of XP Home with SP2, and not Windows 98SE, to whichever computer we get going based on your response.

Thanks for your time.

Colin

For the computer with the blinking dos cursor, did that only happen after you installed that DVD-ROM? If so you might want to check the jumpers on the back to see weather it is set to master/slave. If you can get into the bios make it so it can boot from the DVD-ROM..

With your mums computer.. Theese problems sound like it could be a RAM fault. Especially since you say it only uses 224Mb of a 256Mb stick.. I remember I had the exact same problems trying to installing 98Se on a computer but I cant rememver how I fixed it.. I'll let you know if I remember. Good Luck.

Mattwizz3 : )

Sempron 2600+ @ 2.2GHz
1Gb DDR400
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
200GB SATA / 80Gb IDE
256Mb MSI 6800 Ultra

Actually no. The reason it says it has 224Mb is because the onboard graphics is 'borrowing' 32Mb. 256-32=224... But your problem regarding your mums computer still seems like it could be RAM.. maby test it with RAM from another computer to see how it goes.

Mattwizz3 : )

Sempron 2600+ @ 2.2GHz
1Gb DDR400
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
200GB SATA / 80Gb IDE
256Mb MSI 6800 Ultra

With computer which only shows a blinking DOS cursor, jumpers on the DVD ROM drive are set to Cable Select. Apart from this occassion, that computer has never been used. It's just been sitting in my brother's room.

Mums computer:You have a corrupt install disk or your cdrom isn't reading all files.

Can you make a copy of the CD you are installing Mum's with?Sometimes a fresh copy
of the CD will install when the corrupt one would not.

Trying another CDROM or cleaning the one you have could also help.

If your going to use XP...I would run Killdisk so your hard drive is completely erased and you get a fresh start.You can download Active killdisk at below website.

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

I have used two other copies of the original CD and they all returned same errors. Sometimes they were in a different order, and some didn't appear, but all of the discs had errors.

We have also tried two other CD ROM drives and the only difference there has been the speed at which the disc was read.

I've even tried starting the computer from the Windows 98 startup floppy, which would boot the computer into DOS mode perfectly fine without any problems (mostly), but then when i insert the CD to begin installing Windows 98 from that stage, it freezes at all the places I mentioned in my original post.

Now though, we're deffinitely going to be installing XP, but by the time we had decided on that, the computer wouldn't even get as far as booting from the CD. It'd freeze halfway through the motherboard's post screens when the computer was started.

Changing Mum's IDE cable may be a good approach at this point.

Are you having the same problem with XP and both Computers?

Pay attention to your new Winxp disk.
If it is original or w/servicepack 1 or 2.

Go to the below site and try install using the 6 disk setup file.

Did you try Active kill disk in response 4 ?

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

I haven't yet. Not on mum's PC anyway, because I can't get any further than about half of the mobo's first post screen.

XP+SP2 is working fine on my PC, and the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on mine, but we can't get that far on mum's.

Check the capacitors on the MBoard for bulging or leaking. I have had the same types of sympoms with two different MBs that turned out to be bad caps. The Capacitors are round silver cylindrical components scattered about the MBoard. Look at the tops for obvious bulging. These components should be flat on top. As far as the suspend problem goes, I usually set the BIOS for:
ACPI = S1, Power management = USER DEFINE
HDD Power Down = Disabled
HDD down in suspend = Disabled

Win98 has problems with harddrives going to suspend mode.

I'd guess overheated cpu or weak power supply. Or maybe bad RAM.

Your original attempts to fix it--disabling HD and monitor shutdown--wouldn't have caused any problems. I always disable standby and hibernate in 'power options' for 98. They never work right. SFC always shows Setupx.dll as corrupted. It's some glitch with 98/SFC and not a problem with the file itself.

Hi guys. Thanks for al lthe help, but now there appears to be a new problem: After replacing RAM and motherboard, the computer will now boot to Windows XP ome +SP2, which is what I have just installed, but for some reason now, in order to turn the computer on, it takes about 5 attempts every time to get a picture onthe screen.

Any ideas on how to solve this?

You may want to start a new thread since the problem has changed and this one is geting dated.

Will do, thanks.