The above desktop computer has been in the possession of my elderly in-laws for over a year and was recently returned to me as "no longer working." In the middle of boot-up, it quits and attempts to re-boot. Eventually, it locks up on a blue screen with several paragraphs of general warnings about drivers that may be incorrect. No specific drivers are mentioned. When I attempted to boot up using PC Linux OS on a CD, the system hung in mid-boot-up. I also tried restoring the default BIOS settings, then booting up in Safe Mode. Again, the machine hiccups and attempts to reboot. Using the Windows 98 install diskette, the system will boot up into DOS, and I can switch to the C: Drive and "see" the various directory names. Once, the system hung with a window [that I wish I had saved] in which there was an error message referring to an .exe file in the WINNT\system32 directory whose name I can't recall. Additional attempts at getting this message to reappear were unsuccessful. Does any know what this machine is trying to tell me and how to fix? Sorry I can't be more specific about the symptoms.

The fact that it failed to boot from the Linux CD a well suggests a hardware problem. A variety of different errors suggests memory is the culprit. First thing to do is to download Memtest86 and do a memory test. You will need another working computer in order to create bootable floppy/CD with which to do the test. If that passes go to your hard drive manufactures web site and download their hard disk dagnostic programme, they all have them. Stuart

Did you clean the interior of the case? Check that all fans are working & that the heatsink(s) aren't all dust clogged.

i recently bought 5 IBM netvista Pentium 3 computers cheap. Two worked fine, three did this kind of thing and with various testing/substituting parts, the three which had a problem had faulty motherboards.(I tried resetting CMOS and bios updates etc). I think I came across a similar thing on another computer that would work if i disabled the level 2 cache in the bios setup but these IBMs I had did not have that facility in the BIOS - the settings available were very limited , so your BIOS may be also very limited. But I also agree it might be the ram.