Topic: Oh jesus, it never stops

[mc_cloud]

i'd clear the cmos........

then use a win98 boot disk, and fdisk the c drive..

then reload.

[Clark Kent]

Resetting BIOS to default did nothing, will try to wipe the CMOS.

[toasty0]

I wonder if this could be a problem with his CMOS battery?

[Nemesis]

Next step.  Are the cables firmly connected to the drives? 

Recently I moved a computer and both the CD and the DVD failed.  As soon as I opened it up and pressed the motherboard end of the cable they were on firmly down they both started working immediately after the reboot. 

It is also possible that they cable has failed.  I had that happen on one system to the HD cable.   Fortunately I had a spare.

[Commander Maxillius]

I'll watch this thread closely as my sister has a Compaq 5000 that I've worked on that seems to have the exact same set-up (DVD drive and CD burner) that I've also upgraded to XP.

Not to be an ass or anything, but I think you should've waited to see if it stopped before deciding to wipe the disk, and then get it online to download AdAware and Hijack This! to dig deeper into the problem.  My sister's machine is pretty old, 600MHz, so I wouldn't be surprised if it did the same thing upon booting after a few minutes. 

I think it was just finishing loading Windows.  I think the fastest 5000 is like 1.2 GHz, and my laptop is that speed and needs a little time after the desktop loads to be stable.  When you get XP back on it make sure you wait to see if the activity stops, it should within 5 minutes.  If not then something's wrong.

[Just plain old Punisher]

I wonder if this could be a problem with his CMOS battery?

You'll know its a problem when you have to set the date everytime on bootup.

[toasty0]

I wonder if this could be a problem with his CMOS battery?

You'll know its a problem when you have to set the date everytime on bootup.

I knew there was a simple indicator, I just couldn't remember what it was.

Clark, is that the case with your notebook?

[Dracho]

Unplug the hard drive and put a boot disk in the floppy.  If it boots up, your hard drive has given up the ghost and is hanging the system.

[Clark Kent]

I'll watch this thread closely as my sister has a Compaq 5000 that I've worked on that seems to have the exact same set-up (DVD drive and CD burner) that I've also upgraded to XP.

Not to be an ass or anything, but I think you should've waited to see if it stopped before deciding to wipe the disk, and then get it online to download AdAware and Hijack This! to dig deeper into the problem.  My sister's machine is pretty old, 600MHz, so I wouldn't be surprised if it did the same thing upon booting after a few minutes. 

I think it was just finishing loading Windows.  I think the fastest 5000 is like 1.2 GHz, and my laptop is that speed and needs a little time after the desktop loads to be stable.  When you get XP back on it make sure you wait to see if the activity stops, it should within 5 minutes.  If not then something's wrong.

The disk light was on for over an hour.  I don't think that's disk catalogging.

[Tus-XC]

whats your boot order?  if its not already been set to the cd rom drive, do so.  Once it reads the me or xp disk it should bring you to a window that will let you go to repair mode eventually... from there you can frag the bloody thing

[Commander Maxillius]

I'll watch this thread closely as my sister has a Compaq 5000 that I've worked on that seems to have the exact same set-up (DVD drive and CD burner) that I've also upgraded to XP.

Not to be an ass or anything, but I think you should've waited to see if it stopped before deciding to wipe the disk, and then get it online to download AdAware and Hijack This! to dig deeper into the problem.  My sister's machine is pretty old, 600MHz, so I wouldn't be surprised if it did the same thing upon booting after a few minutes. 

I think it was just finishing loading Windows.  I think the fastest 5000 is like 1.2 GHz, and my laptop is that speed and needs a little time after the desktop loads to be stable.  When you get XP back on it make sure you wait to see if the activity stops, it should within 5 minutes.  If not then something's wrong.

The disk light was on for over an hour.  I don't think that's disk catalogging.

aye....  not much help then, am I?

[Clark Kent]

I'll watch this thread closely as my sister has a Compaq 5000 that I've worked on that seems to have the exact same set-up (DVD drive and CD burner) that I've also upgraded to XP.

Not to be an ass or anything, but I think you should've waited to see if it stopped before deciding to wipe the disk, and then get it online to download AdAware and Hijack This! to dig deeper into the problem.  My sister's machine is pretty old, 600MHz, so I wouldn't be surprised if it did the same thing upon booting after a few minutes. 

I think it was just finishing loading Windows.  I think the fastest 5000 is like 1.2 GHz, and my laptop is that speed and needs a little time after the desktop loads to be stable.  When you get XP back on it make sure you wait to see if the activity stops, it should within 5 minutes.  If not then something's wrong.

The disk light was on for over an hour.  I don't think that's disk catalogging.

aye....  not much help then, am I?

It's allo good.  I wish I could work on this machine more, but I have limited time and have to try things a little at a time with it.  Plus, given the fact thatthis machine has always required days of work whenever it went down- which was actually quite often.  If I can't get it working, no big.  I'll just strip it for parts for my Powermac.

[Sethan]

Clark - a few things come to mind.

1) It might be a DRM feature of Windows XP or ME that disabled the OS because it determined you were using a bootleg copy.  With DRM installed, Win98 does this to a CDRW drive if it determines you are trying to copy a copy protected CD.  In the case of the CD, it goes away after a day.

2) Might be a bad copy of the OS - given that you cannot see the drives in the BIOS, this is unlikely.

3) Hard drive is going out.

4) Boot Sector Virus

5) CPU/MB/Memory

Try here:  http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

...for a Win98 boot disk, and see if you can get the machine to boot off that.

[Clark Kent]

Why would the DRM kick in after I had deleted the XP I couldn't register, and loaded the ME that I could?  I'm not entirely sure the copy I bought of XP was illegal, but I do wonder.  In any event, seems odd that I go back to factory install and then, in the middle of the updates, everythign disapears.
The hard drive seems to be ok, it reads and writes alright, and no change in sound...
How can I tell if it's a boot sector virus?

[Sethan]

Why would the DRM kick in after I had deleted the XP I couldn't register, and loaded the ME that I could?

Because M$ sucks?

It is possible that even though you were able to register, DRM determined when you started installing updates that it could not determine if the copy of the OS was licensed or not.  I've seen that happen before.

I'm not entirely sure the copy I bought of XP was illegal, but I do wonder.  In any event, seems odd that I go back to factory install and then, in the middle of the updates, everythign disapears.

Try reinstalling, and applying the updates one at a time, until you find the one that breaks it - it may be a driver conflict.

The hard drive seems to be ok, it reads and writes alright, and no change in sound...
How can I tell if it's a boot sector virus?

Easiest way to deal with a boot sector virus is to turn the machine completely off for 30 seconds, then boot with a write-protected win98 boot floppy, and run the following command:

FDISK /MBR

Then use fdisk to remove the partitions, and reinstall Windows.  See if you can get a copy of Win98 or Win2k - either of those is more stable than WinME, and will run faster than WinXP.

[toasty0]

Then again it could be a lack of rum to run XP, or a short, or a bad ram stick, or a MoBo taking a dump.

I say at this point we use the notebook for taget practice. Then again I'm feeling a but luddite-ish tonight. Freaking out of application exceptions.

[Clark Kent]

Well, I haven't had much time to go over the old compaq, but after a time I hooked up the monitor once again, and the optical drives are still out cold.  They seem to have power, and seem to work still, but the computer does not see them.  Unless someone has a way I can wipe the computer clean and attempt a fresh install from WITHIN windows ME, I'm gonna abandon this guy and start stripping it for parts to put into another computer.