Hey, I am leaving in 12 days for overseas and the machine that I built will not even boot now and i need it to communicate back home. MSI K7Tpro2A, amd duron 800, dual booting win98/win2K. Attempted emergency repair of the win2k after getting strange messages well into the boot sequence. Win 98 booted just fine. After attempting the emergency repair, tried to reboot and nothing. Machine will not even post. Fans including fan on the processer run fine, nothing on the monitor, floppy will not run, just seems dead. If anyone has a suggestion, I would sure appreciate it before I ordera new MoBO and processor. I need to get it working before I have to leave. Thank you for any replies.

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Have you checked all connections and cleaned out the dust? Do you have a temperature monitor and have some awareness of how temps have been?

If you have a multimeter and know how to use it, it would probably be a good idea to check the power supply. If not, it might be worthwhile to try a different power supply.

Have you tried a minimal boot, with no drives, just keyboard, mobo, CPU, power, video and one stick RAM? If it POSTs is suggests that mobo and CPU are not the problem. If it doesn't, it would be good to test it out of the case on a nonconductive surface (like cardboard), but be sure to keep the case speaker attached so you can hear any POST beeps.

Please be more detailed about what was happening that led to problem solving. Are you protected against virus attacks and do you scan for malware?

Also, please post details of any other problem solving you have done so we don't recommend repeats.

Thank you for your time BudFred:

I kept getting strange messages and the boot sequence stopped halfway through win2K bootup. Although, it booted fine into win98. So, I decided to try an emergency repair on the win2k. machine locked up, tried to reboot and then nothing at all. I have tried it so many time, the fans start turning, the power on light is illuminated, the cd rom drive powers up, the diagnostic leds on the MB light up, but different combinations each time. someone told me to clear the cmos and try again. I will try that when I get home sunday first. I have not tried the things that you mentioned. I did not see much dust inside. during one boot attempt, the video started with the first message, just a second and then went away. tried a boot floppy, but the floppy drive has no power or would not respond. This is about the limit of what I know to do. Could it be a dead battery??Not sure if the boot failures into win2k are related to this or not. Maybe i messed the bios setting up during the emergency repair. Any advice would be helpful. My last option would be to order a new MB and processor and have it overnighted to get the system up before I leave. Thanks,

Resetting the CMOS makes a lot of sense since you may have changed something that is causing a problem. However, it is unlikely that the BIOS would cause a complete failure. The erratic pattern of booting you are describing suggests that loose connections, failing power supply or bad RAM are the most likely suspects. I doubt it is the CPU or mobo since they would more likely lead to consistent failure. I would put the power supply highest on the list of suspects. Do you know what the power supply is and how much power it has??

Hey, thanks again for your kind and prompt reply> I am almost 100% sure that it is a 350W power supply, but I am not home right now. As soon as I get back next sunday night, I will look and do some of the things that you suggested. You have been very helpful. How would I know if it is a faulty power supply??

If you can't get into BIOS, you will need to either test it with a multimeter or you will need to find another PSU and try it. 350watts is generally ok, but it could be failing and that could account for the problems you have been having. If it is, it is lucky that it happened now since it can be tougher to replace it in some areas of the world.

What are the messages that you are getting? I'm not quite understanding if you were routinely making it through POST and then failing to load Windows??

How old is the Motherboard?? If 3-4 years old you might want to consider replacing the button battery on the Motherboard??

I would agree with Budfred that the erratic behavior lends itself to something loose or the Power Supply.

Sounds like the one time you got it to POST it failed at the memory test.

How about trying to reseat the memory?

When you get my Diagnostic Charts look at the NO POST chart.
You need to strip it down to the basics and see if it will POST then.
If it doesn't the "System Board is faulty" [or something on it].
But that could mean: the BIOS's configuration settings, battery, memory, CPU, video card, and it assumes the PSU voltages are ok.