Boot Problem

[tor]

My computer (PIII 500Hz, Win 98, working fine for 2 years)will not boot up, or display anything on the monitor. The problem started when I turned the computer on yesterday. I entered the CMOS password, selected Win 98 from the System Commander screen, and walked away. When I came back, the screen was frozed at the normal Win 98 desktop. I hit reset, entered my CMOS password, and then the screen froze on the System Commander screen. After several rounds of this (and trying to boot into safe mode), I started getting unending beeps. Now I get no beeps, and nothing displayed on the screen. I tried a boot disk-which the system didn't like, ie "Invalid System Disk".

From what I have read, and looking up the beep code for the BIOS (Award, "Memory or Video Problem"), I checked all the conections, and everything seems fine. The suggestions I have read include swapping/reseating memory amd the video card. I have yet to do this, but have a question. The power switch on the front of the case will no longer turn the power off, I have to switch the power supply off in the back. The reset switch on the front still appears to work. Is this a separate problem or related to the boot problem? Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Technochic]

I just saw your post... First, you may be right that the power switch problem and the boot problem are related. I have some questions:
Has anything been added or changed in the PC recently?
Have you tried a fresh boot disk? (That one may have been a bad copy.)
What happens when you power off/on? (Not just reset.)

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~ Jana

Laziness is the Mother of Technology...

[tor]

Thanks for responding to my plea for help. No hardware upgrades have been made to the computer in over a year, and I have not recently put any new software on it. I tried a new boot disk, but had no luck. I checked all the connections, and tried a new DIMM and graphics card. Still no luck. When you turn the computer on(at the power supply), the system indicates it is checking the cd ROM, then nothing. I have it set up(or should I say the shop set it up) to read the cd, then A:, then the HD. Normally, after turning the computer off at the power supply, I should have to turn it on at the power supply and with the power switch on the front of the case. The case switch, which is connected to the motherboard, is now completely dead. The monitor indicates it is in a sleep mode (when I can get it to turn on), displaying the message I normally get when I have powered down the system. I can't get into the BIOS page. I am now wondering if the BIOS chip or battery are bad.