Boot Problems

[kstoeckle]

I have 2 computers that I am loading windows 98 for some people in the office. I have done this for 3 other people with no problems. Both of these systems have amdk6 processors 200Mhz, 64 mb, 12xcd, zip drives. Both had the hard drives formatted before these people purchased them. Neither system will boot to their 98 boot discs. The system 1 shows the system processor type but never goes beyond that. I can't even get it to go into setup. I've checked all the cables, connections in the box.
System 2has the error - Non system disc or disc error.... I've tried the boot disc that came with her copy of 98 and tried 2 different ones that I created from my computer. The boot discs all work on my system. I've made sure all cables are connected in the box. At this point I'm not sure what to do with either machine. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Randy_tx]

This might not help.......but worth a try.......Go into BIOS SETUP by pushing Del (or whatever the correct key is for Bios on that machine) and try nothing but DEFAULT settings in bios for ALL pages.......additionally, make sure the 1.44 drives identified by the bios actually show up in bios.....then try again......Let us know....

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[Reid]

If you can get into the BIOS, set the boot sequence so that the A floppy drive is first.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME

[Paleo Pete]

For system 1 try clearing CMOS, see if it will at least let you into setup then. You might have to do some serious troubleshooting on that one. I would clear COMS then pull everything and boot it bare bones. Motherboard, CPU, memory, video card and keyboard. Once you get it to POST, make sure it's set to boot to A first, then add one component at a time. Reseat the video card and memory. I suspect a memory problem, if it only makes it to the point it displays the CPU type, the next step in POST is to count up the memory. If it's not doing that I think reseating the memory could be a good thing...I would also try different memory.

First thing though is to get through POST. BIOS doesn't like something, see if you can clear it, maybe then you can find out if hardware is causing trouble.

System 2...non system disk error means either it can't find the system files or the drive is not reading the disk. Since the disks work on another machine, I'm pretty sure the drive is not reading the disk. Try a different cable, and make sure it's not plugged in backward or one pin off in addition to the suggestions above. It could also be an older drive and the heads are out of adjustment. I would try a different floppy drive, once the BIOS settings are correct. In BIOS make sure "Swap Floppy Drive" is disabled, it swaps the drive designations for drive A and drive B, and "Floppy Mode 3 Support" should be disabled. That one is to allow Japanese floppy sizes.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

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[kstoeckle]

Well I got system 2 working by setting every BIOS default. I had a brief moment of trouble after loading win98, when it rebooted it couldn't find the hard drive. Once I went to CMOS and simply went back through the hd type, cyl,heads etc... it booted fine. Thanks for the help on that one. I'll be working on sys 1 this weekend.

[Randy_tx]

"After further review".....PETE is right on about machine #1 ...RAM ...that's the best place to start on that one...change or at least reseat the Ram http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT