boot sector write!!virus:(continue y/n)

[Babes_S]

Hi there,
please help me. i had a pentium lll, 733 speed, 192RAM. i had this shutting off sequence on my pc its like u shut it improperly but it goes on and off and when it shuts, it scan. i did try to format the hard disk but when am ready to install my OS, there's a pop up message.....'boot sector write!!virus: (continue y/n) but i cant click the Y, screen hang in that message. what does it mean? cant get a new hard disk now or can i remedy it. please tell me what's all the reason why it all happened. i'll appreciate all your help, THANKS!:confused:

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Check in your BIOS to see if there's an antivirus section and if it's enabled. If so disable it.

[Babes_S]

thank you for reply, am gonna try that one and tell u next time. :)

[Babes_S]

Hi Ted manage to instal my OS the problem is still the same keeps shutting of every single 5 mins at the most. do u think what's causing it shutting off like restarting but its not cause its scan the system. thanks again!!!:confused:

[rahulkothari]

Babes_S:keeps shutting of every single 5 mins

it may or may not be a heat problem. to check, first open the case and clean the dust off the processor fan and heatsink and start your PC.
if the problem persists, keep the case open and check for the 'restarts'. Post back the results here.

a few more questions:
is your power-supply stable ?
is the PC connected in parallel with other heavy devices like refrigerator etc ?

[Babes_S]

Hi there again,

still shutting off after i checked the inside part. i cleaned everything. before its shuts off every 5 mins. now it shut off as soon as the windows 98 screen...appear. i mean the welcome greeting from windows 98. i havent got any idea what causes thid weird thing. am i having a bad hard disk. do i need to replace it. Yes our power is stable here. and no other appliances in parallel with my pc. please reply! and i'll appreciate it very much.

Thanks again***:confused:

[Budfred]

Do you use antivirus software regularly? Please describe what you changed shortly before the problem began and provide more info about the computer. In particular, what is your Bios? It may be worthwhile to reset the Bios to see if that makes a difference. Do you know how to do that?

Good luck and welcome to PCGuide,
Budfred

[Babes_S]

In my previous post i said i have Pentium lll, 733 for speed, 10 GB for HDD, 192 RAM, Windows98 SE. Yes i have a McAffe anti virus. As far as i can remember i didnt change any setting in my BIOS. Fixed the 'boot sector write' already. Main problem now still the same shuts off and on. This is the main reason why i format the HDD i thought there may be a corrupted file. I brought back my OS and seems fine but seems the startup cant give it up. Oh before hand, i mean before i format it, i did a standard scan, the message while i scan was 'cant continue scan something writing to it (C:) as far thats all i can remember. thanks Budfred for helping out. I appreciate it much****:(

[Budfred]

Babes,

When you say: "Fixed the 'boot sector write' already.", do you mean that you reset the Bios? If you haven't done that already, it may be worthwhile to try. This usually involves either moving a jumper and then replacing it after a boot or removing the CMOS battery for about 24 hours and replacing it. This has the effect of resetting your system. If you have done this already and no success, you may want to download utilities for your harddrive and run the diagnostics. You may have to zero out the HD and start over. It sounds like it may be a problem with the boot sector on the HD. This isn't a Compaq by any chance is it??

Budfred

[mjc]

I think it is a heat or power supply problem, the boot virus warning is a very common one when trying to install an operating system, because many motherboard/BIOS have some sort of write protect for the boot sector of the hard drive.

Until you open the machine up and look at the heat sink to see if there is dust build up or if the fan on the heat sink has quit spinning, there isn't much more to to...a good idea would be to leave the case open and direct a small fan into it.

[rahulkothari]

have you tried getting into command prompt mode(DOS) and run scandisk from there ?

to enter command prompt, press F8 or Control key on bootup. run a surface scan to check if the hdd is damaged.

another way to enter command prompt is thru boot-disk(if you have already made one).

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Something interrupting scandisk is usually a screensaver- if no OS, it wouldn't be that. Or a power saving mode set too early maybe? It sounds to me that you have not properly reformatted yet.

You mentioned in an earlier post that you "tried" to format. Well did you or not? Did it say "all data will be lost"? And did you type 'Y' and press enter? We need to do one thing at a time and know when each is completed succesfully before moving on to the next step or stage of diagnosis.

If you have Windows installed and you are trying to install 98 right on top of it you may get a "writing to boot sector" error because there's already something there and it is protecting itself.

If you seriously want to reformat and then reinstall Windows, start by making a boot floppy by formatting a floppy disk, then with your 98SE disk, go to 'ADD/REMOVE hardware'. Click on the 'Startup Disk' tab and click on 'Create disk'. Once complete, 'write protect' it (slide the little tab so there's 2 holes in the floppy) before using it. Power down the pc you want to format and insert the floppy. Reboot.

When you get to "A:/>" type "format C:" without quotes and with a space between format and C: Click yes when asked and then make one of your favorite beverages, kick back and let us know how you do.

Others may pick up where I leave off as I don't always have lots of time to be on the internet. Good luck.

[Babes_S]

Hello to all of you,
am glad to hear from all of you and it broaden my knowledge about pc. well i've tried most of what you said. only one that i havent try is taking of the battery. if i take it out what will happen. does it make a lot of changes on my BIOS? its very confusing about BIOS set up. CPU fan is working alright, it never stop spinning while i put it on. and i disabled the virus protect in my CMOS setup. thats why i manage to install my OS again. I did reformat it well cause it says all date will be lost and prompted Y for that. so i got everything in place especially my OS. but when i put it on after showing the desk top of windows 98 it shuts off and run scan. oh by the way i did run scandisk also and found no errors. i've been thinking it might be my hard disk trouble, do i need to replace it? this is not a compaq pc. thanks to all and will hear from u all again. hope u wont get fed up. thank u so much.;)

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I'm sorry to ask things over and over and I realize that you are struggling with English language but I want to know precicely what you did so:
...cause it says all date will be lost and prompted Y for that Did you press ENTER when at that point? How long did it take just to format your hard-drive? The 'Y?' does not mean it was completed, it is asking if you are sure you WANT to format and lose all your data that may be on there.

How many times did Windows reboot to finalize installation of 98SE?

[Budfred]

Have you tried to boot in Safe Mode? You press F8 just after you get past POST and select Safe Mode. This may allow you to boot all the way into Windows and find out what is wrong.

Taking out the battery would reset the BIOS to defaults and doesn't hurt the system, but I wouldn't do that if you have managed to successfully install Windows. I didn't realize you had gotten that far.

Budfred

[Babes_S]

yes, i press enter and deleted all my file. thats why i managed to instal back my OS. i havent try rebooting on SAFE MODE am gonna try that one. will see how it goes and tell u next time. thanks again***:confused:

[Babes_S]

Hi Budfred,
how can i download that diagnostic test, i cant use my pc. for now am using my laptop. can i download from my laptop and load it to my troubled pc. by the way is there any limit for posting here. am new on this site but its good for us to learn from computer wizard.:) sorry if am taking much of ur time. but i am really dying to fix my pc. thanks again:)

[Babes_S]

Hi Budfred,

its me again manage to run in safe mode. i checked the system (device manager) theres a question mark under 'OTHER'
........OTHER----1. camera
2. camera
3. PCI communication device
4. PCI input controller
5. PCI multimedia audio device
6. PCI multimedia audio device
those are the things that have question mark. what do i do next, shall i remoce those things. and i have a question, can i instal all the drivers even in safe mode like my VGA, sound card and modem. other wise am stock in this safe mode. i will patiently wait for your tips. i noticed that its not shutting off while in safe mode well so far its been on for about 20 mins now without shutting off. hopefuly i can fix it with yor help. i'll wait for ur next post. please dont get fed up i guess we nearly there. and i can put a smile on my face now.;) thanks again.

just waitng,

[Budfred]

Babes,

You can download diagnostic tools from the web on your laptop and then move them to the desktop with floppies. However, you probably don't need to do that if you are able to access your computer in Safe Mode, this suggests a software problem. The question marks in Device Manager suggest a driver problem. What I would suggest now is to gather the drivers needed for the items that have question marks, download the latest versions off the web or use original install disks. Then Remove these items in Device Manager and then reboot in Safe Mode again. I am not sure Windows will try to install in Safe Mode, but I would try it first anyway. If they install, reboot in normal mode and see if it is now working. If not, post back here. If Windows won't do the install in Safe Mode, try a normal boot and see if you can get them installed. If still problems, post back here.

There is not limit to posts on the Forum and I answer questions because I like the challenge, so keep on asking!:)

Budfred

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Alright, I know you installed your OS correctly now. I just couldn't tell by your previous replies.

After you fix your driver issues, there may be a heat problem still (If it's that).If you are still having problems:

What is your pc? motherboard? chipset?

You may be able to go into BIOS and see what your CPU temperature is. Have you tried to put a fan blowing on your opened case yet as mjc suggested? If it runs longer that way, it is heat related.

If that doesn't take care of it, you could try removing some cards and/or other peripherals like your CD-ROM, floppy or other device (modem or sound card) temporarily to see if your power supply can keep up with less things to keep running. Always add/remove cards/devices powered down and unplugged from the AC supply. Also keep your wrists or forearm on the case to ground yourself to prevent damage to sensitive components when removing/installing them. If that improves things it is a weak power supply.

As far as too many posts, there used to be a limit to how many replies that we could offer to the thread author. Since the new server I'm not sure if it is still that way. It used to be 8 replies. Budfred, no need to look, we're tied at 4 with this post :D

[mjc]

No limit....

[Babes_S]

Hi Budfred,
i cant upgrade the driver of that device cause am running on safe mode. since all the driver are on a cd my cdrom is not working on safe mode. shall i remove those PCI things, in the device manager.
i tried also what TED posted, took off the sound card, modem and cdrom to check on the power supply. still shuts off with all of these not installed.
checked also the CPU temperature, here it is so u will have ideas what going on.
CPU temperature----37C/98F
System Temperature----27C/80F
Fan speed----4753 shift to 4821 shift to 4856
Chassis fan speed ---0RPM
System thermal ---Ignore
Thermal Slow Clock Ratio---50-56.25%

thats all the facts that i gather on my setup. i did load the BIOS defaults and Setup defaults. do i need to change those. and i tried to blow a fan for cooling. still no development. for the meantime thats all for now and will hear from you all. thanks again.:confused:

[Budfred]

You could do a selective startup to normal mode and that would allow access to you cd without necessarily causing the original problem. You could also copy the drivers to a floppy, if you know what to copy, and install them from a floppy. Drivers are usually pretty small programs.

Budfred

[Fruss Tray Ted]

So what's taking you two so long to get the driver issue resolved? Just kidding! :D Looks like Budfred the bloodhound is on the right track...

http://www.hoflin.com/images/image945.gif

Yep, just drag and drop/copy and paste to floppy. You can fit one HECK of a lot of drivers on one floppy.

[Budfred]

That is actually Miniature Dachshund and Bassett Hound - Buddy and Alfred = Budfred.

[Babes_S]

Hi there guys,

Sorry it took me so long to post again. Been very busy over the weekend. And at the same time trying to really work on my pc. At last i got it what's causing it. Well i borrowed spare pieces of things inside a PC like hard disk and memory and checked which has a problem. I took out the sound card and modem too. But still the same when I boot it. I checked every single parts and the last thing i checked was the mainboard. That's the culprit....he he he. I mean it has a problem thats why windows cant booth freely. Now, its working alright now. Its like a brand new pc again. Been over hauled if you're talking about cars. Well, before that auto booting happened i noticed the screen of my monitor is getting blurry well not so clear, i mean its different color is like fading but u can still see everything. But now that it has been fix, the screen is very, very clear and the color is fantastic. I hope this will last long for now cause i cant live with out my pc. ;) I do alot of reading here ezpecially educational one, etc. computer trouble shooting. I hope this problem can help as a reference guide to those having this case problem.

Hi Budfred, thank you so much for all those tips and to all of you out there, thank you so much too for such kind help. I'll be a regular visitor in this forum. Since I only knew simple trouble shooting I'll just read your tips. Maybe share also but simple ones only.

I may say bye for now and i'll get back to my work now. Take care there and hear from you soon.

By the way Budfred where you from? If you dont mind asking.

till next time,

:)

[Budfred]

Glad to hear things are working again for you Babes. I am in Minnesota in the USA. Middle North part of the country, miserable cold winters and hot humid summers, but a good place otherwise.

Budfred

[Babes_S]

hello there, i want to ask if someone can help me. my computer doesnt load the windows when i reboot. i need to reboot three to five times to load the windows and when it loads it takes a while. what could be the problem. any suggestions that i can make to fix it.:)

[Budfred]

hello there, i want to ask if someone can help me. my computer doesnt load the windows when i reboot. i need to reboot three to five times to load the windows and when it loads it takes a while. what could be the problem. any suggestions that i can make to fix it.:)

You last posted here almost 5 years ago and we now have no idea what computer you have or anything else... Please start a new thread and provide details about your system and the problem... The Windows forum would be the place to post...