Computer won't boot

[pavermech]

Hi everyone! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif
I'm having a problem booting my machine. Here are the specs:
Pionex system
Pentium 233 MMX
Award Bios
2 gig HDD
32 mghz RAM

Here's the problem: When warm booting Win 98, the splash screen comes up and then goes to the safe mode menu. Attempting to boot to safe mode get this error:
HIMEM.SYS has detected unreliable memory at address 01000006.
XMS driver not installed. Press enter to continue.
Pressing enter gets this message:
HIMEM.SYS is missing.
Now, when cold boot is done, this error appears:
Invalid VxD dynamic link to device 3, service B. Windows configuration invalid. Run setup again.
Now, I have done two (yes that's two) reformats on the HDD, both including deletion and recreation of partition before formatting. HDD has only one partition. Installed winME first time and 98 second time. With ME, every warm boot went to safe mode menu, even boot to safe mode, but no error messages. Cold boot recieved Himem.sys error message above. AM now in the process of running win98 setup again. but not much hope. Any ideas, procedures to try? Any suggestions on what size hammer to use on pc? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
Many thanks for your time. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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"Beam me up, Scotty--no intelligent life here"

[mjc]

Try some new RAM...the current RAM has gone bad.


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[pavermech]

Thanks, mjc! I kind of thought that might be it, but I wasn't sure because when the system boots, it shows the ram to be ok. I have an old machine with some ram that I can try. Will post back, probably tomorrow evening to let you know what happened.
Oh, yes. When I tried the run setup again this came up: Standard Mode: Invalid DPMI return from 036F:08FF. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif Also just for my info, what is HIMEM.sys?
Thanks again!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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"Beam me up, Scotty--no intelligent life here"

[mjc]

Memory managemnt prog for DOS/Windows...there are some errors that the memory check at power up won't catch if it is set to something like "quick POST" or diasble mem check over xMB...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[pavermech]

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Sorry for the delay posting MJC. You were dead on target about the ram. When I pulled it out, (simm ram by the way) the topmost stick had a piece of paper(?) on it that was black on one side and copper looking on the other. No idea where it came from. I replaced that stick and still had problems until I matched the ram in pairs of the same size. Now the system will boot most of the time, but still having problems. It has 2 slots for dimm ram and I have ordered 2 sticks to put there and get rid of the simm. Evidently when that piece of paper or whatever fell on the contacts of the ram, it damaged the slot (I hope). Anyway, thanks for the help again. I'll post if I have any more problems. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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"Beam me up, Scotty--no intelligent life here"