System/Mouse freezes during CD ROM game

[tebutler]

Hello,

I apologize in advance for this cryptic message....

I am new to this... I just bought my parents a new system: AMD K6II 500Mhz, PC100, 8.4G HDD, Win98, 50x CD ROM.

I live 5 hours away and I need to assist them long distance.

While my Mom was playing a CD ROM game, the system froze. She couldn't use the mouse, CTRL-ALT-DEL didn't work, nothing. I told her to power it off and power it back on again.

During boot up, the system did not complete the boot up process to Windows, stopped at "...Primary Master....press ESC". She pressed Esc and the system again said "...Slave....press ESC". She pressed ESC. Then the system said it couldn't boot from CD ROM, etc. Then it asked to boot from floppy. I don't think we have a floppy to boot from. I told her to power down & power on again and the same process happened again.

I called my LIMITED tech support and they said to:

1. Check the IDE cable from the HDD to the motherboard
2. Check the power cable to the HDD

Please note that I drove the computer 5 hours to my parents place and set it up. While I was there, it worked most of the weekend but it too freeze up on me once during the playing of a CD game. I too powered it off and I received the same boot error as my Mom, but the 2nd time that I powered it off/on it came up and asked me to press F1 and I did but I didn't know what that screen was so moved the arrow to EXIT and then it continued booting up to WIN98.

I know I sound like an idiot! Could anyone please help me? I just don't want them to have too many problems. I've never had this issue with my computer.

Thank you so much!!

Teresa

[Paleo Pete]

Sounds like the BIOS is not seeing the hard drive. Could be a cable worked loose, or the drive could be history. Since you transported it 5 hours, the loose cable is a good possibility.

Get into the BIOS and check to be sure the correct drive is listed under Primary IDE.

Check the jumpers om back of the drive, make sure they are set correctly.

The Master Boot Record could also be corrupted. Boot to the start up disk (see below) and choose Command Prompt Only and type
fdisk_/mbr with a space in place of the underscore ( _ ).

A Start Up disk can be made from another win98 computer by going into Control Panel, double click Add/Remove Programs, click the Start Up Disk tab. Write protect the disk before using it.



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[tebutler]

Thank you for your response. I wish I would have read it sooner. The tech support suggested we shipped the computer back and they will give my parents a new one. I "forgot" to mention that there was a repetitve "clicking" sound coming for the computer. Tech Support says the harddrive problem is malfunctioning.

THnaks again!!!

Originally posted by Paleo Pete:
Sounds like the BIOS is not seeing the hard drive. Could be a cable worked loose, or the drive could be history. Since you transported it 5 hours, the loose cable is a good possibility.

Get into the BIOS and check to be sure the correct drive is listed under Primary IDE.

Check the jumpers om back of the drive, make sure they are set correctly.

The Master Boot Record could also be corrupted. Boot to the start up disk (see below) and choose Command Prompt Only and type
fdisk_/mbr with a space in place of the underscore ( _ ).

A Start Up disk can be made from another win98 computer by going into Control Panel, double click Add/Remove Programs, click the Start Up Disk tab. Write protect the disk before using it.

[Paleo Pete]

That's one oversight on my part, I should have realized the system should still be under warranty, and advised you to take it back, lest you void the warranty by tinkering...or letting us non-factory certified folks try to advise you...Glad yo got it figured out and they're going to fix it. And yes, the clicking sound usually means bad hard drive.

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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)