Wont Boot Past Windows Screen

T-b0n3

Dell p4 500mhz , 128ram , win98, aint sure on exact models , if needed ill dig up.

My aunt has been using it(newbie). Recently she told me it wuldn't boot into windows , so she brought it down to me and I fromatted it , hoping to clear years of waste and fix the boot problem. Formatted and still wont boot(have left on windows screen now for 15+ mins , bar still moves tho) any ideas? I could use my HDD and see if it boots? All replies appriciated.

Cheers Adam

Champ

I had a problem like that before with an old Dell PII. (tried reformatting etc)
It was actually Win98 1'st edition giving the problem.
Chaning to 98SE == Problem no more.

I never could figure out exactly why it refused to boot up. I reinstalled 98 1'st edition on it before a few times; with no problems.

If your stuck with 98 1'st edition; the first thing i'd do would be to see if remaking the MBR might help (can be risky though in some cases).

T-b0n3

I have win Xp here , but that wont run well on that machine would it?

Adam

Champ

Not very well i'd imagine.
If your going to upgrade aim for W2k.
Though if you can't get it; consider Linux.
If your aunt doesn't play games; then i think Mandrake could serve very nicely.

emaherx

windows xp would be too slow on that machine.

Have you tried installing windows 98 with minimal harware.
(ie remove the sound card, modem and any cards or drives and other hardware not required to run windows.)

these can be installed later one at a time.

Webmonkey

emaherx wrote:

windows xp would be too slow on that machine.

Have you tried installing windows 98 with minimal harware.
(ie remove the sound card, modem and any cards or drives and other hardware not required to run windows.)

these can be installed later one at a time.

Yes i go with this...It could have installed a faulty driver and that would explain the hang. Its there that the drivers are loaded. This could very well happen everytime you format, windows might be giving your piece of hardware the wrong driver.
Aslo did you try keeping your finger on Ctrl (windows 98) to boot into start up menu and choose Safe mode, if it starts then i would say driver problem.

T-b0n3

Thanks for help. Ill try the safe mode then reformat without hardware I dont need. Cheers lads

Adam

T-b0n3

Okay , hmmmm , booted into safe mind fine but only to find the hdd hadnt even been formated but i had reinstalled windows ;/ [never used win98 install before]
So back i go to reformated [hopefully this time] and ill leave un-needed devices out.

Adam

whosurpaddy

you should be able to get xp on there and have it work fine for minimal tasks like word, email etc. i have xp loaded on a slightly lower spec machine than that at my gfs place. xp is also very good at making a lot of hardware work atraight off the install, so if prob is with a dodgy driver its worth a try.

(incidentally if its a 500mhz machine then its prob a p3, def not a p4)

T-b0n3

Im gonna try install win98 and format eveb tho it aint as easy as XP. Having trouble acyuallt formatting it. And ye it is p3 , typo. Ill post again with more news.

Adam

T-b0n3

Okay im offically stuck. Microsoft website doesnt seem to have any help , either to the manuals that came with comp. How do I fromat the computer and it doesnt help that I aint used dos at all before.
Please help

Adam

Dun

See this for an outline re-installation.

When you're partitioning, choose to enable large disk support, and make one primary dos partition.

T-b0n3

Got it formatted and reinstall win98 , its all good , cheers for help lads.

Adam