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November 9th, 2003 03:00
OS Boot failure
My old (1998) Dell Dimension XPS R400MHz Pentium II running Windows 95, has crashed, and am looking for help to get it going again (at least long enough to get all my documents off the hard drive). It was running fine, until a couple of days ago.
Then, without warning: After the opening Dell screen (POST?)--the screen from which you can hit "delete" to enter setup--instead of booting to Windows 95, as it used to, the screen now goes blank (black, except for a horizontal line-prompt at top left) and nothing further happens. Nothing at all. When running properly, the next thing that would happen is that Windows 95 would load under a screen that said something like "loading Windows 95."
I suspected that either the Pentium II CPU or some part of the motherboard has failed, based on the following, and ask if anyone can confirm this. If this is the problem, I will get another Pentium II CPU on ebay, or even another motherboard.
No attempt to boot from an emergency startup boot floppy works. Same result: blank screen after POST.
Dell Diagnostic floppy fails to load on boot up. Same result: blank screen after POST.
I put the hard drive into another computer, a year old Microtel with a generic Via C3 800 MHZ CPU supposed to be comparable to the 800 MHz Celeron. Windows 95 tried to load under the "loading Windows 95" screen, but after beginning, it aborted with a message about not enough memory, shut down some startup programs and try again (which I don't know how to do). But this told me that my original IBM hard drive is not the problem, because Windows 95 tried to load from the hard drive, and got further than on the Dell.
So I thought it was the Pentium II, burned out and refusing the command to load Windowns 95, or some part of the motherboard refusing to send the command to the CPU to load Windows 95. I got a Pentium II on ebay that I am waiting for delivery on. I also saw an OEM Dell motherboard for the Vxxx computers, from a surplus parts store, and the tech there says it should work, but he can't guarantee it. For $20, I'll gamble, if the motherboard might be the problem.
Just to make sure the floppy drive wasn't bad, and hanging up everything, I went into setup and reset the first boot device to the hard drive, rather than the floppy. Same result: blank screen after POST.
One other thing really wierd thing:
During one of my many attempts to boot up, I noticed a very brief message flash on the Dell POST screen just before the screen went blank: Logging messages, to view, enter setup. So I went to setup. There was a DMI message log entry: "keyboard not functioning." I thought I knew that the keyboard was working fine, because I had connected my Dell keyboard to the Microtel and was using it on that computer, so I thought maybe it was an old message and they don't get deleted automatically, and maybe once I had a bad connection with the plug. But then, a poltergeist struck! While I was typing the first draft of this very post, the keyboard froze up and would not function on either computer! So I thought maybe the whole problem was just a keyboard that was going bad, intermittently. Only problem is, the keyboard that came with the Microtel works fine with the Microtel (I am using it now). It is four years newer than the Dell, so maybe it needs a driver that is not on the Dell. In any event, there is nothing know of that I can do to try to see if that is the problem, because I can't get past the blank screen after the POST screen.
Any ideas, besides buying a new computer and taking the two hard drives on my Dell to a computer shop to copy the data to CDs?
Thanks to anyone who can help.
FS
Then, without warning: After the opening Dell screen (POST?)--the screen from which you can hit "delete" to enter setup--instead of booting to Windows 95, as it used to, the screen now goes blank (black, except for a horizontal line-prompt at top left) and nothing further happens. Nothing at all. When running properly, the next thing that would happen is that Windows 95 would load under a screen that said something like "loading Windows 95."
I suspected that either the Pentium II CPU or some part of the motherboard has failed, based on the following, and ask if anyone can confirm this. If this is the problem, I will get another Pentium II CPU on ebay, or even another motherboard.
No attempt to boot from an emergency startup boot floppy works. Same result: blank screen after POST.
Dell Diagnostic floppy fails to load on boot up. Same result: blank screen after POST.
I put the hard drive into another computer, a year old Microtel with a generic Via C3 800 MHZ CPU supposed to be comparable to the 800 MHz Celeron. Windows 95 tried to load under the "loading Windows 95" screen, but after beginning, it aborted with a message about not enough memory, shut down some startup programs and try again (which I don't know how to do). But this told me that my original IBM hard drive is not the problem, because Windows 95 tried to load from the hard drive, and got further than on the Dell.
So I thought it was the Pentium II, burned out and refusing the command to load Windowns 95, or some part of the motherboard refusing to send the command to the CPU to load Windows 95. I got a Pentium II on ebay that I am waiting for delivery on. I also saw an OEM Dell motherboard for the Vxxx computers, from a surplus parts store, and the tech there says it should work, but he can't guarantee it. For $20, I'll gamble, if the motherboard might be the problem.
Just to make sure the floppy drive wasn't bad, and hanging up everything, I went into setup and reset the first boot device to the hard drive, rather than the floppy. Same result: blank screen after POST.
One other thing really wierd thing:
During one of my many attempts to boot up, I noticed a very brief message flash on the Dell POST screen just before the screen went blank: Logging messages, to view, enter setup. So I went to setup. There was a DMI message log entry: "keyboard not functioning." I thought I knew that the keyboard was working fine, because I had connected my Dell keyboard to the Microtel and was using it on that computer, so I thought maybe it was an old message and they don't get deleted automatically, and maybe once I had a bad connection with the plug. But then, a poltergeist struck! While I was typing the first draft of this very post, the keyboard froze up and would not function on either computer! So I thought maybe the whole problem was just a keyboard that was going bad, intermittently. Only problem is, the keyboard that came with the Microtel works fine with the Microtel (I am using it now). It is four years newer than the Dell, so maybe it needs a driver that is not on the Dell. In any event, there is nothing know of that I can do to try to see if that is the problem, because I can't get past the blank screen after the POST screen.
Any ideas, besides buying a new computer and taking the two hard drives on my Dell to a computer shop to copy the data to CDs?
Thanks to anyone who can help.
FS
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ejn63
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November 9th, 2003 09:00
JoeSchmoeToo
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November 9th, 2003 21:00
I put in a new CMOS battery, and presto! All my problems were solved. Win95 loaded like a charm.
I had considered the battery earlier, but had ruled it out as a problem, because the BIOS date and time were accurate. Proving only that I was easily fooled by a battery: it must have had enough power left to keep the time, but not to do the rest of what it was required.
I have not re-tried the keyboard yet, but suspect if it still does not function, it must have been a coincidental breakdown.