Cant boot from floppy to reinstall W98

[wigz]

Major problem here....
When I boot up the comp (p400 24MBram)(Not my comp!)
and have the boot floppy in, it dosnt recognise it (says nothing) and then proceeds to carry on loading W98.
And when it gets to loading the W98 logo screens, It tells me Explorer has performed an illegal operation, and I cant get any futher.

this is really puzzling me as Ive never know a computer to refuse a boot floppy.

Things I have recently done (incase this is somehow the problem) are: Tried to use a different modem by disabling the onboard modem (nother board is a pc100 system board, aud,gpx & comms all on mobo)
Now disabling this didnt work, but I put things back as they were, and now I cant get the blasted thing to work !

Any ideas?
Thanks in advance

 

[webmaster999]

have you tried entering CMOS and ensuring the boot sequence is A,C or something of the like?
A+, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE Windows NT 4.0, MCSE Windows 2000 Early Achiever with Security Emphasis

 

[wigz]

yep, ive tried entering CMOS, but when I hit [del] to enter setup, it ingnores me. Ive tried safe mode, etc...but no keyboard commands are recognised.

 

[edfair]

Best try to be creative to get to setup. Maybe [esc], [F2], [F10], worst case pull the battery and force the setup by blowing the date away.
You could try holding a key down, sometimes that will force a keyboard error and get you in.
You might have a problem with the BIOS. If pluggable , try reseating it several times. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[webmaster999]

You might can also try F1, Ctrl+Shift+F1, and look on the screen for what it says to do to enter CMOS.

With all respect, edfair, it doesn't sound to me like the CMOS is unseated since he can get to the boot screen of the OS before it freezes.

Also, make sure the boot disk works in another system (in other words - ensure that it IS in fact bootable)

Matt A+, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE Windows NT 4.0, MCSE Windows 2000 Early Achiever with Security Emphasis

 

[wigz]

Thanks for the help guys, I think Ive got it sorted, pressing [esc] has got me into CMOS, and managed to change the boot up sequence (was IDE1 then CD) and now Is Floppy,CD,IDE1
Im in the process of formatting the drive & reinstalling windows as I type.

Im just intertested as to what you said webmaster999

"You might can also try F1, Ctrl+Shift+F1, and look on the screen for what it says to do to enter CMOS."

Whats that all about then?
never heard of that before...

Thanks again

 

[edfair]

webmaster999,
wasn't worried about CMOS being unseated. Was suggesting removing the battery to force the date to default, which should have forced CMOS setup on next powerup. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[webmaster999]

Ed,

This is part of one of your previous replies above that I was referring to:

"You might have a problem with the BIOS. If pluggable , try reseating it several times."

I was just saying that since he could boot, it probably wasn't the BIOS.

Have a good day!

Matt


Wigz,

There are about as many ways to get into CMOS on today's and yesterday's machines as there are machines out there!! (Okay, not quite - but close!! ) I was stating some of the ways that I have used in the past in addition to EdFair's suggestions to get into CMOS. And usually the computer system will mention something of the sort at the bottom of the screen "Hit [ESC] to Enter Setup" etc. though not always.

Have a great day!! Glad you got it working!

Matt A+, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE Windows NT 4.0, MCSE Windows 2000 Early Achiever with Security Emphasis

 

[wigz]

ahh, right then...another thing to put in my solutions...i never knew that.

The comp is now on a windoze update & one problem keeps bugging me.
When the PC was given to me...(actually, Ill put this in a new post, but I might aswell put it here too)
The modem very rarely got a dialtone, and when it did, errors like No carrier signal, not able to make connection.
..when it eventualy got online it kept dissconecting after 2mins.(remember this is a pc modem riser off the pc100 system board(everything onboard) running W98 with just 24MBram(ouch, i know))
Ive used an external modem to get the latest drivers for everything, and have had a few modem diagnostics on it. But it keeps dissconnecting.
Will this be down to the low memory?
or is there something else I can try?

Ta

 

[edfair]

Not a memory problem. Modem problem. You've made the best step already. Now follow through and cripple the internal one.
You could have a noisy line. they are funny, they kill some modems and work with others. If you have this, solution is a line filter, 10.00 at radio shack. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[wigz]

mmmmm, thought so
It aint my PC, but Ive got a PCI modem lying about, will try get that workin

Cheers ed