Can't load OS

[scottv11]

I am working on an old packard bell P1 100mhz.Was running Win 95.tried to load software that needed more RAM got an error message. Went out and bought some Ram,installed it. when booting it will not load windows completely (hangs). Went into safe mode , no conflicts in device manager,no programs in startup folder.
I can get to command prompt but it does not "see" the cd drive so I cannot reload the OS. I have a fresh copy of 95 (a oem disk but not for this pc) and a 98se upgrade disk.
I have tried many things including renaming autoexec file.
There is nothing worth saving on the HD so i do not care if I have to format the drive.
Any ideas anyone??
scott

 

[jmatt]

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q271/7/71.asp

Got problems and don't want to reinstall W95...
Don't want to lose any of your settings or software? There's a command
line option that'll get you back on your feet in no time. Boot up your PC with a Windows 95 boot disk , pop in your Windows 95 CD, and once you're at the command prompt, type your CD-ROM drive letter immediately
followed by a colon. So, if your CD was set to "D" you'd enter D: and then hit ENTER. At this point, type the following command: SETUP /pf.
This switch will restore all of Windows critical files to their factory state, and in 99 % of situations doing this will fix whatever problems you were having in Windows 95.

---------------------------

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000032118

Registry Backup . ( Freeware )

To make a simple way to backup the Windows System Registry.
1. Registry Backup works through DOS. It uses DOS as a frontdoor to ensure there is no corruption that can be caused by Windows.
2. Registry Backup works without any user input, just restart your computer and it starts itself.
3. It is fully automated. It not only backs up the registry
automatically, but restores it automatically in case of errors.

 

[TopHat2]

jmatt, is "Registry Backup" in any way better than "scanreg /restore" at the DOS prompt?

 

[scottv11]

Hey JMATT,
I just tried your idea,booted from a floppy boot disk and tried to go to D drive. It says invalid drive specification.
Somehow the drivers are not loading so it does not recognize the cd rom drive.
Scott

 

[jmatt]

If 98 is installed , use scanreg /restore .
I think in this case , 95 will be installed , which does not have scanreg /restore .
If you are using 98 , here is what I do .

To improve on the 5 days MS have on registry backups , use the Cabrest system below & get 14 days .

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/regback1.html

For those that find the above site confusing , here is what to do .

Alter MaxBackupCopies from 5 to 14 as per instructions at above site .

Download the zipped copy of the Batch file from ,

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/downloads/cabrest.zip

Unzip , copy & paste cabrest onto the top of C: in Windows Explorer .

Delete zip file , or save it on floppy , if you want it for others or the future .

Print the instructions below & stick on your comp in front of you , so when you have to go back to a good copy of the registry , you don't need to search for them .

------------------------------------

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press Ctrl during bootup .

Select , Command prompt only .

Type in cabrest & press Enter , keep answering y & you will see a table , which will allow you to select which CAB file to restore from .
So , for example , to restore from rb009 cab , you look at the table & see 09 corresponds to the letter j . You type j & Not the number .
Follow instructions .

Type win & press Enter to exit .

If after following the instructions to Restore , things arn't still working , go to an earlier date & try again .

Type win & press Enter to exit .

 

[fedto]

Some of the older PB's used a scsi cdrom which ran off of the sound card. If this is the case a windows 98 boot disk will not work, it will only load ide drivers. I personally never found any way to use this scsi card unless the sound card was activated, which was usually after windows was loaded. I went out and bought an inexpensive ide cd-rom and reloaded windows with it.

 

[jmatt]

fedto is right , you can spend hours trying to get an old rom to work .

If you have the drivers , here is how to copy them to the HD from dos . Note the spaces .

a:\ copy a:*.* c:
I'm assuming C is where you want to put them .
Once on the HD , at the A: prompt , type c: & press Enter . At the C: prompt , type dir\p & press Enter . You can now see what you have just loaded onto the HD .
If it has setup or install or something similar as an exe file . At the c: prompt , type ( example , setup or setup.exe ) & press Enter .
Follow the instructions .

 

[scottv11]

Hey,
It is 95 that is in there.What is really strange is If i put in norton utilities cd on startup it will read it and can run from cd but starting in safe mode it will not see the cd although on start after memory check it does say cd found.If I had a copy of win 95 on floppy I think that would work.Could i copy nessissary files only on another machine to floppy? If so what files would I need? If i took scan reg restore reg off a 98 disk to floppy would it work?
scott

 

[jmatt]

It is a matter of getting the right drivers loaded , I have a variety of drivers for old rom's , can send if required .

Don't know the answer's to the the rest .

 

[scottv11]

I have the drivers and there on a system floppy but when the self install program tries to load it says it can't find mscdex.exe and to please install dos 6.0 or later

 

[jmatt]

http://www.kewlone.com/

Also you may have it on your 98 disk .

Going to work now .

 

[TopHat2]

Have you tried doing a clean install? E.g. used “fdisk” from the installation floppy to re-partition your HDD, then run “format “C: /s” to format your HDD? If you have done this then booting from the Win98 installation floppy should install (temporarily) the drivers necessary for your Windows installation CD to work (if you don’t have the install floppy search “boot disks” no the net, or set your first boot device to the CD in BIOS). If this has not worked then could be a physical problem with your CD drive, such as a loose cable. Also be aware that after installing Win98 you need to run “fdisk /mbr” before you can re-install Win95 again.

Does tiis help?

 

[topscribe]

Scott, you mentioned that you installed memory. Those old machines usually used one of two types of memory: Fast Page (FPM) and Extended Data Out (EDO). I'm not saying that this is definitely the problem, but it is one you might check.

FPM runs at 70 ns (nanoseconds) and EDO at 60. If the machine is configured for one, it may do funny things when the other is installed. Sometimes, when you go into the CMOS settings, a provision is there to set it for one or the other. The choice might be there as 60 or 70 ns. Another problem can appear if both FPM and EDO chips have been installed together. This can be an impossible situation for a computer.

It's worth checking out, anyway.
Butch

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts"

 

[whoozhe]

Adding ram is not so simple, especially in older computers.
The RAM must match the existing ram's type, speed, pins etc and most probably need to be in size matching pairs. All this depends on the motherboard's age.
Some even insist on the order that RAM is inserted.

Take control of your life, not someone else's

 

[topscribe]

Actually, it depends on the BIOS. You can have three computers the same age that require three different configurations, respectively. Some want parallel installations, some do not. Some have four banks, some have three. Some even have 168 pin banks in addition to the usual 72 pin banks. Some want SIMMS, while others want DIMMS. Yet others, regrettably, had hung on to the 30 pin configuration a bit too long. But when it comes to the types of memory, as a usual rule, it is pretty simple: FPM or EDO, 72 pin.

Anyway, Scott, here are some additional suggestions. Sometimes working anywhere on the motherboard can pry an expansion board slightly out of its slot. Check that. Reseat the memory chips to make sure they are properly contacting the pins. Also, in some computers, the order of the chips make a difference if they are different in memory size; some want them in descending order.

Also, the computer is not detecting the CD-ROM in DOS probably because you do not have the low-level driver in your CONFIG.SYS or the MSCDEX.EXE command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. If you have any access to your email and an unzip program, such as PKUNZIP, I can zip up the files on my Win98 boot disk and send them to you, where you can unzip them and copy them onto a floppy. You will then be able to boot your computer with CD-ROM support. Let me know how it goes.

For what it's worth.

Butch

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts"