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computer blackout after improper shutdown scandisk message in windows

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grob

Technical User
Nov 14, 2000
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Someone improperly shut down my computer. This resulted in the message that the computer was not shut down properly. During the scandisk process, the system stopped at 80%. The computer was shut off via the power button. When the power button was pressed again, nothing happened. The monitor is ok. I could not hear the normal startup noises and the operating system did not load. I am looking for the best place to start troubleshooting. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
And how long did you wait to attemp the restart.

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.

 
The operating system is windows 98. It is a non brand computer. 450mhz,64 ram, soyo motherboard. A restart attempt was made several times, but the operating system did not kick in. Also, the normal power switch will not shut the machine off. I had to cut all power to the computer to shut it off. The power is there. The fan operates. I did not attempt to boot off a floppy disk. I will try that.
 
You have an ATX motherboard in the machine. Power down switch on the front kills part of the machine but not all. So while you are working on getting it back power down with the mainline switch and wait 10 to 15 seconds for power to drain between attempts.
Using a boot floppy is probably OK if it is a floppy that came with the OS. Problem here is the fdisk program is different on the 2 versions that could have been used to set your computer up in the first place.
Once you can get the floppy booted use fdisk to look at your partition. If it recognizes your partition then and only then can you run fdisk /mbr.
If ir shows a non-dos partition then you are on the wrong level boot disk.
This is the starting place.

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.

 
Hmmm... I really don't see this as being a software problem. You should try holding the power button for about 10 seconds to shut it off. The power button will force a shutdown if it's held in for 5-10 seconds. Do you know who shutdown the computer improperly, or how they did it?
 
If Windows 98 starting comes up on the screen press F8 and select command prompt
then type in scandisk
 
my computer did this when i attempted to overclock it too far.
you can try flashing the cmos.. there are usually 3 pins near the cmos battery (the round thing like a watch battery) they usually have a jumper on 2 of the pins. simply remove the jumper, then replace it. this should reset your cmos and might fix the problem.
 
exactly what happens when you turn on the computer. Do you see anything at all on the screen?
 
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