"Operating system not found" error

[EM64T]

Hi,

Please forgive me if this has already been talked about in the forum, but my modem keeps timing out on forum searches.

I have a client that is running Windows ME, and is having problems with the error "Operating system not found" at boot up. The odd part is that when you continually power-on and power-off the computer it will go through the boot process eventually (after a random number of tries). Also, when it does get a clean boot, if you do a soft restart you will never get the "Operating system not found" error message. Kinda odd, and something that really has me messed up.

I checked the MBR for viruses, and didn't find any. However, I did find 17 viruses on the HDD elsewhere, and had them cleaned, but there weren't any viruses in any of the basic boot files that I could see.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

have you tried replacing the CMOS battery ??

Murray

 

[EM64T]

No, I haven't tried replacing the battery. Would that cause that kind of an error? Seems odd..

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

Yep.. If BIOS is lsing it's info, then the hdd would not be found thus no operating system..

Murray

 

[EM64T]

All right, I'll keep that in mind. Does anyone else have any other ideas? The client is an hour's drive away, so I can't just go testing things on a whim. I'd rather know all my options and go and try all of them.

 

[tucsonbetty]

Hey,
I'm working on a WinMe PC right now for the first time. I hate the bugger. Not a bad pc just a bad OS.
If you were having this prob with Win98 or 2000 I'd say reinstall the OS and make sure you have all your virus definitions up to date. (back up necessary data of course but it shouldn't get deleted shouldn't being the operative word.) Try the reinstall.

 

[EM64T]

Yeah, I hate Windows ME myself. I changed out the CMOS battery on the unit, but that didn't work. Obviously it was the hard drive then. Thanks for everyone's help!