Unable to get into the windows

[rac13]

My PC hangs when it is at the stage of starting win98. Else it just give me a black screen. I try to format it but when it reached 10% of the format, it restart the formatting again. Then I try to set it as a primary slave and scan for virus, but no virus were found.

Why is it so?

 

[edfair]

Probably because you don't have a virus. You more likely have some hardware errors, like memory or video, or processor. My first step would be to look at the video card and make sure that the tail of the card hadn't disengaged. Next , I would look at the memory and probably reseat it a couple of times. Then I'd try booting into dos to see if the problem was different.
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.

 

[rac13]

It can run through the memory test and it can display the screen.

 

[jmarler]

Are you trying to reformat the C: drive (or the active partition)? If you are, then I am assuming that you are booting from a seperate boot disk or CD. It is very possible, since the reform always fails at 10%, that you have a bad harddrive. Have you tried to run any sort of surface scan on it? Or perhaps you should swap the harddrive out and then try the reformat again.
From your description however, I really doubt that you have a virus on the system. - Jeff Marler

 

[edfair]

The memory display you see during post checks to see if it can write hex 55 to certain positions in the contiguous memory. It is in no way a memory test. 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.

 

[rac13]

I am boot using the boot disk create using the Norton resure disk. It helps for my Win95. Now I'm trying to set it as a primary slave and then format it. Is it adviseable? I have been thinking if the hard disk had any problem. I remember once when I do the scan (blue screen). It told me that the hard disk had a bad sector and cannot be scan. Is it that I have to buy another hard disk?

 

[jmarler]

If you have already seen bad sectors come up on a surface scan of the media, you shouldn't even be trying to use that harddrive. I would guess that the problems you are seeing with the reformat failing after 10% everytime is directly related to bad sectors. BTW, how old is the HD?
Some will tell you that bad sectors can be flagged and that the OS will not try to use them, and this is true to a certain extent, but the way I look at it, once one sector on a HD goes bad, others are sure to follow. Even 1 bad sector is a sure sign that it is time to get a new HD and backup your data before you lose it.
I would recommend that you try a new HD in your computer and I would be willing to bet that your format will not have any problems. - Jeff Marler

http://www.JeffMarler.com

(please note, that the page is under construction)

 

[jmarler]

rac13,

Forgive me if I am pointing out the obvious to you, but you are also aware that when you reformat you harddrive using your Norton boot disk that ALL[/B/ of your data and EVERY file on your HD will be erased? Before you run the complete format, be sure that any files you want to keep are backed up. Once again, if this was painfully obvious, then I apologize, but I figured better safe than sorry. - Jeff Marler

http://www.JeffMarler.com

(please note, that the page is under construction)

 

[rac13]

Thanks Jeff Marler. I knew that.
But does formatting help bad sector?

 

[jmarler]

A low level format might assuming that there was no physical damage to the sector, but I still wouldn't trust it. Seeing as how you have already seen a bad sector and your reformat is not working, I would replace the HD. - Jeff Marler

http://www.JeffMarler.com

(please note, that the page is under construction)