computer not functional? no windows startup, etc.

[SkiBomb613]

I own a Compaq Presario 7594 that I have had for ~5 years without having any major issues. I went away on vacation a couple of weeks ago (& I did remember to turn off the computer & shut down the power strip), but when I came back from vacation, I found that my computer would not even start. It showed the red COMPAQ letters screen & then went to the Windows 98 screen & then after a couple seconds showed the "It is now safe to turn off the computer" screen. To fix this, I was able to rebuild the computer & upgrade it to Winodws XP. Everything worked fine for about a week & a half or so, but now I have a similar but more vexing problem:

When I start up, the COMPAQ screen comes up, but then it goes to a black screen with just the blinking underscore cursor (& no keyboard fxn) & it doesn't do anything from there. Once in a while after a reboot, I used to get a screen that tells me Windows didn't start properly last time, should I start windows normally, start in safe mode, start with last known parameters that worked, etc... But I havent gotten this in the past few reboots.

When I try & put in the Windows XP pro installation CD & restart, nothing new happens (I don't even think the CD drive is reading). When I try & put in the Windows XP startup floppy I had, i can get to a DOS prompt. Originally I couldn't go to any other drive than A:...i would just get a message "Invalid drive specification", even for drive C:. Just now, after rebooting again, I can get so that it says C:\>, but when i pull up the dir, there are only 3 files in there. As well, i still can't get any CD drive to read.

What's the prognosis? I don't know what else to try/look at.

Help would be gladly appreciated! (p.s. sorry for the long/rambling letter, but i've been having a lot of troulbe with this computer since i've come back from vacation)

[blackmagicx]

I had something similar to what is happening to you on my old computer. the diagnosis for that computer, was the motherboard is wrecked.

[dlh6213]

I'd try replacing the CMOS battery and see if it helps at all.

[SkiBomb613]

I will try checking the battery. I found a website online that recommended first trying to leave the computer on for ~24 hours, to "recharge" it, before you decide to replace it. Do you have any other suggestions? or do you know what may have been the cause of such problem? or was it just that the computer is getting old?

i'll get back to you when i know more about the batttery!

[nanosani]

The only reason I can think of is the corrupted boot.ini file. I'm not pretty sure.

[dlh6213]

I will try checking the battery. I found a website online that recommended first trying to leave the computer on for ~24 hours, to "recharge" it, before you decide to replace it. Do you have any other suggestions? or do you know what may have been the cause of such problem? or was it just that the computer is getting old?

i'll get back to you when i know more about the batttery!

I doubt if leaving it on is going to 'recharge' the battery, but hey, it won't cost anything to try :)

From the way you described the events, this seems like the most likely cause to me. If it's not the battery, it could be one of the other suggestions made previously (boot.ini or motherboard).

[SkiBomb613]

I doubt if leaving it on is going to 'recharge' the battery, but hey, it won't cost anything to try :)

From the way you described the events, this seems like the most likely cause to me. If it's not the battery, it could be one of the other suggestions made previously (boot.ini or motherboard).

it's been almost 20 hours & no change so far.

what is entailed in fixing the boot.ini, if that might be the problem?

thanks again for helping me! i hope we can figure out a solution

[dlh6213]

Have you replaced the battery yet? You should do that before trying anything else. They aren't very expensive or hard to replace.

[SkiBomb613]

I just replaced the CMOS battery this morning, but no luck. The computer recognized that there had been a battery change & it automatically restored the CMOS settings to default, but I still can't get past the opening COMPAQ screen. Do you have any other suggestions?

p.s. When I use a Windows XP startup floppy disk to get to a command prompt, I can access the C drive and view the directory ("dir" function). There are only 5 files that pop up, "a" "0" "F" "t" and "f", all of which are about 7MB large, and it says that there is ~750MB left on my C drive (which is about right where it was before the crash, as far as I can remember).

[nanosani]

Here is the boot.ini file but it'll only work if :

your OS is windows xp
your hard drive is set in primary master slot
and your windows is installed in c drive.

just copy and paste the file in your c drive.

note : donot paste the zip file ... paste the boot.ini file.

[SkiBomb613]

Here is the boot.ini file but it'll only work if :

your OS is windows xp
your hard drive is set in primary master slot
and your windows is installed in c drive.

just copy and paste the file in your c drive.

note : donot paste the zip file ... paste the boot.ini file.

That's a 'yes' to all three criteria. I tried the copying the boot.ini file to the c:\ drive and then restarting, but there's still no change.

I bumped into a good friend yesterday who suggested that I try fixing/reinstalling/updating the ROM/BIOS thing for my computer model. Unfortunately, all I could find was an exe file, which is not accessible through DOS mode. Is there a way around that? Like maybe converting the file to another file type that's amenable to working in DOS?

[caperjack]

I just replaced the CMOS battery this morning, but no luck. The computer recognized that there had been a battery change & it automatically restored the CMOS settings to default, but I still can't get past the opening COMPAQ screen. Do you have any other suggestions?

p.s. When I use a Windows XP startup floppy disk to get to a command prompt, I can access the C drive and view the directory ("dir" function). There are only 5 files that pop up, "a" "0" "F" "t" and "f", all of which are about 7MB large, and it says that there is ~750MB left on my C drive (which is about right where it was before the crash, as far as I can remember).

You PS. make little sence ,it should show the windows directory if not you need to format and reinstall windows .
you say there are 5 files show up about 7mb each ,and 750 mb left .750+35 =785 mb HDD and you are talking about using winxp disk ,
Why arent you using a win98 bootdisk,to dir the drive .
get one here www.bootdisk.com if you haven't got one ,
boot computer to it and at the A:\ prompt type , SYS C:
and reboot ,if nothing happens try going into the bios and do a auto detect harddrive ,say yws to all 4 drive it finds,empty chanels and cdroms included in the list

[SkiBomb613]

No luck so far, but here's an update:

Using a Windows 98 startup floppy, I was able to start the computer with CD-ROM access. I tried to install with my Windows 98 CD, but beforehand it wanted to do a system check. During the Scan Disk, it fixed the File Allocation Tables and some other problems, but when it was looking at the Directory Structures, I get a million file errors. While I can click "Fix It" and it
fixes the problem for that specific file, there are many many files in many many directories.

What do you think I should do next? I have the files FDISK.exe and FORMAT.exe on the Windows 98 floppy. Should I use those to try and fix my computer?

[caperjack]

No luck so far, but here's an update:

Using a Windows 98 startup floppy, I was able to start the computer with CD-ROM access. I tried to install with my Windows 98 CD, but beforehand it wanted to do a system check. During the Scan Disk, it fixed the File Allocation Tables and some other problems, but when it was looking at the Directory Structures, I get a million file errors. While I can click "Fix It" and it
fixes the problem for that specific file, there are many many files in many many directories.

What do you think I should do next? I have the files FDISK.exe and FORMAT.exe on the Windows 98 floppy. Should I use those to try and fix my computer?

First i would make Sure i have all drivers disk for hardware in my computer ,then ,I would use fdisk to delete the dos partition ,then created a new one ,then restart computer and run format then reboot with
cdrom support and reload windows .

[SkiBomb613]

First i would make dure i have all drivers disk for hardware in my computer ,then ,I would use fdisk to delete the dos partition ,then created a new one ,then restart computer and run format then reboot with
cdrom support and reload windows .

Thank you...I have tried that, and it worked fine. I could start the computer with windows 98, but there were no drivers installed. I had to resort to using Compaq's QuickRestore CD's to restore all the hardware drivers & original programs & such. Everything (well, almost...more on that below) is working now, so I want to thank everyone who gave advice for helping me make this <i>huge</I> step on the road to fixing my computer!

I have been trying to reinstall/setup the NETGEAR Wireless router that I have on my computer, but the computer doesn't seem to recognize that I have it plugged in. The router MA101 is supposed to be a Plug&Play device, but when I plug it in, Windows 98 does not automatically access it. Even though I try to go to Add/Delete Hardware in the Control Panel and try to get it to install manually, it still doesn't load after restart. :sad: :?: :sad:

[dlh6213]

You should either install the drivers from the disk that came with the router, or from here:
http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_details.asp?dnldID=503

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi there :)

Running XP on FAT is like driving a Ferrari by having the gear engaged, sparkplugs out and running the starter.

Do you have a Windows XP CD?

If yes, put it in the drive, then shutdown the machine. Start it again, during boot hit the "Del" key repeatedly to get into the BIOS setup.

Find option "Boot device" or similar, select "CD Rom" as first boot device.

Save settings and exit BIOS, restart machine. It should now boot from the Win XP CD.

Now chose option "Install new" (NOT upgrade!). Of course you will ose your settings etc, but screw them, you'll get them easily done again.

If given the choice of format, CHOSE NTFS FILE SYSTEM!!!!!! Not the crap FAT32.

The let XP install and be happy ever after.

The reason for using XP: NTFS. This OS was created with the objective to bring NTFS to the broad masses of users, where previously it (NTFS) was only for business/corporate users (Windows NT, Windows 2000).

NTFS is safer, rather crashproof and IF crashed, easier and faster to restore. It doesn't always ditch DLL files and fragments very little as opposed to FAT32.

My own machine runs XP since march 2001 and i yet have to see the first system-caused BSOD (i triggered a few by suicidal actions - driver experiments etc, and once due to an overheated CPU after too much overclocking). Also i yet need to re-install XP - never failed me. I don't love M$ but i DO love XP.

Kind regards.....

Thanh