I've solved the problem, it was my USB keyboard. As soon as I changed back to my PS2 keyboard I was able to enter the safe mode. I will have to check to see if there is some way to enable the USB keyboard to be used in the POST as that looks like what is happening.
I'm using a Biostar TForce 6100 939 motherboard and had the occasion to try to enter safe mode to see if I could run a specific scan and found that pressing F8 which is suppose to enable the system configuration doesn't work. Anyone have any experience with this?
You have stated that you want to go with a core 2 duo CPU, this means that you will need DDR2 RAM. The new motherboard for that CPU is going to require the (P4) square four pin 12V connector for the CPU, your old PSU doesn't have it.
Have you tried blowing it out, there isn'y a lot of space in laptops for circulation so getting dust and other fiberous material in there can cause a loss of circulation which in turn can causes over heating which will shut the machine down.
You may be able to add RAM beyond the recommended amount, but it will make you computer run slower...if it works at all. Machine as old as you people are talking about are picky about what RAM they will run on which become another consideration.
For those of you in doubt here is a little lite reading to enhance your understanding.
1. Start your computer. 2. When you see the "Please select the operating system to start" message, press the F8 key. 3. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the l ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.
You may as well put the Dell away and start from scratch as you will need a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU, and graphics card as these new boards use PCI-e or PCI cards.
Some machines that old are picky about what RAM they like, if Crucial suggests that RAM you can count on it being compatible.
Aside from the speed (PC133) you should try to match some of the other specs suggested, CL2, Non-parity, 3.3V, 32Meg x 64 which were already mentioned. I suspect that the RAM also is non-EEC and non-buffered.
If you can get the make and model of the RAM from the seller you can google that information and find out the specs.
The problem with reviews from consumers is that they are always biased. Either the product worked for them and there for it is great, or they had a problem and it's a p.os..
Simple Tech is ok, but I do have a preference for Maxtor, Seagate, or Western Digital, and not necessarily in that order.
Most PSU fuses are pc mounted, you can meter them out for continuity using a Ohm meter. To change the fuse is going to involve removing the pc board from the case standoffs as the solder connections are on the underside. This will make the capacitors accessable which can be dangerous as they will hold a linevoltage charge for a very long time. If you have the tools and tech abilities go for it.
If you have a volt meter you can take the 20/24 pin connector and make a short between the green wire and any black wire and then plug the PSU into the wall receptacle. This will turn the PSU on and you should be able to take readings of the different rails.
Orange +3.3 VDC Red +5 VDC White -5 VDC Yellow +12 VDC Blue -12 VDC Black Ground Green Power Supply On
shut down system. open up box and make the new HD slave.
You do not set a SATA drive up as master or slave, that's part of the beauty of the drive.
Dougie, you won't need any software to transfer file from one hdd to the other, just connect the old ATA drive to the IDE cable and you should be good to go.
A CD has a capacity of 700MB, and if your files aren't any larger than that you should be able to find a CD-RW that is compatible with you machine at a reasonable price. You will need software like Nero to transfer the files to the CD.
Another option would be to buy an adapter for the Plextor so that you can connect it to your IDE cable, here's one I found.
It looks like the POST has found a problem with your CD drive. Check you IDE cable and power connector.
You could also try turning off your computer, disconnect the IDE and power cables from the drive, turn the computer back on and then back off, reinstall the connectors and see if the drive is recognized as new hardware found when you turn the computer back one.
Do you have another machine that you could try your drive in to be sure that it hasn't died?
A work around that you could try is to go into the BIOS and change the "stop on" settings to "stop on all errors", yeah it sounds counter intuitive.
Before you try a system restore I would suggest that you run your AVG in the safe mode. AVG is good for what it was designed to do, but I would also scan with Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, and A-squared.
As for doing a system restore, I would suggest trying last known good configuration first.
I have a tendency to obsess about my computer settings, and this problem occured after doing some upgrades and whatnot. So I figured I must've done something wrong. I'll try and reseat the memory and I'll see what happens. Could someone suggest the next step, if this one doesn't work?
I suspect that removing your added RAM to see if it's the problem as suggested should put you on the right track, but just what upgrades have you added lately?
This little problem is being brought to you by the good'ole boys at M$, if you google "having trouble with email after installing IE7" you may be surprised at number of problems associated with it. M$ has a tendency to foist their unfinished software on the public in the hope that we will have the patience to sort out their problems, and looks like this is just another example of that.
You can try going back to your last good configuration and see if you can restore your OS to a date prior to installing IE7, if not and you want to unistall IE7 you may need to google to find the proper procedure to do this as there seem to be problems associated with this as well.
This is why I have gone to Firefox and have even given up OE in favor of Thunderbird.
There are so many posts regarding the problems that IE7 has generated that I give up in exasperation when trying to find the workarounds that you just know have to exist to the associated problems.
There is an adaptor that will allow you to use the 20 pin connector type PSU. It still won't have the p4 connector which can be a problem with some motherboards. I built a new machine recently that had the 24 pin connector and the p4 connector and had been advised from the tech support that there may be an issue with the system fully powering up without the p4 connector.
One of the best places that I've found for not only getting definitions but additional related information is Webopedia. If you have specific question the members here will be more than willing to share their knowledge.
As for what makes a good game machine, I'm not a gamer, but I think most would agree that there a few basics that are a must. A good PCI-E graphics card with 512MB cache, at least one gig of RAM (two x 512MB in dual channel), and a PSU large enough to fulfill the requirements of the graphics card...they can be power hungry. So far dual core processors aren't playing that big of a roll in current games, but that looks like it will change in the future. I'm sure that others here will add more to this short list.
It sound like a hard drive would...in that wierd way.
Your master hdd may have a problem. Depending on the computer you should be able to download a diagnostic program which you will need to load on a floppy. You boot from this disk and it will run the test.
It would help if you let us know what make and model your computer is.
Pardon me if I snicker here, but what do you suppose they mean by being unstable. You will need a PSU with the P4 connector if the motherboard has that connector.
I'm agreeing with Dcc here. It may well be that the problem lays within your motherboard itself.
However i still feel that maybe it could also be the power supply unit itself. Do you have a multimeter? If so set it to measure voltage and place the black probe into the hole or near one of the BLACK GROUND wires (on your 4 pin connector). The red probe should go to the YELLOW 12VOLT wire. You should get a readout of about 12 volts all being well give or take about 5% either way. This will tell you whether or not you have a 12 volt rail out of action.
Janine...he has told us that he has tested the PSU with a block tester. If you are not familiar with these they plug into the 20/24 pin connector from the PSU and has a LED display which shows the status of each rail. This may not show the variance that a DMM would, but you don't need that kind of magnification to determine the health of a PSU. Another factor that most people don't take into consideration is that without a load the voltage readings are static and don't really indicate the health of the PSU.
This article is almost a year old but may shed some light on your question. It would appear that the FSB of the Intel CPUs is actually a potential bottle neck for faster speeds.
If the OS is that buggy I would wipe the drive...not format...partition the hdd with a 15 to 20 GB partition for the operating system and use the rest for files. This way if you ever need to reinstall the OS you don't have to mess with the files...unless the hdd is dead.
If you are going to go that route and you CD with you OS on it doesn't include the SP2 you might consider downloading Autostreamer and slipstreaming the OS and SP2 onto one CD.
Remember, all was working fine, I did not change a thing and it just quit working.
Actually...this is the first time that you have mentioned that you had it working.:eek: I thought you were trying to get this to fire up for the first time.
It does look like the problem would be either the motherboard or the CPU, unfortunately as you are aware the only way to tell which is the culprit is to swap them out. I don't know where you purchased the parts, but most people will allow you to exchange the components under warranty since you did have it up and running.
dcc. it's a solvent. yep, a petroleum spirit...... and duct tape keeps the world working. Vibration, dust, oxidation, grease [ur in a home, the air is laden with it as an aerosol, and it oxidises to give acids....].. all these take a toll on the electrical contact... WD40 [and i did not say to spray it on..] wiped on in the merest smear and polished off cleans and leaves penetrated residues. It dries, it works. And you won't wake up to a gluggy clay coloured pool of wires n chips. Circuit boards go thru a minor hell in manufacturing. Most households have a bit of wd40 lying around, but there are proper and better contact cleaners in the shops. We used to use freon, an it was magic, an then we'd go outside an improve our tans...
WD-40 contains fish oil and will dry...in about six months.:lol:
There is a technique that Bell labratories has used for decades that works quite well, remove and reinstall the connectors, RAM, and cards several times. If for some reason you have some residue on the contacts of the RAM or cards use a pencil's eraser to clean it.
