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Strange PC problem - Please help!

E

edd91

n00b
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
14
Hi guys, please offer your insight to this strange problem

PC at hand:
Some celeron, 400ish MHz
64 mb ram in one stick
Windows 98

I am not too sure how the situation arose, the details are really vague from the owner. Either way, one morning the computer would not turn on (nothing, dead)

I was expecting dead PSU, but a hot wire showed the PSU was fully functional. Not knowing what motherboard it has (still don't, all onboard something..) I took the battery out to reset bios, put it back and still no go.

Now this is the strange part, I thought I would try the jumper right next to the battery to reset the bios, I moved it to the other prongs and ta-da the computer turned on, but it would take no directions from the power switch, pressing the power switch only reset the computer now. I thought maybe the bios was now reset, so moved the jumpers back to the original position, but now it won't go again, it will only work in the other, never been like that before, position.

So I told the owner this had to be an accepted side effect that he couldn't turn the computer on/off with the power button, it also had to have F1 pressed to continue at POST screen due to BIOS settings not being saved and defaults loaded (I guess my jumpers were bios related?).

Anyway, then the windows 98 splash screen comes up and it freezes. Nothing can avoid it. It will boot to safe mode, and I went through MSCONFIG screens but nothing sus, I tried reg check etc, but nothing. It just won't boot in to windows. I have tried re-installing windows but no luck

When I boot with step-by-step confirmation it says windows failed to load because HIMEM.sys not found, but its there, especially after the re-install and manual copying, so I'm thinking its memory related.

Opinions? Is the motherboard/memory fucked?
 
Sounds like a screwed up motherboard to me, you could prob get replacements for the cpu+mobo+ram for like not very much money, this page might give you some ideas, the here for 30 dollars worth of value ram, and youre set, happy customer with a new rig for what 150$ after youve added on your fee.
 
MD_Willington said:
Is it an older Abit mainboard?

I'd check caps on the board
Click to expand...

bad caps usually cause stability issues or cause the comp not to power on at all... try convincing the onwer to get some new parts...
 
well if you can turn the computer on with the power switch and then press it again to turn it off and it restarts, there has to be something wrong with the motherboard and also when trying to reset the bios you're having some weird things happening...definately the motherboard. There should be a company name somewhere on the board, if not...try to locate the FCC Id and enter it into their site to find out what the motherboard is.

...Dan
 
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