My question is probably gonna show how really ignorant I am about computers, but here goes.

My son was using our old Windows98 computer because his not-quite-as-old Windows XP is acting up (Frying several mice, slow mouse, hard drive is 4 years old--maybe needs replaced). We can't afford to take the durn thing in to any place to replace anything. My hubby was unemployed for 10 months and we are wayyyy behind in everything, so we got out the win98 computer--thank God we hadn't gotten rid of it!

It worked fine-- just slow, I had to load a new antivirus program and we were fine-- for about two weeks. My son was happy because he was able to play some games he hadn't been able to use on his WinXP computer.

Well, now it's not working. At one point, when we were shutting down, the screen went black and the computer did not shut down til we held the on/off button for a few minutes. When we try to turn it on, all we get is a black screen.

Is that a dead hard drive? The hard drive on this one is about 3 years old--I had it and the motherboard and processor replaced around the same time. If it's only 3 years old, isn't that a bit early for it to die?

How can I find out how old it is? (Because I'm trying to remember if I really DID replace the hard drive or not when we did the motherboard and processor)

I have a disk that would reinstall the win98 on it, would that help start up the computer? I don't think I have a floppy disk to start it with. I have a floppy drive on the computer I am on now--can I download one (a start up disk) from someplace on the internet?


Or should I just let it go peacefully and find a beautiful, sentimental headstone for it?

Thanks

This sounds more like an internal hardware issue. This would be suitable in the internal hardware forum.

But... Aside from that my first computer, had the same problem.

Windows 98 and after shutting down just a black screen we put it the repair shop and he spent about 2 months on it, I really don't think he did anything. But it came back and he said motherboard was the issue. Heres what made me think that he was full of it. I opened the computer up and thats when I first started learning about computers aside from copy and paste. When I first opened the computer it automatically broke a sticker making the warrenty void.

Anyways... Me thinks it cant find a main boot file, when you were shutting it down did you hold any keys like ctrl, alt or anything? When you try to boot it up does it show anything? Like black screen with a little blinking white bar in the top right corner?

What id say would be check for floppy as I think that Windows 98 is designed to boot to floppy as soon as it starts. Worst case possible I would say reinstall the operating system. Im going to assume its not dead yet. I never say its dead untill its emitting sparks or is on fire.

( pst; if you wish you can post about the XP in another section to get the low down on how to rescue the mouse?)

may we please check a few things? win 98 or 98se?

which antivirus has been put on it? and was any other protection placed on it ? as it has not been on line for some time , did it get its windows updates done?

from where did he get the 'games' and did he download limewire or similar P2P stuff on to it?

have you checked to see if the power plug is properly pushed in?

what, if anything 'happens' when you attempt to turn it on ????

Seeing how everything is posted here, I'll comment on everything here for the moment. On the old computer, what is the make and model? If it has 98, I'm assuming it's kind of old. The first thing I would do is to replace the motherboard battery. It's the small coin-type silver object on the motherboard. Just be sure to unplug the computer first. If it does boot then, you'll have to enter the BIOS to reset the date and time

You can download a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com. Use the one for ME, instead of 98.

As for the burned out mice- Power Supply, or Motherboard

garmanma,
The computer is a Compaq Presario, is 8 years old, as far as I remember it is Win 98se.

I'll try the motherboard battery thing, can't hurt! And I will dl the bootdisk--but why ME instead of 98?

Ruby,
I got the free Avast for the AV, it has several antispyware programs-- the Adaware, Spybot, and still running is the old spywareguard! I learned about these from here a few years ago. I hadn't run any scans on it other than the AV when we hooked it back up. I don't think I did any windows updates, either.

The games were from cd-roms we had here--They have been installed on this computer before, although i don't know if it was still on there of if he had to re-install--I had done a clean install on the windows98 about 1 1/2 yrs ago, and the particular game was first my 15 year old's game many years ago.

xXAlphaXx,
When I turn the 'puter on, I get a little blinking white bar on the black screen. I have checked all connections-- everything looks to be in order.

I'll post back when I have gotten and tried the floppy, but I won't be here til Sunday, cuz we're gonna be gone til then.


I appreciate your feedback, and I will be posting about the other winXP in the other section, too. That one won't turn on right now, either, but it's not a black screen with the blinking light! (I think my son--the 10 yo, who is the user of this '98 and the mouse-issue XP is hard on computers--I watch him on it all the time and he doesn't dl games off the internet, or install or uninstall stuff, but he seems to be disastrous to computers. We've gone through 4 mice on that XP! )

If it's lost the boot .ini, you can try fixing the Master Boot Record by going into DOS this way.

1. Boot the pc with a 98 or Me boot disk.

2. At the a: prompt, type in "fdisk /mbr" (no quotes and there is a space between fdisk and /)

3. Click enter.

4. Remove the floppy disk and reboot.

I think you reboot by doing Ctrl/Alt/Del or using the restart button

what WAS the antivirus program that was on there?

which version OF adaware is on there ? is it the SE version as if it is the 2007 version IT is NOT compatible with win 98

as to spybot; it too will give you problems unless you stick to spybot version 1.4

if it is 98se you need to grab the available updates for the last time as we are no longer supported

It's basically the same disk as 98 with better CD drivers

I have never liked the freeware antivirus.

When you turn on your computer, do you see anything at all on your screen? Your computer should show BIOS information, hardware information etc.

Make sure your monitor is connected correctly. The monitor is not turned off. Take the VGA cable out, the monitor should show grey-white, instead of black. Then plug it in back.

Do you hear power supply's fan, if yes power supply is working. Do you hear cpu cooling fan working, to make sure motherboard is powered? If yes, then problem is in your motherboard.

The CMOS battery only saves BIOS info. If the battery is dead, the default BIOS info is loaded, computer still works, showing onlt few errors on boot like : CMOS battery is dead, press F1 to continue...

First make sure you see atleast BIOS information when you power on your computer. If computer is not showing anything, boot disks and antivirus is no use. Ideally this should be posted in hardware section.

Good luck

I seems to me that there is a serious hardware problem. The usual culprit is the power supply and it can fry everything else in the computer. Having such issues as "Frying several mice" makes me think that you have something that is just giving up the ghost.

Power supplies can fail on one rail at a time and chances are it will keep running while it's destroying things bit by bit.

You can open the case and see if you can see any capacitors, those big barrel-shaped things, that are swollen or burnt-looking. You can also try to detect a burned-electronics smell.

A four-year-old hard drive is about ready to take a dive even if everything else is good.

Another possibility is the blank screen means the monitor is dead. Do you have fans and lights? Or is there no response at all from the machine?

OK, I see that the mouse-burning was on the other machine - I'll leave what I've written so far anyway.

If you have another monitor, try that. If you have no lights or fans, I'd guess you have a bad power supply. I use a power supply tester to rule that out, but you probably don't want to invest in one right now.

Are the fans working? A dead power supply fan will kill it. A dead processor fan will kill it.

Follow good electronics practices - to keep from damaging your equipment never touch any electronic part without first touching the metal case of the computer to get rid of built-up static electricity. Never reach inside with the computer powered up. Unplug the cord.