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[ Installations Plus+ PC Forum ] [ Archive Sep-Dec 97 ]

Posted by: Louis Bruno on October 04, 1997 at 23:40:01
Homepage: Installations Plus+ (websites, upgrades, PCs, repairs, training)
In Reply to: Re: help needed; Thanks but more help needed posted by Yeo Beng Teck on October 04, 1997 at 23:24:26

Subject: Re: help needed; Thanks but more help needed; More Help!

> > > I am using a AMK K6 PR200 processor with 64mb of RAM with norton utility.
> > > Everytime when I first start my computer, it will alway hang when the CPU
> > > activities was recorded as 100% by norton system doctor. When I restart the
> > > computer again, it will alway hang when window 95 was loading all the
> > > window's driver. I will have to try many many times before I will be able
> > > to get into window 95 again. If I manage to get into window 95 again,
> > > everthing will seem to be working perfectly again, there will not be any
> > > hang again and if I restart the computer, I will not face any problem
> > > loading the window's driver. If I switch off the computer and only restart
> > > it after 1 - 2 hour later, all the above mention problems will occur again.
> > > I have scan the hard disk using norton utility but it was report as
> > > everything OK. I have scan for viruses using norton anti-virus but no
> > > viruses was found. Could problems be the followings:
> > > 1) There is some fault with the CPU
> > > 2) There is overheating problem with the CPU. The fan for the CPU is
> > > working properly.

> > > I would be most thankful if you could provide some suggests or even
> > > solutions. Thank you.

> > Hello again!
> > The type of problem you describe is difficult to work with because it is intermittent. It is not likely to be related to CPU fault or overheating, although the latter is a remote possibility.
> > Generally, this type of problem occurs because the hard drive is not being accessed properly. The hard drive might be bad, but normally the Norton utility package would find a bad drive. More likely, there are damaged or corrupted files on the hard drive, which Norton is able to read, but which the system has trouble with.
> > If this machine were in my shop, I'd substitute another hard drive to see how the system behaves. My guess is there would be no problem. In your situation, I would recommend re-installing Windows 95, which will have no effect on your settings, but might over-write the corrupted files with clean versions.
> > Good luck and let me know what you find.

> Thank.

> I have try reinstalling window 95, but that doesn't seem to work. There is
> a long list of drivers in my window's set-up, I would I know which drivers
> is necessary and which drivers is not necessary for my window's set-up. I
> suspected that there is something wrong with my other software's drivers. I
> don't have extra hard disk at hand, but my hard dish is being partition
> into C, D and E drives. Can I reinstall window 95 into "E" drive (I have
> about 1 GB free in there) to isolate the other drivers. I could then
> reinstall my other software to see which one causes the problem (Will that
> work?). I have tried setting the BIOS setting to default. Althougth the
> system still hang during initial start-up, I don't have problem restarting
> window 95 again. Could it be the problems is with my BIOS setting?

> Bye.

Apparently, you had at least two problems. One of them -- corrupt or incorrect -- Windows 95 files was cured by re-installing Windows 95 as we suggested.
You report that the system goes into Windows 95 without trouble now, but it hangs up when you first boot up. Is that right?
If so, the problem has nothing to do with Windows 95. Also you report having to select software drivers. I don't understand this. Windows 95 in almost all installations finds the hardware and sets the drivers without user intervention.
Installing Windows 95 to another section of your hard drive would allow you to re-install software, one application at a time. I don't understand why you would want to do this as you give no indication that the problems have anything to do with software. Software problems only occur IN Windows when one application is open, typically, and you try to open another.
It's always difficult to diagnose problems long-distance, but it still sounds to me like your system is not accessing your hard drive properly. Resetting the BIOS to its defaults would help this situation but not correct an actual fault.
Your problem sounds like a hard drive whose formatting has become unreliable, perhaps because you used DriveSpace or because the BIOS lost the heads, cylinders, and sectors parameters which tell it how to access the hard drive.
If you have copies of all the software installed on your hard drive (and can make copies on floppies of the files you created -- word processing, spread sheet, and other documents -- I would suggest re-building your hard drive from scratch. Unless you've done this before, you should get expert help. I can give you some guidelines, but it is not a good idea to try directing an operation of this magnitude by correspondence.
If you have more comments or symptoms to report or describe, perhaps I can offer other advice.
Good luck.



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