Old Compaq Presario with windows98

[jcpangs]

My dad got tis really old Compaq Presario with windows98 on it since it has only a Pentuim2 processor he only use it for writting documents and mailing it.. one day he tried to open it but after the logo of Compaq(all black background with the red Compaq on the middle) appears nothing happens, suddenly it wont boot.. It got its own format cd so i tried to reformat it, open it on safe mode but still nothing happens, what i did is i pulled out the compaq's hdd and put it on another computer to install a nos.. it work fine. when i tried bring it back on the compaq it still wont boot.. before my dad buys a new computer he called a computer tech. and asks if theres a possibility that the compaq will still work and the comp tech told us that he can fix it. what i would like to know if this is true or the comp tech just wants money..if so how? thanks

[ffejr22]

it might need a new cmos battery
on some older compaq boards they are not removable tho

also hit f10 (iirc, might be f2 or f11) to go to its bios settings, make sure that it sees the hard drive and memory correctly
if the date changes when powered off and back on again it needs a new cmos battery, if it cant be removed the mobo is junk

[jcpangs]

thanks i'll tried that when i get the chance, thanks

[Dograzor]

tell me what happens... "it won't boot" sounds vague.....

Does it just show a black screen - with nothing happening???

Does it use any CPU usage....?

Does it respond to any controls....

Did you try to run it in safe mode???

In case its a black screen.... you're vid card might be fried.... the onboard graphics from your mobo show the logo, after it switches it will be black... check on that...

again, recommend a safe mode run...

[acal3000]

Winbloze 95/98/Me (most horrible pile of glitches ever released) maybe is not even the hardware but the horrible glitched OS

Actually what Dograzor said is right is difficult know why a system don't boot coz are juts too differenet causes that can make the same porblem. One thing that couldl help to identify is what action you were doing your dad or you whne the system still worked or if installed some prog or is put some errror message before don't work

And thins kind of boot problems were very common on those days. I experienced several on machines with Win 98 and the videocards were not really fried( most ofcases was just stupid OS that caused it for installing some conflicting prog or other thing) When vide card is fried i guess you would not have any video dont even in the BIOS startup

I was thinking in some cause that used to cause this but could be not really this could be another so I may be wrong coz like I said boot problemms can be by several different causes

Try this:

1.-Boot in safe mode i( I guess in Winbloze 98 was F5 press that at the start up or press F8 of of those should be) try to see if boot in safe mode after this you will get some functional minimal with lots of services dissabled
hope this work

2.- If boot go to Control Panel then choose Display and lower all resolution to the most minimal reboot and see if now boot fine

If booted fine after this in normal starup mode Could mean was just a resolution problem (some old videocards or monitors didn't support higher resolutions above 800X600 and and used to black screen after windows 98 was restarted)

If this didn't t help then si something else and bit more of info of your system could helps more

Also some BIOS configuration used to cause Windows 98 to avoid booting can't remember a lot of them since is a long time since I made this but for example some settings enabled like Pallete snooping used to cause to avoid Win 98 to not boot. Mess with the video bios setting the videos don't boot just after trying justr restore the configuration to default settings

[jcpangs]

tell me what happens... "it won't boot" sounds vague.....

Does it just show a black screen -

Does it use any CPU usage....?

Does it respond to any controls....

Did you try to run it in safe mode???

In case its a black screen.... you're vid card might be fried.... the onboard graphics from your mobo show the logo, after it switches it will be black... check on that...

again, recommend a safe mode run...

after the logo there is only a black screen with a blinking cursur on the top left corner,

how would i know if theres a CPU usage?

I tried safe mode and even tried entering BIOS but it wont respond to any keyboard keys..


i borrowed a couple of my friends windows xp(just for testing) the first cd i borrowed, when i insert it on the pc i said " cdboot, couldnt find NTLDR"

so i tried a different windows xp cd and it work! How come?

another problem is the installer for my sound device is on the old compaq windows95 installer, and it says that the sound device will only work on windows95,is there anyway i can update my sound device so it would work on winXP? Ive tried to search the net for the installer of my sound device but I couldnt find any..

[ffejr22]

to get to bios you need to hit the correct f key while the compaq logo is on the screen


if it was a copied cd then it would explain why it wouldnt boot properly from it, also could be a bios or ramdrive compatibality problem (if the system has under 64m of ram)


xp has drivers for most older sound cards, if not look at compaq (now owned by hp) support pages for drivers
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html?pageDisplay=drivers

[acal3000]

after the logo there is only a black screen with a blinking cursur on the top left corner,

how would i know if theres a CPU usage?

I tried safe mode and even tried entering BIOS but it wont respond to any keyboard keys..


i borrowed a couple of my friends windows xp(just for testing) the first cd i borrowed, when i insert it on the pc i said " cdboot, couldnt find NTLDR"

so i tried a different windows xp cd and it work! How come?

another problem is the installer for my sound device is on the old compaq windows95 installer, and it says that the sound device will only work on windows95,is there anyway i can update my sound device so it would work on winXP? Ive tried to search the net for the installer of my sound device but I couldnt find any..

Keyks for entering the BIOS on AMI Bios are generally the DEL key, on old Award/Phoenix Bios used to be Ctrl + ALt + ESC other could F12 or F9

and when you have beeen installing Windows did you formated the partition and the reinstall or or you did iit on the previous installs if you did over previous ones the system can become unestable and make problem

About the Soundcard problem that is the problem with Windows when a new Windows versionversion comes the support for very old hardware is very bad. Some chipsets gets disconntinnued and the chipset manufacturer could dump the support and no newer driver are not made anymore or some manufacturer get bought by other that also result in dumped support by the new company . This is hwre linux is better coz hadve support for the most old hardware About the installer is that you must be using the Win95/98 driver on XP and drivers codding on Win Xp is very different coz it's based on NT you can sometimes make driver for Windows 2000 on XP (but not always) there some rare cases also some Win NT drivers have worked on Xp(but also not always but a wIn 98 95/98Me driver never will work Win 2000/XP

For getting drivers for old hardware i guess this a good place

http://www.driverguide.com/

In the past when I still used Windows as main Os I could get some drivers there but I would suggest on that machine you put Win 98 (Me i don't sugget you was really piece of crap) orWin 2000 coz in xp will be pretty slow

Also chek if in the install disk of you soundcard is have some beta driver for NT or 200 like previoly said I usedto had on old driver main board disk that had beta support but could no be guarantee it will on a NT based system

Also if you tells us the manufacturer of the sound card maybe we could help you more to find the right driver