Format #6 And Counting

lol sorry for my language on that last post, my temper was raring it's ugly head

well- the hard drive passed the test, doing a deep scan with the utility. In a way, I'm glad of that, since I wont have to replace the drive...but it makes the job of trying to get this thing working all the harder.

are there any software diagnostic tools for checking the ram?

it's started up it's routine of not shutting down properly again last night. It's flying through the shutdown either way too fast, and not saving anything that I've done on it, or it locks up and screws up stuff. Particularly the progs in the start menu, so they dont wanna boot up right at windows. Oy vey! I dunno if I'll be able to get back to the message boards or not tonight...this thing looks like it's a couple of bootups from crashing, if the cycle goes the way that it had been before the previous formats.

I went onto ECS's website last night, looking at BIOS updates (it's a k7s5a board) and I'm seriously considering doing a bios update on it. Just need to fig out which one, and I still need to get the number for my current bios set.

you can get those numbers from the very first screen that pops up. I recommend updating the bios, what kind of computer are we talking about, give us some specs. If I understand correctly you are installing windows 98 right. I have used a program called Trouble shooter and diagnostices before to test ram. It is a dos based program. Been a while since I used it, send my your email address and I can give you a copy to try out.

Ram tester: http://www.klboard.ath.cx/index.php?showto...4696&hl=memtest

i had a maxtor and it did a similar issue when the S.M.A.R.T technology on the drive failed due to an interrupted system restore on win XP (power failure). i got a new one from maxtor. the date is written on the drive as to the warranty period.

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Originally posted by Mïcrösöül°V³@23 October 2003 - 02:47
i had a maxtor and it did a similar issue when the S.M.A.R.T technology on the drive failed due to an interrupted system restore on win XP (power failure). i got a new one from maxtor. the date is written on the drive as to the warranty period.

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I dont have S.M.A.R.T enabled in the setup(dont even really know what it means, or what it does) on my system So I'll just ask, if that's a possiblility of what's causing this, could it still affect me even if it's turned off?
I dont really care if the maxtor warranty covers it, since I've still got nearly a year part/labor left on the machine itself; and since it's part of the original hardware, it's still covered by LegendMicro (the comp manufacterer). But thanx for the info ;)
Did that smart problem keep reoccuring even after fdisk/format? And how would I test it?

Firefox- PM'd you with my email addy, thanks!

VirtualBody- thanks! I downloaded that memory test prog and I'll try that out too, as soon as I find another blank flop around here somewhere ;)

The machine is by LegendMicro that I got new off of Ebay about 2 years ago. It's a k7s5a board, running ECS AMI bios, with single stick 512 ddr ram, 1.3ghz xp1500 AMD cpu, maxtor 5400 rpm ide hd drive, nvidia gf2 vidcrd, onboard 5:1 sound, onboard nic, liteon DVD and CD-RW drives, running win98se. That's just about all of the hardware that pops into my head, off the top of my head, as well as the O/S.

I also wanna mention that the probs didnt get like this, until I had to format off the drivers for a VEO deluxe webcam that screwed up my soundcard drivers. (which btw, that webcam was an utter P.O.S, the only thing that I can recommend them for, is using as target practice!! LOUSY light gathering capability in the lense, turtle crawl frame rates, will NOT run off of a USB hub, and doesnt want to stay where you position it, and a software package that dont give ya many options for settings. On the plus side, the built in mic worked pretty well tho).

I've managed to isolate what I BELIEVE to be one of the causes, or the cause of, the config manager giving me probs at boot (or is it Post....I'm failing to remember what Post means....). For whatever reason that I've yet to find out, winbreaks is being retarded about remembering the drivers for my ps/2 mouse port. Sometimes it will remember it, others it wont; and when I do finally get it to go ahead and boot up, will reinstall the drivers for it during the Plug 'n' Pray setup at the beginning of the windoze startup. It didnt occur to me, until I saw it doing this, that after that format to clear the sound drivers from that webcam, that when I started installing windows, that the mouse cusser (thats not a typo, cause I was cussing a LOT) went completely haywire, bouncing all over the screen of it's own accord, and locking up the keyboard. So I had to shut down (since windows wont recognize two mice on the same machine)and switch it over to the serial port to be able to continue the install. Since then, I've just left it connected to the serial port.

The only new hardware that I've added to it since these probs began is an external HDD, in a USB housing; and the webcam...well....that got taken back to the store. the external hdd I installed after the probs began, for backups, since I fig'd I'd prolly be FDISK'ing off my other partitions, besides the one that I install windows to. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that earlier- it was originally a three partition drive, when I started getting the write protection configmg errors after that format. after teh fdisk, I reinstalled all three part, and still got that write error- took it to a single part drive, and it installed without the errors...went back, fdisk again, and added another part (2 partitions) and it installed ok, but the configmg errors started coming back, after I had started loading drivers and software.

Sorry this post is so long, just trying to put down everything into print, that I can think of that's relevant

Maybe you have a virus or worm on your system. :unsure:

I have heard of some boot sector viri that can survive a complete reformat.

Just an idea at this point. I'm still thinking this one over.

One other thing... That computer has enough power to run Window XP.

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Originally posted by Virtualbody1234@24 October 2003 - 03:57
Maybe you have a virus or worm on your system. :unsure:

I have heard of some boot sector viri that can survive a complete reformat.

Just an idea at this point. I'm still thinking this one over.

One other thing... That computer has enough power to run Window XP.

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yeah the tech that works at legend that I talked to, said that he'd just come across a memory virus that was in some ladies machine, and they only way that they found it was that she booted up off the virus scanner disk (not exactly sure what he meant by that tho.)
Yes, some virii CAN survive a complete format. the levels to which the malwares are growing to is becoming really scary...at least to me they are. :ph34r:

yeah, I know that this comp could run whistler...it was one of the options that I had, when I bought the machine. But I havent ever liked XP, even from back when it was in the beta stages. That, and I dont know for sure if a lot of the software that I have, would run under whistler, since the majority of it was made either before xp existed, or was just in it's beta phases. and being unemployed makes it hard to go out and buy all new software. it's easy enough to find it for free, but ya never really know how much of it is legit. And this current situation has made my paranoia of viruses and such even higher than it was afore this happened.

Stick around this forum for a while and I promise you that your opinion about "it's easy enough to find it for free, but ya never really know how much of it is legit." will change. You will be able to get just about any software you want including XP from checked (verified) sources.

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Originally posted by darkewolf@23 October 2003 - 23:59
yeah the tech that works at legend that I talked to, said that he'd just come across a memory virus that was in some ladies machine, and they only way that they found it was that she booted up off the virus scanner disk (not exactly sure what he meant by that tho.)

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Some AV vendors disks are bootable, this will allow you to properly scan the memory and boot sector (I only know that norton does though) . If that is not an option for you you could try Fprot which is a dos virus scanner, same advantage as booting from the virus CD. I cannot remeber what version of windows you said that you were using, but ofcourse it needs to be 9.x/mellenium to run the dos check.

may not be ya hardrive at all, it could be simply a hardware conflict, the k7s5a has onboard sound, lan and modem riser, have you got a separate soundcard installed? or network card? or modem? if so the onboard stuff must be disabled in bios or you will get conflicts. also have you cleaned the processor cooler? could be dirty and so overheating. also the bios on the k7s5a has a hardware monitor built in, check and see what voltages you running, could be a faulty psu. as for flashing ya bios open ya case and it should have a revision sticker or possibly printed on board (near the agp port or bottom left corner) the revision, ie 1.0 or 1.1, 3.1 etc now go here for ya bios, select your board and revision and download the latest rom/bios file and the flash utility, make a 98start disk and then unpack the bios file and copy the file to the start disc and also the flash utility, boot ya pc with the disc and then type a:\dir this will bring the list of files up on the disc and then type A:\aminf330 ******.rom (* being whatever the rom file name is for your board and remember to leave a space) and hit enter it will do a check to see if the file is valid for your board, if so it will say so, press enter and it will flash the bios. restart when prompted and then hit delete and check ya settings in bios. hope this helps :D

edit..... just been reading back thru and you said mouse was bouncing all over the screen? sounds like it could be ya graphics driver or card, try updating the driver and reducing ya screen to 16bit and see what it like. ;)