well the batt shows some power with a meter before I put it in and the
date and time are holding even when the unit has been unplugged
overnight. Not sure where the reset pins are or what they are are or
how to resetthem are they have to have a jumper placed on them? I
thought resetting happenned also when the batt was out of it anyway?
He said earlier that he thinks your Bios is in limbo, somewhere
between reset and prior bad settings. That would make your BIOS an
excpeton to general rules I had never heard of this before, but I am
no BIOS expert.
0What is the differnce when one flashs the BIOS what is that about
The BIOS includes software. You know that because it's not just a
table of letters and numbers that sit there and don't do anything.
The values you put in and other values it determines itself control
functions of hte computer. Flashing the BIOS means replacing the
software, almost always with a later version. A) Is there even a
later version of your BIOS? B) Do you know what version you have now?
With some companies it displays at the top of the BIOS screen. With
some companies it displays while you are booting, if nothing else
covers up the various messages at that time. C) I don't know much
but i) I think you can't flash your bios until you have your current
one working. ii) it doesn't sound to me like your problems would be
lessened by flashing. Usually later versions are meant to solve new
hardware problems with hardware that didn't exist or wasnt' fully
tested when the original bios was written. Like a new higher standard
for USB ports. But for basic things like reading and writing from
standard hard drives, I've never heard of a case where the original
BIOS isn't good enough to do that. Not only that, if it weren't good
enough, I think you'd get a different error.
I find your description of hte problem incomplete and hard to follow.
Maybe that's because i have little experience fixing this part of the
computer and don't recognize common well-known problems when I see
them. But I think you should do two things. 1) Go back and read all
the replies and make sure you've tried everything that was recommended
or hae a good reason why not to. 2) Start from the biegining, when you
turn th ecomputer on and tell us very clearly where there is a
problem. I've read your four posts and I don't know what problem you
have now, what problems you used to have, what you did that solved old
problems (if you know what you did) where you got stuck the next time.
But I'd settle for knowing exactly what is happening now.
For example, I see you are trying to install win98SE. Is there an OS
in there now? What is it? Does it work? What about it doesn't work,
specifically. I'm including DOS. Win98 includes its version of DOS.
Can you boot to DOS? Do you know what that means? When you get to a
DOS prompt, do other DOS commands work, like DIR, CD, Edit. VER ? Do
you know these commands already? You can live without knowing them
but they are very helpful and since you're having problems, now is the
time to acquaint yourself with them.
Do you try to install windows by starting DOS , inserting the windows
CD and saying Setup, or something like that, at the DOS prompt?
Or do you put the Windows installation CD in your CD drive and then
restart the computer, so that it boots from the CD?
Which of these you should do depends in part on the answers to earlier
questions, like, Do you have DOS, do you have windows, what version of
dos or windows do you have?
BTW, I don' think your BIOS is set wrong unless A) you went out of
your way to set it wrong, Even then, it's likely to complain about
most specific things that are wrong.
b) Usually people don't check the bios scattergun. They have a
problem that relates to some part of the bios settings and they go to
the bios and see what it says there. If the setting doesn't make
sense, they change it.
c) You put a used battery in in place of a worn out battery. How old
is the used battery? YOu don't know, right? Buy a new battery. IIRC
they are about 2 dollars, cheaper if you buy more and they are used in
other appliances too, like remote themometers and whatever you took
the battery out of. If you have to junk this mobo, motherboard, you
can then remove the battery and save it for another occasion. I don't
believe these go dead when they are not in use, unless they are
wrapped in aluminum foil that shorts the two sides together.
d) the other possiblity according to the other poster is that it's
messed up, in limbo, and you need to do what he said about a hardware
reset of the BIOS. If you don't know where the pins are that you are
supposed to short, do you have a map of the motherboard? Do you have
a manual for the motherboard? Paul and Patrick provided addresses.
Did you go to those places and get what it had about your mobo? If
you dont' have another computer to access the net while you work on
this one, did you print out what it had there, at the least the map of
the mobo and the explanations for various parts? Did you read
everything there?
Nil and John told you how to get into the BIOS settings, most likely.
Did you succeed?
I see that you did get into the bios but you then replaced the battery
with a used one.
You get a blue screen when trying to install windows. What are the
answers to the previous quesiotns and where exactly do you get the
blue screen. What all does it say on the screen? Does it give a
message? Did you write it down, word for word, letter for letter?
Have you googled the message to see what it means? If pressing
keyboard keys has varying results have you tried another keyboard? ON
older computers you can't use USB keyboards for windows installation I
believe becaues there is no USB running until Windows or something
parallel starts. But that raises the question from before, are you
trying to upgrade windows from within windows or are you doing a fresh
install?
YOu talk about getting to a desktop, and say you do that sometimes.
The desktop of the old OS or of the windows you are trying to install?
IF you ever get to the new desktop, you have substanially installed
Windows. What doesn't work about it? Ah, you can't install the
drivers and you had at least 3 blue screens while trying to install
windows. What were the exact messages on the blue screeens. Have you
googled them, especially any of the etext thatt doesn't oappear in
eveyr message, liek and error number or address. Any hexadecimal
string.
When you say only a few things get copied, give us some sample items
that do get copied and some that you believe should but are not. I
find it hard to believe it gets to the file copy stage and doesn't
copy all the files it's supposed to. Does it give error messages when
it doesn't copy something? Did you write down the complete text of
those messages, word for word, letter for letter? Did you goolgle
those messages. If the messages are all the same but the file names
changte, did you write down all the file names that didn't get copied,
and the reason it gave.
If you want me to answer more, please don't use vulgar words. We all
get frustrated, but I don't want to feel like I'm in the army in
combat where vulgar wors are understandable under enormous stress.
This is just a computer, and it's not even yours I gather.
I think you're hung up on thinking the Bios is configured wrong, even
though you have given no special reason to think that.
Perhaps your windows install CD is damaged, scratched or something
else. Since the same spot is damaged, problems would arise at the
same part of the install. By now youy should be able to find someone
who will lend you a win98SE cd. It's not like you or your friend
didn't buy one in the first place.
But you give not much to go on with so many possible questions
unanswered.
Good luck.
