wilkes

my pc was wacky to not like that it would turn off all the time and i had a virus ask a guy at this e-mail when_we_met122304@yahoo.com he fixed mine and had it back to me the same day it works great i have had no trouble out of it yet knock on wood lol

I have already turned all secheduled tasks I also turned off remote access that didn't help will look into BIOS for wake up and disable it to see if that works with it she goes with walmart so internet not on all the time the only way to keep it from coming on is to turn off surge protector. Will let you know.

Wait a minute here, that's a new one to me. You have the computer turned off, and it comes on by itself???

My first thought is that you're putting it in Suspend mode instead of Off. In that case, Task Scheduler can turn it on to Defrag or something. If this is the case, just open Task Scheduler (there's an icon by the clock) and turn that option off.

You could also be getting a Wake Up On request in the BIOS. My computer doesn't have this option, but I've seen it before. Go into the BIOS and look for something that says "Wake," and turn it off.

My only other thought, do you have an always-on internet, like DSL or Charter? If so, try unplugging the modem tonight and see if it still comes on. This will tell us if it's coming on by an outside command, which would imply that there's a virus. It's not necessarily a virus, of course, but a good chance of it.

The easy solution, though, would be to turn off your surge protector when you turn off the computer. No program in the world can turn your surge protector back on! :)

I need advice my mothers computer It has been fixed but now it keeps coming on in the middle of the night wonder why I have turn off all scheduled tasks what could be doing this?? :D help suggestions anyone?

there is a man that works wounders on pcs mine was doing the same thind and other pc stores told me they had to reformat the hd but he saved all my info and got it back to me the same day plus gave me some realy good programs for my pc and it was a good price his email is when_we_met122304@yahoo.com

:) Thanks go wilkes I'll try in morning and let ya know what happens next . THANKS AGAIN!

Happybabe, when you're in the BIOS settings, does it recognize the C drive at all? Did I understand correctly that it doesn't recognize the A or D drive in BIOS, either?

When you turn the computer on, you'll usually hear a "beep" from the hard drive when it kicks in; maybe 5 seconds after you turn it on. Do you hear this beep?

If you don't hear this beep, and BIOS doesn't recognize any of the drives, then follow HiTech's advise and remove the BIOS battery from your motherboard. This is usually easy to do; shut the computer down, open the case, and on the motherboard, look for something that looks like a big watch battery. You should be able to pull this out pretty easily; let it sit for a minute, then put it back in.

Some motherboards have a jumper setting that you need to change in order to reset the BIOS. This is usually the case with upgraded motherboards, though, so if this computer is off-the-shelf, you probably won't need to worry about that.

While the case is off, make certain that the hard drive is plugged in correctly. If the computer has been shaken a lot recently, it's possible that this has come loose.

If none of this works, let us know. The most important thing is whether BIOS recognizes the A drive; if it does, but doesn't recognize the C drive, then you'll most likely have to replace the hard drive. If it doesn't recognize the A drive or the C drive, then you may have to replace the motherboard.

FWIW, I'm almost certain that this is a hard drive issue. If the cables are plugged in correctly, then odds are that you'll need to replace your hard drive.

okay I can hold down delete and get the bios menu page to come up the after exiting that it takes me back to black page with system info at top and searching for boot record from cd rom..not found floppy...not found...IDE-0 not found..... 202 : Drive not ready Insert boot diskette in A Press any key when ready OK now I run disk and it say error can't process and then nothing happens run the error message up page for about 2 minutes then says store cd in a safe place and restart computer restart computer same thing all over again so what you think now???

:? It never makes it past the black screen with all the #'s and insert boot disk, press any key. Sometimes we can shut it down and it will come back on like normal but this time it hasn't came back on yet to(windows 98 screen) never makes it past the black screen. Soooo just looking into if rerunning her disk will help, it gives three options to run with reformatting HDDor with out , and the other can't remember exactly what it say something about DOS?? So what do you think I should try next??

I personally think, judging by what she is saying, that the bios doesnt see the HD any more. One of 3 reasons for this... This one, all though it may sound strange to tech gurus is possible. Check and make sure your connections to the hard drive are properly connected. I have seen this happen before... Reset your BIOS by removing the battery from the mother board. Leave it out for at least 20 seconds. If neither of these 2 work, then its possible your hard drive has failed. only way to get that fixed is buy another hard drive.

When you say that it crashed, exactly what do you mean? This usually either means that the hard drive went bad, or the CPU went bad. More often than not, though, when someone has a problem, it's software related, which is a lot easier (and cheaper) to fix.

When you reboot the computer, there are usually at least 2 screens: the first one is the one that is all black with a bunch of words and numbers, and at the bottom says "Starting Windows 98." Then, another screen comes up that has the Windows 98 logo. At which of these screens is the computer freezing?

If it's doing this on (or before) the first screen, is it saying "Boot Disk Failure, Please Insert System Disk?" If so, this usually means that the hard drive has gone bad, and the only solution is to buy a new one. This really is pretty rare, but it does happen (more often when the computer is around a lot of dust or cigarette smoke). You can buy a new hard drive for pretty cheap (expect to spend around $50 for a good one on Ebay).

The bad thing is that you may not be able to save all of the data on the existing hard drive. I've been able to salvage it before, but it's not easy and sometimes you still lose important information. I would recommend that you just reinstall Windows 98 on the new hard drive, and reinstall all of the necessary hardware (like the modem), and it will be like having a new computer. If you do have things you want to try and save, let me know and I can post instructions.

If it does not say "System Disk Failure," please post the exact error message.

I'm almost certain that you can't run your reinstall disk on her computer. Your disk isn't a complete install, it just reloads drivers and DLL files, and Windows 98 needs different drivers. Even if you could, though, your description doesn't sound like something this would solve.

My Mothers computer has crashed and we can't seem to get nothing but black screen saying to insert disk and push any key when we do that and ( do not reformat hdd ) it still does nothing thought about re running from original but will wipe out everything which as we all know mean reentering everything any way to the point I have windows XP on My pc at my house she has windows 98 I was wondering If I could run my reinstallation cd (windows xp) on her computer It does say on cd that only for distribution with a new dell computer that this cd is not a reinstallation of programs or drivers. only use this cd to reinstall the operating system on a Dell computer Help!!!! What to do I was thinking I can't but someone said I could oh her computer is an emachine anyway and recommendations??