"Out Off Range"
 

Every once in awhile on startup, before Windows 98 loads,
I get a blue screen with 3 color bars & a message that
says "Out Off Range" ("OFF" not of). I then have to hold
the button in to reboot then it starts up ok. Any ideas of
what this is?

The message means that the video card is not generating any video signal.
This suggests that the CPU isn't running, even though the power is on. There
may be a problem with your power control circuitry, or the power supply
might be slow to warm up, or there might be a hardware error that prevents
the system from starting first time. This type of problem would be very hard
to diagnose - about the only thing you can easily do is to check your
connections and cables, make sure fans are spinning freely (a sticky fan can
load the power supply at startup) or arrange to power up without some of
your peripherals. Some disk drives have a slow start option which can also
help (they delay their startup a few seconds) but I don't know if that is
implemented for an IDE interface - you could check the disk drive detailed
technical specs.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Steve" wrote in message
...
Every once in awhile on startup, before Windows 98 loads,
I get a blue screen with 3 color bars & a message that
says "Out Off Range" ("OFF" not of). I then have to hold
the button in to reboot then it starts up ok. Any ideas of
what this is?