Computer no longer starts up

My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows For
Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.

When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings, plug
anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.

I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:

"Boot Failure
System Halted"

Afterwards, the system would halt.

I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened. I
even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and the
exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
advice and solutions on the issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Clint:

A man's got to know his computer's limitations :-)

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Hard...ive/utilities/

Dave





"Clint Eastwood" wrote in message
...
| My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
| dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows For
| Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.
|
| When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
| of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings, plug
| anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.
|
| I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
| this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:
|
| "Boot Failure
| System Halted"
|
| Afterwards, the system would halt.
|
| I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened. I
| even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and the
| exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
| motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
| cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
| probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
| advice and solutions on the issue.
|
| Thank you for your suggestions.

Can you enter the BIOS setup utility? Usually there is a message on-screen telling
you what key to press to enter setup, but not always. What brand is the computer,
or is it a generic unit? What BIOS does it have?

Are you sure the boot order in the BIOS is set to boot to the floppy drive first?
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Clint Eastwood" wrote in message
...
My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows For
Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.

When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings, plug
anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.

I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:

"Boot Failure
System Halted"

Afterwards, the system would halt.

I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened. I
even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and the
exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
advice and solutions on the issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.

If you can get a boot disk failure message then the CPU, memory and video
are all working, so it is very unlikely that Windows has now permanently
been rendered useless. The message will appear if the system can't read the
boot information from the boot device. To check if the floppy disk has
failed (which is unlikely) you need to be sure that the system is trying to
boot from the floppy. Make sure your floppy disk is bootable by testing it
on another machine, then access BIOS setup and make sure that the floppy is
set first in the boot sequence.

When you have confirmed that the floppy is OK and you can boot to DOS from
the floppy, then you can run hard disk drive diagnostics to find out what
the issue is with the hard disk drive.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (DTS)
"Clint Eastwood" wrote in message
...
My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows For
Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.

When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings, plug
anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.

I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:

"Boot Failure
System Halted"

Afterwards, the system would halt.

I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened. I
even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and the
exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
advice and solutions on the issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.

No. I can't run the setup utility. If you misunderstood
what I meant by Video BIOS, it's like, the first thing you
see when you turn on the computer, which tells information
about your video card. It then clears the screen and makes
a transition to the BIOS that has apparently been damaged.

It doesn't tell how to get to the SETUP utility, either.

Actually, Dave, the BIOS doesn't even initialize, so I
have absolutely no access to the hard drive, floppy drive,
or CD-ROM drive. Does connecting the computer to a network
(so that you can access the damaged computer from another
computer) help somewhat? Can you flash a BIOS in a damaged
computer from a working computer via a network? If so, how
can I?

Thank you for your input.

The message you are getting after the video ROM identification...."Boot Failure,
System Halted"....is the message a newer AMI BIOS gives when it cannot find any
bootable partitions on the hard drive.

You need to access the BIOS setup to set your boot sequence to boot from the floppy
drive first, so that you can boot with a hard drive diagnostic diskette.

Assuming that it is an AMI BIOS, start the computer, hold down the F2 key as soon as
I see the message from the video card's BIOS. That should get you into the BIOS
setup utility.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Clint Eastwood" wrote in message
...
No. I can't run the setup utility. If you misunderstood
what I meant by Video BIOS, it's like, the first thing you
see when you turn on the computer, which tells information
about your video card. It then clears the screen and makes
a transition to the BIOS that has apparently been damaged.

It doesn't tell how to get to the SETUP utility, either.

Actually, Dave, the BIOS doesn't even initialize, so I
have absolutely no access to the hard drive, floppy drive,
or CD-ROM drive. Does connecting the computer to a network
(so that you can access the damaged computer from another
computer) help somewhat? Can you flash a BIOS in a damaged
computer from a working computer via a network? If so, how
can I?

Thank you for your input.

Clint Eastwood wrote in message ...
My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows For
Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.

When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings, plug
anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.

I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:

"Boot Failure
System Halted"

Afterwards, the system would halt.

I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened. I
even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and the
exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
advice and solutions on the issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.

You've also got termites, the river is going to rise and flood your house,
your mother-in-law is coming to live with you - permanently,
and your boss has some VERY bad news for you on Monday morning.

If not that, then your CMOS battery is dead. Take your pick.

You sure you did not receive a temporary power loss? Sure has symptoms of
same. If so, yes, you could have fried something including the motherboard.
"Clint Eastwood" wrote in message
...
My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows For
Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.

When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings, plug
anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.

I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:

"Boot Failure
System Halted"

Afterwards, the system would halt.

I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened. I
even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and the
exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
advice and solutions on the issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I have to agree with most of the replies you
have gotten if it was MthBrd, Ram, or Cpu you
would not be getting through your video to see
it's little post. Try a CMOS battery and get into
BIOS set it A CD C.
-----Original Message-----
My Intel Celeron 400 MHz computer with 128 MB of RAM + a
dual-boot operating system with Windows 98 and Windows
For
Workgroups 3.11 has now permanently been rendered useless.

When I was working in Windows 98, the computer screen all
of a sudden went blank. I didn't change any settings,
plug
anything in, or do anything to damage the computer.

I restarted the computer and after the Video BIOS screen,
this was the exact only text that was shown on the screen:

"Boot Failure
System Halted"

Afterwards, the system would halt.

I tried restarting it again and the exact same happened.
I
even tried booting from my Windows 98 Startup Disk and
the
exact same as above happened, suggesting that the
motherboard has been damaged. Keeping in mind that I
cannot boot from a floppy disk, hard disk or CD, there is
probably nothing that I can do unless somebody had more
advice and solutions on the issue.

Thank you for your suggestions.
.

"glee" wrote in message =
...
snip=20
Assuming that it is an AMI BIOS, start the computer, hold down the F2 =
key as soon as
I see the message from the video card's BIOS.

And how will you see it from where you sit? BSEG

Sorry, couldn't resist.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


--=20
Brian A.

Conflicts start where information lacks.