My computer starts up only once and a while

[CyberneticJake]

:angry2: My computer starts up when it wants to :angry2:

I don't know exactly why, but if someone can help I'd appreciate it greatly. Every once and a while my computer freezes up and I am forced to power it off. Afterwards I wait 15-20 sec. and press it to come back on. Now sometimes it starts up, other times it gives me a message that says cd rom: not found; floppy drive: not found, please insert boot disc into computer....
So anyways, I shut down and it takes me sometimes three times to restart it finally. I run diagnostics on it and scan disc and checked for viruses with Norton 2002. If anyone knows what I should do, please help, even some advice would be helpful. Thank you!

Hello CyberneticJake and welcome to Tech Support Forums.......:D

First thing I would try is reseating all the IDE and Floppy cables on the motherboard and on each device.

[Doonz]

How old....could be bad cmos battery ?? probley not...

Listen to what speed said....then try a win 98 boot disk...see if it gets that far...cause seems like someting is going on if your getting a bunch of missing item notifications...should stop after it doesnt find the hard drive

[Horseflesh]

Sounds like the BIOS is getting reset, most likely by a failing CMOS battery. It's a cheap fix nonetheless, they're only about $2-$4 at your local Radio Shack. Unplug your PC, take the battery out of the motherboard and take it on down to RS. Match the model number on the battery (most likely starting with a "C"), buy one, and pop it into your motherboard. It really can't hurt anything to try this.