I nEeD HeLp 247

hello,

i am sorry i am not good with computers and i will greatly appreciate the help. my parents computer is a gateway, intell 3 and it has windows millennium but the computer doesnt work and i wanted to know if there would be a way to fix it.

once i turn on the computer i first see a screen that says gateway on it and under the word gateway is says "to display system message, press <tab> key", if i dont press the tab key and wait a while the screen changes to a black screen with a message saying
" Invalid Boot Diskette
insert boot diskette in A:"
if i press the <tab> key i get a list of things that are on my computer and then at the bottom of the list is says
"Press <esc> to continue" and once i press <Esc> the screen goes black with the same message
" Invalid Boot Diskette
insert boot diskette in A:"
this screen no mater what does not change and the computer does not start up windows



i tryed googling the problem and i came across an emergency startup diskette which i believe is some sort of boot disk but im not sure. http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml i downloaded the MS Windows ME (Millennium) from that site into my computer. i went out and bought a internal floppy drive for my computer that i am using now because it did not come with a floppy drive, i was goin to use the one that was in my parents computer but it did not work in my computer.i went out and bought some 3.5' Diskettes(IBM FORMATTED, DS, HD) From a local pathmark around the corner. i burnt the copy of MS Windows ME (Millennium) that i got from that site on a floppy by running it on my computer and then i installed the floppy drive which i bought into my mothers computer. i inserted the diskette which i downloaded and burned on a floppy into the floppy drivein my parents computer and turned it on.
its goes to the gateway screen and then is loads to another black screen with title that says
"Microsoft Windows Millennium start"
and it gives me 4 options
"1-Help
2-Start computer with cd-rom support
3-Start computer without cd-rom support
4. minimal boot"
and at the bottom of the screen it say
"f5=safe mode , shift + f5=commend prompt, Shift + f8= step by step"



this is as far as i got and i dont know if what im doing is right or wrong but if there is any way you can help me get my parents computer back to running i will greatly follow instructions as long as they are not to hard to understand

thank you for reading this and i hope you can help me

Deleted090308

Hi and welcome to TSF,
Disconnect the floppy drive in your parents computer (if you haven't done that already).

Nicholas

DeadToad

First, it sounds like your parent's original floppy drive may be defective, since you installed a new internal floppy drive with the Windows ME boot disk and it now presents you with the options you displayed in your message.
Second, your hard drive may be dead.
If your parent's do not have any information of importance on the drive, I would reinstall Windows ME using the Windows ME restoration CD by booting into Setup (BIOS) and setting the "first boot" to your CD-ROM drive (D:), saving changes, exit, then reboot PC. The restoration CD should install everything needed. Just remember to reenter Setup (BIOS) after the install finishes and set the "first boot" back to (C:).
If you do not have a ME Restoration CD and all you have is a Windows ME CD, I would insert it into the CD-ROM drive along with the Windows ME boot disk, and reinstall Windows ME by choosing option #2 to "start the computer with CD-ROM support".
Once the boot disk loads, it will come to the A:\ prompt.
Just type "d:" (without the quotes), if "d:" is your CD-ROM drive letter.
Hit [Enter].
It should now show the "D:\" drive prompt, instead of the A:\ prompt.
If so, type: "Setup" (without the quotes), then hit [Enter] to install Windows ME. It may ask for the "product ID#", which should be on the CD case, or on the PC tower (side, top, bottom or back).
Just follow the yellow brick road.
After Windows ME installs and reboots several times, Windows will try to install device drivers.
You must install the motherboard chipset drivers FIRST, then DirectX 9.0, then the videocard, soundcard, modem, ethernet card drivers, IE6.0, etc....preferably in that order.
If Windows ME does not install, I would say the hard drive is dead, so buy an new one if you do not have a spare one about.
Good luck.

I nEeD HeLp 247

thnx dead toad i did what u have said but its still seems to not start windows... no worries my friend is getting me a new hard drive and installling Xp thanks alot for your help kudos