trouble starting ... then OK

_dinsdale_ · 09-19-2005, 01:23 AM

Hi All,

Am suddenly having problems starting my trustyPIII win98SE machine. When cold, the machine takes 4 goes to get it started, but once going it works fine. Nothing has changed recently that I am aware of.

First start often only as far as the hard drive light staying on, nothing on the screen. Reboot gets to "starting windows", then reboot with every try get a little further, eventually boots into GUI.

Sometimes after the text screen of dos info (autoexec.bat stuff) it declares windows protection fault... on reboot shows menu but selecting normal seems to go to GUI without any further problems.

When the machine has been running reboots seem less of a problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Dins

09-19-2005, 02:24 PM

Quote:

When cold, the machine takes 4 goes to get it started, but once going it works fine

This makes me think of a motherboard failure. Check for bad capasitors on the motherboard. Since they are still working the faulty ones might not yet be observable but worth to check.

09-19-2005, 01:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
_dinsdale_ Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Sydney OZ Posts: 151 OS: Win98SE/XP SP2 Home	trouble starting ... then OK Hi All, Am suddenly having problems starting my trustyPIII win98SE machine. When cold, the machine takes 4 goes to get it started, but once going it works fine. Nothing has changed recently that I am aware of. First start often only as far as the hard drive light staying on, nothing on the screen. Reboot gets to "starting windows", then reboot with every try get a little further, eventually boots into GUI. Sometimes after the text screen of dos info (autoexec.bat stuff) it declares windows protection fault... on reboot shows menu but selecting normal seems to go to GUI without any further problems. When the machine has been running reboots seem less of a problem. Any ideas? Thanks Dins