[Laffctx]

I am using Windows 98se and for the last 2 years it has been fine. It even survived a move from Illinois to Las Vegas fine. Worked great for 8 months and then i moved into my new house i just bought across town.

The very first time i booted it up it told me that it recognized new hardware. I hadn't added any new hardware.

I have my hard drive partitioned into 2 drives C & D. And, I have my OS ghosted and I know it is a good ghost.

So, I ghosted my system back to where I had it before. Booted back up and everything is fine. I usually shutdown at night when i go to bed. The next morning I got up and cold booted and got a "Windows Protection Error You need to restart your computer" so I restarted my computer and it gave me the option of booting into safe mode which i did. Everything seemed fine so i restarted my system and it booted up fine. And, it continued to reboot fine the rest of the day.

I shutdown that night and the next morning cold booted and another Windows Protection Error. This went on for a couple of days.

Then, it started telling me that there was a problem with the registry and it would have to let Registry Checker restore and older copy of my registry.

So, I did a scanreg/fix and everything seemed fine for a few days. Then, the registry problem came back when i would add or remove or change fonts or anything.

But, it only seems to do this after it has set over night shut off and i am cold booting up. I thought it might be something loose but i have reseated all my cards, ram and data cables and other cables.

Any advice would be extremely appreciated,

Thank you so much,
Laffctx

 

[johnwill]

Open the case, reseat all the cables, expansion cards, and RAM. This sounds like something came loose in the move.

 

[Laffctx]

Already did all that...............could it possibly be a bad ram chip or a corrupted Master Boot Record?

Thanks

Laffctx

 

[johnwill]

Well, it certainly sounds like something about the hardware, it's interesting that it only happens from a cold start. Did you leave the computer on all night to see if you could reboot it when it's hot?

If that works, you need to track down the component that is heat sensitive.

It's hard to imagine the MBR, since I can't imagine that would have been affected in the move. This problem will succumb to classic debugging techniques, eliminate one variable at a time until you find it.

 

[Laffctx]

John Will,

Just to let you know, I started eliminating things and a person in a chat room told me about taking out my ram chip and using a pencil eraser to clean the contacts.

Well, I did this and the problem is gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just wanted ya to know.

Thanks for your help,

Laffctx

 

[johnwill]

Well, I'll give you a warning about using an eraser on contacts. Most gold flash on contacts is only 20-30 microns deep. It's very easy with a pink eraser, common on standard pencils, to erase the gold right away! What you're left with is the nickel that's the base for the gold flash, and it will corrode and make a lousy contact in short order. I use a white mylar drafting eraser for this task, it's much less abrasive, and I've never destroyed any gold contacts with them.

Lest you think this isn't an issue, I've personally witnessed many expensive PC boards destroyed by the eraser, it took us a long time to track down why it was happening. I saw some of the tech's with their erasers at the ready, and the case was busted!

 

[Doonz]

I remeber in my slot car days...the way to clean a contact was an eraser....this really works...the white eraser to the contact??? Or is it like the putting the hard drive in the freezer to get one more boot from it....works RARLEY???

 

[johnwill]

Actually, the white eraser works very well, it removes the film of contamination without removing lots of the gold. The "Pink Pearl" erasers remove way too much gold quickly to be considered for the task.

If you're in a position to have access to it, the proper solvent is the right way to clean contacts, but it's easier to toss an eraser in the toolbox.

 

[Laffctx]

Actually I knew that..........so i used a white eraser from my drafting pencil.

thanks,

Laffctx

 

[Laffctx]

Well, here is the last update on this problem cause NOW FINALLY, I know for sure what the problem was all along.

Yesterday my HD shot craps...............so I think the problem all along was a HD that was about to shoot craps on me!

So, I bought a new Western Digita 60 Gig 7200 at Best Buy and put it in and did a fresh install and it is running like a champ!

Thanks for all the help,

Laffctx

 

[johnwill]

That's where using the SMART capability of something like AIDA32 comes in handy, you can spot pending hard disk failure before it dies totally.