My Computer is really startin to piss me off!

[Crazy Cooter]

Are you installing off a copy?  A bad copy can do this (I've heard).  Anyways, follow these directions on how to do a "clean install"

http://www.hexff.com/win98_install.php

That way you'll never get the "please insert windows 98 cd" when you change things down the road.  The cd will be copied onto you're hard drive.

[Matt, GoC]

Where is it saying this?  Are you setting up windows when it gives you the message or is it already installed?  You may have a bit of dust on your CD, or a corruption on your hard drive.  Don't be a stranger to giving us loads of details.  It's like taking your car to the shop because somethings not right with it.  The more you tell the mechanic, the less he'll rip his hair out trying to figure out the problem...

[cdbrown]

Install XP instead like you were going to in the other thread.  I had dual boot 98SE and XP Pro, it didn't take too long before I realised I didn't use 98SE as everything worked in XP - even old games like Doom and really old dos based games.

[Tiger-Heli]

This reminds me of my brother who many years ago attempted to remove his sound card with the power on. That's not THAT risky, but as fate would have it, he dropped it on whatever card was below. He fried his MOBO and a couple other cards.

Then there's the time he deleted a whole lot of files because he had shortcuts to them elsewhere and he though that meant he had duplicates of the files. As fate would have it, he emptied the Recycle bin before calling me about his applications no longer working.

There's also the time he formatted his drive without backing up his files, but I forget the specific details of how that happened and why he thought he'd still have his files intact.

 

Here's a classic from the early (MS-DOS 2.1 or so) days of DOS -

Floppies (5-1/4, 360K) shipped unformatted so they could be used in PC's or MAC's.  The command to format them was (IMS)

C:\format a: c:

Now if you forgot and typed either

C:\format c: a:

or

C:\format

The computer would respond with

writing sector 1, cluster 1 - etc. until it had erased the entire contents of the C:\ drive.  And it started at the beginning where the FAT was, so you couldn't cancel it and save some of your data.

They didn't add a "This will destroy all data on the C:\ drive, do you want to proceed?" prompt until MUCH later.

[RayB]

My guess is you're using a burned copy rather than a legitimate copy of Win98 setup disc, and it's bad.

Check for scratches, dirt. And please, this time, if the CD is covered in dirt, let us know now, not 10 posts later.  

[the3eyedblindman]

K when i Start computer it says the basic "Boot Failure, insert system disk" then i put it the 98SE Cd and it says starting windows 98. Then it goes to a new screen, starts scrolling down different messages like a command line, then after a while it says Missing or Corrupt file, command.com." Then it tells me to type  a command and says example "C:\WINDOWS.COMMAND.COM"

[NinjaEpisode]

fdisk and format that drive, then try again.

[daywane]

Glad to here you got it up .
Fdisk will work but not y favorite
I like max blast 2.0
there is newer versions out there but thay only work on maxtor hard drives. I have not found a hard drive max blast 2.0 will not format

[Sylentwulf]

Just run off of a boot disk to the command prompt, get the command.com file off the CD and copy it into the C:/windows directory.

Chances are you'll have problems with other files, but that will fix that one particular error.

[daywane]

well......? how is the hard drive comming along?
aslo it sounds like the CPU was the problem from the get go?

[the3eyedblindman]

It had to of been, cuz even before it was fried i got no video, and right when the cpu was changed i got video right away, see guys i did know what i was doin, just didnt have the common sense of usin a fan the last time. But it didnt matter cuz the CPU was no good anyways. But now its all fixed, im gonna let someone install windows for me, then i should be on my way to mame-in it up  

[daywane]

good to here.
but windows is the E Z part. you just worked through the hard part.

[the3eyedblindman]

As i said there is something wrong with my 98 se startup disk, and i havent been able to fix it, so im gonna let this other guy that has my copy of XP just put that on there for me.

[Paul Olson]

You won't need this since you are having a friend install XP, but for those who don't know, you can get the boot disks (or startup disks) from bootdisk.com.

Paul

[NinjaEpisode]

You can also recreate the startup disk off of the CD.  It should be located in a boot or bootdisk folder on the cd.

[daywane]

I can get a start up disk with 95,98,and Me (yuck)
but I have never found on for XP
does XP have one? If I rember I will have to check for it at bootdisk.com

[Bgnome]

XP usually boots from the cd.  but i believe you can still create a startup disc once it is installed.

[D5A1AC]

" No i didnt, just the cpu, not the fan and heatsink, why, is this bad?"
  I know this is an old topic but how dumb can you be? could you have not have realised that if your cpu came with a hsf, it obviously needed it to function safely??? Even a computer noob would realise that it is necessary. I know nothing about cars but I know I wouldnt take out the radiator because I didnt like having to buy radiator fluid once every few years and I only took it down the the local mall...

If any computer newbies who have read this topic and became discouraged from making thier own pc, dont be! This guy made a really stupid mistake which most people wouldnt do.

Sorry, I know its an old topic and that was probably inappropriate but I had to say something.

[pointdablame]

Sorry, I know its an old topic and that was probably inappropriate but I had to say something.

Yeah, it was.  Bumping an old thread to insult someone is pretty stupid.  Any "internet n00b"  should know it lacks tact.

I'm glad you knew it was wrong though... and still did it.... 

[Tiger-Heli]

Sorry, I know its an old topic and that was probably inappropriate but I had to say something.

Yeah, it was.  Bumping an old thread to insult someone is pretty stupid.  Any "internet n00b"  should know it lacks tact.

I'm glad you knew it was wrong though... and still did it.... 

Agreed, this one should have stayed put to bed.

I know what yytu means, but see my reply #76 above.

Pointdablame initially said:

Take everything out of the system but the mobo and CPU.

And then Exibar said:

Only run with this hooked up:

CPU, (no fan or fan cable), RAM, Powersupply  How many beeps now?  If only one beep, add the vid card, and try and boot... keep doing this until you get more than one beep... when that happens, that's your bad part....

Now I would have known to leave the HSF connected (or at least reply back before I tried without it), but I've built a half dozen systems previously.

To use your example - If you took your car to the mechanic b/c it was running hot and he said "Something is overloading the engine, run it with everything disconnected", you MIGHT disconnect the radiator.

And this is not meant to make anyone feel bad about this.

[D5A1AC]

Ok i spose