Here's a real hair-puller-outter(at least for me anyway). If you'd like to sink your teeth into this one, and help me fix it, I'd sure appreciate it. Please bare with me, and I'll try to give you as clear a picture as possible, in describing the problem(s). A friend of mine gave me her computer to fix a problem she is having. It's an AT&T. The original OS was Windows 3.11, and was upgraded to Win 95. I know,....but before anyone says: "Get a new computer", let me just mention, that she can't. Also, she's new to computers, and this relic was given to her. I powered it up and the first screen I saw was many different colors, and had what looked to be (though unreadable), vertical rows of computer language streaming from top to bottom, and, behind that, looked to be the initialization information that you see when you first boot up the computer. At this point, the screen was full, from left to right, however, it wasn't readable either. I could just barely make out some letters here and there. I finally got the computer language and colors off the screen. Now, I could read some of the messages, but only the right half the screen is viewable, and the left half is all black, and the messages are partial. It's like you have to fill in the blanks and make an educated guess, with what words are present on the screen. Some of the messages I could make out were: "Disk Boot Failure, XMS Driver Not Installed, XMS Manager Not Present, Device Driver CDR0001 Not Found, CD-ROM Driver Not Installed, to name a few. Also, It can't find D:\ (which is the CD-ROM, and, C:\. The only prompt or command line I can produce is, A:\>. I've tried every way I know to access Drive C:. It won't let me install, uninstall, or reinstall. One more thing, the screen has the typical black background and white lettering, and sometimes says: Starting Windows 95, but that's as far as it gets. No desktop, no start button, no nothing. So there it is. Sure hope someone can help me get this this up and running again. Besides, it's a great way for me to learn, cause I love working on computers, and helping less fortunate folks than me. I look forward to hearing from anyone. Thanks, Mike
Dead Computer
- Thread starter mike429
- Start date
Dropkickmurphys
New Member
that sounds well and truly f*cked.
you could try using another computer to download the drivers required and re-install windows 95 onto the computer.
or you could bin that pc and get a new one, it doesnt sound like theres much choice
you could try using another computer to download the drivers required and re-install windows 95 onto the computer.
or you could bin that pc and get a new one, it doesnt sound like theres much choice
Thanks for the reply. I did check the cables and everything was a-ok there. Also I tried using the win 95 startup floppy cause it has fdisk on it (if in fact, that's the fdisk I need), however, it won't let me access the files on it. All I get is: "Starting Windows 95", and that's as far as it goes. I do remember reading something about using a different partition for multiple OS's, or something like that, to correct the problem, but I can't access that either. Anyway, replacing the hard drive will be up to the owner, which I agree, may be the only way to go. If you think of anything else, let me know. Thanks again Hairy!
Really appreciate your reply, and, you sure said that right.
Do you know where I can download the drivers from? The files would have to be small enough to fit on a floppy(s) because, the computer doesn't think it has a CD-ROM. I checked Microsoft's website, and wasn't able to find anything.
Thanks again for your input.
Do you know where I can download the drivers from? The files would have to be small enough to fit on a floppy(s) because, the computer doesn't think it has a CD-ROM. I checked Microsoft's website, and wasn't able to find anything.
Thanks again for your input.
