Win98 comp locks up with new drive.

trueman · April 19th, 2004, 05:16 AM

A friend has given me her computer which has a 8gb drive that only has around 300mb of space left.
I got an 80gb drive for it but the 80gb drive is not supported by her mobo which is an MSI 6163.

So I then got a 40gb drive for it and jumpered it to 32gb. It was detected in the BIOS no worries. I then partitioned the drive, started windows and formatted the drive.
Now whenever I try to start the computer it locks up. Sometimes at the boot screen, sometimes whilst doing a scan disc (If I walk away and forget to cancel it) and even in safe mode it will lock up a few minutes after getting into Windows.
If I remove the drive it makes no difference and the computer still locks up.

There is a BIOS update that I was going to try but am not sure if that would work as it locks up in Windows. Any suggestions??

Tazzin · April 19th, 2004, 05:25 AM

You should apply the new BIOS anyways. New BIOS'es ususally have support for larger HD's. Unjumper the 40GB drive.. and reinstall. Make sure the BIOS sees it. Repartition and reformat.. and install windows.

I wasn't able to find that board on MSI's site.

trueman · April 19th, 2004, 06:37 AM

I managed to get into the device manager in safe mode and noticed that there were two generic ide hard drisk drive type 46 entrys and two generic ide hard disk drive type 47 entries. There were also two floppy disc drive entries. I tried to delete them but the comp would lock up before I got a chance to.

I dont want to have to format and re-install Windows as she has data that she doesnt want to lose. I did apply the bios update as you suggested though. I am currently xcloning drive c to the new D drive as I hope to try and boot from that instead. What do you think?

The other option I have is to delete the enum key and let windows re-install all of the hardware.

trueman · April 19th, 2004, 09:56 AM

I cleared the CMOS but the computer still locks up. If I disable all start up options and win.ini etc and dont load anything at all the computer will start and run for about 2 mintues before locking up.
Once again in the device manager there is more than one instance of the generic hdd type 47 where one is shown as C drive and the other is shown without a drive letter. I delete them but then on re-boot they are back there again.

I deleted the enum key but the computer still locked up as it was attempting to re-install all of the devices. I dont think the lock up has to do with loading any particular device as it seems to happen at random times. I really dont know what to do next.

Should I just do a re-install over the top of windows? I dont want to lose any data.

trueman · April 19th, 2004, 10:28 AM

I just put both drives into another computer and it runs fine without locking up.

Maybe its my mobo, but how do I fix it??

John Prophet · April 19th, 2004, 11:40 AM

sounds heat related perhaps

is the heatsink on good??

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do you have a spare hard drive? if so you should install w98se fresh on the spare hard drive...if the new install on the spare drive runs just fine, then it is not a hardware problem it is just a problem with the windows install.

JP

John Prophet · April 19th, 2004, 11:42 AM

---> "Should I just do a re-install over the top of windows?"

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well I was going to suggest that but I assumed it would lock up in the install if it is locking up every few minutes.

what if u boot to a floppy...will it lock up then? If not, boot to a 98se floppy and install windows from there...just dont format etc

trueman · April 19th, 2004, 11:55 AM

Its not heat related as the cpu temp is ony around 38C.

I swapped the cable for an 80 wire cable but it wouldnt boot properly. I swapped the cable back to a 40 wire cleared the cmos again, restored the enum key I had backed up to the registry and so far everything seems to be working properly. Not sure why but it is so Im not complaining.

roley · April 21st, 2004, 03:47 AM

What is the enum key?

trueman · April 21st, 2004, 10:22 AM

The enum key holds all of the information about your hardware and devices. If you delete the enum key in your registry it will force windows to re-install all of your drivers again. it works great when you have a problem where you have lost of devices not working properly from bad setups etc. or old hardware that was removed but the drivers couldnt be deleted.