boot up problem

[notlines]

Hello all,
New subscriber here, and I need some advice on a problem I am encountering please. I have a custom built AMD athlon 800 Mhz. with a windows 98 os installed. I built this unit myself over 2 years ago, and have encountered 0 problems until now. For unknown reasons now, when I turn on the computer power button, it goes through the memory testing just fine, and then just jumps to a blank screen with a curser at the top left hand corner. The FD light is staying on as well as the hard drive light. I tried to put my windows 98 startup disk in the FD to boot up and nothing happens at all. Has my CPU got fried? I made no changes to this computer or had the cover off since it was originally built, and like I said, it has run perfectly until now. Any help would be appreciated. Please also note that this computer is not hooked up to the internet at all, and no new programs have been added recently to suspect a form of virus in the system.

[eagle1]

I don't think your cpu has fried (it would not boot up if it did).
What probably happenned was that win98 files got corrupted or something like that.
Have you tried getting through Safe Mode?

[paul9]

check your bios boot order settings. i think your battery may be flat and your bios settings may have corrupted. you may need to reset the bios settings or load default settings.

[notlines]

how can I get into safe mode, when I can get past the memory testing fase?

[notlines]

bios boot setting are fine and I have tried going to default settings in the CMOS, still nothing on the screen but a curser

[eagle1]

After the memory counts and you get the information of the hard disks found displayed, start pressing the F8 key. And you will get a menu where you can choose to run in Safe Mode.

[paul9]

try unplugging your hdd and booting from floppy. also try unplugging your floppy and booting from hd, to see if one of those is at fault. does the post routine detect your hd, or does the screen blank immediately after the memory test?

[notlines]

regarding the battery, is it normal for a battery to go bad after only 2 years, and should I explore this possibility first?

[notlines]

the screen blanks immediately after memory testing with only a flashing curser in the upper left had corner!

[notlines]

it finds my HD and everything, but no action when I use the F8 key and try to get into the menu for safe mode.