booting up prob Help!!

[MangoPete]

Hi Folks, my trusty 5 yr old pc running windows 98 with office 97
It has been fine until. I did routine maintenance as I do once a week through the wizard, scan disc and defrag on Friday.
Since then it won't boot up properly. Tower switches on cd and dvd lights flash on as does the speaker and keyboard lights. I can hear the fan running but nothing happens apart from cd and dvd lights flashing. A this stage I can't switch it off nor restart with the buttons on the front of the tower. .I have to switch it off at the mains. I have to do this several times before it makes a beep then boots up. Its getting worse HELP!!! Any ideas on how to sort it? Thanks P

[Bigeye74]

from what you say it sounds like a motherboard issue. I have had similar problems after rebuilding the machine and leaving a lead unplugged. Double check everything is plugged in. If so open it up and check that all the internal leads are still in place. Could also be the PSU. Ensure that it is free or dust (and everything else for that matter).
If all else fails by a new one from Dell, don't bother paying for it to be repaired it won't be economically viable in the long run. Win98 is no longer supported I believe.

[MangoPete]

thanks Bigeye

[fo3nix]

Also, if you don't already have one -- make a backup of your stuff! Ideally to a CD or DVD. Just all your essential stuff that you can't afford to lose or don't have replicated elsewhere.

[wideboy]

Hard discs don't last forever! 5 years is pretty good. As fo3nix says, make a backup of anything important then do two things (at least). Visit this site:-

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

and make a bootable CD (it has rescued two friends' computers so far).

Then see if you know how to get to a 'Command Prompt' (Start/Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt) and type in CHKDSK c: /f (there's a space after CHKDSK and a space after c:). You may be told that Windows is using a file and needs to do this the next time the computer starts up. DO NOT RESTART! - make sure that you say OK/Yes to this and then SHUT DOWN! When you switch on, the computer will then check your hard disk and attempt to fix any problems. If you are not satisfied, do it again. In both cases it may take quite a long time - be patient!