Startup problem after defrag

[mikekelly]

I'm a newby on this board, so please bear with me......... I recently ran the defragment tool on my PC and after I shut it down to restart, the *censored* thing would only light up, check the A/drive, check the D/drive, and go no further.  I get nothing on the screen.  When I press the on/off switch, it turns right off immediately.  I have tried a  couple different boot disks to no avail.  OS is Windows 98se.  I don't have an install disk, but I have a win98se upgrade disk.  The PC is an HP "Brio", built in 2000 with an Intel Celeron installed(don't know details).  HDD is a Western Digital 40GB.  I don't really know much more about it as I bought it from a friend a few months back.  Any and all help with this will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.......e

[DaveLembke]

Go into the BIOS and look to see if the system see's the Hard Drive... If no HD found, then it might be a bad HD.

Dave

[mikekelly]

Thanks for coming to my aid, Dave.  How do I go about going into BIOS.  I get nothing on the monitor.  I mean absolutely nothing.  Is there another way of checking?  Thanks again....... e

[Joe_Flanagan]

Probably the F2 key for that comp.
Hold the F2 key down and start the computer. When you get "tone" release. Then press it down some more. Don't hold it down with tone.

Some say to "tap" the majic key and others will say to hit (or start tapping) the key as soon as you see the mfr's splash screen.

It's hard to describe, I use the first method. I think it's more sure-fire esp. if you're not sure which key.

You may have screwed up your bootloader . Go to Bootdisk.com and try one of their bootdisks. The ME version is a favorite.
That may get you far enough along to get the CD drive running.
If you suspect a corrupt bootloader, post back and someone will help you.

It would be interesting to know how full that hard drive was before the defrag. If they are over 75% full a defragger can choke.

There are some hard drive diagnostic utilities here in the forum.
You could slave the drive to another comp and run a diagnostic from there.

[mikekelly]

Thanks jflan...... I replaced the CMOS battery. No change. BUT.....and it's a BIG BUT........I just noticed that a new video card had been installed and I have never plugged into it. Since I got this thing, I have always plugged into the old monitor recepticle. I plugged into the new one and the monitor came on. The HP screen now comes up and allows me to get into BIOS by pressing f2. If I bypass BIOS, I just get a black screen with a prompt. I feel a little better that there is some progress being made here. Any ideas where I can go from here???

[Joe_Flanagan]

So, just a prompt, not "Operating System not found" ?
I'm thinking that you need to run a diagnostic on the drive.

Is the drive recognized in BIOS ?

[mikekelly]

Yes, just a prompt.  And yes, it does recognize the drive (Primary Master).

[Joe_Flanagan]

OK, you've got embedded video (on-board) and a conventional video card.
Some motherboards will automatically recognize the separate card and disable on-board video, some need help in BIOS.

Look around in BIOS for something that says :
On-Board Graphics (Video) [Enable / Disable]
If you find this control set it accordingly.

You still need to verify that your hard drive is OK.
I found this diagnostic that loads onto a floppy. I've used CD versions but not floppy. In your case a bootable floppy might be just the ticket.
The download for Drive Fitness Test for diskette (DFT-Windows):
http://pcsupport.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=pcsupport&cdn=compute&tm=48&f=20&su=p284.5.420.ip_&tt=3&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm%23Drive%2520fitness