I have several problems with my machine, and they don't seem to match up with the forum answers. My hardware specs are off of memory; I'll try to update after I get home.
OS: Windows XP SP2
Video: NVidia GEForce 5200
Audio: Creative Live! 5.1
Processor: Athlon XP 3000+ (
)
Motherboard: Viper (
) MicroATX
Old HDD: Maxtor 40GB, ~2002
New HDD: Western Digital 160GB, bought yesterday
For about two years, my computer has often had trouble coming out of sleep mode. I believe this started after I replaced my power supply with an Antec 350W (??.) I don't have the exact model with me, but I'll try to get it when I get home.
Since my computer wouldn't come out of sleep mode, I'd have to reboot and go through Scan Disk for a couple of years now. in the last four weeks, Scan Disk has started to find several errors. It erased the entire folder of Internet Explorer, and it found several other problems. After a 30-minute Scan Disk, my computer would start to load XP and then reboot. Since Windows didn't load completely, Scan Disk would run again. This process would repeat until I turned the system off at the power button, waited five minutes, and then started again (booted with no problems). If I also did this when the computer went to sleep, often I could skip the Scan Disk and load straight into Windows.
Yesterday, my machine completed the BIOS startup and then hung. It gave me the "missing or corrupted hal.dll" message, and I decided to reinstall XP. When I put in the disk (upgrade from 98) and chose Setup, the program told me that it couldn't find XP on my hard drive. When I rebooted and selected Recovery, I changed to the C: drive and tried dir. I was told there was a problem with drive enumeration.
At this point I assumed that my hard drive failed, so I bought a new one and installed it in the chassis. Now when I boot up the computer, I get the POST beep, but the monitor never turns on. I removed all other cards (audio card, Speedstream wireless B card) except the graphics card. Monitor didn't turn on. I moved the monitor from the video card to the motherboard's onboard VGA port. Monitor didn't turn on. I disconnected the new drive and reconnected the old drive. Monitor didn't turn on.
I've actually had this monitor problem before; it seems like anytime I've replaced a motherboard/processor, I had to reboot several times before the monitor would click on. This happened with my old CRT as well as my newer (~2005) LCD, and it happened with my current video card and my previous (Voodoo 3?). Eventually it would turn on, and then I wouldn't have a problem again until the next time I tinkered in my case. I don't have another monitor or computer to try swapping out, although I'll keep trying. I don't think my graphics card suddenly went bad, and it seems unlikely that the monitor would as well. Again, the POST completes fine; the monitor just won't turn on.
Questions:
1. Has anyone experienced this kind of intermittent monitor problem before? Could its failure to turn on be related to what I believe was a hard drive failure?
2. Assuming I can figure out the monitor problem, can Windows 98 be installed on a 160GB drive? Since I only have the XP upgrade, I'd have to first install 98 and then upgrade to XP. Would it be better to upgrade to Vista?
3. Since the computer was working fine in the years previous to this problem, is the refusal to exit sleep mode most likely related to the power supply? Is there a fix for this?
Sorry for the long message - I'm pretty frustrated here.
