win98-takes long time to start

[Dorlene Lees]

Hi

I am unable to startup my office's computer.  I need to switch on for a least an hour to warm up the set & keep trying to press the button at the CPU. My set is 5 years old.  There is no internet connection. Used mainly for words processing.  This problem happened last 6 mths.

Please advise.

Thanks

[Mac]

If you have a Windows '98 bootdisk add Delindex.bat to it from http://www.burqurq.com

DELINDEX

Boot to the diskette and choose Minimal boot to get to the A:\> prompt and type...

A:\>delindex run and press enter.

Then type...

A:\>scandisk /all /surface and allow the test to run to completion. It generally takes 1 hour for every 10 GB of drive-space.

When it has completed boot into Safe Mode and run defrag.

When was the last occasion when you ran scandisk and defrag? Which anti-virus are you using and how do you keep it up to date?

An unusual situation. Computers don't need to be warmed up, so I would imagine that you need to change the CMOS battery as the next thing to do, after 5 years use.

Click on the Link below and scroll down to CHANGE CMOS BATTERY for full instructions.

[GX1_Man]

You have major mechanical problems if it takes an hour to "warm up". This does not even count the other software problems that no doubt exist. Do you have any experience fixing computers or do you have a geeky friend?

[Mac]

Maybe the hard-drive has minimal free-space.

'Warm up the Set' is a Radio, Radar or Television expression.

[Dell4700]

As above, there are a lot of possible causes.  Some basic things to try:

- try another wall outlet for your power.  Preferably in another room.

- try another power cord

- check the power-on button.  It may be bad or the wiring is loose/intermittent.

- if there is a setting for voltage on the back of your PC (110/220) make sure it is correctly set for your area.

- hold the power button in for several seconds, if it is button.  If it's a toggle switch, never mind.

- make sure your PC power management configuration is correct.  It may be in some sort of sleep/hibernation mode.

- there should be no 'warmup' time with your PC.  If it behaves as such, then you may (also) have a bad power supply or intermittent connection on your main/motherboard.

All of this is guesswork without some knowledge of what you are using and how (PC/hardware models, changes made or problems when this occurred, etc.).

- does it always behave this way?
- when it finally works, is everything normal?
- any other info you think might be related?

Dell

[Fed]

My money is on the PSU.  

[GX1_Man]

Can a PSU take an hour to warm up? Fed aren't you the electrician here? I thought it was an all or nothing deal.

[Dell4700]

Can a PSU take an hour to warm up? Fed aren't you the electrician here? I thought it was an all or nothing deal.

Any component in the system could have a bad or intermittent solder joint, a break in the board or other intermittent problem.  Sometimes temperature changes, gravity, bumping, etc. can suddenly allow contact.  If it happens to apply to the power circuit or logic, it can seem that the system fixes itself without cause or reason.

Most folks would not wait around for an hour to see if it comes on.  They'd just replace the PS or MB and be done with it.

Dell

[Fed]

I read between the lines GX_Man...

"I need to switch on for a least an hour to warm up the set & keep trying to press the button at the CPU."

Reset, reset, reset, reset, reset.......
until Dorlene flukes a power good signal.

1. When the computer is powered on, the internal power supply initializes. The power supply doesn’t immediately provide power to the rest of the computer. First, it determines whether it can supply the proper voltages that the computer’s components require. The power supply sends out a POWER GOOD signal when it determines that it can supply reliable power to the rest of the computer. When the chipset receives this signal, it issues a SYSTEM RESET signal to the processor.
2. When the processor receives the SYSTEM RESET signal, it accesses the jump address for the start of the BIOS boot program at its hard-wired preset address and loads it into RAM. The jump address contains the actual address of the BIOS boot program on the ROM BIOS chip. The jump address is typically located at address FFFF0 (hexadecimal) or 1,048,560 (decimal), which is at the end of the first megabyte of system memory.
3. With the primary part of the BIOS now loaded into RAM, the POST (Power On Self Test) process begins. If any fatal errors happen during the POST process, the appropriate error beep code sounds or sometimes an error message displays, and the boot process stops. At this point in the boot process only the system speaker can notify the user of errors.
4. If all is well, the boot sequence continues and the system BIOS loads the device BIOS of the video adapter and loads into memory. As your computer boots, the video adapter’s information displays on the monitor.

[Mac]

Needs a new Power Supply Unit.