computer help

[jhale]

hey guys I have a friend who needs some help with a PC.
It's an Toshiba Tower, running windows 98.
the problem is when started the machine goes into safe mode.

an error comes up that says "need to have a program..."
there is a light blue screen that says safe in all four corners.
nothing can be done except turning it off.

this is all the info I got over the phone,
thanks in advance for any help.

- J

 

[nanchil]

Do you want Windows 2000 OS? I think you may have to reinstall the OS. If you need the OS, please lmk.

Thanks.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Drive needs to be formatted and OS reinstalled or you can buy a new drive install the OS on that drive and use the old drive as a slave drive.

 

[Psycho graphic]

I am by far no expert or even novice, I'm sure you will get better answers from someone more knowledgable, but have you tried booting it with the 98 cd in the drive to see if you can boot up from the disc?

 

[jhale]

thanks guys. :Hydrogen:

I'll ask if he wants to upgrade the OS but probably not.

 

[deelucky]

ya might want to try the reboot option i believe its f8 any way if she has the the os disk then she can do a recovery.but once the boot option comes on then you can check to make sure that,that option(safemode) isnt being used to boot the system

 

[fritz]

He needs to not have a Toshiba Tower.

 

[jhale]

oh, formatting the drive will wipe out the info :duh:

so using a new HD is the only way to save the data ?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

You can try to do a repair install with the 98 disk but there is a chance it won't work

Turn the machine off, turn it back on and go into the bios, it's either f8 or del key to do that.

Set the cd rom as the boot drive and open the drive and place the 98 cd in.

exit the bios and save the changes that were made.

go through the steps of the install but choose repair instal not format and new install see if that works.

 

[jhale]

thanks chief

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Hey at least I can be of some help today.

 

[jhale]

this is for your help chief

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAGmBRC1dc&NR

 

[SaltWaterN00b]

If he can bring it to Queens and leave it with me a few days (depending on the severity) I can fix it. Let me know [email protected]

 

[digitalreefer]

JH... if he's local, I can swing by when I get back from vacation. Sounds like corrupt system files. I could likely swap out the drive with a spare I've got, grab the data from the old one, then transfer the image to the one he's got. Let me know, I'm back on the 29th.

 

[jhale]

thanks guys.

John (his name) is down on canal and the west side drive, I'm going to go over to see what i can do this afternoon.
If I can't get it to work I'll post the call for help later.

 

[reefman]

i believe its a problem with a hardware driver. there is a conflict when bootup which is causing it not to boot. thats y the safe mode kicks in. safe mode allows u to make changes w/o loading any hardware drivers. (try removing all external hardware attached except keybrd,mouse,monitor n try it)
win 98 is very outdated(i dont think microsoft is supporting it anymore)
if ur gonna re-install, go with winxp sp2.

 

[jhale]

i just got back from looking at the PC.

upon starting up it gives the error message

Fatal exception OD O15F:00007E59
the corrupt system will be terminated

then it starts up and goes into safe mode, eventually.

there were no OS discs for me to try, and John said that there was no
data on the HD he needs, it's used for email only.

it's 4 year old machine that came from staples. is it worth keeping?
or should he just get a new machine?

 

[Josh]

there were no OS discs for me to try, and John said that there was no
data on the HD he needs, it's used for email only.

it's 4 year old machine that came from staples. is it worth keeping?
or should he just get a new machine?

It is time for a new machine. If he is running Win98 than it is older than 4 years. Get the processor specs and you'll see if it needs to be upgraded (I would say absolutely).

 

[reefman]

heres a link from microsoft that may help
josh is right, the pc is over 6 yrs old. upgrade is badly needed(hardare n soft) but may be cheaper buying new.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Time for an upgrade :biggrin: