Windows ME will not start

Interesting, no printed model number on it anywhere but there is a "9972" on a handwritten label:



 
if that hand written label is true, it appears to have a very small hd. (4.3 ?)

i would be inclined to take it out and put it in your pc and just look at it.

i should point out that i mean you should put it inas wellas your own hd, not in replacement.

ask if you do not know how
 
4.3GB is correct for the HDD, that's what the bios said too.

Just whipped out the soundcard and identified it as a Genius Value 4.1.

Video is Matrox. So at least I have a starting point for driver searches.

What will I benefit by trying the HDD over in my Dell? If it's going to help, I'll do it tomorrow afternoon, but yes I'll need instructions!
 
@ 4 g i would not bother (seriously, its very very small, it will probably be almost full after you have installed win 2000), i have currently a 20,g and a 40g hd, and i am goung to change the 40 to an 80g as theysoon get filled with progs etc.

The idea of putting the hd on your pc is so you can format it easier

you need to plug it in to the ide cable (grey flat one)

it depends on what your pc has as to how you do it.

if you have 1 hd, one cd* no worries

you will need to get another ide cable (maplin,pc world etc)

plug one end into 4g hd, other end into "ide 2" (which is next to where your current ide is plugged into), then find an "odd" yellow, black balc red poer cable (in your pc) plug this in, switch pc on, its that simple

cables will only fit one way round, if it wont go, its wrong way round

if you already have 2 ide cables you can unplug the 1st device on seconadary ide cable, and plug hd in there

all ide devices have a jumper on the back set to either MASTER (MA) or SLAVE (SL) (ignore other options) The first device must be set to master, the 2nd slave, so if you remove your 2nd ide device you will have to move the hd jumper to SL since it will already be set for MA

why not not do anything first and just look at the back of the 4g hd, for the jumpers etc, then look at your hd, then look at your cd rom connections and note the difference in jumper positions dont move yours just look for refernce)

but as i said a 4g hd is very very small, and by todays standards is not worth bothering with, i would guess that the roblem is, its full, which you can check by putting it on you pc (your pc may not be able to read all of it, but it should tell you what is on there, you could even play jammy and copy the 4 g into a folder on your pc, saving the settings and info

Igorian, may have a differnt view / idea (he does know a LOT more than me) and i would go by what he says, but what i have said is true as i have done it more than once

*being cd, dv dcombo etc
 
What Breezer is saying is true, and I have resorted to this myself in some cases. Just take care that you don't trash your old machine. If the old drive is infected in any way (virus/spyware), there is a possibility of migration to your drive.

This machine is never going to be anything special, even if it was upgraded. Also, it may be of an age where large hard drives won't work.

Did you find a Boot Priority option in the BIOS? If so, did you set the CD ROM to be the first boot device

One other question, can you start the ME machine in safe mode? (Press F8 as the machine is booting (before the ME splash screen) and select safe mode from the menu.
 
In my first post said:
I have tried to boot in safe mode, this time it gets as far as the ME "loading screen" and locks there.
Click to expand...

So yep, tried that. (I know we've been the geeks up all night, but do pay attention) :wink::lol:

I'm decided to avoid putting the Compaq's HDD in my Dell, because my computer is working perfectly thank you very much and I'd quite like it to stay that way! (Just did my regular weekly run of spybot and ad-aware, and only picked up 1 or 2 stray cookies, not bad)

In any case, I can boot the Compaq to DOS so with Igor's ATAPI drivers I should be able to format the drive and reinstall without removing it at all.

So, just need to wait for the 2000pro CD to arrive (Tuesday, I hope). Watch this space for further developments/questions...

Oh, actually there is one question that I might be able to suss out now - the Compaq does have an ethernet card, so with 2000 will I be able to plug-and-play my BTYahoo broadband connection? If so I can at least give her a head-start by downloading firefox, spybot, adaware and zonealarm, before she begins the next f**k-up cycle with her beloved AOHell dial-up... :evil:
 
Soz, I must pay more attention :D

Ok, when you boot from the floppy, what operating system is displayed when it starts?

Have a look on the floppy disk. Does it contain files called FDISK, FORMAT and SYS? If not, you will need a couple more files, but I need to know the boot disk O/S first.

When you get all the files together, I would suggest attenpting to format the drive and get the CD going. I'm here all day, so quite happy to play. :D
 
Igorian said:
Soz, I must pay more attention :D

Ok, when you boot from the floppy, what operating system is displayed when it starts?

Have a look on the floppy disk. Does it contain files called FDISK, FORMAT and SYS? If not, you will need a couple more files, but I need to know the boot disk O/S first.

When you get all the files together, I would suggest attenpting to format the drive and get the CD going. I'm here all day, so quite happy to play. :D
Click to expand...

The win 2000 CD won't be arriving until Tuesday, so I can't really do a lot more until then. The boot floppy I currently have looks like this on my own PC:



(By the way, I apologise for this bizarre image hosting I'm having to use, my usual one (darkernet) is offline until the 21st for some unexplained reason).
 
Can't see an image dude.

Edit - Yes I can, just took a while to load

It looks like some files are missing from this disk. I've just downloaded this one and it has everything you will need, including CD drivers, so go get it. Just run the file and it will create the boot disk for you.

Assuming, as you have said, that you have nothing to backup, boot from the floppy and select start computer with CD support. Once you have booted, run the FDISK command from the floppy and delete and then re-create the primary partition. Use all the space for the primary. When this is complete, start the Win2K setup program from your CD.
 
Really good progress today!

Win 2000 CD arrived and it's all installed flawlessly. The compaq seems SO much faster. It's connected to my broadband router no problem at all, in fact all I had to do was plug it in - no setup whatsoever! I'm making this post from it now....

I don't think I'm going to have to mess about downloading a video driver because it immediately came up using my own monitor at very high resolution. I've set it to 1024x768 though so it should still work when it gets back to Beth's and her 15" CRT.

I think I only have one issue left that I need help with - there's no sound. Any idea how to go about rectifying this?

In the meantime I will set about installing McAfee internet security suite, firefox, spybot etc... ready for the dreaded AOHell dial-up...
 
yup, certainly looks like the right driver, but for some reason it won't download. I'll swap over to my computer and see if i can do it to a cd...

Edit: nope, seems like a broken link. Funny thing is I've googled for the same driver elsewhere and they all seem to have the same problem :?:

Any ideas as to whether there's a generic driver of some sort that might run this card?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top