Problems

[Billyboy]

Houston we have a problem. My computer just turns it self off at random times. I had this once before but cannot remember the name of the pesky little critter. Does anyone remember? I think I used the SEARCH and delete? It does NOT hibernate, it turns off and goes through the complete boot-up.

Any help would be appreciated. bill

Edited December 28, 2006 by Billyboy

[Guest Dataman]

Well it could be Virus or Hardware Problem.

Can you share some info on your Computer?

Who Made it?

Speed

Ram

HD

How old is it?

Temps?

(Can you monitor them thru Software or BIOS)

Fans Running

Virus Scanner Running

Updated?

Behind Firewall

Windows Updated?

What OS?

Try a Online Virus Scan

Trend Housecall or Stinger

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

If you have a Trojan it might be better to reload Windows.

[Billyboy]

Who Made it? ibm clone

Speed 1.7g

Ram 1024

HD 40

How old is it? 3-4 yr

Temps?

(Can you monitor them thru Software or BIOS) ??????

Fans Running 2 o the board and 1 muffen fan blowing on the board

Virus Scanner Running avg free 7.5

Updated?

Behind Firewall no

Windows Updated? 98 2ed ed

What OS?

I had this before, I had help. We typed in the name of a virus, bug, worm and searched for it. when we found it we deleted it. thats about all the help i can give. if it get to be to much trouble i'll just reformat it. i have two drives they are independent from each other and i back up just about daily.

do you know whats the newest bug? bill

[Stretch]

You did not mention the OS (Operating System) you are running. It is important to know the system you are using. If it is XP try this below.

Look in your root directory for a program file that has been installed recently, that you are not aware of. Notice your lower right hand task bar, if you have time before the shut down, and look for a new program icon (maybe a circle with an x through it). If not then:

Try restore to an earlier date within the program. This restore point should be before the problem occurred.

If this doesn't work, go to f-8 boot and restore to original restore point. This will take your computer back to its original condition at purchase or build. This is better than a reformat, but still will require a lot of driver upgrades and reinstalls.

A reformat is useful from time to time to eliminate a lot of junk, if you have the time.

I have had this problem happen with a bad Bios Battery, and once with a loose card (Video) that needed to be reset...Chip creep.

I had an Boeing engineer buddy that got so mad at a little Chip creep, that he went to work, on his computer, with a hot glue gun, and he glued almost everything down to the Visa and PCI slots. I thought he had a good idea there, for a while. Bad part is that he used glue on his CPU, which stopped the CPU fan (check the CPU Fan) from working until the whole board was fried.

[Stretch]

Now I notice that your OS is Windows 98 2nd edition. You can also use the system restore in 98. I am not sure if you are offered a restore option, in an F-8 boot, at the start of your boot process. You can use F-8 to go to safe-mode... if it is a soft-ware problem, and remove the objectionable program.

As I poorly remember, Dos operating system (Win 98) could only format up to 9 Gigs. If you have a 40 Gig hard-drive, in your system, you are only able to use 9 Gigs of it.

I am not even sure if Micro-Soft offers upgrades to Win 98 anymore. Why not bump up, to WinME or Win XP. If you have a 1.7 GHtz CPU chip you can handle Windows XP easily. Your Memory is 1 Meg??? or 1024 Meg??? Can't remember well, but I thought that you needed at least 32 Megs to run 98.

It's like leap frog: Get a bigger hard-drive, Get a bigger program, Get a bigger hard-drive, Get a bigger program. I guess that you could say that this is job-security for many people, but that it is also a consumer rip-off.

Edited December 29, 2006 by Stretch

[Guest Dataman]

You can also use the system restore in 98.

WRONG: no system restore in Windows 98!!!

As I poorly remember, Dos operating system (Win 98) could only format up to 9 Gigs. If you have a 40 Gig hard-drive, in your system, you are only able to use 9 Gigs of it.

Wrong: Windows 98 can use bigger HD. Use FDisk (newer Version).

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044

Why not bump up, to WinME or Win XP.

WRONG: They don't sell WinME anymore. It was very poor upgrade from 98 anyway (Buggy).

Can't remember well, but I thought that you needed at least 32 Megs to run 98.

Wrong: 98 Will run just fine in 16mb. 32m is nicer!

See if you can get the Temp of the CPU (Go into BIOS and look). Don't save anything you do.

Blow out the Bunnies.

Reload 98. Sounds like you have the knowledge to do that.

More than Likely you have Bad Caps on the MB (it's OLD).

www.badcaps.com

2nd most likely choice is Bad Powersupply. Look at the Caps. Any brown goo leaking? If so stop. Buy a New PC.

Before you jump up and Buy Windows XP do some research on your hardware. Are drivers available for XP for your Hardware? (Ie Motherboard, Video Card, any PCI cards). But new OS will not fix Hardware Problems.

I just purchased Dual Core Intel 2.8 System, 1G Ram, 16x DVD, Card Reader, KB & Mouse. $473! Space for PCIe Video Card. (system for Friend)

Sorry

Edited December 29, 2006 by Dataman