Will not Boot

Hi,

I have a problem with a computer , I hope you guys can help with. My friend has a Compaq presario2120 computer with Win95 . I did a clean install of Win 98 on this computer. Worked fine. I took the hard drive out and put it into my PIII computer so I could use my cable modem to do all of the updates, so far so good . I did all of the updates , shutdown , put the harddrive back in the Compaq, nothing. Will not boot, nothing on the screen, but if I put it back in the PIII , boots fine. How do I make this harddrive work in the Compaq now??

thankls, appreciate any help

Drew

 

during this switching around, wasn't Windows finding new hardware and installing drivers?

if you have the drivers for the Compaq (you must you had it going once)

delete the ENUM key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum within the registry

then when you restart, Windows will reload all the hardware.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I tried what you said and had no effect.I booted up in the PIII machine fine, deleted the enum key and shutdown. Install thr HD back into the compaq still nothing. Nothing on the screen. So I got fed up- I FDISK then format and blew everything out of the water. Reinstall Win98 in the PIII machine. When finish I put it into the compaq -still nothing. So I booted backk up in the PIII machine and deleted the ENUM key . Put it back into the compaq -NOTHING. I do not get it . So that is where I am now . I do not know what my next step is.

help

Drew

 

Even with the hard drive completely out of the system, you should be able to get an initial screen display (options to enter the BIOS, at least), and even boot the floppy drive.

Check all the cable connections (are you getting power at all?); check the ram seating and the video card.

 

Hi ,

Your right I should have a cursor , but I do not. I forgot that. Yes I have power . When I turn the compaq on , you can hear it wine up and click and I can even see the arm in the HD swing .Then after a few seconds -nothing -no cursor -nothing. I check all of the cables alot of times. Video is built into the board. Ram was never touch, but I pulled them out to check , they were in there fine.
You know what they say about doing friends favors--DON'T.

I just dont get how being I only touch the HD I get nothing , but in the PIII machine boots up perfectly.

frustrated

Drew

 

Try removing the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes, and then replacing it; If the system is more than a few years old, it might be a good idea to replace it. Have you ruled out the Monitor being the problem? It might be stopping on a "setup" error screen, but you are just not seeing it. Try hitting f1 or f2 when the system stops, is there any more activity after that?

 

Ah, if you reformatted the Compaq hard drive, you wiped the bios setup out too......do you have the Compaq disks to rebuild that?

 

Hi,

I took the cmos battery out like you said . No difference. I am using the same monitor,switch back and forth. Nothing more happens when I hit f2 or any other key when trying to boot . Just a blank screen and no activity.

amazed and bewilderd

Drew

 

I think I'd be as stuck as you are at this point; perhaps try a different power supply?

Don't switch the questionable one to the good system though!

 

Hi,

It is my understanding that even with the ram and HD out of the computer I should still get a cursor.Is that correct ?? I do not get a cursor with the HD and ram out of this compaq. So what could be some reason for this .

thanks

Drew