Win 95 computer freezes on bootup

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

My older, secondary computer (pentium 120) is running windows 95. Well, at
least it used to. It worked fine, then it regularly started freezing up
randomly. I could always restart it and it would be fine for awhile. Now, I
can't even get it to load windows. It always freezes up at different points
during the loading process. Sometimes it would load to the windows 95
loading screen, but never gets past that point anymore. I have run scandisk
and performed a surface scan. It indicates no bad sectors. I formatted the
hard drive (high level), and installed windows 95 again. The installation
went fine, copied the files over, then restarted. The "Windows 95 starting
for the first time" screen came on. Then it froze again. Several restarts
and a scandisk later, I realized the problem was not resolved. I don't know
what the problem could be. Any ideas? Perhaps something in the BIOS or
setup could be the problem? By the way, it's Windows 95 version 4.0.

Silvo

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

silvo wrote:
> My older, secondary computer (pentium 120) is running windows 95.
> Well, at least it used to. It worked fine, then it regularly started
> freezing up randomly. I could always restart it and it would be fine
> for awhile. Now, I can't even get it to load windows. It always
> freezes up at different points during the loading process. Sometimes
> it would load to the windows 95 loading screen, but never gets past
> that point anymore. I have run scandisk and performed a surface
> scan. It indicates no bad sectors. I formatted the hard drive (high
> level), and installed windows 95 again. The installation went fine,
> copied the files over, then restarted. The "Windows 95 starting for
> the first time" screen came on. Then it froze again. Several
> restarts and a scandisk later, I realized the problem was not
> resolved. I don't know what the problem could be. Any ideas?
> Perhaps something in the BIOS or setup could be the problem? By the
> way, it's Windows 95 version 4.0.

Silvo, it's possible that the hardware is giving way. The fact that it
freezes at different places *might* mean that the RAM (or some more serious
component) is suffering from old age, or from some less serious problem such
as dust or build-up around the connections. You should investigate that.

Answer these questions, please:

Does the problem exist when you boot into Safe Mode, or only Normal Mode?

If you do a Step-by-Step startup (same menu as the Safe Mode selection), and
accept all of the defaults by pressing Enter, does it hang? If so, does it
hang in the same place? At what startup "event" does this occur?

--
Jim Eshelman, MS-MVP Windows/Security
Windows Support Center: http://aumha.org/
AumHa Forums: http://aumha.net/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

"Jim Eshelman" wrote:

> silvo wrote:
> > My older, secondary computer (pentium 120) is running windows 95.
> > Well, at least it used to. It worked fine, then it regularly started
> > freezing up randomly. I could always restart it and it would be fine
> > for awhile. Now, I can't even get it to load windows. It always
> > freezes up at different points during the loading process. Sometimes
> > it would load to the windows 95 loading screen, but never gets past
> > that point anymore. I have run scandisk and performed a surface
> > scan. It indicates no bad sectors. I formatted the hard drive (high
> > level), and installed windows 95 again. The installation went fine,
> > copied the files over, then restarted. The "Windows 95 starting for
> > the first time" screen came on. Then it froze again. Several
> > restarts and a scandisk later, I realized the problem was not
> > resolved. I don't know what the problem could be. Any ideas?
> > Perhaps something in the BIOS or setup could be the problem? By the
> > way, it's Windows 95 version 4.0.
>
> Silvo, it's possible that the hardware is giving way. The fact that it
> freezes at different places *might* mean that the RAM (or some more serious
> component) is suffering from old age, or from some less serious problem such
> as dust or build-up around the connections. You should investigate that.
>
> Answer these questions, please:
>
> Does the problem exist when you boot into Safe Mode, or only Normal Mode?
>
> If you do a Step-by-Step startup (same menu as the Safe Mode selection), and
> accept all of the defaults by pressing Enter, does it hang? If so, does it
> hang in the same place? At what startup "event" does this occur?
>
> --
> Jim Eshelman, MS-MVP Windows/Security
> Windows Support Center: http://aumha.org/
> AumHa Forums: http://aumha.net/
>
>
> Jim,

It is an old computer. I considered the RAM and power supply as being two
hardware suspects. The RAM is newer than the computer, (128 megs) I will
try to get some more RAM to swap, that may work. As for dust, that could be
part of the problem also.

The problem does happen in Safe Mode as well as normal. Even step by step
confirmation still locks up when it starts loading all windows drivers. I
have tried all the startup choices numerous times. It almost always locks up
when Windows says it's loading all Windows drivers. The only exception is
when I restart the computer. Sometimes it will freeze up almost immediately.

Silvo.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

"silvo" <silvoplant@(removethis)yahoo.com> wrote:

>My older, secondary computer (pentium 120) is running windows 95. Well, at
>least it used to. It worked fine, then it regularly started freezing up
>randomly. I could always restart it and it would be fine for awhile. Now, I
>can't even get it to load windows. It always freezes up at different points
>during the loading process. Sometimes it would load to the windows 95
>loading screen, but never gets past that point anymore. I have run scandisk
>and performed a surface scan. It indicates no bad sectors. I formatted the
>hard drive (high level), and installed windows 95 again. The installation
>went fine, copied the files over, then restarted. The "Windows 95 starting
>for the first time" screen came on. Then it froze again. Several restarts
>and a scandisk later, I realized the problem was not resolved. I don't know
>what the problem could be. Any ideas? Perhaps something in the BIOS or
>setup could be the problem? By the way, it's Windows 95 version 4.0.
>
>Silvo

Open the case and look inside the computer. If there is any buildup
of dust or fuzz (and there probably is) clean it with compressed air.
You can buy it in cans for this purpose at most computer or
electronics supply stores.

NOTE: Make sure you block the fan blades from spinning (use a plastic
coffee stir stick or similar) before using compressed air around the
CPU heat sink & fan or inside the power supply.

Check and make sure the CPU fan is spinning freely when the computer
is turned on. If it is not then you should replace it with a
ball-bearing replacement fan designed for your specific CPU model and
speed. These fans are not expensive.

Good luck




Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Jerry]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

Could a boot record virus do this. Once I had a PC that had the ANTI.EXE
boot virus and it had similar behaviors. I did an "fdisk" and then a format
and it was gone. I know there is an fdisk switch that is something like
"fdisk /mbr" which I have never had the occasion to try. What to you all
think?

--
Jerry

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

"Jerry" <jwsmsmith(notrealy)@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:efQcHlBHFHA.2924@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Could a boot record virus do this. Once I had a PC that had the ANTI.EXE
> boot virus and it had similar behaviors. I did an "fdisk" and then a
> format
> and it was gone. I know there is an fdisk switch that is something like
> "fdisk /mbr" which I have never had the occasion to try. What to you all
> think?

Some boot viruses move partition table. If you use "fdisk /mbr" you loose
all data.