plzzzzzzz help me!

[eastsider3]

i am very new to computers.
i just purchased an athlon system not too long ago and ive installed windows 98 on it cos it's the only thing i had lying around and can't afford a new os.
newayz ive had some problems with it, mainly the hd! but now ive got something bad and i dunno what to do or whats the problem.
hardware or software? has something blown up or something playing up?
heres the prooblem i get when i boot up.....
it says their is a curoupt file or its missing, called windows/himem.sys and than it also says that it can't find file win.com....initially it went to the screen where you get to choose safe mode or command promt only etc... but than i tried to fix it by follwing the instructions in bios that i got an option to follow and it all went well till it came to a stage where it couldn't find win.com...initially all it was saying was...coroupt or lost himem.sys run scanreg.... which i did with no help. but now it doesn't even allow me to do anything just straight away says missing himeme.sys and win.com and no options to do anything.
so is there something wrong with my windows or has some hardware like cpu or hd gone???
if it's os thats stuffed and i install it again will i loose everything on my hd???? plzzzzz tell me no cos ive got so much important stuff on there ;( plzzz help me, as you can tell i need it bad and it would be much appreciated
thank you

ps. the only thing i touched related to software was msconfig to get rid of programs starting up on start up... and as you know after that you have to restart and i did and everything was cool so i don't think it was that though. although that was 1 booot prior to the boot where it gave me the error.
only thing related to hardware was i opened up the case, and touch the fan to see how hot it felt...so i dunno.

 

[jihiggs]

go ahead and renistall windows, there should be some restore or fix, if you are careful and read the screen, you wont have to format and you wont lose any data.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[eastsider3]

ok thank god i won't be loosing all my stuff.
does it make ne difference that ill be putting a different os than win98 that i have installed now on the comp.
i think i only have windows me with me.
also what do i need to do(type)to start the installation or will it automatically start installing from the d:/ drive.????
thnk you for your help mate.

btw what do you think caused this error.i assume now it's windows error for sure eventhough im going only by one persons opinion and mine is worthless.

 

[LED]

btw what do you think caused this error.i assume now it's windows error for sure eventhough im going only by one persons opinion and mine is worthless.

Has something to do w/ what you removed from msconfig. What did you do exactly?

To reload windows, which is now going to be an upgrade, read the instructions in the manual that came w/ Windows. You should have that, the CD Key is written on it.....and a boot disk.

This sig runs too hot.

 

[jihiggs]

do not install win me, its garbage. you are much better off with windows 98. win me doesnt give many bennefits, it introduces many bugs.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[Kzzrn]

He's right. WinME sucks.

Knowledge is the key to understanding

 

[eastsider3]

i don't have the booklet just a friends cd with the password etc.so i won't loose anything aslong as i do it as an upgrade??? can someone type for me what i have to type to start reading from the d drive and start upgrading.

will i loose my office package??? i don't wanna loose that cos i don't have the office cd on hand.also would i have to re-install any drivers??

also with the msconfig....after i made all the changes it booted up perfectly it didn't stuff up when it was booting after i had to reset the comp to apply the changes.it stuffed up later the next boot or the one after not sure.....so i dunno if it was msconfig, i just don't wanna blame myself
thanx for all your help so far guys, im sure i can fix it without loosing nething and without calling a computer technician.

 

[Kzzrn]

As long as you odn't reformat your Hard Drive you shouldn't lose anything. But I would persoanlly stay away from WinME. I have it on my laptop and I hate.

Knowledge is the key to understanding

 

[Grub]

Is that Bill Gates I hear in the background? I hope that is the "friend" you're talking about.

Food for thought...
I hate microsoft. Why? Because their software costs mucho dinero, but you kinda need it unless you want to join some subculture that uses words like unix...or ipod. However, one thing that I have found is that sometimes it is just worth the money to avoid the hassle of things like
"I fried my HD, but my friend who loaned me a copy of XP now lives in the Yucatan." It's easy to get software for free nowadays, but one way or another you will pay for not having your own copy. This is not a put down...just think about it. I guarantee you, the more often you tweak your computer, the more often you will screw things up. Its just part of the learning curve. When that stuff happens, its nice to know that just can just reformat, rebuild, and tweak it 'till it breaks some more.



Just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean they're not watching you.

 

[eastsider3]

i still need help guys i can't get the computer to start installing from the cd. i had a boot up disk and than i even created a new boot up disk in dos and still it can't do anything. from what i remember all i had to do was create a boot up disk, boot the comp with the disk and cd inside, hold control to get to c:\> prompt and than type d:\setup.... is that not correct????? when i do this it says that the d:\ is an unrecognised drive...... somebody plz help me. tell me what to type exactly for windows to start installing. remember i don't want to loose anything so i don't want any reformating etc......
is this maybe the problem?????? the fact that ive got a windows all ready loaded (but isn't working) and am trying to install another windows over it?
plz tell me what to type in dos, it would be much appreciated. thank you!

 

[shallowbaby]

if you have the correct win98 boot disk, you should be able to see whether the cdrom drivers in it was able to match to your cdrom drive. are you seeing that at all?


<font color=green> there's more to life than increasing its speed -Ghandi</font color=green>

 

[ksoth]

If you have a fairly new computer and are using Windows 98, you should be able to boot up straight from the CD-ROM. Go into your BIOS and set the primary boot device to CD-ROM. If you do that Windows Setup should load automatically. However, I've never reinstalled Windows that way (without a reformat) so I'm not sure how it will handle all your programs that are already installed, meaning I don't know if it will automatically recognize them and make the appropriate registry entries. If there is any way you can get yourself a backup of your files before attempting a reinstall, you may want to try that.

If you cannot boot from the CD-ROM, you may have to make a boot disk with CD-ROM drivers and MSCDEX on it. But, you probably won't need that.

"Trying is the first step towards failure."

 

[eastsider3]

i am not seeing nething...
the boot disk dos created is in, i got the cd in, i boot up with it all and hold control key and get to the c:\> prompt..... so tell me what do i type now? so there are no confusions! so at least i know if im typig the right things!

 

[shallowbaby]

you need a win98 boot disk that has cdrom drivers.

<font color=green> there's more to life than increasing its speed -Ghandi</font color=green>

 

[eastsider3]

ive got the boot disk man, i even created a new one in dos that part was all a ok.
but what do i type now??? or is it just suppose to start working immediately if the boot disk was working proper....
is it maybe that the comp is not reading the a drive first (as its suppose to, right?) when it boots up.
cos on computers at school when i boot up with a disk in a:\ drive it won't let windows load but on my comp it doesn't matter if i have a disk in a:\ drive...im thinking it's cos it doesn't read the a:\ as its suppose to? but when i type a:\ in dos i hear it reading so is it suppose to work than????
i dunno whats up, does neone know how to help me? step by step...

 

[dhlucke]

Type this:

cd x: (x being the drive of the windows cd)
enter (hit the enter key)
setup
enter

<font color=red>I'd like to dedicate this post to all my friends, family, and fans. Without them this post would never have been possible. Thank you!</font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dhlucke on 09/07/02 03:11 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Grub]

"i dunno whats up, does neone know how to help me? step by step..."

I think I do....
<grabs hammer...smeaks o behind eastsider...>

Let me try to pu this down step by step.
1. Have boot disk in A drive, have WIN9x CD in CDROM
2. Turn on computer.
3. During the first screen, bios post screen, try to access the bios. Probably just hit the delete key will do this.
4. Go to the menu item that sets your boot drive preferences.
5 there should be a selection that give you choices between floppy, HDD-0, HDD-1, SCSI, CDROM, and so on.
6. Pick Floppy.
7. hit escape to return to main bios menu.
8. select "save and exit" forom the menu
9. insert floppy while its restarting.
10. you should get several choices from the boot up menu.
-minimal boot
-boot with CDROm support
-safe mode (maybe)
11. pick boot with cdrom support
12. whatch the messages and see if the cdrom driver loads up.
13. when its done you should have a command prompt and it should display a message like "e is you cd rom drive"
14. There will also be what it calls a ram drive that has utilities on it.
15. access the ram drive by typing "cd d:"
16. type "scandisk"
17. this will check your hard drive for errors.
18. when done and if errors are fixed type "cd e:"
19. type "setup"


This should work. I hope your trouble end soon young padawan. Theres nothing more frustrating than a computer that won't compute. Well.. maybe when you get those little popcorn seeds between your teeth...that's bad too.


Just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean they're not watching you.

 

[zwaarst]

it is mutch more easyer when you put the CD-rom as first bootdevice. The installetion will start autometicliy.


Ducktape is like THE FORCE, it has a bright site and a dark site and it keeps the universe together

 

[eastsider3]

thanx for that guys i was able to install win me by changing the primary boot drive to floppy..... but the thing is that i allready hate windows me and now i have my hands on windows 98 once more.....so i tryed installing windows 98 through dos and it says that i need a windows 98 upgrade cd for it to install ( or something like that)
than i try installing it through windows and it says it can't install windows 98 cos the os version currently installed is newer. i click more info and it says that i have to uninstall current os for windows 98 to be allwoed to be installed.
ive tryed uninstalling it by typing c: cd windows\command and than uninstal.exe in dos and it does nothing, i tryed uninstalling it through windows by going to control panel and add/remove program but windows is not listed as a removable program.
could you guys help me install windows 98 over the top of windows me??/ without reformating or loosing nething
thanx in adavnce

 

[zwaarst]

I hope you are joking when you said you counn't find windows as a removeble program.
You want to keep your programs and you want uninstall windows. What do you think yoursel? does this sound logical.


<font color=red>duk-tape is like the force, it has a bright side and a dark side, and it keeps the universe together.</font color=red>

 

[Grub]

Eastsider....I used Win ME for a long time and never had any big problems with it. This is my advice: Option one: back up the files you want, reformat you hard drive, and reinstall win 9x. This is probably the best option if you want your system to run well. Usually when you install one version of an OS over another you get problems. Option 2: If you had win 98 on your computer before you installed win me there is a way out. Win ME comes with a feature that lets you uninstall back to the previous version of windows. I'm not sure how to get to it though. I haven't used ME in awhile. Try the help file and search for uninstall Win ME. Microsoft "promises" that this will leave you installed programs alone.
script (preaching)
Food for thought...From what your saying it doesn't sound like you have that much experience troubleshooting problems on your pc. It might save you a lot of upcoming heartache to just leave your pc in the state that its in, ie working, until you can have someone there to help you. I mean, what would you rather be doing? Waiting for OS's to install or palying your favorite game. Computers are there for us to use, not the other way around.
(/preaching)

Just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean they're not watching you.

 

[eastsider3]

well the microsoft website says to do it through control panel... it didn't make much sense to me either......
does nebody know how to install an older version of windows overtop of newer version? i can't be bothered reformating backing up data etc... at this time maybe some otehr time
is it possible? i think it is cos i read it somewhere but can't find it now

edit: windows me says to get back to my old os (which was stuffed but will still let me install win 98 again)i just need to select windows me from the intall/uninstall tab in add/remove programs in control panel but in the uninstall/install tab there are no programs or windows me that i can check to uninstall.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by eastsider3 on 09/10/02 09:14 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Grub]

When you go into the Add/remove programs screen, look for a tab or button that says windows setup. There may be an option in there. Also, you may be able to do it through the system tools. Go to start>accessories>system tools...See if there is an option for uninstalling windows there.

Just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean they're not watching you.

 

[tastim]

Hate to tell you this man... but you NEED to back up your files and do a complete reformat and install win 98. You have done so much to this computer everything is going to be a mess.... backup your important files now before you're not left with the option. Windows is FAR from perfect... and everytime you mess with system files, you can cause major problems in the long run.

Also, Win ME is the worst operating system ever made.... EVER!!!!!!!