Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (
More info?)
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 06:46:02 -0700, "Peggie"
>1st off, this is my old computer we are talking about
>It has not been turned on for 4 or 5 months.
Suggests a flat CMOS battery, as you later mention...
>Turned it on, it went through the normal setup and
>the Windows 95 screen flashed on for about 2 seconds
That means C:\IO.SYS has been found and has run. This is the first
file of the OS that loads, and it looks for a C:\Logo.sys to display
as the splash screen (failing which it uses an internal copy of the
same splash) as long as nothing in a C:\Winboot.ini or C:\MSDOS.sys
tells it to skip the splash.
So we know the HD is being found, Master Boot Record is OK, partition
table is OK, primary partition is found, partition boot code is OK,
and the partition's file system is sane enough for IO.SYS to load.
However, on most HDs, all of these structures may reside at the
'front' of the HD and work even if CMOS settings are a bit out.
>and then screen went back to black and c:\ was there.
The screen clears to show progress as C:\Config.sys and
C:\Autoexec.bat are interpreted by IO.sys and Command.com respecively,
in case these pause on a "press a key..." message etc. That the
splash does not re-appear suggests a problem within these files or
what these files do, or possibly a bad Command.com
>restarted it, and got message "Drive Not Ready" Insert
>Boot Disk.
That's worrying. The disk was "ready" enough to start booting the
first time, so the situation is variable, i.e. flaky rather than a
static "bad settings" thing that should fail the same way each time.
>A couple years ago this happened, and computer
>person told me to go into the CMOS Setup and see
>if my startup data had fallen off, that this sometimes
>happens. I had written this down, so followed my
>instructions to check this out and on the Standart CMOS
>page in the group of 4 listings in the middle of the
>page - all 4 said "uninstalled" so went to the first one
>and hit enter and then my user data was there.
By "user data" I take it to mean your HD's geometry settings (i.e. how
big the HD is, how it's addressed, etc.).
Two common problems can lose that data; a flat CMOS battery that
normally provides enough power to keep these stored when the PC is
switched off, and some types of deep crash that can blank the data.
In your case, the PC starts with this data in place but then loses it;
that doesn't sound like a straightforward battery thing.
>When I type in dir at the C:\> nothing opens. I think it
>says bad command or file name.
There's a big difference between "nothing happens" and an error
message such as "bad command or file name". The latter implies a
living Command.com running on an uncrashed DOS mode.
Did you mistype "dir"? I ask, because Dir is a command that's
internal to Command.com, and a Command.com bent enough to not
recognise Dir would be expected not to run at all.
>It will not open in the Safe Mode - message come up
>saying "Windows is bypassing your startup files"
That's from IO.SYS, confirming your choice was accepted
>then went to the c:\> and nothing else happens.
If that's a "living" C:> (i.e. you press keys and see characters
appear) then you have successfully booted DOS mode. Plenty reasons
exist as to why Windows may not have loaded automatically in Safe Mode
as you'd have expected in this case.
>Any help you can give me is appreciated. Thanks! Peggie
See http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bthink.htm, or even
http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/bad-pc.htm - the PC's well sick, and until
you know the underlying hardware and file system are OK, you should
NOT try to run Windows! Windows *always* writes to HD, which can make
things worse++ if the file system is at risk or hardware's flaky.
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Error Messages Are Your Friends
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