Windows 98 Setup Woes

[elwesso]

OK, heres the deal... My uncle gave me an old micron millennia plus from the 1995ish area.... It worked good for a wihle (we just used it for the internet), and then the HDD went out (understandable for a 9 year old computer).... I had been having problems getting windows to run properly (it would randomly perform illegal operation)...

Anyway, i got a Western Digital 80gb HD... The old HD was SCSI2, this is an IDE... Worked good for a while, but the space was being limited by the BIOS (didnt setup with the disk they gave me), so I formatted and used the disks the MFG gave me, its reporting all the partition information correctly... Now, when I go to setup windows 98, it doesnt go all the way.... Most times it gets into setup just fine, and then about halfway through the screen goes blank.. If I immediately restart, it will usually say PARITY CHECK 2.. And will stay like that indefinitely......

I did some minor research, and I heard that if it displays PARITY CHECK and hangs that there is hardware failure....

I am fairly good with computers, but this one has me stumped....

[HAL9000]

Either the system isn't getting along with the translation software to recognize the entire hard drive size, or there is a memory problem. You can try setting the hard drive with manual settings in the BIOS of C/H/S = 1024,16,63. As for memory, all you can do is try different RAM.

[elwesso]

I tried the CHS thing you said, as it told me to do that in the instructional manual.....

The computer worked fine, DOS recognizes the HD size correctly....

[andyms18a]

when you use a hdd drive overlay program to setup the hard drive it makes the drive bootable to instal windows you must first boot from the hard drive it will the give you a masage as how to procead with setting up windows as you have tryed instaling windows all ready you may have to reuse the hdd software to resetup the drive then reboot and make shor that you dont have any flopy disks or boot cds in the drives untill it tels you to

[elwesso]

Hmm, i didnt know that made a difference....

I will give that a try.....

[elwesso]

I tried that and still no luck

Any ideas??? I dont wanna give up and take it in for professional help if I dont have to..

[andyms18a]

as hal says PARITY CHECK 2 is a ram error normaley you can try going in to the bios and seting quick boot to enabled if its set to disabled or try some other ram all so you must still boot from the hdd befor you run setup as the drive overlay program has to start befor windows dose another option wood be to look for a bios update or get a pci ide controla card for the hdd i wood all so download doc memory and test the ram

[elwesso]

Ok... Heres the main problem...

I tried all the advice in this thread, and heres what happens... I got into windows setup fine (booted the HD), and all that stuff, did scan disk.... But, as it was setting up the wizard, the screen went blank and nothing happened.....

Would this still indicate some sort of hardware failure?

[elwesso]

I want to add that I got DocMemory, put it on a disk, ran the quick test, and in the middle of the quick test it again displayed PARITY CHECK 2....

[andyms18a]

its got to be a hardware problam can you try another stick of ram ?

[GaryRouth]

Was the system used in a business setting before? See if you can either find a manual for it, or post it's model here & maybe we can find one. If it needs ECC memory (it might, since it also sported a SCSI hard drive - those are usually high-end components for corporate servers and such) - see if you have the right module.

If it uses plain old non-ECC memory (much more common), check to make sure your Bios settings are set right for the modlule you have. Overclocking can cause memory errors.

Once you are sure the bios is set right for the memory, and that the module matches the board - - - if DocMemory still finds an error, the module will need to be replaced (as andy and Hal mention) ... [& Hi andy, hi Hal ]
. . . Gary

[elwesso]

The computer was bought by my uncle in 1996, for his home/business use (but he takes them to the limites)....

For the memory it says 32mb EDO memory.X32, on the specs list.

The computer is a Micron Millenia plus B series 430HX.....

[GaryRouth]

Can't find a thing with either Google or over at the mPC (formerly MicronPC) website for anything with the 430HX, or plus B, in the name... Not that unusual for companies who've gone through so many changes. . .

Imagining that it's unlikely to be an ECC issue (especially with EDO memory), might as well download & test it with DocMemory http://www.simmtester.com ---it won't matter for DocMemory whether or not your drive overlay program loads, since it will run from DOS loaded from the DocMemory floppy.

Western Digital probably loaded it's version of EZ-Bios (they might call it EZ-Drive, or whatever). You can test the hardware status of the drive with the same disk tools you used to set the drive up: the DataLifeGuard tools. If you have the CD, boot from that & test the drive. If you have the floppy, boot with it & test. If for whatever reason the EZ-Bios mbr has been corrupted or overwritten (either by fdisk or a virus), I think there is a tool or procedure in DataLifeGuard to restore a good EZ-Bios mbr.

Like andy mentions, if the memory tests OK, but there's a problem with the drive overlay, you could always try a PCI hard drive add-in controller card (about $10 USD, usually)
. . . Gary

[elwesso]

Like I said earlier, I downloaded the DocMemory and tested it, and mid test it goes blank and displays the error message.

I tried that thing with the lifeguard, and restored the thing... As I was going to do other operations, it simply cut out on me, screen went blank and did nothing......

[GaryRouth]

Do you have any different RAM to try? You might look on eBay for something at nominal cost.
. . . Gary

[WSW]

How about isolate the possible hardware problem by starting with the minimum configuration, i.e., start the PC with only the motherboard, video card, memory and floppy drive. All the peripheral cards, such as sound cards, NIC, SCSI adaptor, etc. should be removed. They should be added in one by one at the end of the installation.

Power up the computer and press DEL to go into BIOS. Choose default bios settings. Then re-start. The computer should boot into DOS using the start-up disk.

In the minimum configuration, use memDOC to check the memory. The memory should check out OK.

Then add the hard disk to the minimum configuration. Use the start up disk to boot into DOS. Clear the master boot record in the hard disk, repartition, and then re-format the hard disk. After reformat, do a scan disk including surface scan to make sure the hard disk is OK.

Then add the CD drive into the configuration and boot again using the start up disk. After boot, type setup to install Windows 98 to see if it still give you the blue screen in the middle of install.