Can you diagnose this fault?

[trueman]

Okay heres the problem.
I receive a replacement computer from head office as my old comps hdd is stuffed. Its a celeron 300mhz with 64mbram and is just a temporary replacement. When I first boot it up it gets as far as the win 98 splash screen and then just stops.
Hit reset and the second time around it gets to the startup screen with the option to boot to safe mode etc except I cannot change any of the options and it locks up again. Third attempt it wont even get as far as displaying the startup screen where it does a memory test. The screen stays blank.
I then took the hdd out of this comp and put it in the other comp that had the stuffed hdd in the first place and on boot I get an error message "Non system disk...." At this stage Im guessing that both hdd's are stuffed as coincidental as that is.
I send it back to head office and tell them its a dud and when they get it back they plug it in and it works perfectly. They tried it on and off for two days and couldnt fault it so they send it back.

When I get it back I set it all up again and it does the exact same thing as the first time in the exact same order e.g 1st boot gets to splash screen then locks up etc etc.
We suspect that the power supply in the office is perhaps a bit dicky so I take the machine home and try it there but still no luck.

The techs at head office are scratching their heads as to what the problem is. We just cannot work out why it works fine at head office but not here.
Personally I suspect an intermittent faulty hdd due to the non system disk error I got when I put the hdd in the other computer.

Any thought on what you think it could be?

[jmichna]

Hmmm... non-sys disk or disk error usually is trashed HD.

Couple thoughts...
a) Bad power at office (low, inconsistent)

b) You are haunted

[HeadBand]

try it in another part of your house...just a thought but it may be some bad electrical wiring

[golfcart]

Are they plugging it into a network while you are not? If 98 is looking for a DHCP server that doesn't exist it can hang for quite a while at the splash screen

[Dax_Brandy]

Originally posted by jmichna
Hmmm... non-sys disk or disk error usually is trashed HD.

Couple thoughts...
a) Bad power at office (low, inconsistent)

possible. aren't you using an auto-voltage regulator?

[trueman]

Jmichna,

We suspected bad power in the office so thats why I took the unit home. But still no luck at home either. Although I suspected hdd failure the techs at head office disagree and say the reason I got the system disk error when I put the hdd in the other machine was because i didnt configure the hdd in the BIOS. I thought it would have auto configured though?

As for being haunted, that was mentioned. We have had lots of bad luck trying to set things up in this office. A Cisco router that worked fine at Head office but wouldnt work properly here. A firebox that did the same thing, also a reinstall of Win98Se that went horribly wrong for no reason. Head office think we are jinxed or possessed or something like that.

Headband,
I already have another computer running from the same outlet at home as the one I used to test the office machine so I figured the power would be okay there?

Golfcart,

We have tried it both whilst plugged into the network and also unplugged. Works fine in Perth but not here.

Dax_brandy,
No we are not using an auto voltage reg just a surge protector. We originally supected bad power but why does it fail both at home and at work but works fine in Perth?
We suspected transit damage when I first got it as Perth is 1300 miles away. But when I sent it back it worked fine so that was ruled out and it was sent back up again. We are a transport company so made sure it was loaded correctly and treated properly on our own trucks.

Its still a mystery.

[jmichna]

Is your office near high voltage power lines or sources of EMF radiation? If you tune an AM portable radio to a dead spot on the radio spectrum (at a frequency that is receiving no AM broadcast signal) do you get high static noise? You can use a portable radio as a sort of "Geiger Counter ."

[cadetstimp]

Did you get a loaner monitor with the temp system? The temp system could be out performing your home monitor thus causing Windows to not show a high resolution screen after the Windows 98 banner

Also, does the temp system have more than one monitor connection? Dual monitor video cards will sometimes only show the Win98 splash screen on only one monitor port and the other will go into hi resolution.

When the temp system freezes does the caps lock light on the keyboard still go on and off when caps lock is pressed ( a good way to tell of a system is hardware frozen despite whatever is on the screen )