[RESOLVED] computer wont start up please help

[ball5435]

My brother has a computer. Its a packard bell win 95 is about all i know. But when you turn it on it starts like its going to open up. You get the page where it tells you everything then it quits. Did a pc doctor on it and everything passed. But under the pc doctor said to fix it and when we clicked on it it went to Q:/dosmenu. So my question is how do we get it going. For one there aint no Q. So how do i change that? Also did a surface scan and it scanned things on the c drive we could see that. Would really appreciate any help...

[kgmz]

Packard Bell likes to set up their computers with the CD-Rom as Q:, what screen does it get to before it shuts off?

[ball5435]

When you turn on the computer it starts to open up like normal. The page where it tells you your bios and all that stuff. Then after that it goes to Q OSMENU instead of opening windows 95. That wouldn't let us exit out of it so we had to hit the reset button. The only way to shut it down is by turning it off. I also forget to say when we did the pc doctor. Everything passed it said and had check marks behind everything. But the cd rom had a check mark with a black line through it. Hope you can help. Thanks

[This message has been edited by ball5435 (edited August 11, 1999).]

[kgmz]

By what you are saying, the only way you will get the message about Q:dosmenu is if you have your Packard Bell restore disk in a: drive, that is part of the restore process on Packard Bell computers. You only use that disk if you want to restore your computer to the way it was when it was brand new, by doing this you will erase everything on you hard disk, and it will be setup with only the files it came with, like the day it was brand new out of the box. Do not use the restore disk like a startup disk to check system problems. You can make a startup disk from control panel, add/remove programs, startup disk.

[ball5435]

Is there anyway to save what is on the hard drive now? I guess what I'm asking is can I get into the control panel from Q:dosmenu. Thanks

[kgmz]

It is kind of hard to understand what is going on, when you get the message Q:dosmenu, is it on a black screen?

If it is then your restore disk is not finding your CD-Rom.

Next Question: if you are using your restore disk, WHY?

That disk will not help you fix the problem and save what is already on your hard disk, It will erase everything on it and do a new install.

Next Question: what happens if you start the computer without a floppy in A: drive? does it boot up? does it try to start windows and then errors out? does it just boot to a black screen with a C:> prompt?

If your computer can at least boot up to a C:> prompt then if you know your DOS commands, you can check your hard drive and retrieve any files you wish to save and do a new install.

And back to the first question, if your computer is having a problem with the CD-Rom drive and you do not have a startup disk with the DOS drivers on it and your computer will not boot up normally to windows95,98. It is going to be kind of hard to explain how to find out what is wrong if you do not have a startup disk or have a basic understanding of DOS. If you know someone who has a computer running WIN98 they can make you a startup disk, by going to control panel on their computer, just supply the floppy.

[format c:]

I own a Packard bell and you can use the restore disk as long as your carefull and do not select format and restore hard drive or Windows 95
But if you can back out of those screens to a black screen with a prompt like this
a:\> then at this prompt type "sys c: "
without the quotes remove the disk from the a: drive and hit reset and see if she boots up if that does not solve your problem try again from the a:\> prompt type c: then type dir and see if you get a list of software if that is working then do this command if it is the same as my PB
c:\windows\options\cabs\purge ( purge is PBs name for setup, if you get a "bad command or filename " try substituting purge with setup ) this will install WIndows over WIndows and save your data I have done it myself

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Format c: