win98 problem

I don't think this is a problem with 98 itself, as I have installed plenty of them and never had anything like this... This was a new AMD K6\300 bought from a show with 98 installed. After the person loaded some software, printer and scanner, she couldn't even get back into windows even in safe mode, all types of errors coming up. Well, I figured she just messed it up, so I reformatted it and tried to reinstall 98...It will not let me at all, first gives errors, then gets to the point that when you type setup in goes back to c: prompt. I tried over and over and OVER, from fdisk on, sometimes I start setup ok, but then it goes to a bunch of writing you can't read (computer talk) and thats it. Spent hours, NG. Finally they sent it back to vendor, it came back working (diff motherboard,diff video,diff HD) ...as soon as we got loading scanner sw BOOM again, right back where I started, couldn't even do fdisk - it just hangs. Both HD were Quantum Bigfoots (which I am not crazy about), scanner=acer prisa310s, typical SW. Anybody seen anything like this before if so HELP!!
P.S. I am not a total dope with this stuff either and I can't solve it! I work in PC Support for a large Corp, am A+ cert, and do tons of pcs on the side, repairs, upgrades, builds...never have I had one like this, just can't fix it....

You never mentioned if the RAM was replaced. If you haven't tried it, that would be the next (and easiest) thing to try.

Steve

(ram is 32mb pc100 sdram)
so far I've tried, both the first time and this time...a new motherboard, a new video card, new ram, diff HD, removed all other peripherals but essentials, even diff CDRom...the only thing I haven't tried replacing is the CPU and floppy. I am not sure if it is still the same CPU after it was returned from the vendor, but I think it is...once it goes bad nothing seems to help. I even xcopied my own pcs HD to that drive to see if it would at least try to go into windows, no luck...it just hangs or eventually goes to c: prompt even in safe mode. It stinks. I talked to the vendor today and they are going to replace whole pc this time, but I would just like to know what it is cuz I would sure hate to see it somewhere again with no solution. thanx for the response =)

[This message has been edited by JeanneD (edited December 29, 1998).]

[This message has been edited by JeanneD (edited December 29, 1998).]

sounds like a dodgy bios or cpu to me.

i had the same thing happened to me with a amd k6r2 300.mhz the only way i could get to work is by clocking down,i even clocked it at 4.5 75mhz and it worked fine but i never could get it to work at 100mhz,someone told that a batch of 300mhz cpu werte bad and i believe it cause i returned that and the new one worked fine,clauded

In the spirit of answering ancient posts I shall now attempt to answer this gem! Surely this person shall harald me as their greatest savior EVER! So anyway if I recall there was an AMD chipset patch for this sort of issue. In the event that isn't the cause I suggest checking the processor or RAM as those can cause havok on installs if they are bad and can also cause random issues once the install is complete. I should suggest doing a complete hardware diagnostics on the devices. If you don't have the appropriate software then I suggest the process of elimination test. IE take out one piece at a time (if you have multiple sticks of RAM) and see if you can get by if so then the piece you just took out is bad. Hopefully you have another processor to swap out to test this part too.