old computer konked out ?

longforgotten

I have an old computer running windows 98 to use an old program. Double whammy on 'old' I know.

Inputting some info this am , part way through entering a date and it just stuck, it didn't recognise any key I pressed on the keyboard. Only option was to turn it off. When turned back on it did the 'windows not properly shut down' and it did a scandisk. Hung forever at 75%, so eventually I turned it off again, turned it back on and the scan went through fine. Now it boots up ok but the mouse doesn't work, tried control,alt, delete no joy there. Checked connections, tried new mouse.....

Has my computer died:(

longforgotten

Forgot to mention...

When the computer boots up and the hour glass and cursor are showing on the screen, if I move the mouse at this time, the cursor will move about. It is once the desktop has appeared, hour glass gone, thats when the mouse ceases to be responsive.

fwor

It could be one of many things, but there's a good chance it's the hard disk corrupted or failing.

It's a ~long~ time since I last used Win98, so I can't remember if it has a Safe Mode or not. If not, get out your trusty bootable Win98 floppy, boot from it and type

chkdsk c: /f

at the command prompt. That should detect and fix any corruption. Whether it will then boot is a matter of luck to a certain extent.

Conor_3

Also..whip the lid off it, check the CPU fan still spins and give the heatsink a good blast out.

longforgotten

Story so far... now someone has taken the lid off and had a fiddle about

Hard drive still ok, it's thought there's something wrong with the motherboard.

Thanks for the replies.

mdbarber

try plugging in a usb mouse