hp pavilion 3100 problem

[kenn jolemore]

I went to upgrade an old computer to win 98se from 95 for my granddaughter as a first computer (she's 3+) and am stuck after I ran an fdisk, wipped the drive , reformatted and went to run the 98 disk I can not get the cd-rom to run nor can I get the a: drive back in play . All I get is a HP screen and a windows screen and than a C: prompt. Can anyone help me out with where I might try to go from here?
My thanks ; KennJ

[ski]

Did you try another Windows boot floppy?

If you did, then exactly what happens when you try to boot from it?

And make sure you're using a Windows 98 boot floppy.
It contains a DOS driver for the CD-ROM that's not on a Win 95 boot floppy.
If you do not have a Win 98 boot floppy, then you can make one at www.bootdisk.com

If you used a Win 98 boot floppy, then did you select 'Start with CD-ROM support' from the menu that appears right after starting the computer with the boot floppy inserted?

If you did that, then was the CD-ROM drive assigned a letter?

If it was, then after formatting the HD did you type X:\setup at the A:\> prompt (where X is the CD-ROM drive's assigned letter)?

[Ghouldini]

Sounds like the BIOS is set for booting the hard drive first.

Getting into the BIOS may be different on your model than mine was (6330)........so this is what a model close to yours says...

"To enter the BIOS on the Hewlett Packard 3120, then hold down the CTRL+ALT+ESC keys as the machine is starting up."

If that don't work, try F1 key. Then F10. Maybe ESCAPE
F8 is for safe mode.
Maybe you remember yours. I don't remember mine now, think it was F1.
Must hit the key(s) when you see the ugly blue HP screen.

Anyway, find the boot sequence listing and make it CDROM first, or Floppy then CDROM, having the hard drive 3rd.

---------

MY Recovery CD did not need the boot floppy. I just ran it (for full installs) and had it wipe then load windows.
You can overwrite 98 with it instead of wiping the drive, but it's better to do a clean install and you already wiped the drive.

[ski]

Sounds like the BIOS is set for booting the hard drive first.

Ghouldini,
The FD has to be configured ahead of the HD as a boot device, since kenn stated that the HD was erased using fdisk.

[Ghouldini]

Yup, that's right.
So drive would not be #1.
But, it may be #2 ahead of CDRom.

Recovery CD's suck. Probably a worse deal with w95 than w98.

[kenn jolemore]

Boot sequence is correct, and I have tried several different 98 bootdisks to see if it was a CD-ROM driver problem. At this point I would be happy to get the floppy working again as I don't seem to be able to get it to boot from the a: DRIVE.
The weird thing and I suspect the problem is here is that I am getting a HP splash screen at start-up and than a windows screen before the C: prompt. I am opening the computer up to see if the conection is loose but suspect it is some other problem.
Does anyone know a dos command to go from the C: prompt to the cd-rom drive that will give a run command in this type situation?
KennJ

[ski]

Recovery CD's suck. Probably a worse deal with w95 than w98.

Correct. That's because the Windows 95 recovery CD required a companion boot floppy in order to work.
The first fully independent recovery CD came out with Windows 98.

kenn,
Check if the floppy drive controller is enabled in BIOS.
If it is, then see if the FD is recognized in BIOS.
If not and all connections are secure, then connect a different power lead to it.
If that does not help, then install a different known working data cable.
If no luck, then clean the drive's lens.
If still no good, then it may be bad.
See if it works on another system.
If not, replace it.

[kenn jolemore]

As the floppy was just working when I ran the 98 boot disk and reformatted the HD I am at a loss as to why it will not run in sequence at this time. Nor do I understand why I am getting a HP splash screen as I have not installed an OS on the computer as of yet though it goes to a C: prompt after telling me that it is windows 98.
IS there a series of DOS commands that my enable the CD-ROM to engage the windows98 CD from a C: prompt that anyone here knows of?
KennJ

[Ghouldini]

The HP splash screen is a boot screen, not a windows boot screen. So you will get that even if the drive is blank (no OS).

To get rid of the HP screen, if you want to that is, enter BIOS and find the "Boot" tab (assuming that BIOS is like mine was). There find the entry "Boottime diagnostics" and make it say "enable".

That will remove that screen so you can see what's being displayed on screen behind the ugly blue thing. Some say it also improves boot time, but I doubt that, as it just hides the usual DOS typings that you see in between the boot screens.

You can also get rid of the windows boot screen by editing the msdos.sys file, but you are trying to get windows going right now.

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Don't know about the C: dos command for the c:
Did you try out ski's floppy checks?

[kenn jolemore]

As both the cd-rom and the floppy went out together I am at a loss as to what happened but I will take the thing apart and try some different cables and a differenty floppy and see what that does.
Thanks ; KennJ