Win98SE: Catastrophic & complete computer failure yesterday :-((

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SP7

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Tell me if you have any thoughts or ideas about what might be wrong in this mysterious and troubling matter.

I recently installed Win98SE on an IBM xSeries 205 server which I've had for a few years now and which I use as one of my 2 home computers. I used to have MEPIS (a very nice, dandy Linux distro) on this computer but erased it not long ago and installed Win98SE on it. [The latest MEPIS (v. 7.0) is working just fine on my other computer, an IBM Intellistation M Pro, 6230-41U.]

Things seemed to be <for a few weeks now> rather to fairly OK with the Win98SE computer, 'til yesterday. I had gone yesterday to Podcastready.com to download some software called "myPodder" or something like that. [Keep this in mind because I'll tell you soon what happened later when I used my Linux computer at this very same download site of Podcastready.com] When I clicked on the dowload link for "myPodder", everything in the Win98SE computer suddenly froze-- the mouse pointer would not budge and pressing C-A-Delete over and over did nothing. I had to turn off the computer by pushing its power button.

[I recently acquired a Cowon PMP-- I bought the "D2" which was working very nicely with my Linux box and OK most of the time with the Win98SE box except for an odd thing that happened yesterday when it was plugged into the Win98SE box and I don't know if this odd event is in any way connected with today's catastrophic and complete failure of the Win98SE computer which is just now a large brick-- nothing works- it's just totally dead. I can't even enter the BIOS from a cold boot! The A drive also is dead now.]

After the freeze-up while in Win98SE, I had to turn off the computer as you know. I then waited 1 minute and turned it back on. I got the usual DOS start-up stuff which includes the Win98 start-up options menu in DOS. But then no Windows, just blackness. I had to push the power button again to turn it off. I waited and then started it up again. But this time, the Win98 start-up menu (in DOS) was absent. I thought this odd. Then, the blackness followed and I had to push the power button again.

Next time I turn it on, there's only blackness-- no menu, nothing. So I turn it off to see if I can get into the BIOS. I can't get into the BIOS at all after trying from 1 cold boot and then, after the computer is off for a while, a 2nd cold boot.

In the past I had set the BIOS to use this start-up sequence: first try the A drive, then the CD-ROM. So I figured that if I put in my Win98SE start-up diskette in the A drive and the Win98SE CD in the CD-ROM, I might get my Windows back. But nothing works now: the A drive is dead too.

Here's the odd thing about the Podcastready.com website. After I knew I had a dead Win98SE box, I turned on my Linux box, went to the same download site of Podcastready.com, clicked on the download and found that my Linux box was acting weird. At least I could move the mouse pointer which Podcastready.com had changed into a strange icon. [I managed to get free from whatever evilness is going on at the Podcastready.com website.] I strongly suspect that something is VERY wrong about that Podcastready.com website. I don't know what it is but something is highly dangerous about that website. [I wonder if that website destroyed my Win98SE computer.]

Do you have any ideas on what could be wrong with the Win98SE box? I can turn it on-- the fans spin and the two CD draws open by pushing on the button for each, but no DOS, no Windows, and no entry to the BIOS.

What unfolded today was progressively worse each time I turned the computer back on: less and less was there 'til nothing but blackness and the inability to do anything about it. [Both of my computers are connected to the same monitor via a KVM, so, because of the Linux box, I know that the monitor works fine.]

Do you know what I could check to rule out one thing or another? I've not opened up the desktop tower box to look at anything since this complete failure occurred a few hours ago-- I'm still in some shock and am stunned by this. [Is this some nasty, computer-destroying virus from the Podcastready.com website???]


Thanks
 
The fact that the fans turn on and you can still open the cd drives doesn't mean much, just that the power's working.
why would you want such an old computer? If you really want another, there are people giving them away for free
I'd just salvage what I could and test them all (e.g. the hdd, cd drives, cpu, psu, ram, graphcs card if it's got one, sound card).
 
I was at the podcastreasy.com site. It is fine. Not a single glitch in my PC. Sorry but your hard drive just died. That is all that there is to the story.
 
It could have been a flash glitch. As i have visited that site and it did nothing to me. I visited the site in both Firefox and Opera. No effect.
 
It could have been a flash glitch. As i have visited that site and it did nothing to me. I visited the site in both Firefox and Opera. No effect.

Thanks for the info.

I alluded to an odd thing that happened 2 days ago. I had my Cowon D2 connected <via the Cowon-supplied USB cord> to the Win98SE computer. Something to do with uploading flac files from my HDD to the D2 went wrong, or maybe it was a D2 software install problem-- I can't recall. But I suddenly lost most of the stuff on the D2 so I disconnected the D2 from the USB cord and took the cord off the Win98 computer. I then plugged *just the USB cord* into my Linux computer and the computer instantly shut off. I didn't know why this happened but thought that perhaps the disconnected USB cord might have held a charge and this affected the Linux box. Is this possible, that the fully disconnected USB cord could hold a charge and then cause my Linux box to turn off when it was plugged into the USB port of the Linux box? [That same Cowon-supplied USB cord had caused no problems with the Linux box before this odd event.]
 
USB cords do not hold a charge. There is no capacitors or anything in them to hold a charge. It could just be a defective cord. The issue with the stuff and Windows 98 could be due to several things.

1. Windows 98 was not standard with USB support. So right there tells me you have to rely on 3rd party stuff. It also does not support USB 2.0

2. The Linux thing could be several issues. It could just be you corrupted the OS or forced it to shut down cause it did not have driver installed for that device or cord and plugging it into the drive basically shocked the system into shut down. I do not know Linux that well to say.

But your Windows issue are die to the fact that 98 is so old (10 years and counting) let alone some of the stuff you are doing it not natively supported. Which means you have to rely heavily on 3rd party stuff. Which since 98 has not been updated in over a year could explain why the stuff doesnt work right. There haev been no patches to the OS in a year and every flaw that has affected Windows since then still affect 98.

Time to upgrade. Sorry.
 
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