I was running Morrowind when my PC locked up. I pressed the reset and
now my computer no longer finishes booting. I am pretty sure it is a
hardware problem.

I have the system to triple boot by using System Commander 7. I can
boot into my main Win2000, a Win2000 set aside for games, and Win98.
After the crash, I tried to reboot into my Win200 for games. That
locked up. I tried rebooting to Win2000 that locked up in the same
place. I tried booting Win98 and that also locked up.

The system locks up on the White screen that says, "Microsoft Windows
2000 Professional", with the little blue progress bar. The progress
bar always stops just above the word "Microsoft".

I tried booting into Safe mode. Safe mode on both Windows 2000
installations locked up. Safe mode on Win98 came up fine. Safe mode
on Win98 with network support came up, but it could not find the
network. I tried running IPConfig to check out the network and that
generated a "fatal error".

I was also able to boot to the Win98 command prompt. I ran scandisk on
the volumes I could see (the NTFS boot partitions are hidden).

This is leading me to believe I have a problem with my Ethernet card.
All three operating systems worked prior to the crash. After the
crash all three failed.

Can a network card fail and cause my PC to lock up like that? Or
should I look at some other possibility?

This does not sound like hardware as a nic card failing
should not cuase all 3 OSes to stop completly. The nic
should also not have any drivers loading when you try to
go in under safe mode. You certainly could try taking the
nic out and see if it will start up though. It sounds
like the ntldr got screwed up when the reset was done.
You may be able to boot from the 2000 CD and do the setup
option of Repair. repair the version of 2000 that is
selecting the OS's to load which should be the first 2000
install that you did. Have setup do the Fast Repair and
it will look for damaged or changed files. You may have
to and / or want to reinstall the service packs just to
make sure but this should fix the ntldr and your boot
sector. Hope this helps.
>-----Original Message-----
>I was running Morrowind when my PC locked up. I pressed
the reset and
>now my computer no longer finishes booting. I am pretty
sure it is a
>hardware problem.
>
>I have the system to triple boot by using System
Commander 7. I can
>boot into my main Win2000, a Win2000 set aside for games,
and Win98.
>After the crash, I tried to reboot into my Win200 for
games. That
>locked up. I tried rebooting to Win2000 that locked up
in the same
>place. I tried booting Win98 and that also locked up.
>
>The system locks up on the White screen that
says, "Microsoft Windows
>2000 Professional", with the little blue progress bar.
The progress
>bar always stops just above the word "Microsoft".
>
>I tried booting into Safe mode. Safe mode on both
Windows 2000
>installations locked up. Safe mode on Win98 came up
fine. Safe mode
>on Win98 with network support came up, but it could not
find the
>network. I tried running IPConfig to check out the
network and that
>generated a "fatal error".
>
>I was also able to boot to the Win98 command prompt. I
ran scandisk on
>the volumes I could see (the NTFS boot partitions are
hidden).
>
>This is leading me to believe I have a problem with my
Ethernet card.
>All three operating systems worked prior to the crash.
After the
>crash all three failed.
>
>Can a network card fail and cause my PC to lock up like
that? Or
>should I look at some other possibility?
>.
>

I came home, and before I read any replies, I decided to see what
would happen if I pulled the ethernet card. After removing the
ethernet card I could boot up again.

I plugged the card back in, and tried booting again. Now it works.
The ethernet card must have worked its way loose (It was bolted in).

If your PC locks up during boot, it can be your ethernet card. I just
proved that, the hard way.


<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<01a801c3ce4b$2f330e10$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> This does not sound like hardware as a nic card failing
> should not cuase all 3 OSes to stop completly. The nic
> should also not have any drivers loading when you try to
> go in under safe mode. You certainly could try taking the
> nic out and see if it will start up though. It sounds
> like the ntldr got screwed up when the reset was done.
> You may be able to boot from the 2000 CD and do the setup
> option of Repair. repair the version of 2000 that is
> selecting the OS's to load which should be the first 2000
> install that you did. Have setup do the Fast Repair and
> it will look for damaged or changed files. You may have
> to and / or want to reinstall the service packs just to
> make sure but this should fix the ntldr and your boot
> sector. Hope this helps.

The exact same thing happened again. My PC locked up playing
Morrowind. After that I could not boot into any operating system. I
shut down, pulled out the network card, reinserted it, and everything
works.

Sounds like a flakey connection between the card and the motherboard.
I guess the next step is to try a different slot.


(E-Mail Removed) (Jeffrey McArthur) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> I came home, and before I read any replies, I decided to see what
> would happen if I pulled the ethernet card. After removing the
> ethernet card I could boot up again.
>
> I plugged the card back in, and tried booting again. Now it works.
> The ethernet card must have worked its way loose (It was bolted in).
>
> If your PC locks up during boot, it can be your ethernet card. I just
> proved that, the hard way.
>
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<01a801c3ce4b$2f330e10$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> > This does not sound like hardware as a nic card failing
> > should not cuase all 3 OSes to stop completly. The nic
> > should also not have any drivers loading when you try to
> > go in under safe mode. You certainly could try taking the
> > nic out and see if it will start up though. It sounds
> > like the ntldr got screwed up when the reset was done.
> > You may be able to boot from the 2000 CD and do the setup
> > option of Repair. repair the version of 2000 that is
> > selecting the OS's to load which should be the first 2000
> > install that you did. Have setup do the Fast Repair and
> > it will look for damaged or changed files. You may have
> > to and / or want to reinstall the service packs just to
> > make sure but this should fix the ntldr and your boot
> > sector. Hope this helps.