It does look rather as if either your Motherboard or CPU are busted - which
one, is a matter of luck, and difficult to diagnose conclusively

My best offer is to see if you can recover/back up your data by attaching
the HD to another MB, and then replacing one or other of MB and CPU (but
best solution is to replace both! - and the RAM too!) and consider upgrading
the OS.
Note that a lot of modern motherboards still support Win9x OS's -even some
of the 64-bit motherboards - so you could be in a 'good' position to upgrade
when funds are available.


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
"Robert" wrote in message
...
Yes, it definitely has the PQ splash screen when it loads. However,
whenever
I try to access Technical Support, it goes to Symantec and there is
nothing
there; it says the product is discontinued/no longer supported.

I've since discovered a more serious problem. I was trying to test my RAM
using DocMemory (by SimmTester) as was suggested. It kept dumping to DOS
after 8-10 tests were run, before a complete cycle had completed. I
installed
different RAM and had the same problem. I figured it's unlikely ALL my RAM
is
bad. So, I looked at the BIOS, as has also been suggested.

I disabled Video Shadowing, System BIOS Caching, Video BIOS Caching,
Internal Caching and External Caching. I left the Memory Hole at 15M-16M
Enabled. With this configuration, I was able to get software to run, but
EXTREMELY slowly, and not very effectively. For instance, I was finally
able
to get an OS to install, in this case Me. But now I have XMS Cache errors
(Registry services inoperative), and IFSMGR problems (can't find the
helper
driver IFSHLP.SYS). In selectively turning off and on each of these BIOS
options, it seems that the predominant offending culprit is the Internal
Cache.

Is this related to my other problems? Do I need to replace my
CPU/systemboard? Is there a workaround, or am I totally screwed?

-Robert




"BJ Honeycut" wrote:

"Noel Paton" wrote in
:

PM 7? - is that one signed Symantec, or PowerQuest?? If the former
then you're SOL, 'cos Symantec screwed it - if the latter, you're
still SOL, 'cos Symantec don't have a clue (and neither do I)
The last version I owned was PM6, IIRC - and that was bad enough
(bloating was getting beyond a joke, and it claimed things that I
could never get it to do - at least on the system I was working on at
the time) PM2 was a wonderful program - but........

I'd see if BING can rescue you out of the cr&pper -
www.bootitng.com... 30-day free trial - and then post back.


Quite certain PQ waxn't bought until version 8 or later.

--
"Time will bring to light whatever is hidden;
it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor."
Horace (65 - 8 BC); Roman poet.

Mike