system hangs after POST

[IGBT]

One of my w98 boxes from time to time hangs after POST and just sits there with a blinking curser at the bottom of the data page. I then push the reset and it re POST's and continues to load. Most noticable from a cold start..system is fine otherwise...

 

[XeonTux]

I am assuming by "data page" you mean the POST screen? What is the last thing it writes out prior to hanging?

Try cleaning the PC of any dust buildup and reseat all components (cards, memory, cpu, etc). I have seen similar problems where this did the trick....

You may also want to check your boot order in the BIOS setup and have floppy before the HDD. On your cold boots have a bootable DOS disk inserted and see if it boots. Ok, I tend to doubt this will make a difference bcause I think you'd prob be getting an "OS not found" message of some sort before it hung...

Really the only other thing I can think of is stripping down the PC to a minimal configuration and swapping components, and that's gonna be a painfully slow process in your situation. Intermittant problems that only occur like on a cold start can be very annoying.

edit: some typos fixed

 

[Rallispec]

everything is seated okay in the case? no loose ram or dangling wires or anything?

 

[IGBT]

Thanks for the ideas guys..I'll give it a cleaning and a re-seat and see what happens. Going to upgrade the 300 watt generic no name power supply to a 350w Sparkle..been meaning to do dat but little lazy lately..thanx again...