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Posted

I returned home yesterday after a 3 day trip, when my wife turned on the desk top PC and was working on a word Doc. everything was acting very slow, as in she would type a word, and get a hour glass for a few seconds before the word she typed would show up...I had her re-boot the PC, then we got an error message about the HD, I do not remember what it said as I can not get it to come up again. The pc will start to load, up to the point of the Windows XP start up screen...thats as far as it will go, then it will cycle again, returning to the same page... I am thinking of buying a new HD and give that a try Vs. buying a whole new PC. We have had a few crashes with this one over the last 2 years.. any suggestions/tips would be great.

 

Thanks,

 

Kreg

Posted

First thing I would do is go to manufacturer's web site for whatever brand of HDD is in there and download their free diagnostic utility. Get the version that will run from a CD at boot, burn a new CD with it, and check for physical disk errors. If that passes, then I'd go to one of the AV sites, like Symantec or McAffee, and download a free version of their virus checker to run the same way. :080402gudl_prv:

Goose

Posted

I had the same thing happen to mine, would boot up to windows screen then error message and nothing else. The error message was someting related to a DLL file missing.

 

I booted from the CD with windows XP disc and did a repair, all is well now.

Posted (edited)

Since you are already hosed, here is another simple thing to try - go into the BIOS when the PC first starts to boot and reset all BIOS settings to default. Nothing SHOULD have changed in there, but you might as well try. Once you get it back running you can check the individual BIOS settings for how you want them.

 

Also, use F8 during the boot process to get the boot menu, then tell it to boot into safe mode. Once there, try to use the XP system restore tool to restore the machine to last good status (START | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore). You might also see an option to revert to last good boot status from the boon menu you will see when using F8.

 

If for some reason you cannot or do not want to use a utility to check the HDD for physical errors, then use this command from a DOS window (use F8 to boot to a command line): chkdsk /f /r

 

Actually, you should run that command even if you do use another utility to check the physical hard drive. Chkdsk will ensure the data on the drive is all properly formatted for Windoze; you can have corrupt data that is causing your problem just like a defective hard drive would. If you get it booted into Windoze you can use the Tools tab on the disk properties window to check the disk for errors instead of running chkdsk in DOS.

:080402gudl_prv:

Goose

Edited by V7Goose
Posted

I know that the DFW area is quite a way away for you, but you are welcome to bring the PC here if you want me to look at it - or I could try to get down there sometime next week. Just let me know.

Goose

Posted

Thanks Goose, This HD has crashes 2 times before, and I have all ways managed to get it to come back up.... not this time, I have McAffe and several Malware search and dystroy programs on it allready. It is a 160 and I went and baught a 500 today, got it all back to running but now can`t get the internet to load on it, I spoke to some moron earlier today, but no help, I`ll call them back tomorrow when I feel like messin with it..

 

Thanks to all for the input... I have 14 days to see if the new HD is going to work, if not I can take it back... I just baught this new Laptop, may just buy another and forget about fixing the desk top....:confused24:

 

 

 

I know that the DFW area is quite a way away for you, but you are welcome to bring the PC here if you want me to look at it - or I could try to get down there sometime next week. Just let me know.

Goose

Posted

You need to load the driver for your ethernet card, or if it is onboard, then you need the motherboard driver for it. Then internet will work.

 

What brand/model PC do you have, or is it custom built?

Posted (edited)

I guess it's that time again. My trading computer cratered last Friday. The long & short of it (no pun) is that the motherboard bought the farm. Got a new MB, a new bigger HDD, more & faster memory. And on top of it all, the darn UPS battery went south!

 

Of course you KNOW how when something happens, there's something else right behind it, right? Well, I wanted to put off buying tires for my truck; had a tire wearing funny, so I thought I would get an alignment. When they started work I told them to swap tires front to back so I'd have the best tread on the front.....rear brake pads are down to 10%..replace the pads/turn the rotors......see those rusty spots on the rotors....the calipers pistons are hanging up. so several hundred dollars later, I got brakes & I got aligned...definitely putting off tires for a while.

 

Then, last night, the wife calls out...."you better look at this toilet; thing's trying to overflow". I plunge...no joy! Fearing a downstream paper clog, I check the other toilet....nearly ran it over; now I have water very slightly backing into both tubs. It's gonna be past the wye connector, possibly the septic tank itself....I'm pessimistic about these things, I figure the tank is going to have to be pumped. Never been done, house was built in '86. Well, it's 11:00 PM by this point, mama's ticked off ...."I have to shower in the morning, I have 3 appointments, etc., etc." Fast forward.....tanks empty, lines clear, yard is rutted up, since it's been raining for 3 days; there's a shallow pile of dirt in the yard; but all is well.......except for my wallet, after all this. And my mechanic is going to be calling any day for me to bring the Goldwing in for the $400 carburetor job I told him to go ahead and work into the schedule.

 

Sometimes ya just have to shake your head and laugh :mo money:

 

It's like I told my friend at the alignment shop: "Shoot this thing; Lord have mercy, Shoot this thing! Somebody shoot up in here amongst us......one of us has got to have some relief!"

Edited by autopilot
Posted

Monty, Its a Gateway 700X Desk Top, You may be on to somthing, I havent loaded all the drivers and other stuff yet, all I loaded on it was Windows XP..... I will give that a shot here in a bit after a few cups ......

 

Thanks for the info..:97:

 

You need to load the driver for your ethernet card, or if it is onboard, then you need the motherboard driver for it. Then internet will work.

 

What brand/model PC do you have, or is it custom built?

Posted

I know I'm probably beating a dead horse, but why not join the Darkside of software. LINUX!

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_xOOWRVc9-a4/Sv1HwkFVyoI/AAAAAAAAA60/yhU0E0d9Gyo/Spidey640.jpg

Posted

I know nothing about Linux...... at least I can turn on my PC running windows...I need to find some one local that runs Linux so I can check it out...

 

 

 

 

I know I'm probably beating a dead horse, but why not join the Darkside of software. LINUX!

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_xOOWRVc9-a4/Sv1HwkFVyoI/AAAAAAAAA60/yhU0E0d9Gyo/Spidey640.jpg

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