My computer is broken :(

[pgrmdave]

Well, my computer seems to be broken. A few weeks ago, I got a virus which destroyed my OS (Windows XP Prof.). This has happened a few times before, and I, as usual, simply reformatted my hard drive and re-installed the OS. However, after that, my computer seemed to act oddly - many things installed incorrectly, getting errors of files copied incorrectly, and my computer would randomly reboot. I assumed that my OS was bad, because the CD had gotten a bit scratched over the years, and so I reburned the CD from a backup ISO file, and tried again to re-install. This time, quite a few dll files couldn't be copied, and after the OS is in, it still rebooted. So, I tried downloading a new copy of Windows, but my computer kept rebooting, preventing me from finishing the download. I tried one more time to re-install, but this time I got a Blue Screen of Death, telling me that I was attempting to write over read-only memory. Even when I tried using the real OS disc I got from Dell, which hadn't been opened until last week, I got that screen. I have a live cd of Beatrix Linux, but it often wouldn't boot to it, giving me some error (I don't remember what it was). It eventually booted, and I was able to install it to my hard drive, but there are three big problems:

 

1 - I don't know how to setup a wireless network with Linux, so I can't get onto the internet from home.

 

2 - It keeps telling me that I can't mount the CD drives, and that there probably isn't any media in the drive (I don't get this problem if I boot from the CD, when I'm able to boot from the CD)

 

3 - It freezes after a few minutes, and I have to shut off the computer and reboot.

 

 

Does anybody have any ideas as to what is wrong, or ways to find out?

[Tormod]

Ouch...sounds like you're in a rut there.

 

Did you low level format the hard drive? That should get rid of any viruses etc.

 

Actually, it sounds to me like you don't have a virus problem. More likely you have a hardware problem - maybe a faulty RAM chip or a processors that's no longer working as it should.

 

If this is a desktop PC, I'd try to take apart the PC by taking out any expansion cars (like your graphics card, sound card etc), the RAM, and the CPU and anything else that's seated on the motherboard.

 

Then gently insert everything again and make sure everything is seated 100%.

 

If it is a laptop, take it in for a checkup. It might be something simple.

[C1ay]

It sounds to me like there's a hardware problem causing the power supply to reset, effectively simulating a reboot. Like Tormod said, unplug all the hardware and reseat it. I would also boot up with a minimum, leave out the sound card, modem, etc. to see if the box will come up alright. That should help narrow your hardware problems. It wouldn't hjurt to run a lens cleaner through the cd drive also.

[TheBigDog]

I have been there Dave. It is a sign that it is time to upgrade. Bite the bullet and find that silver lining.

 

Bill

[Jay-qu]

I have been there Dave. It is a sign that it is time to upgrade. Bite the bullet and find that silver lining.

 

Bill

ha my computer has done some weird things lately and I wish I could bite that bullet - but its far to much easier said than done..

 

while we are on the topic, what can be done to a computer on the software side to try and clean it up, make it run a bit faster (apart from the obvious of ditching windows)? when I first got this comp it was wicked fast.. now its slowed down considerably

[C1ay]

when I first got this comp it was wicked fast.. now its slowed down considerably

What processes are running all the time? Many programs like Quicktime think you need a helper app running all the time so once you've got a jillion helper apps running in the background the machine slows down. Grab a copy of Sysinternals Process Explorer to see where all of your CPU power is going. Kill all the extra processes running and see how it runs.

[Tormod]

ditching windows

 

Yup. It worked great on my lappy, which hated windows with it's guts.

 

For my desktop however I use two tools: XP Lite, which is a small program which lets you easily configure which services to run (you can do it all manually, but this little app tells you what and why). The other is TuneUp Utilities 2006 which I find useful for cleaning up stuff and basically keeping the registry etc in shape.

 

I also use Diskeeper 10 to defragment my hard drives every night. That might be overdoing it but since I use my computer for a lot of audio work I can't have a heavily defragged disk.

[pgrmdave]

It sounds to me like there's a hardware problem causing the power supply to reset, effectively simulating a reboot. Like Tormod said, unplug all the hardware and reseat it. I would also boot up with a minimum, leave out the sound card, modem, etc. to see if the box will come up alright. That should help narrow your hardware problems. It wouldn't hjurt to run a lens cleaner through the cd drive also.

 

Well, I've tried reseating all my hardware, and run it without my PCI cards. I haven't yet tried a different hard drive, though. I'll also try it with a different CD drive, but I have both a CD drive and a DVD drive, and they're both giving me errors. As for an upgrade - I have no money, so I have to make do with what I have. If all I have is the local library's computer, that's all I get. Right now I can get online at school, but the semester ends next week.

[C1ay]

Did you fdisk the master boot record when you reformatted, i.e. fdisk /mbr? Some virii will write to the boot record. Some, like the CIH virus, will also cause damage to the bios and the hard drive. Do you have an opportunity to burn a copy of Knoppix at school to see how it runs?

[GAHD]

mY suggestion: unplug it for a minimum of 12 hours, then crack open the power supply and see if it's got any poped capacitors (if so it's a simple matter of overranging the voltage a bit and maching the MF on a new capacitor) If an inspectionthere doesn't show any fault, I'd manually reset the BIOS to factory setting (remove the battery, count to ten, put the battery back in), that should clean the CMOS EEPROM. From there I'd check the mo-bo ffor popped/leaking Capacitors, and if all that inspection yeilds nothing I'd suggest you find someone who knows how to run a logic probe &/ oscilliscope to take a gander at it.

 

Edit: oh, yes, and FDISK is a good idea too :confused:

[Jay-qu]

Cool thanks for the info T and Clay ;) I will try Clay's way first because I know it would be a lot more work to transfer everything to linux (unless there is some easy way) but if all else fails I may face a total re-format and linux installation, but I need to make sure that I can get all the drivers for my laptop so I dont loose functionality of anything.

[C1ay]

Cool thanks for the info T and Clay ;) I will try Clay's way first because I know it would be a lot more work to transfer everything to linux (unless there is some easy way) but if all else fails I may face a total re-format and linux installation, but I need to make sure that I can get all the drivers for my laptop so I dont loose functionality of anything.

Understand that the process viewer will only show you what' starting and running in the background. For permanent changes you'll have to erase the Start Menu and registry entries that are starting those processes to run in the background. A defrag will help too if you haven't done that in a while.

[Tormod]

I will try Clay's way first because I know it would be a lot more work to transfer everything to linux

 

The apps I recommended are for Windows, btw.

[alexander]

Ubuntu or Knoppix should work fin, search online, there are a gazillion websites on howto setup wireless networking, really, i have 4 different chipset cards working (ny atheros 5211, cisco a/b/g card running atheros 5201, a cisco 350 series card chipset and a prism chipset that my firend uses, oh and a xircom card and a TI chipset card if you count wireless cards i have set up in the past 3 months for other people as well) and am planning to get a DWL 650 that is Prism2 chipset supposedly to get to work (ps i own 4 diferent wireless chipsets and i got 3 working, natively in linux, no ndis wrapper, that gets any card to work..)

anyhow, that is not what i wanted to rant about, that was:

If it is a laptop, take it in for a checkup. It might be something simple.

Lol tormod, not if your friend has a laptop he bought for 30 bucks, i took that thing completely apart on his bed, put a few keys back on the keyboard, cleaned all contacts, and put a new harddrive on 3 strips of doublesided tape. His mouse started working, as well as the sound card that seldom ever worked before at random, and he accidentally dropped the laptop from a coutnertop two weeks ago, cracked his laptop case open, lcd screen does not close well now, but the system still works beautifuly :hyper:.

 

P.S. nothing a little double sided tape, and pencil eraser cant fix :eek: yes pencil erasers are perfect cleaning tools for oxidized golden contacts anywhere on any system, especialy ram and ribbon cables in laptops...

[Jay-qu]

If I keep windows installed and run linux, will it run much slower than if I formatted my drive?

[Tormod]

If I keep windows installed and run linux, will it run much slower than if I formatted my drive?

 

The only think a dual boot does is to give less space to each installation, so Windows would not notice Linux etc. You do however need to create a new partition for Linux - if I'm not mistaken most Linux distros do this for you automatically.

[Jay-qu]

how much space do I need for that? I have about 6Gb free, do I need to do some deleting :)