Can you reload your Operating System Software? That might fix the problem.
I am more familiar with Windows 98, since that was the last version when I had PCs in my business.
Back then I would do that, and in order to find out if I had bad sectors on my hard-drive I would perform the scan disk.
One time my computer got a virus, and It was obvious because the screen messed up with gobbledee goop and then I had to shut it down.
I'm not sure where you live but in MO we have companies like Geek Squad, and Computers Nerds, and they come to homes and fix things and they don't charge nothing near what CompUSA or other puter shops do. That's a thought. They can go into dos mode and tell you right quick if your hard-drive got a virus - OR whatever.
Sometimes if you've never scanned disk or cleaned up your temp files, different software bites can cross over into others on the hard-drive sectors and that can cause 'read' errors, or windows not to load properly.
It use to be that you could go into "SAFE MODE" and go through all that stuff, then 'reload' and it would clear up the problem., but I'm not sure what Windows XP does these days.
Sorry if I'm not much help, but That's how I use to 'get er done'........
If you are set on trying to 'troubleshoot' this yourself -- why don't you get someone from GS, who is knowledgeable with your OS to give you their phone number and they can WALK YOU THROUGH the set up process, and help you?
I bet you'd do better solving the problems if you were on the phone, discussing this as you both are looking at your PCs that have the same OS......
I use to do that with my customers and it was quite effective...... when it wasn't a help, the only other option would be hiring a 'computer nerd' to come to your local and fix it.
Sounds like an operating system problem rather than a bad drive. Like GT said try safe mode and see if is starts up. If is does then it is probably a wayward driver, or possibly a virus.
If it wont start up in safe mode I would seek professional help.
Can you reload your Operating System Software? That might fix the problem.
I am more familiar with Windows 98, since that was the last version when I had PCs in my business.
Back then I would do that, and in order to find out if I had bad sectors on my hard-drive I would perform the scan disk.
One time my computer got a virus, and It was obvious because the screen messed up with gobbledee goop and then I had to shut it down.
I'm not sure where you live but in MO we have companies like Geek Squad, and Computers Nerds, and they come to homes and fix things and they don't charge nothing near what CompUSA or other puter shops do. That's a thought. They can go into dos mode and tell you right quick if your hard-drive got a virus - OR whatever.
Sometimes if you've never scanned disk or cleaned up your temp files, different software bites can cross over into others on the hard-drive sectors and that can cause 'read' errors, or windows not to load properly.
It use to be that you could go into "SAFE MODE" and go through all that stuff, then 'reload' and it would clear up the problem., but I'm not sure what Windows XP does these days.
Sorry if I'm not much help, but That's how I use to 'get er done'........
Hey everyone I THINK I MENTIONED "Safe Mode" already!!! Then hiring a Tech.
Does it matter if its a WOMAN providing suggestions, or do men always only take advice from other Men?
I've never known a hard-drive to Make a clanking noise in all my years w/puters. :huh:
A bad drive doesn't usually make a sound. At least none of the 15 I've had to replace ever did.
One can check the sectors to see if they are bad, tho.
I've been through about a dozen clanking drives, out of the hundred or two bad drives I've dealt with. Hard drives have lots of moving parts. When one of them breaks, it tends to "clank." See the arm sticking over the platter (look's like a CD)? That thing moves back and forth extremely fast, reading information off the platter. There can be several of these in a drive. As with any machine with moving parts, they tend to wear down with use.
A clanking hard drive is the obvious sign the drive is dead. But usually it's not this obvious. Certain parts of the platters can go bad and the arm cannot read any data stored there.
If there's no clanking, then listen to the drive as the computer is booting. If it's chugging along and at some point slows down to a heart-beat and the screen appears to freeze, the arm is probably trying to retrieve data from a bad section of a platter, having difficulty doing it, retrying several times, then giving up. When it gives up, it returns an error to the OS and, depending on the OS, will cause it to crash with a screen displaying an error, or automatically reboot and try again.
Windows XP defaults to rebooting in this situation, which I find extremely annoying since you can't see any error messages. There is a way to change this, but I forget how at the moment.
If it is a bad section on the drive, booting from the installation CD and using the Emergency Repair function will allow you to get a command prompt on the drive so you can run chkdsk on it and possibly repair it (chkdsk will mark the section as bad so it will not be used any longer).
If the drive seems to chug away and doesn't slow down at all when the OS reboots, then most likely a system file got stepped on (replaced or deleted). This would require putting the missing file back in. Can be done via the Emergency Repair command prompt mentioned above.
But overall, trouble-shooting an OS that will not boot is tedious and difficult. I've done it hundreds of times, since it's a part of my job, but I don't recommend it to anyone. If you've never done it before, you're better off hiring someone to do it for you. Even walking someone through it over the phone is an exercise in futility.
Is the error a stop error (blue screen)? If so, which stop error?
If not a stop error, what is the error number/message?
What OS do you have?
JET:
I am in the business and have met more than a few women who are also in the computer business. Just as with men, many of them have knowledge that is equal and in some cases superior to mine. I don't think anyone was slighting you. Sometimes people restate things that have already been said to reinforce the suggestion, or sometimes because they just missed it when reading.
Oh, did I say many? I meant few cause see, I'm the best.
Hey everyone I THINK I MENTIONED "Safe Mode" already!!! Then hiring a Tech.
Does it matter if its a WOMAN providing suggestions, or do men always only take advice from other Men?
Hey Jet, lighten up, This is not a gender issue. There is a lot of experiece available here from many posters. Your opinion is one of many. I would think you would welcome concuring opinions.
Certainly you don't expect everyone else to shut up anfer you give your opinion, do you ?
Thanks for the inputs guys and Gal :) as my system is loading I am given an option of starting in safemode and have tried it and the other options to no avail. I have tried to boot from Winxp and even gave the innards a good dose of compressed gas, also to no avail
SO my plan is to take it to the ITS folks at school n let them figure it out, hopefully it will be back in time so I can work on my two term papers and class presentations due this month...wish me luck and thanks
Hey Jet, lighten up, This is not a gender issue. There is a lot of experiece available here from many posters. Your opinion is one of many. I would think you would welcome concuring opinions.
Certainly you don't expect everyone else to shut up anfer you give your opinion, do you ?
Goey -- its just my Since of Humor -- I'm usually NEVER SERIOUS about stuff like this!!!
Course I love FEEDBACK -- even this kinda stuff -- lets me know people ARE reading all the posts.
Hey, and I've certainly learned a GREAT DEAL --- and got it OUT of GreasyTech how "Hard drives make noises".. Been quite educational... I do find that sometimes, people post their opinions after only reading the initial post request... Try NOT to take me SERIOUS --- EVER..... It never amazes me how when people write stuff you can NEVER figure out if they are kidding or not?
BTW - Greasy Thank you for sharing YOUR experience. I figured you would be so kind as to provide your 'experiencial proof', but I didn't expect a photo of the inside. COOL -- I appreciate that!!!
Course I welcome concuring opinions. I'm especially GLAD to know I'm noticed too. THANKS......
Regarding Gender Issues -- I do remember quite a FEW in my TWI days however. I was one of many gals who in getting involved in the 'Printing Trade' that felt the constant 'blows of gender bashing'.
Duplicators were considered "women's presses", and how "Printing is a Man's Career". I met with great challenges to find my place IN THAT INDUSTRY..... and had I buckled under the pressure, or whined about the 'gender issue' then, I would have never made it - would have given up back in the 70s. I'm happy to report I did NOT give up, and I did not whine, and I did not buckle under pressure, it only made me more determined to prove "I COULD DO IT". I loved my career, too.
What I would do is an in place upgrade I believe they call it. Is that the term Goey? Or as I refer to it, reinstall windows over the top of itself. But even that may not be necessary.
If I had it myself and had the time I would first determine why it will not start in safe mode. I like a good challenge and its always fun to get to the bottom of extremely difficult problems.
BTW - to test you hard drive simply download and put on a floppy or cd, the testing software that all manufacturers have on their sites to see if anything is wrong. For example, MaxBlast.
The testing software will tell you once and for all if your drive is good or bad. But yeah, if your drive "klunks" I would return it for that reason alone. Just tell them your drive clunks and I do not believe you will have a problem returning it.
My guess is the drive is fine. It would be nice to know when you get it back from your IT friend.
Oh, and for anyone who cares, here is t grandaddy of all bootable CD's to test just about any possible problem.
Simply start up your computer with this baby in the tray (with Bios correctly configured to boot from CD first) and you will have it all no matter how screwed up your computer is. It has the ability to read drives without having to boot the machines actual OS.
It has networking (so you can back up you inaccessible files across a network to another computer), browse your files on your hard drive so you can back them up, virus software, spyware fighting programs, CD Burning software (so you can burn your previously inaccessible files to CD), software for testing your drive, drivers for usb, mouse, keyboard, and much more. And it has a easy user friendly interface.
It is free but you have to follow tedious instructions to build this gem. Then just keep it handy for emergencies. Its worth it.
I am very curious because one of puters at work did this exact same thing last week. Our tech picked it up to see if he could fix it. He was scratching his head in bewilderment when he left with the machine.
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jetc57
Can you reload your Operating System Software? That might fix the problem.
I am more familiar with Windows 98, since that was the last version when I had PCs in my business.
Back then I would do that, and in order to find out if I had bad sectors on my hard-drive I would perform the scan disk.
One time my computer got a virus, and It was obvious because the screen messed up with gobbledee goop and then I had to shut it down.
I'm not sure where you live but in MO we have companies like Geek Squad, and Computers Nerds, and they come to homes and fix things and they don't charge nothing near what CompUSA or other puter shops do. That's a thought. They can go into dos mode and tell you right quick if your hard-drive got a virus - OR whatever.
Sometimes if you've never scanned disk or cleaned up your temp files, different software bites can cross over into others on the hard-drive sectors and that can cause 'read' errors, or windows not to load properly.
It use to be that you could go into "SAFE MODE" and go through all that stuff, then 'reload' and it would clear up the problem., but I'm not sure what Windows XP does these days.
Sorry if I'm not much help, but That's how I use to 'get er done'........
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GT
Try safe mode.
Do you here a clanking sound coming from the hard drive? If so, the drive is bad.
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jetc57
I've never known a hard-drive to Make a clanking noise in all my years w/puters. :huh:
A bad drive doesn't usually make a sound. At least none of the 15 I've had to replace ever did.
One can check the sectors to see if they are bad, tho.
If ya want my advice, tho.... If you don't know what your doing -- Hire someone who does.
I mentioned Geek Squad, or Computer Nerds cause they are relatively inexpensive and quite knowledgeable, and they don't waste a lot of time.
As someone who use to be a business owner, my time was worth more spent serving my customers than working on my own equipment.
Do let us know when ya got it workin again. Please.
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igotout
I agree that it does not appear to be a bad hard drive. Probably a driver conflict of some kind.
A agree with starting your computer in Safe Mode.
Also what is the exact error message you are receiving and at what point does it appear?
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jetc57
May I offer one final 'brainstorm' idea here?
If you are set on trying to 'troubleshoot' this yourself -- why don't you get someone from GS, who is knowledgeable with your OS to give you their phone number and they can WALK YOU THROUGH the set up process, and help you?
I bet you'd do better solving the problems if you were on the phone, discussing this as you both are looking at your PCs that have the same OS......
I use to do that with my customers and it was quite effective...... when it wasn't a help, the only other option would be hiring a 'computer nerd' to come to your local and fix it.
Let us know. OK.....
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Goey
Sounds like an operating system problem rather than a bad drive. Like GT said try safe mode and see if is starts up. If is does then it is probably a wayward driver, or possibly a virus.
If it wont start up in safe mode I would seek professional help.
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jetc57
Hey everyone I THINK I MENTIONED "Safe Mode" already!!! Then hiring a Tech.
Does it matter if its a WOMAN providing suggestions, or do men always only take advice from other Men?
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GT
I've been through about a dozen clanking drives, out of the hundred or two bad drives I've dealt with. Hard drives have lots of moving parts. When one of them breaks, it tends to "clank." See the arm sticking over the platter (look's like a CD)? That thing moves back and forth extremely fast, reading information off the platter. There can be several of these in a drive. As with any machine with moving parts, they tend to wear down with use.
A clanking hard drive is the obvious sign the drive is dead. But usually it's not this obvious. Certain parts of the platters can go bad and the arm cannot read any data stored there.
If there's no clanking, then listen to the drive as the computer is booting. If it's chugging along and at some point slows down to a heart-beat and the screen appears to freeze, the arm is probably trying to retrieve data from a bad section of a platter, having difficulty doing it, retrying several times, then giving up. When it gives up, it returns an error to the OS and, depending on the OS, will cause it to crash with a screen displaying an error, or automatically reboot and try again.
Windows XP defaults to rebooting in this situation, which I find extremely annoying since you can't see any error messages. There is a way to change this, but I forget how at the moment.
If it is a bad section on the drive, booting from the installation CD and using the Emergency Repair function will allow you to get a command prompt on the drive so you can run chkdsk on it and possibly repair it (chkdsk will mark the section as bad so it will not be used any longer).
If the drive seems to chug away and doesn't slow down at all when the OS reboots, then most likely a system file got stepped on (replaced or deleted). This would require putting the missing file back in. Can be done via the Emergency Repair command prompt mentioned above.
But overall, trouble-shooting an OS that will not boot is tedious and difficult. I've done it hundreds of times, since it's a part of my job, but I don't recommend it to anyone. If you've never done it before, you're better off hiring someone to do it for you. Even walking someone through it over the phone is an exercise in futility.
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Bluzeman
Is the error a stop error (blue screen)? If so, which stop error?
If not a stop error, what is the error number/message?
What OS do you have?
JET:
I am in the business and have met more than a few women who are also in the computer business. Just as with men, many of them have knowledge that is equal and in some cases superior to mine. I don't think anyone was slighting you. Sometimes people restate things that have already been said to reinforce the suggestion, or sometimes because they just missed it when reading.
Oh, did I say many? I meant few cause see, I'm the best.
Rick
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Goey
Hey Jet, lighten up, This is not a gender issue. There is a lot of experiece available here from many posters. Your opinion is one of many. I would think you would welcome concuring opinions.
Certainly you don't expect everyone else to shut up anfer you give your opinion, do you ?
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Wonton Soup
Thanks for the inputs guys and Gal :) as my system is loading I am given an option of starting in safemode and have tried it and the other options to no avail. I have tried to boot from Winxp and even gave the innards a good dose of compressed gas, also to no avail
SO my plan is to take it to the ITS folks at school n let them figure it out, hopefully it will be back in time so I can work on my two term papers and class presentations due this month...wish me luck and thanks
Edited by Wonton SoupLink to comment
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jetc57
Goey -- its just my Since of Humor -- I'm usually NEVER SERIOUS about stuff like this!!!
Course I love FEEDBACK -- even this kinda stuff -- lets me know people ARE reading all the posts.
Hey, and I've certainly learned a GREAT DEAL --- and got it OUT of GreasyTech how "Hard drives make noises".. Been quite educational... I do find that sometimes, people post their opinions after only reading the initial post request... Try NOT to take me SERIOUS --- EVER..... It never amazes me how when people write stuff you can NEVER figure out if they are kidding or not?
BTW - Greasy Thank you for sharing YOUR experience. I figured you would be so kind as to provide your 'experiencial proof', but I didn't expect a photo of the inside. COOL -- I appreciate that!!!
Course I welcome concuring opinions. I'm especially GLAD to know I'm noticed too. THANKS......
Regarding Gender Issues -- I do remember quite a FEW in my TWI days however. I was one of many gals who in getting involved in the 'Printing Trade' that felt the constant 'blows of gender bashing'.
Duplicators were considered "women's presses", and how "Printing is a Man's Career". I met with great challenges to find my place IN THAT INDUSTRY..... and had I buckled under the pressure, or whined about the 'gender issue' then, I would have never made it - would have given up back in the 70s. I'm happy to report I did NOT give up, and I did not whine, and I did not buckle under pressure, it only made me more determined to prove "I COULD DO IT". I loved my career, too.
Thanks tho, for the love..... :wub:
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igotout
What I would do is an in place upgrade I believe they call it. Is that the term Goey? Or as I refer to it, reinstall windows over the top of itself. But even that may not be necessary.
If I had it myself and had the time I would first determine why it will not start in safe mode. I like a good challenge and its always fun to get to the bottom of extremely difficult problems.
BTW - to test you hard drive simply download and put on a floppy or cd, the testing software that all manufacturers have on their sites to see if anything is wrong. For example, MaxBlast.
The testing software will tell you once and for all if your drive is good or bad. But yeah, if your drive "klunks" I would return it for that reason alone. Just tell them your drive clunks and I do not believe you will have a problem returning it.
My guess is the drive is fine. It would be nice to know when you get it back from your IT friend.
Oh, and for anyone who cares, here is t grandaddy of all bootable CD's to test just about any possible problem.
Ultimat Boot CD for Windows
Simply start up your computer with this baby in the tray (with Bios correctly configured to boot from CD first) and you will have it all no matter how screwed up your computer is. It has the ability to read drives without having to boot the machines actual OS.
It has networking (so you can back up you inaccessible files across a network to another computer), browse your files on your hard drive so you can back them up, virus software, spyware fighting programs, CD Burning software (so you can burn your previously inaccessible files to CD), software for testing your drive, drivers for usb, mouse, keyboard, and much more. And it has a easy user friendly interface.
It is free but you have to follow tedious instructions to build this gem. Then just keep it handy for emergencies. Its worth it.
John R.
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Wonton Soup
I am halfway there boys n girls
My new drive is installed and working fine
EXCEPT
My modem, an antique must be replaced
SO
I am using dial up
AND
IT SUCKS!!
See youse in a few days when this old piece of crap is up n running completely
Thanks
:)
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jetc57
Hey Wonton, Other people besides yourself have sure learned a lot by your post.
Thanks. Its been quite educational for me FOR SURE!!
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Morgan
So was it the hard drive?
I am very curious because one of puters at work did this exact same thing last week. Our tech picked it up to see if he could fix it. He was scratching his head in bewilderment when he left with the machine.
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