I have what appears to be a Windows failure on my main computer. Windows XP Pro SP2 running. My daughter tends to be the main user these days as I have my trusty lappie. She is usually on MSN with friends and constantly downloading pics and god knows what else, making websites from Piczo.com etc etc.

Today the thing froze on her and a reboot resulted in the black DOS page saying there was a problem, either start Windows Normally or start using last known working configuration, or use Safe Mode. Usually, last known good config is sufficient, but none of these works. The safe mode comes up with a long list of file names which I have to escape from. The others reboot into the same black DOS screen.

What happens here is there is a millisecond exposure of a blue screen (the sort that shows the technicals of an error - xxxoooooo263784995 etc - you know the thing) but it doesn't stay long enough for me to read it. Instead it just tries to load Windows but goes "click" and presto - black DOS screen.

I assume I have a Windows corruption, and I have no idea what all the BIOS stuff means when I press DEL or TAB to get into those working screens for techies.

Can someone suggest what the problem might be and whether I have any remedies?

The loss of data isn't critical (my daughter might argue otherwise) and I some stuff backed up on a Western Digital hard drive although quite how I recover it I'm not sure. I don't have a boot disk, which may be my fault for not making one?

Thoughts are appreciated before I decide to simply reload Windows from the original Disk and start afresh!

.

Bones

Reloading Windows from the original disk is a last resort, and as the problem may be disc corruption I suggest that in that event, you invest 50 in a new hard disk and install to that. That would leave everything on your old disk for later recovery and is the route you should take if data is important.

As you're not too worried about the data, you should be able to recover the disk by using utillities on the original installation disk. Boot from the installation CD and select the recovery console option (I forget the exact entry path, but it comes up before the main installation, and is the recovery option that does not need a boot disk).

The recovery console will boot into an MSDOS type screen and has a number of recovery commands - including help. Most of them are really good for experts, but mere mortals can use chkdsk. Type chkdsk followed by a space then /? followed by enter to find a list of options.

From memory, you should use chkdsk c: /r but you need to verify the syntax. This will check and attempt to repair any disk errors, when it is finished try rebooting the computer if it still refuses to load windows, boot from the installation disk again, follow the prompts untill it finds your existing installation and you will be given an option to attempt repair of the system. When you select this, the original installation will be recovered but with most of your programs and preferences still installed. You will have to go through multiple Windows updates to bring the system up to date.

Bones, is this any help - following on from Optimist's post:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

BTW - It was Symantec that was causing my Outook Express to fail on startup. All fixed now.... Thanks for the help earlier.

DocProc,Bolshi,

Update.

Just after I received your advice, several priority security updates were received from Microsoft. I installed these and now everything is fine. Must have been a weakness in the new IE7 system, or a niggle in my own set up that the updates cured.
But anyway, Thanks again to both.
Greek.

Optimist, Seymour, thanks for those advices. I am not confident I can decipher a lot of that MS spiel so it might be a case of forking out for an IT guy in the end.

Bones

If you get proffesional help, then check what it will cost and what they will do first. It should not be a difficult job but could be time consuming. A proper IT guy should be able to take an image of your existing disk without making any changes that make things worse, repair the disk image and then copy to the new hard drive.

If you are based in the South Midlands, I could help you.

Edit If it's done properly, you should lose little or no data and not too many program settings.

My local 'Techies' (Computer Doctors), wot I use from time to time when the going gets a bit rough, send out a Newsletter to me every so often.

It is accessible online and has lots of good stuff, including a lot of recommended and free software downloads - and I would trust their site, which you can access from the Newsletter, as an excellent place to download them from, too.

Interestingly, they recommend 'KeConnect' as a broadband supplier and I must say, KeConnect do seem to check out very well in the ADSL comparisons for 'speed, reliability and customer service'.

You can read the Newsletter here: http://www.computerdoctors.uk.net:80/newsletter/autumn/aut2006.htm

A query on downloading drivers please chaps.
I have 2 driver updates that I want to do. They are for my Nvidia card and my monitor. I worry that I will have to delete the old drivers first before uploading my new ones.
I could just envisage deleting the old drivers and pzzssttt (technical expression) - no display.
S**t creek without a paddle springs to mind.

Even without the proper drivers the display usually works with reduced festures such as resolution and numbers of colours using the default Windows generic driver.

Control panel
systems
device manager
display adapters
double click on your graphics adapter
driver
update driver

You will notice that there is also a button that says 'Roll back driver' which you can use if you are not happy with the new driver.

Thanks Haystack. I really didn't know about that facility! Easy peasy!
I've been trying to make things more complicated than I should.
Thx again.

turned on the PC yesterday..and just got the sound after a 5-10 seconds "beep beep" Fan started up and it whirred a bit ...then printed

Low battery something ot other...I could still do F2 to get into the utility area thing...but could get no further

Managed to boot up of the CD diagnostics disc after amending the boot sequence ..and now dare not turn it off..
any idea what the problem might have been?

All ok now...HD fine atm...

foale

It sounds as if your BIOS battery needs replacing. You will have to re save the BIOS settings every time you power down your PC until you replace the battery but otherwise it should be OK.

You should be able to get a battery from your local PC shop and they are easy to replace.

thast sound right...I will get on to that...
thanks optimist...

Last night I attempted to connect an HP 2570 printer to my Win XP laptop. For reasons I won't bore you with I wanted to make the connection to the ethernet socket on the printer instead of the USB.

At a later stage I will be getting a hub so that my wife can share the printer if she ever gets round to having her own laptop.

In the meantime, in the absence of a hub, I am simply plugging the ethernet cable directly into my laptop.

I had problems (about which more later maybe) but my first question is as to whether I can go straight into the laptop or whether a hub is essential?

TP

TP

You would normally use a standard straight through ethernet cable for connections between a hub and the device but you would need a crossover cable or adaptor for device to device connections. Some network devices are inteligent enough to adapt to automatically to the cable in use, so the above will not then apply.

Optimist,

I just grabbed what looked like an ethernet cable from a shelf.

How could I tell whether it was a crossover cable or not?

Maybe the answer is to pop up the Tott Ct Rd and buy a crossover adaptor.

TP

TP

They are normally labeled either straight through or crossover. If you can see the cable colours, two of the wires would be in a different order at one end of the crossover cable. If you buy an adaptor, you will probably need a second standard cable to plug into it.

Thanks Optimist,

I did get as far as getting the printer to do a test page from the laptop so my link may not be too wrong and the cable may not be the fault.

However, trying to print a page from Word totally failed.

I also got yellow exclamation marks against that connection and my WiFi connection in that panel at the bottom right of my screen.

And, my bigger worry, it was a struggle to get the laptop to turn off - which I was told is sometimes caused when it struggles to turn off network links that are not correct.

I'll get an adaptor and another standard cable anyway. They'll not cost much and surely come in handy sometime.

TP