Alan

I suspect that it issome form of hard disk fault.

How you fix it depends on how much risk you want to take with the disk.

The safest way is to mount the disk as a secondary disk in another machine, backup all your data and then run chkdsk /f . That will fix any errors although you may possibly have to repair the system using the install CD.

It is worth checking the connections to the disk and possible pluging it into a different socket.

The other way to recover it, is to boot from the install disk, let setup detect your windows system and then select the recovery option. This will open a command prompt where you can run chkdsk /r (and if you know what you are doing a lot more). This will fix any errors although you may possibly have to repair the system using the install CD if there are any corrupted files. Don't try this if you have a pre Win XP SP2 disk and your hard drive is larger than 120GB.

The other thing to check is that the CPU fan is OK.

Thanks Optimist.

All a bit technical for me..... It is a Dell laptop and I'm not confident about opening
it up.

I'll see if I can find a local engineer who speaks English. ;)

Alan

Alan

Most laptops have a panel at the side where the hard disk is. All you ave to do is undo one or two screws and slide it out. It's best to remove the battery first but you don't have to access any other part of the machine and you can't put it back the wrong way.

Got the disk out OK. All looks clean. Reseated it but still no joy.

On my Dell (Inspiron 9400) there is a Media Direct button which loads video
features etc., When I load that it allows me to access pics I have on my
hard disk to view OK but when I exit that it is back to the blue screen.

Alan

As I understand Media Direct, it loads a reduced OS that is inn this case not affected by the corrupt file. It still points to some sort of disk corruption, but clearly most of the disk is OK.

Simple question , one of the kids has an Acer Travelmate 2410 laptop and wants more memory added.

When I check on different sites what memory to buy I'm getting two different answers , some say DDR2 PC2 5300 and others say DDR2 PC2 4200.

Any idea which one I should get ?

Cheers

I think (but am not certain) that those two are interchangeable in which case you may as well go for the 5300.

Try going to www.crucial.com and run their memory checker. If it's the wrong sort then they should replace it.

They were one of the ones that said the 5300 .

I'll just go for it , cheers Optimist.

Dil: I get all my add-on memory from Crucial (at my age, you need all the help you can get).

Never had a problem with them, great outfit, quality product.

Cheers MM , had them saved as a favourite as someone mentioned them before.

Just a word about Crucial, they are a first class supplier but www.dabs.com (now changed to BT) can sometimes supply Crucial branded memory cheaper.

Now something easy (for you) I put spywear terminator on my computer, and try as i have, i cant get it off, i think it must be a hidden file or something the market not doing much. help me out please

Crucial,

Apart from the price I am attracted to the way they deal with the odd problem. For example I had a small batch of cards that failed in an early Ixus we had - and they replaced them immediately.

The question I'd ask is as to whether Dabs are as responsive. If not, then a small saving may not be worth the agro.

TP

TP

Of course you are right, the fact that Dabs are now part of BT tells you all you need to know about them.

I was just pointing out the option.

Just bought an HP SimpleSave Portable from Tesco. It's currently on offer in the store for 54.97.

It's a 320GB portable hard drive (2.5" Western Digital) with a a USB connection lead. It doesn't need any external power source and has inbuilt HP Software.

Why did I buy it? Couldn't resist! I'm a shopaholic. :-)

Well it's just so 'simple' to do your Backup with this . An idiot could do it.

Well, all you have to do is plug it in to your machine's USB connection, click on 'Start the bubbles, Sergei', and then without you having to do anything else whatsoever, it backs up every type of data file known to man that is present on your machine onto the HP SimpleSave Portable. In my case, that was just a mere 35GB.

Obviously, the software has a Restore facility too. Haven't used that yet, though.

I'm sure there are lots of 'Reviews' on thi thing out there if you should want to check it out.

The software, is 'typical HP' but you can be selective with the file types you choose to have backed up. I didn't bother with that for the first time, merely backing up 'everything'. I might have a play around with this stuff a bit later.

But the main thing with this is, that if you have not got a clue where to start, then this takes all that problem completely and utterly away from you.

And you end up with a Backup of ALL your data for a mere 55, which is dirt cheap and for peanuts, IMHO. If anything happens to you and your machine goes wrong too, wifey can retrieve all the 'stuff'.

One important main feature of the SimpleSave is, that it keeps beavering away in the background and keeps doing a new backup from any new files that are about whenever your machine goes into idle.

By the way, it doesn't backup any programs - just data.

Lesson 1

Me: Right love. Come and have a look at this.

Now then. On a computer, what's the opposite to Backup?

Wifey: Erm, err. Front down?

Me: Hahahahaha

Wifey: I'm sorry, but I can't do it now. I've got the ironing to finish off.

Ah well. I tried.

:-)

lol

Sod that EL get one of those cheap "magic" baskets from Argos , chuck the washing in and two days later turns up washed and ironed in the wardrobe.

Bloody marvellous :-)

If you want magic baskets or rather magic basket cases then you are on the wrong thread. Try the "MP"S expenses, laughing all the way to the bank" thread!

You ever get bored Haystack go see what you can find out about the Blaenau Gwent constitueny MP , biggest Labour majority in the UK in 1997 I think and now Independent.

Fantistic example of how the electorate can turn on those taking them for mugs.