PC Total Crash

Mine is a Dell Dimension 800 512 ram two hard drives (60 [drives D and E] and 30 gb [drive C]); Drive C: has win XP pro and Drive E has win XP home. The computer started functioning ok in the morning, it started slowing down gradually. First I thought it was the movie I was playing from the Internet (that happened before), but it slowed down to the point of a halt. I have AVAST anti-virus and Yahoo spyware running in the backgound and what not. I restarted the computer without Firefox, things were still slow. I thought I could go to E drive to access my files. There things were ok to begin with, but when I tried to save a 1.5 mb file (there were a couple of them), then things came to a halt again. I couldn't restore on this drive and I couldn't get back any more to the C: drive. Things just stalled. I could access the computer with safe mode either. I thought I could change the boot order and reinstall windows, but the windows cd was not recognized either.

The Dell first came with win 98 (later I changed to XP). I thought I could use a startup floppy and access the cd drive and use XP, but the error message said it was not dos based so it didn't access it (after doing scandisk). Then, on my friend's suggestion I tried to use knoppix to see if I could access the computer that way, but the cd was not recognized either. i am just plain stuck.

Do I now I have to trash the computer or is there any solution?

Please, SOS.

 

did you change the boot order to first boot device CD Rom in the BIOS, can you boot to the BIOS.

 

Yes. I have changed the boot order in the bios.

This morning, the computer slowly opened into the C drive. And immediately I started restoring it back to March 2 before I installed the new IE. The restoring went to about 80% and there it crawled to a stall again. It has been there for about half an hour. Now I don't know what to do.

 

Thank you, Aries.

I thought that hard drive failing was a possibility. But what I couldn't understand is that I couldn't boot to the second (win xp home) OS which is on a separate hard drive which is newer, nor could I boot to a cd rom drive (there are two of those, except only one is mentioned in the bios).

There are three possibilities here: 1) C: drive fails and it affects other drives as well. 2) A virus, trojan or worm affects all the drives. 3) The mother board has failed so I can't access any drives.

I can't determine which one is of these three is the real cause.

Even assuming my hard drive (C has failed, do I have any recourse except to trash the computer? That's the man question.

 

I downloaded SIW to a flash drive (on another computer [mac] and put it in my pc changed the boot order in the BIOS to "removable devices" and saved. When i got out of the BIOS it defaulted to my dual boot and went on till I got the Windows Logo screen and there it would remain foreve (making click, brr.. sounds). This happened many times before.

I did maintain the computer pretty regularly and defragged and cleaned it up probably not more than a week before it crashed.

The main problem is I can't get into any drives.

 

That's where the problem is: Even if I could find a disc diagnostic (I don't know where to get it), I can't seem to boot from a cd. If I could I would have used windows repair from win XP pro and reinstalled Win XP. But when I change the book order in BIOS to CD-rom drive, the booting bypasses it and goes to the dual boot screen (win XPPro and Win XP) and doesn't get past the Logo screen.

 

Yes, I have saved the changes and it does register the boot order. But the last couple of times, it went through the Dell logo screens to a blank screen with a flashing horizontal cursor. And there nothing happens. (This happened many times before, too.)

 

1) When I reopen the BIOS the boot order remains the same as the one when I previously saved.

2) When the computer goes beyond the Dell scrreen the cd rom drive light goes on for 3 seconds and then you have the blank screen with the cursor.

3) No messages like "insert a Cd and press any key" or any error messages.

4) The hard drive is an ultra ATA hard drrive, and the invoice of the computer doesn't mention any brand name.

 

Considering the age of this computer, a possible reason the CD is not booting is because it is set up as a Slave Drive (default in most cases), not a Master Drive. Some of these older BIOS's will not boot off of a Slave CD drive.
How to find out:
One way is to look at the BIOS for the drive detection, if it is a slave it will say so.
Another way is to open the case of the computer, and look at the back of the CDROM. You'll see a small plastic thing shoved into what appears to be a spot to plug something in. This is a jumper switch. Just above this jumper there should be a small diagram telling you just what the jumper is supposed to be, M for Master, S for Slave, and C or CSEL for Cable Select. If in the S position, move it over to the M position, after doing this unplug the wide ribbon cable (IDE cable) and use the other connection on this same ribbon to connect the CD rom.
If in C or CSEL positon, simply switch the cable connections, but I would set it as Master as in the above paragraph anyway.
If your second drive is on this same IDE cable, you'll need to have it unconnected so you can get your OS on your C drive going.
If you moved it over to be as a Slave with a C drive as the Master, your dual boot isn't going to work so well.

 

Hi Moorty, FWIW Google "Freeze your HDD ". I'm suggesting this because you described the dreaded HDD clatter. The idea is to take the HDD from the comp and put it in a ziplock bag squeezing as much air out of the bag as you seal it. Put it in your deep freeze for at least 4 hours ( some have left overnight) then refitted HDD to comp and fired up in one case for 30 minutes which enabled the guy to get info of the drive. Some have repeated the freeze process to get all their critical data off before complete shut down. It's worth a try as I agree with Pete regarding HDD failure. Neil.

 

I can understand that may be the case if the problem occurred in isolation. But it doesn't explain why I can't access either of the hard drives.

I am wondering if it may be the power supply failing or some such problem which created an all-drive inaccessibility. How do I know if that is the case?

 

Thank you for you reply. I will check that cd drive (and the other one too) tomorrow and let you know.

 

Sorry Moorty I didn't see two HDD's. I think you may have the PSU problem as you suggest seeing how it's affecting both drives. Unless you have access to another PSU it's difficult to isolate and test without the gear and knowledge. I bought a replacement PSU last year and had problems with it after a couple of weeks and it was hard to suspect a NEW unit but fortunately I had my old PSU and when refitted my comp performed as normal again. Getting a refund was another story but when the PSU played up it would not boot and just presented a blank screen even though the fans were working. You may have to buy/borrow a PSU to try. Neil.
ps. The PSU I bought was a 500W 2fan ball bearing the greatest!