PC Total Crash

Thank you, RL for your idea. Except I looked on the Internet, and PSUs for an Dimension 800 are either very expensive or hard to get. But I will open the computer tomorrow and fool around with the cd drives and see what I else I can do.

 

Today, I did go inside the computer and I couldn't take out the cd drives to change the jumper settings. I gave up on it. I looked up on the second hard drive and removed the jumper so that it could be recognized as a slave drive in the bios (but it wasn't!) and also changed the data plug to the middle one to make it a slave drive (But that was a mistake -- the computer went plain blank. So I changed it back to where it was; that was ok and the computer booted.) I cleaned the fan inside the housing and cleaned a bit everywhere. When I booted the computer the first time, it took quite a while (about 10 minutes -- as it was trying to get out of unsuccessful restore (80%) and fianlly gave me a message about that and then finally I got the desktop back. Immediately, I went to unpdate Avast and started running it. It went through checking files -- after about 8000 files, the computer stalled with a clicking noise (probably the hard drive.) I couldn't open my computer to get to the cd drive or to flash drive. Then I force shut it and I thought I would change the boot order to cd drive. I did, but when I save the settings and press ok, I end up on a different which looked for a different BIOS (instead of Phenix this is Promise technology) and it would wait there for ever. Or sometimes it would go through to a screen which says "disc read error; press Alt+Clt+Dlt to restart" -- When I go through the process repeatedly, sometimes I get the message "Operating System not found." So, all the previous problems showed up plus a couple more. Then for today I gave up.

The clicking noise happens when the computer has been on and working for a little while (say about 20 mintues); before then the performance was reasonable but you did hear the gurling noise in place of the clicks.

To sump up, no luck so far.

 

Then, I tried to reboot once again, this time into the second hard drive which has XP Home. I was able to open the cd drive from there and started installing the Seagate utility; the installation hung up toward the end. I went into the flash drive and installed the SIW and was able to read some information. The bios was intel A11 (not phoenix as I said above). Both the hard drives are ATA-ATAP drives; the first Seagate and the second maxtor. The first was running at 107F and he second was running at 77F. That's the only significant factor I could notice.

The installation of the diagnostic utility meanwhile came up with an error message saying it needed Netframe 2 which apparently i didn't have on the computer. And the computer froze. Ctr+Alt+Del didn't work. I force shut the computer. I will try again later trying to get the Netframe 2 or whatever. That's the progress to the moment.

 

One more try, and there has been a breakthrough. I rebooted the computer, downloaded and installed Netframe 3.5 and ran the setup for the Seagate diagnostic utility. Both the hard drives failed the short data test, but the newer one passed the long data test. The software hung up on the older drive (C. I then downloaded and installed Advanced Windows Care software and ran a Smart Defrag on drive C: it went through about 12% (75,000 files) and then stalled. From all this it became rather clear to me that the C drive is on its way out, if not completely gone.

Now the only question is what is the best method of retrieving the files from that drive as harmlessly as possible: i can think of burning a dvd or try to get them by the network from the Mac. Any which way i go seem to fraught with danger. If anyone has a suggestion, I would be grateful.

I thank all the folks who have been looking in helping me with suggestions, links to software and encouragement: Aries, Pete, Retired Learner and so on.

 

A further problem has come up: The old hard drive (C is still active even when I boot to the newer drive (second OS) such that after half an hour or an hour the system hangs and nothing moves. You can tell that it's the old drive from the single click noises you hear. From the newer drive you hear click and brrrrrr. (Of course, this may be on its way out too!). Even the booting has been erratic. When the computer is cold (as in the mornings) the boot goes straight through to the second OS (set to default now). I tried to unplug the data plug from the old drive and change the jumper settings (to the first position) and plug (using black end of it). But no matter how many different ways I tried, the computer can't find the OS. The only way it works is to have the old HD plugged as it was before and have the second as a slave (with no jumper settings and grey plug in the data). When I unplug the first HD do I have to first disable it in system profiles or change the drive letter?

I can't remove the plug of the old HD from the drive itself as it stuck snugly and I haven't been able to get to the jumper settings either; the HD is hard to remove and I can't find an opening to it. That's why I am trying to find a work around.

I will appreciate some help on this. As it is, the computer is just simply not usable.

 

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Pete:

That's all there was in the content of the boot.ini file.

Thanks.

 

Hello Pete:

Some new developments: I think after I wrote here the last time I ran a Conficker check, installed MS patch and put in Service Pack III on my E: drive. Not only the booting was faster, but I had little trouble staying on the computer for a length of time. I found I had no trouble with the clicking noise of the hard drive. I was able to retrieve almost all the files I wanted from the C: drive to the E drive. I burned a couple of DVDs with the files that were retrieved. However, when I tried the third time, the drive was not recognized anymore, and I could do any more burning. This morning, I opened the connections inside the computer and found they were intact.

Then I tried this time to boot back into C: drive and there was no trouble in doing that either. That gave me the idea that I would do Conficker check in C too and put in a patch. I also ran a thorough virus and spyware check using MS windows live virus and spyware check. It took many hours yesterday and this morning I booted into C: drive and it went through a three-stage process of fixing things and finally rebooted itself into C: It took a while, but it did it any way. The problems disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared.

I can't say what fixed things, but this morning again there seems to be no problem, except the dvd writer drive not being recognized again. I don't know what might have caused. It's an optotech drive newer than the other dvd drive. If I could fix that, I think the computer will be completely usable. If you have any suggestions regarding that I would appreciate. I am supplying the boot.ini content for this boot below:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Thank you.

 

To follow up on the previous post, the power to the dvd drive is on and when I open the drive and put in a disk and close the door the light goes through a normal flickering and then stops. Then nothing else happens, such as the options screen about what to do.

 

No, based on the check, I didn't have any evidence that the system was infected with Conflicker.

I have uninstalled and installed (after rebooting) the drive from device manager and it says the device is functioning normally. Now, (I can't remember before) when I place a cd (music), the cd plays; and I think from Nero I can see that it will also record. However, when it cannot play or record dvd's (two days ago Nero recorded two dvds on that drive and quit on the third saying that there was some power under__ (whatever). And the problem happened since then. When I place a commercial dvd and press on the drive letter in My Computer you get message "place a disk in the drive ";and if you open the drive there is an empty screen. No contents.

 

Yes, the dvd is non-functional in both OSs.

I have, yesterday, used Microsoft utility to repair the drive, which deletes "the upper and lower shells" and reinstalled Nero after rebooting; but none of that had any effect on the drive.

 

I suspected as much. I will replace it soon. Thank you very much for your help, Pete.