My Dell is not well

Hi,

I have been using an old Dell Inspiron 7500 (500MHz) for many years now and not had many problems until recently. The machine runs Windows XP but died about 4 weeks ago.

I decided to reload my Norton Ghost Image which I have done successfully on other occasions. The load was successful and the machine started up correctly. Since the image was old I thought I would update some of its applications. Old were replaced by new and everything worked fine. That is until I loaded a newer version of Norton Internet Security 2004. On reboot a blue screen of death appeared complaining of some critical error which needed to halt the machine. Since I have messed about with the partitioning of the machine I thought it was something that I had done.

I repeated the same process several times more and the machine failed in exactly the same place - after Norton had been reloaded.

So then I decided to installed the OS from scratch and not use the ghost image at all. I used a set of six Windows floppy disks (downloaded from Microsoft) to boot the machine which then allowed me to start the Windows XP Pro CD. The installation would now fail at varying points in the installation. It would often complain that a file could not be written to disk. On other occasions the install would complete but the final reboot would fail as it did with the ghost image restore.

Now I am suspicious that there maybe a fault with the hardware but I have never received an error suggesting that the HDD has a bad sector or whatever.

I am now unable to perform a complete installation, parts of the procedure just seem to repeat indefinitely such as entering the product installation number.

Is it possible that there is a virus at work here somewhere maybe in the BIOS or on the set of boot disks used to start the machine?

Is there anyway to verify that the HDD is functioning correctly using a boot floppy disk application? Are there any other diagnostic tools available that would allow me to check the hardware etc?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Best Regards Farmer Jo

 

Hi,

Yes one of the things I did when I loaded the ghost image was to verify the HDD using the Windows tools. They ran and did not report any errors at that time.

I will try to reload the ghost image again and perform the check you suggested. I'll let you know what the outcome was.

Here goes for the 15th load attempt!

Best Regards Farmer Jo

 

Jo .......

Don't want to explicitly imply that this is your problem, but quite often incorrect memory timing will cause a similar result. Hold it! Seeing as how this is the same machine that ran fine for quite some time and assuming you haven't made any recent hardware changes, where does that lead us? You might want to try pulling your memory and cleaning the contacts with an eraser, then re-seating it. Same thing goes for your video card while you are in there. Get a can of air and clean your fans and blow out the fins of your heat sink. Time for a little "barn" cleaning. Hate to say it but the other thing to check is your power supply - are your voltages still within spec?

If, after these basic checks, you still have a problem, you will probably come out ahead monetarily to consider a new MoBo and processor - you can buy em' new (not quite the latest and greatest, but almost) for under $130.

 

Thanks for the advice,

This I will try before I do the next re-install. Should be fun taking the old machine apart!

Do you have any recommendations as to where I might buy a replacement laptop that is only used for surfing and email?

At present I run Windows XP Pro and the machine has a 500MHz processor which has always been a little slow given that Norton Internet Security 2004 is also installed. Perhaps I should try another firewall and antivirus program any suggestions here also?

Best Regards Farmer Jo

 

Your could try some off lease Web sites such as Dell...

- Dell USA Off Lease
- Dell Canada Off Lease

I've got some other that I will post but I can't find the links just yet...DDDOOOHHH!

Couple examples from Dell USA...

7C99L01 DELL (NO O/S) INSPIRON 2500 700MHz 192MB 5GB 24X (NO NIC) 56K $478.00
6TPJ911 DELL (NO O/S) INSPIRON 2500 900MHz 128MB 20GB 24X (NO NIC) 56K $610.00
7CRT911 DELL (NO O/S) INSPIRON 2500 900MHz 128MB 20GB 24X (NO NIC) 56K $610.00
7RSJ911 DELL (NO O/S) INSPIRON 2500 900MHz 128MB 20GB 24X 10/100 NIC 56K $630.00
5Y7Z611 DELL (NO O/S) INSPIRON 2500 1000MHz 192MB 20GB DVD (NO NIC) 56K $775.00

 

Hi,

Thanks to all that helped out here.

I did give the machine a good blow out and swapped the RAM stick from one socket to the other (thats never been used).

So far the installation has been successful without any problems yet. I have taken a ghost image and will attempt to reload Norton Internet Security 2004 or some other firewall/virus checker at a later stage.

Regards FarmerJo

 

FarmerJoJo

You might want to look at this link from microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

Also you can have a look at these software programs too

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

http://www.free-av.com/

http://www.avast.com/

http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html

http://smb.sygate.com/buy/download_buy.htm

Just click the links and it will take you there...

 

Hi,

Many thanks. I will check them out soon.

Regards FarmerJo

 

Your welcome and i hope it helps