Never have worked with 2K

I have and opertunity to (ATTEMPT ) to fix a messed up Win2K machine.

I have just finished ( I Hope ) fixing a Win ME ( never worked with it either ) machine and it seems to be working quite well. It also is an app 5 year old Compaq.

Now I would like to know what differences I might find in the 2K machine.

I have been told it was close to XP.

BillyBob

 

Thanks Steve.

BillyBob

 

I have used Win2Kpro for about 4 years. Pretty good OS, considering all the complexities. XP seems a bit more complicated; more code, more processes going on in the background; slower, harder to troubleshoot. As for ME, I used it on a few machines back in 2000 and I did not like what I saw. Don't waste your time. BTW, start with a clean hard disk: Remove the partitions, create a partition or two, format with NTFS, and reinstall Win 2000 clean. Then get the updates from Windows Update website. That's been my best experience.

 

Greg - they aren't his boxes. Trying to do the techie thing for a friend so, while I agree (and imagine BB does too), scrub and reload may not be an option.

BB - as noted, 2K is like a somewhat simple minded version of XP-pro and except for it not having some tools available at all and having a few others located differently, your XP work will stand you in good stead.

 

This may really not belong here. But it all fits together.

That be the truth. The whole truth and nothing but.

But I discovered something that changed the story. I have one of the Friends' ( soon to be Daughter-in-Law ) machines here that HAD Windows ME on it. It is an OEM ( Compaq ) about 4/5 years old. It had McAfee AV on it ( supposedly( ya right)) The first thing I did ( or tried ) was to run McAfee to check thing out. HA HA HA.

I ran House call On-Line. SEVEN ( 7 ) Viruses found. ( glad it was on by itself ) Three of them were in the C:/-Windows/Restore. It cleaned SOME of them. Then I ran SpyWare Doctor. It did some cleanup but still did not get them all. I also believe some of them were in the Special partition under System SAV ( or something like that )

After some searching and cursing I finally found out how to shut down System Restore ( which is well hidden I and forgotten the ME had ) Still did not fix everything.

Next step. Win98 Startup Disk inserted and FDISK run. Delete-Repartiton-Format. It now has Win98SE and Avg7 Free on it. I just hope she has the Recovery disk ( or what ever it is called ) so I can get the Video and NIC drivers. But then they may well be just for WinME.

Nvidia Riva TNT2M64 Video card.

Compaq 10/100 WOL nic. Which SE picked up OK but I do not have the drivers.

I have the Sound working because I had a SB Live card and CD sittin here doing just collecting dust. Took some doing ( in the BIOS ) to get the OnBoard AC97 shut down.

You may wonder why I did not run Fdisk right after Housecall. I thought about it but figured that I would get in a bit of Education with things like SpyWare Doc etc. And I DID learn one thing for sure. Compaq does NOT make their machines for the average user to work on.

Also I did get some ( at lot ) of Pictures off of it and onto CDs before the **** really the the fan. They have been VIRUS/SPYWARE checked and they seem to be OK. I am VERY glad that I did not not try to transfer them to one of my machines first off.

She has the other machine with Win 2K on it. She wants me to set up a Router and get her new Laptop and the other two hooked up to it. When ( and if ) I get his one fixed up it and the Laptop may go on. But I do not think the 2K machine should UNTIL I can check it out.

BillyBob

 

Good job and good idea about making sure the 2K box is clean.

Based on what you've found, I gotta wonder about how up-to-date the 2K machine is. Should be at SP4 and the huge number of patches/hotfixes that have followed.

 

Hey Newt

You are not the only one that is wondering.

BB

 

Main problem ( I believe ) found. CPU OVERHEAT/ Fan not running. It would run just so long and then freeze ( heat ) up and quit.

Plus the BIOS would not hold settings from one start to the next. UNLESS it sat for at least 15 Minutes.

Trash man will get it Monday. I can't see wasting time on it.

BillyBob

 

Surely not BB! Your parts and pieces bin will take 'em for later jigsawing together a system for another grandkid or someone at least, won't it? Hmm, don't think I ever saw you give up on a sadly broken system.

 

Your idea is well taken. BUT, I have enough NEWER ( and I think better )spare parts to build two new ones.

All I really need is a Case, MB and RAM.

If the CPU had not been overheating I might not have.

BB

 

Late breaking news.

I found out last night that the PC in question had been DROPPED from a height of about four ( 4 ) feet onto a carpet covered CEMENT floor. That must explain the dent in the case. And why one CDROM would only work part time.

I personally don't think I could really trust any component in it.

BillyBob