Resolved Compaq XP computer runs slow; locks up

One CD is My Presario- Learning More CD the other CD is Recovery CD.

 

I have now got all the information needed to get your Presario up and running again.

What you have got is a recovery CD and a copy of Windows XP. The recovery CD works in conjunction with the recovery partition on your hard drive. The set of 8 discs I mentioned earlier is something you can create without using the hard drive, a far better option IMO. All the drivers for the system are still available to download free from HP if required.

First though, as I have said before, you need to get the Windows XP key. It is also very important to be sure that the recovery partition is completely clean before it is used to restore the computer. It is unlikely that this has been infected but best be sure. Make sure when you do the scans that this recovery partition is included.

 

Just back on here after following several scans and other suggestions from Malware Virus Removal forum. I have run MalwareBytes, GMER Rootkit, MBRcheck, also DDS routine. Malwarebytes detected and removed half-dozen malwares including several x.bot files.

GMER did not detect any rootkits as I recall.

The last thing the Malware Virus Removal forum tech broni directed me was to create and Fdoc bootable disk to install a clean copy of "Standard MBR." After carefully going through all the proper steps in MBRWork portion of the Fdos disk, properly exiting MBRWork, per instructions I pressed ctrl+alt+del to reboot the Compaq computer which SHOULD have resulted in loading back to the XP Desktop.

This turned out not to be the case. I did the ctrl+alt+del command. The computer cycled back to beginning Compaq-XP-logo boot page, then stalled and went no further as the following error notice came up: "autochk program not found–skipping Autocheck. "

This notice comes up over and over as the PC cycles back the start of booting, comes to the same error statement over and over. Its stuck in some sort of loop and NEVER GETS TO THE DESKTOP! Hence, at this point, I can't perform any other scan/cleaning operations on this 5-6 year old Compaq Presario.

Any suggestions on how to possibly by-pass this "autochk missing..." glitch and get to the Desktop? Markmadras last posted: "I have now got all the information needed to get your Presario up and running again." He mentions a set of 8 disks creatable without need of the hard drive. I don't know how that would work, and if I recall rightly, I checked and found such disks are no longer available (might be wrong about that). He also states the my brother's Recovery CD works in conjunction with the Compaq recovery partition. And to make sure recovery partition is scanned clean too. I assume that running Malwarebytes, removing the .bot malware and GMER showing no rootkit includes the recovery partition.

So 2 questions or confirmations I'm wanting:
1. Assuming there is no way around this "autochk missing..." glitch, I assume the only recourse may be to run the Recovery CD...?

2. If for some reason the Recovery CD will not boot properly, due to "autochk missing..." or whatever, I still have the Compaq XP OS Disk which looks to be a full, assumably stand-alone or install-alone copy of XP Home OS. Do you think I could use this OS Disk alone, absent the Recovery CD and would I need the Windows XP KEY, which I do have now.

Any advice or further actions you can give on this problem would be much appreciated.

 

Hi tvjohns and welcome back to this forum.

I have found a fix for the missing autochck.exe but it's complicated and there is no guarantee even with that fixed that there will not be more corruption in the registry to repair. It is here in post 8 of this link:

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/1079904.htm

The first thing I would try is the recovery CD and let me know how you get on. If you place it in the drive before boot it may boot from it or you will have to get into your bios and change the boot order to CD drive 1st.

 

Hi, I really, truly appreciate you getting back to me on this. BUT to make a long story short, only a couple days after contacting you, I found Recovery CD wouldn't load for some reason. ALSO: broni on the Malware Virus forum put me onto Windows XP Repair Manual using the Full Windows XP OS CD and by "hacking" around a bit managed to perform a Windows XP full install on my brother's Compaq. I loads up fine. I need to reinstall his applications such as firewall and antivirus and custom tweaks he had but it appears to be working fine. As everything was erased, any malware is also gone.

Thus problem solved, albeit in a very "non-standard" fashion.

Again thanks so much

 

Your welcome.

Please click on thread tools at the top of the first post and mark the thread as resolved.

 

Well, turns out thread maybe not resolved just yet. I worked on re-customizing my brother's Compaq Desktop today and discovered that what had been this computer's original C:\ drive was not what the Windows XP OS disk recognized and formatted for the new clean install. My brother had some years ago added a secondary internal Seagate HDD for backup storage which the computer saw as E:\. Somehow, Windows XP OS Disk recognized this as the root C:\ drive and the original C:\ root drive does not even show up as a hard drive at all by any letter name.

My brother is ok with the larger (120 Gig) erstwhile E:\ drive now being the primary C:\. But he would like to be able to access the previous C:\ (40 gigs) as secondary D:\ backup.

Been a long time since I ever installed a hard drive and never under circumstances like this. Do you think if I just opened the desktop case, removed the now invisible ex-C:\ change the proper jumper if such exists from primary to secondary and reinstalled it that this would make it detectable as E:\? And probably change jumper on now new C:\ as well to primary. I don't remember now for sure if on some computers whether primary and secondary drive is determined always by jumper just ordinal position in drive bay. Specially on this 5+ years old Compaq Presario.

Any tips or help on this peculiar development would be much appreciated!

 

It sounds as if the old hard drive has a problem. Have a look inside the case and check all the connections on the drive then boot up and go into the bios and see if it is showing the other drive. You could try moving the jumpers on the drive but if the bios dosen't show it, it probably won't make much difference. Chances are, considering the age of the computer, that the drive has failed.

 

RE: Invisible Hard drive. I opened the case; all connections looked tight and sound. I did not try moving any jumpers. I then booted into BIOS. Storage screen SHOWS 2 hard drives:

IDE Primary 0 120034MB, ST3120814A

IDE Primary 1 120000MB, WDC WD1200JB – 75CRA0

Note that "both" disks show size in 120GB range. My brother is certain the original Hard Drive that came with this Compaq machine was on the order of 40GB and would have been the drive labeled WD, which I assume stands for Western Digital. The secondary Backup drive which I helped him install years ago was a 120GB Seagate, which I assume the NOW Primary 0 labeled ST stands for Seagate.

As the WD drive so-called is not only now the secondary drive, but is also shows as similar 120GB size leads me to guessimate the following: The initial XP repair routine failing, i.e., locking up, I finally hit upon a non-standard, dare I say hacker-like, work-around to get the initially "reluctant" Windows XP OS CD to finally recognize what turned out to be the 120GB Seagate drive and to re-install a fresh copy of XP.

Basically the XP Repair routine recognized only the secondary Seagate drive, but refused to load XP onto that hard disk, reporting it as "Not Partitioned." Must have meant an _unacceptable_ partition because the drive did show as partitioned (go figure). Basically what I wound up doing was clicking on "Delete the partition" (the upgrade rroutine provided for that). Then I was given the option create a partition on the now partitionless secondary hard drive which made it now the primary C:\ and the fresh install of XP then went to completion.

In summary, what I'm guessing is the original Western Digital hard drive probably did shoot craps as you surmise, and the goofy work-around I fumbled through had the interesting side-effect of cloning the secondary drive into the primary while leaving the _ghost_ of its old self behind, albeit labeled WD.

[If you've gotten a headache reading all this, it also gave me one writing it, as well as working through that crazy install process. ]

However, right or wrong in my surmise, BIOS shows 2 drives; XP sees only one, 120GB in size.

Any tips, tricks or expert advice on what's going on here; even any possibility of resurrecting the old 40Gig Western Digital, I'd be interested in reading.

 

There is only one quick trick you could try with the suspect drive and that is to: from shut down disconnect it, reboot, shut down, re-connect it, re-boot. If it still doesn't appear in explorer then I would assume it as dead. (Do not change any connections on the drive when the computer is switched on)

When you were doing the windows install it would have needed a partition with enough space to install and for the boot sector to go at the beginning of the drive. It is probably the required boot sector space that was already occupied so it needed to wipe it with a new partition.

So, you are back up and running again. Unless there is anything else please now mark this as resolved.