whos online that can help me fix my computer

[ps2/bikevision]

ok ive got a problem. my computer is acting up. it wont load windows. im on my cell right now. i use my cell as a modem. last night i ran an antivirus scan using avg. tonight i go to turn on my computer and it wont do anything. it brings me to a window that says that windows was not shut down properly and gives me a chouce of what i want to do . safe mode, safe with networking, safe with comand prompt, last known config and start windows normally. none of them work. they all do the same thing, act like there loading but when they would normally bring up windows the screen is just black. the mouse moves the arrow but nothing else. all you see is the arrow and a black screen. please help i really hate using my cell for the net when i could use my computer.

you can call me on my cell or im me your cell and i will call you. mine is 574-849-1180

[dj]

PS2 have you tried reloading windows from your computers windows disk yet?

[YellowJacket!]

dounds like a dying hard drive.
Me...the computer geed...mines been rebooting on its own lately.

David

[ps2/bikevision]

dounds like a dying hard drive.
Me...the computer geed...mines been rebooting on its own lately.

David

thats not what i wanted to hear. i dont have the cash for a new computer. plus its a few years old. its only got a 30g hard drive now. it took several hours to update the soft ware the last time i had to restart it. it only had service pack one in it. it would be nice to get a new one but there not cheap.

[vadasz1]

you can buy a new hardrive for around $100 for a 500GB sized one.  If you really want to go cheap go to a computer liquidation place and see what they have.  A refurbished drive is somewhat cheaper but there is the risk that it may not last as long and the warranty is short or none.  But that didn't stop me from getting refurbished hard drives for my system.  They are about 4-5 years old (40 GB ea) and are working fine.  Usually you can de debranded drives that are made by the major mfg's but much cheaper also.

You can also look into refurbished computers.

Check out craigslist for good local deals aswell.

Lastly, what I would do is if you have multiple hard drives I would disconnect all except the one for where Windows is loaded and then just try re-installing Windows onto that drive and start afresh again.  Then reconnecty the other drives that have your data on them.  If you only have the one drive and have important stuff on it that wasn't backed up (you do do back ups right, like we all do right? ::) ::)  ) then just go ahead and buy a larger new drive and install Windows on that and then see if youcan save any data of your old drive.  Don't forget that you should NOT have the old drive connected to the system when doing this last part as you don't want to accidently wipe out info on it.

Best of luck
Robert

[dj]

I still say to reload windows from your cd.  DO NOT do a FORMAT, just reinstall your windows.

Most likely all that has happened is that your drive has gotten fragmented and parts of the boot sector have been moved to another section of the disk which is making Windows not be able to find it when it is trying to boot up.

Most hard drives will last for 5-10 years if they are properly maintained.  About once per month you should run the defrag program.

[YellowJacket!]

I still say to reload windows from your cd.  DO NOT do a FORMAT, just reinstall your windows.

Most likely all that has happened is that your drive has gotten fragmented and parts of the boot sector have been moved to another section of the disk which is making Windows not be able to find it when it is trying to boot up.

Most hard drives will last for 5-10 years if they are properly maintained.  About once per month you should run the defrag program.

PS2 and I talked on the phone earlier.  Its a compaq and while upgrading to a bigger drive may be a good option, older computer BIOS's dont support the larger dirve.
My first suggestion was to remove the drive and hook it up to another computer via a USB adapter and copy over his documents to back them up. then do a scan disk to check the drive for errors.
Many Compaq restord disks give only one option and that is to do a full restore which wipes the drive and reinstalls the OS.  Some have the option of "repairing" a setup but that usually leaves you with a  "windows.old" folder full of your old programs and docs and on a 30 gig drive can take up a chunk.
Second suggestion was to remove all peripherals except KB, mouse, video card (if there is one) and any add in cards. then try to reboot.  In my many years of experience, this will sometimes solve failures to boot related to a bad piece of hardware.

David

[ps2/bikevision]

well the computer is back up and running. thanks david and dj. ended up having to do a full system restore. only thing i lost was system updates and my anti virus. no biggie ill re down load them. it took over an hour just to download avg the last time. ill have to wait till after 9pm to start it cause thats when my free min. start. (cellphone is my modem) my moms computer wouldnt connect to the net either when i got home from work. just had to reset the modem. happens every so often.

so thanks all.

[YellowJacket!]

Glad we could help.

It was nice taliking to you also.

Take Care,

David

[kwells]

yes, Im glad I could help
:P

[dj]

Glad to hear you are back up and running again.

[Tanno]

Most likely all that has happened is that your drive has gotten fragmented and parts of the boot sector have been moved to another section of the disk which is making Windows not be able to find it when it is trying to boot up.

Just a couple of cents here:

If a windows system gives you boot options at all, then your boot sector is fine.

If the windows system doesn't load with any of the available boot options it gives you, then windows is screwed. (when is it not?)

If your boot sector was hosed, you would only see something like -- "Non-system disk or disk error.... insert disk and press ENTER."

On a system with Windows ME or lower (i.e. W98, W95, W3.xx, W3.x, or DOS X.XX), and your boot sector is hosed, the usual fix would be to boot to A: and execute FDISK /MBR.
Now, if the CMOS info is correct for the drive, this would "rebuild" the master boot record and you'd be in business.

Another note: One the older BIOS's that didn't support LDA (Logical Disk Addressing), there was a trick I used to use. Instead of using the acual numbers from the drive specs. We would half the cylinders and double the heads. This would 'fool' the BIOS for the correct drive size. But this hasn't been an issue since the advent of AUTO detecting HDD's in CMOS. This has been.... what?.... 13 years now?

FYI (For Yall's Info)

[kwells]

dang
all this time I thought the apostrophe was ya'lls 

[Brian Moffet]

It is, unless it implies ownership.  Then it's Ya'll's

Brian

[Tanno]

It's really y'all's.

[h2olawyer]

I am often amazed at the poor use of the apostrophe.  I see it often in signs and lots of advertising materials.  Makes me think that if the producer of the item or the owner of the store is not smart enough to get the grammar correct, is he (she) smart enough to know about the product?

In general, the apostrophe in a contraction takes the place of the missing letters.  In possessives, it goes before the s for most singular possessive nouns and after the s if the possessive is plural.  An apostrophe is unnecessary (even erroneous) when used in a plural word that does not denote possession (unless it is a contraction).  Granted, it is one of the more obscure and difficult punctuation rules in the english language.  Like most usage rules, there are exceptions.

H₂O

[inanecathode]

Thats funny, all this time i've thought the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe  :o ???
Learn something every day :D

[Night Vision]

apostrophe abuse is widespread  :'(

....................................................but there is hope for a cure in our lifetime......

.... http://www.apostropheabuse.com

[Brian Moffet]

It's really y'all's.

I know, I was yanking his leg  ;D

[Rick G]

H20, you make me wish I had been paying attention ,in school.  Actually ,it probably wouldn't have made much difference as I didn't become much of a student  until I was in my early thirty's, and started learning about stuff I was interested in.