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Help PC help required!

simonf

By simonf
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simonf Newbie

simonf

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Hi guys, i hope that someone can help me! I have a PC that is networked to 2 other machines. Last night the principle PC started on a Go-Slow! It seamed to freeze so i turned it off at the power source. Now i thought i would just be able to start it in safe mode in the morning and all would be well - however everytime i start the machine in safe mode as prompted it lists all of the drivers and then freezes. I have also tried starting windows as normal and it just goes to a blank screen and then nothing! I have tried starting the machine at the last safe point and again just a blank screen!

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers guys

Simonf

REHABS FOR QUITTERS!!

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Sparky Grand Master

Sparky

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Hiya

Safe mode can take quite a long time to kick off after listing the drivers. Have you waited long enough? What does the machine do if you try and start it normally?

Unplug all USB items and try to start the machine normally. Also make sure there's no disc in the DVD/CD players.

British Fart to Florida, Nude to New York, Dunce to Denmark, Numpty to Newfoundland.  And Shitfaced Silly Sod to Sweden.

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bigsi Newbie

bigsi

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try this first.

boot off your xp cd, goto repair and enter the following

fixboot

after that enter

chkdsk /r

after thats done it will take a while try rebooting and see if it goes into safe mode first.

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simonf Newbie

simonf

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Bigsi, i would if i could find the Xp cd!!! :( anything i can do in DOS? Please bare in mind that i am by self admission a complete computer numpty! :)

Sparky - if i try to open windows normally i just get a blank screen - i have left it over five minutes and still nothing! Not only that but the little green light indicating hard drive activity is dormant!

REHABS FOR QUITTERS!!

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peter_england99 Newbie

peter_england99

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Simon,

I had a similar problem. Turned out to be the RAM. The PC was crashing because it couldn't load the OS into RAM. It took me ages to find the problem. Tried loading win 95, NT & XP but all failed late into the installation. DOS ran OK (doesn't use much memory and hence didn't use the doggy DIMM). Once I changed the RAM the PC was OK.

With the benefit of hindsight, the day the PC failed was a day with thunderstorms and we had a power failure. So I'm assuming that the electricity supply spiked and took out the ram. I now use a surge protector.

Hope you get it sorted without to much effort and costs.

Regards,

Peter.

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Sparky Grand Master

Sparky

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Yeah - could be RAM. I've sometimes had success with just removing and reseating it. Also, while you're in there, it would be worth doing the same with IDE/SATA cables.

You really need to find that XP disc though.

The hard disk must be functioning to an extent, or you wouldn't even get to safe mode.

British Fart to Florida, Nude to New York, Dunce to Denmark, Numpty to Newfoundland.  And Shitfaced Silly Sod to Sweden.

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rogerch Newbie

rogerch

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try this first.

boot off your xp cd, goto repair and enter the following

fixboot

after that enter

chkdsk /r

after thats done it will take a while try rebooting and see if it goes into safe mode first.

I have reservations on MS Repair, especially if I have data on that drive, I have bad experiences using it. I always partition the drive for data but that's another story.

Roger

Life is like a sewer, what you get out of it, depends on what you put into it. (Tom Leahrer)

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simonf Newbie

simonf

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Hi there found the Xp professional Disc and ran it - it didn't come up with a repair prompt, instead it just started installing. Once it had run its course it came up with a blue screen saying set up is starting windows - but after about an hour we realised that the computer was lying!!!

Now trying to partitian - and the computer is doing a hardware test - i have had to look at quite a few screen tests so far! Let you know what the verdict is of the tests.

REHABS FOR QUITTERS!!

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simonf Newbie

simonf

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All backed up on E-drive!

I have run a diagnostic test and it is showing that 'System Timer' has failed! anybody have any thoughts???? Aparently is sent 2000 clicks and no responce (what ever that means)

REHABS FOR QUITTERS!!

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simonf Newbie

simonf

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I have run a symptom tree on the fails to open OS tab and it would appear that channel 2 is not working correctly and the system timer has failed.

Anybody got a clue what this means and how i would go about fixing it?

REHABS FOR QUITTERS!!

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Bibs Grand Master

Bibs

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As far as I'm aware, the system timer is a battery operated clock on your motherboard from which the os derives it's time. Get a new battery, it's a watch battery kind of affair and swap it over.

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rogerch Newbie

rogerch

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I don't know, but, I'm suspicious of your ram, do you have two chips, if so taken one at a time out and see what happens. I mean take one chip out start it up, if still nothing shut it down and swap them if still nothing it ain't your ram. Does it give any sort of beep when you start it, these are a diagnostic code.

Roger

Life is like a sewer, what you get out of it, depends on what you put into it. (Tom Leahrer)

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peter_england99 Newbie

peter_england99

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Simon,

I downloaded the following free utility to test my RAM. It tests more thoroughly than the PC does on boot up. http://www.micro2000.co.uk/products/micros...mory_Tester.htm

When I had my RAM problems the PC on boot up occasionally realised that a DIMM was bad and disabled it. This caused the PC to run slowly as the OS was constantly having to read/write to the swap file on the hard disk. What was worse was when the boot up didn't diagnose a problem with the RAM. Then the PC would crash at some stage when reading/writing to the bad memory.

Regards,

Peter.

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simonf Newbie

simonf

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Thanks to you all for your help - got an I.T guy in and he says its F@cked! Oh well have to buy another tower :baby:

REHABS FOR QUITTERS!!

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