pc troubleshooting help

[durendal]

Thanks V guyver for all the suggestions. Unfortunately, I'm already sick and tired of always fixing that computer. I have already singled out the problem and it was really the driver the screwed up the OS. It probably replaced some important system file which prompted it to show the BSOD. So no matter what I do, it won't boot up using that HDD. What's funny is that the epson is already an old printer and I have been using it prior to the computer's first crash. The only difference is that I couldn't find the installation CD and had to download the driver off the net. Well, serves me right to download off a site other than epson's official site.

Well, I guess the only thing I could do is to connect it to my other computer and fix the OS like Ryuki suggested. But my OS is already XP SP4, while I'm not sure of the crashed HDD since I'm not the one using it. I plan on fixing it when I purchase an additional RAM for that PC so the performance improves a little. Of all the things I hate is reinstalling everything, so reformatting is totally out of the question.

[*V Guyver]

your hard drive can be dying too. You may want to invest in a cheap 400gb harddrive.

As for drivers. Driver's are basically a small program designed to communicate software and hardware to the motherboard and operating system. In that way it's basically the go-between guy in how your computer works, sorta like a mini digital processor. So when a driver malfunctions, it tends to shutoff the communication, but it also at times causes data corruption and at times it extends to other drivers and software, thus screwing up your PC. The blue screen of death is actually a safe-fail tool designed to prevent the entire loss of all your data in the pc and prevent damage to the computer itself. There is no OS outthere immune to this, even mac OS and Lynix suffer from the same problems. Windows tends to suffer the most because there are countless programs for windows and combinations of them on't mesh well at times.

[durendal]

No, I don't think I'll be needing a new HDD any time soon as the HDD was only bought last year. One of the longest lasting hardware I have is the HDD. I currently have a number of IDE HDD (3 I think) which is currently unused. I'm waiting to get an external HDD enclosure so I can use them via USB. Since SATA are now the current standard in HDD technology, new motherboards only carry a single IDE connector to connect your CD/DVD drives, which I am no longer able to use them.

[*V Guyver]

I see, you could always use a sata to IDE adaptor.

[durendal]

Even if I were to copy all the existing data in the HDD, I still have no idea on how to fix the screwed up OS. I just can't simply copy the system files on my working PC to the crashed PC, as the service pack for both OS are different.

[*V Guyver]

oh, you can directly connect that harddrive to another PC, either with or without the adaptor depending on the motherboard. It's how I recovered my lost data from another PC. Afterwords, I can just reformat it and start all over from scratch. However, starting over is a bit time consuming with wll the drivers and not to mention the OS that you'd have to install into it. Granted, your idea may be better after all in that regard, but at least you have a way to recover your data.

[durendal]

Well, truth be told, I really don't care about the data in that HDD, since administratively, it's not mine. What I am worried about is how I could fix the OS without having to redo all the reformat and reinstalling, because as I have stated many times, I use this as a last resort. And i haven't found a single effective method in the net that could help me with my predicament. Which kinda sucks.

[*Jess♥]

if it's bsod, then what does that mean?

did you get a readout of the information presented by it?

if not then i think the first thing you need to do is attempt to obtain the information that it gives you.

I know that can be a pain as from my memory of this phenomenon, it does not stay on for a long time.

i think that up to and before the point of obtaining the data given by the stop error, any actions taken is essentially stumbling in the dark.

let's get this sorted my friend!

here is the wikipedia page on blue screen of death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death

this may give some clues as to how to gather the data presented.

as i did a very quick search on how to gather the appropriate information, i came across the following information on yahoo answers-

this may be of some use http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100318152215AAaavvS

[durendal]

Yup, I know the stop code error (which I indicated in earlier an post, stop code 000021a, with 2 different error codes). I set up the PC that it would not reboot upon BSOD, but freeze with the message of the error. This helps me identify the problem and make it easier to repair the PC. unfortunately, the stop error seems to be a general code that has a wide range of causes. And mostly point to error involving system files. This is the reason why I am contemplating copying my system files to the crashed HDD, but the issue of compatibility between SP3 and SP4 is complicating things.

[*V Guyver]

well, that seems to only leave 2 options left. Take it in for repair, or buy diskwarrior to repair the OS yourself.

Sorry, wish I had that PC on my hand,s I might of been able to figure it out in person.

[durendal]

Diskwarrior? Isn't that supposed to be a Mac application? And should I require it, I don't think there is any need for me to buy it since I know other avenues of obtaining it. You're talking to a pirate.

I don't think I can take it anywhere to repair since what those idiots would do is just reformat the whole thing.

Thanks for the encouraging words anyway. I knew from the start that there's no hope. I'm just using this avenue to vent out my frustrations.

[*Jess♥]

do you only have 2 hard drives?

if you have a spare, then surely you could install up to service pack 3 so you can copy files across?

it's not as much of a pain as a full re-install since you don't need to mess around with your extra programs.

[durendal]

I have more than 2. I have 2 HDD which are SATA, and 4 others that are IDE. But here's the pickle, my Computer uses SP4, and the crashed HDD uses SP3. Can't exactly downgrade my PC just to fix the other one can I? I'm rather frustrated at how often I had to repair that computer which is why I'm not exactly trying my best to fix it. And you know what's funny? That other computer has a higher specs than my PC. What's really, really irritating is that I can use my PC for years without ever having to fix it, while I have to tweak the other PC every other month. I swear, this will be the last time I fix that PC.

hot pirate by the way.

[*Jess♥]

that's fair enough.

I know that you can get usb hardrive case to make them work.. not sure about how much hassle that would be though.

that computer does sound like a bit of a joke. are you sure it doesn't have a faulty PSU? I've heard that a faulty PSU can cause all sorts of problems with different components failing.

[*V Guyver]

I suggested the USB/CD boot device earlier as well as the installation CD for windows recovery console. At this point, I don't think he can make one unless he uses a friends PC.

Oh and I used the wrong term. I should of said Norton Disk Doctor instead of Diskwarrior, with Norton being an weaker immitation of mac's diskwarrior but for Windows.

if you decide to try again, or ask a friend, try this. if you already haven't

install the Recovery Console, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.

2. Click Start, and then click Run.

3. In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.

4. A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears. The Windows Setup Dialog Box describes the Recovery Console option. To confirm the installation, click Yes.

5. Restart the computer. The next time that you start your computer, "Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" appears on the startup menu.

Alternatively, you can use a Universal Naming Convention (UNC)-established connection to install the Recovery Console from a network share point.

[durendal]

I've already used the recovery console and it didn't work, both the Dos prompt and the repair option. And I hate Norton. Like I said many times before, the problem is the OS, not the physical drive.

V Guyver, I know you want to be helpful, but the steps you recommend have already been done as I have stated in my previous posts. I really can't thank you enough for the relentless aid and support you have been providing me. But there are times that one must let go and accept the fact that nothing else can be done.

[*V Guyver]

lol sorry. I was always a stubborn mule.

[durendal]

Since I have wasted much of everyones time with my pleas for assistance, I think that it is only fair that I update you guys of what happened.

I finally fixed the friggin PC. Turns out, the system files were corrupted due to bad clusters in the drive. I retried the repair install method, which was wierd because it gave me an error not being able to read certain files from the CD. I though the CD drive was going bad. So instead, I tried using the recovery console, manually reverting the system restore. To no avail, tried recovery console again, this time, I tried to check the drive with check disk (chkdsk). Turns out there were some bad clusters. Fixed the bad clusters and tried the repair install again. Worked like a charm. PC is now working fine, with the wireless lan card still shot. But at least I managed to make it work again with all the old configurations intact. So I did not format the drive, no reinstallation of any application was done. It just magically returned back to normal. And PC now runs much faster, no thanks to those bad clusters.

[*Jess♥]

awesome stuff.

thanks for letting us know

[*V Guyver]

wow congratz and nice. Never got to work around the bad cluster. You can do this from the regular windows.

Do you plan to finnaly create a boot disk for your PC incase anythign happens again?

[durendal]

V guyver: No, I still haven't created a boot disk seeing that the DVD drive has problems. Also, I fail to see how useful a boot disk would be if I can just turn the drive into a slave and copy everything off it.

Well, here we are again. After less than a month of usage and another problem has persisted. This time it doesn't show me a BSOD. Just a simple "error loading operating system" appears. I swear, I'm getting tired of fixing that damned PC. Anybody ever experienced this before? I'm inclined to think that the HD is going bad. With the bad clusters that happened previously, I won't be surprised if that would be the case.

So my question, do I throw that HDD away and buy a new one, or do you think it's still salvageable?

[*Jess♥]

hi, I'm having issues now so i thought i would ask for your views.

about 2 days ago, my new-ish computer experienced a blue screen of death.

it happened randomly, there didn't seem to be any precursor.

then today, my computer just froze. completely. nothing would work, the screen was just frozen, the mouse would not work or anything.

I have no idea what is going on with this and i have no idea how to even find out what might have happened or even if the two events are related.

please help.

oh, I should give you some info.

windows 7 64 bit.

firefox was open each time an error occurred along with pidgin, utorrent, peerblock.

the computer is an acer revo.

[durendal]

Were you able to capture the error code from the BSOD? Perhaps that might relate to your current predicament. Since you're running windows 7, I'm afraid there's nothing I can help you with if this is a software related problem.

[*Jess♥]

ok thx. no i could not get the code.

i do not even know for sure that the errors are related.

but i think i know what the problem is.

I think it is a keyboard error. a bad problem in my keyboard firmware. just yesterday, out of the blue, i got a firmware update from microsoft. and the error went away. the computer was fine again. then my keyboard starting act all screwy again.

you see, before the bsod, the keyboard acted strange. like it just stopped working. and another time it acted like i had the letter E held down.

now my computer was fine and then the keyboard started acting screwy and then this morning the computer locked up.

so now i have switched to using my wireless keyboard for now. if the problem does not happen again, i know the culprit. but i do not want to use the wireless keyboard. it uses batteries and thus expensive.

[*Jess♥]

no.

it is not my keyboard.

the blue screen of death occurred shortly before my mcafee run out so it's not that.

it seems there is no visible culprit. there does not seem to be anything unusual occurring at that moment.

and since then my system has been intermittently freezing.

anyway i got the stop code from that BSOD.

0x0000007F

i'm going to look now for information on this stop code.

who knows if this is the cause of the freezes ... but it could well be.