I need John's help again............

kona

Member
Hi John
You helped me with my PC last year...............now it's on the Fritz again.
Windows does not want to load and it's been giving me problems (not wanting to load) for a while now.

If you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.
I'm at work right now - using my work pc
 
What is the system actually doing, explain in detail. Have you tried in safe mode?
 
Hi John
No - I've not tried in Safe Mode.
I'm at work now - not on the home pc at this time.

I will give the Safe Mode a try.

Details:
I push the on button to boot the pc up...
It goes through the checks until it passes the Microsoft Window area - where the activity bar shows (the bars travelling from left to right). Then the window goes blank like usual.....and I get the Power Save Mode...like usual.....but the little blue activity (status?) lights on my tower that usually flicker before I get to the Window Log on area (my personal avitar and my wife's) - where you click on to LOG ON do not do anything....the little blue lights on the tower just sit there solid and no activity is present.
My Windows screen has been FREEZING lately too - and I have to reboot when that happens.
I will be home in 1 1/2 hours and I will try the safe mode.
If you have any tips could you please send them here before I leave work in 1/2 hr?
I'm on leave until Oct 10 starting tomorrow morning.

My tower is about 5 years old..........so maybe some parts are wearing out. I know the fans get a lot of use in the heat of the summer.

Gary

What is the system actually doing, explain in detail. Have you tried in safe mode?
 
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Try in safe mode as John suggested.

Have you installed any new hardware lately?

I would suggest trying to boot from Last known good config / safe mode and conducting a system restore to a point that you knew it was working. Then back up files etc and re-install windows.
 
Thanks

Thank you everyone.

I guess in this fast paced day and age 5 years is a long time to have a computer - no?

With this kind of trouble on a 5+ year old pc I might be better off just buying another computer it sounds like.
This one was expensive at the time.
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor - 4600+
2.41 GHZ 3GB RAM

Two Winfast PX7950 GT THD Video Cards
NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI Chipset Based K9N SLI Platinum MSI

Cooler Master Tower.....nice big one with nice heavy duty fan
whatever.................And I don't know if this is good or worth saving or what.

If the hard drive is 'toast' or going to be 'toast' soon.............is any of the above worth saving - or can it be saved?

OR..
Should we just buy a new PC?

On that note a friend just bought a PC and a Laptop - on sale cheap in a BIg Box store.....and he's having troubles already..........the screen on the laptop has to be replaced and his computer (PC) is not working.

My guess is the new stuff.....cheap and on sale.....is not worth buying. Am I right? You get what you pay for....most of the time.
 
Nother question

Can emails be saved onto an external drive?

I have Outlook Express.

I tried exporting them ( opened a folder....highlighted all the messages in the folder....went to ...file...export....messages...) but when I click messages I get an error .....MAP1......error.....

Is there a way to do a search to find all the messages and just go to the file and copy them to an external drive? I know the file extn. = .DBX
I have searched using *.dbx and I see where the folder is but I can't open it.

I know nothing haha.
 
Ok do this:

Remove all uneccessary hardware including one of the graphics cards, all but one ram module, disconnect all non-OS hard drives and any non-essential USB.

Then try to boot in safemode.

Let us know how you go.
 
I did manage to boot the pc...
I will leave all this until I return on Monday.
I don't want to or can't spend the time to do this right now but it is important to me. Just bad timing..........I won't be able to get to it for a few days.

Thanks for your help and everyone else here. This is a great Forum and it has been of tremendous help to me in the past and now - it's very much appreciated.

I will see what happens when I return after Monday.


Ok do this:

Remove all uneccessary hardware including one of the graphics cards, all but one ram module, disconnect all non-OS hard drives and any non-essential USB.

Then try to boot in safemode.

Let us know how you go.
 
This thread is very uplifting :)

My take on it is maybe your windows install is getting corrupt. I'd try to save what you can onto external media, (make sure you have a restore or windows disc :P) format your hard drive, and reinstall windows.

It is possible to export your emails and contacts from outlook express. You need to use the export menu...Can't remember if it's under file, edit or what..

Edit: just noticed you tried that. Default location for your files are:

C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\{GUID}
or
C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
where {GUID} is the Global Unique IDentifier (technical jargon for a unique long number)

Make sure to enable viewing of hidden files and folders (in any explorer window, tools > folder options, view tab)
 
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Before you bother trying to reinstall Windows, back up your necessary data and test your drive to make sure it's good. It would just be a waste of time and energy to reinstall Windows on a bad drive.
 
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