The fun things that happen when people who don't know how to fix computers try to fix your compuer..

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SebGep

New Member
Hello all

So as the title may imply, a friend has attempted fix my computer and things did not go as planned

Long story short, a different friend of mine built me a desktop about 7 years ago and I loved it. About 5 years later, I got a blue screen with a bunch of jibberish on it. I don't know how to read jibberish so I brought it to a computer shop and they were nice enough to take about $400 of my money and replace my harddrive. Seems excessive for sub-$100 part but I was in a bind. Fast-forward about 2 years to current time and apparently my hard drive is in the middle of going out(or so I'm told by more than one person). So I order a hardrive and some upgraded RAM for the machine

Without going into a rant, some CPU pins got bent during RAM installation and one of the cooling fans from the CPU stopped working. The installation disk gave a blue screen or a split second and then the computer went out again. I put the old RAM back in and was able to finish installation. The machine boots nicely but apparently it has no drivers for anything and my display in only taking up about half of my monitor. I have no idea were to go from here but I fear bad news for the computer itself. I have googled some stuff but currently I'm just very frustrated and am going to drink another beer....
 
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SebGep

New Member
Lol, yes I agree. We'll it turns out that my CPU has a rather large heat sink and fan on it which is semi in the way of replacing the RAM but not really. They removed the CPU heat sink and CPU to have easier access to the RAM. Then the CPU wasn't replaced properly before the heat sink was reattached and they tightened the screws which put extra pressure on everything and couldn't have been helpful to the overall situation . I know they tried to straighten the pins and realign the CPU more than once so I currently have a concern that all the pins may not be there, and by the amount of thermal paste on their hands while replacing stuff, there has to be some on what-ever other circuits they touched. Overall, I appreciate that they tried to help me but I think I could have done a better job myself.

Also, all this happened on a carpeted floor with not grounding wire for static electricity and no sort of gloves. The good news is that the computer now boots again after loading the Windows disk. The problem is that I have no drivers for anything. I have no internet connection because I have no network driver. Only one of the three outputs on the video card is giving me a picture and it's small with less-than-steller resolution. I can understand if this is a setup problem but I don't know how to fix it. Overall, I'm a rather smart cookie and very mechanically inclined but I've never had to mess with computers much so this is a very new problem to me. I am aware that this is an old setup but it ran great with the exception of the harddrive. I don't need the fanciest computer ever but I do need something dead reliable for when the next school semester starts again. Can I make this machine reliable again for a reasonable cost or am I better off spending some money and starting over. I can upload the original build sheet from way back when if that will help.
 
P

_Pete_

Active Member
You need to put the drivers on for the various things that the computer needs to run properly. You can get the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website bit if you cannot get on the internet because you do not have the drivers for your network card. If you have the original disk for your motherboard you should be able to install the various drivers from that but if this is an old machine you may not have the disk that came with your motherboard. If that is the case then you need to get on the web somehow. I have some small USB wireless dongles that I bought off Ebay for dirt cheap. they come with a CD that has the drivers on it. when I encounter a problem such as you have I use one of thos to access the internet and get the drivers from the manufacturer's website. I am afraid that if you do not know all this stuff it can be very difficult to make things work. You will need to access the device manager to install drivers if they do not go on automatically.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
SebGep said:
hey removed the CPU heat sink and CPU to have easier access to the RAM.
Click to expand...
I'd abandon ship for someone else. You can easily remove the HSF and reattach without having to dick with the CPU itself.

You should be able to download the network driver from the motherboard manufacturer's website using the PC you're posting this on. If you're desperate you can even download them on your phone and transfer files over from your phone into the PC.

Once you have the network driver you can usually pull the other drivers through either websites or windows update.
 
S

SebGep

New Member
Yeah they are done working on the computer.

Transfer the driver with a USB?

Looking at the Asus website now. I'm assuming I need the LAN driver?
 
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SebGep

New Member
So from what I can see, it seems as if the computer will be fine. I updated all the drivers I could find and got my regular screen back as well by downloading some stuff from the videocard manufacturer. Windows has taken upon itself to install 135 updates but I'm assuming its normal. Is Is there anything I should look out for or check before I call it good?
 
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SebGep

New Member
So, the fun stuff continues. I reloaded all the drivers and all the programs I was using before this mess happened. Mainly Microsoft office and AutoCAD. Everything worked great for the past 2 days. This morning, I go to boot the computer and it asks me to insert the installation disk. I'm not sure what is going on but I'm confident that this isn't a good thing.
 
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SebGep

New Member
the hard drive is literally 6 days. The guy doing the work did take it out and put it back in a couple of times. Not sure why.

I tried running the installation disk and it won't install it because something is already there. It tells me to make out the disk and restart the computer. I do that and I'm back to it wanting the install disk. It gave me an option of "Fix". I tried that with no improvement. It also gave me an option of "Restore" so I tried to restore it to the last major update. When it restarted, it wanted the disk again. It's like a never ending circle and I have a big hammer nearby....
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
SebGep said:
I tried running the installation disk and it won't install it because something is already there.
Click to expand...
If you boot to the install cd then you should be able to wipe the drive and reinstall windows. What exactly does that message say? Also, it doesn't matter how old or new the drive is, they can go out at any time.
 
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SebGep

New Member
At first this comes on a black screen with white block type text:
"Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, then press any key

Press any key to boot from CD or DVD
Disk I/O error
Replace the disk, and then press any key

Reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press any key"

Then I insert disk and it asks for language preference

Then I get the windows 7 logo with a big "Install Now" button and "Repair Your computer"

When I go the "Install Now" route I get 2 options.
"Upgrade
Upgrade to a newer version of Windows and keep your files, settings and programs....bla bla bla"
"Custom
Install a new copy of windows. This does not keep your files, settings and programs. The option to make changes to disks and partitions is available when you start your computer using the installation disk..... bla bla bla"

I tried going the Upgrade route but then I get a error
"The computer started using the Windows installation disk. Remove the installation disk and restart your computer so that Windows starts normally... bla bla bla" This takes me right back to the black screen with white text.

I tried the Custom route and was scared to do more damage than good. It comes up with a screen asking where I want to install windows.
'Disk 0 Partition 1: System Reserved Total size 100 MB SYSTEM
Disk 0 Partition 2 931.4GB PRIMARY'

If I hit 'Next', I get "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See Setup log files for more information"

There is a Refresh button that changes nothing.
Also a Load Driver button. Click that and get a notice of "No Signed device drivers were found. Make sure installation media contains the correct drivers and then click OK"

There is also an Drive Options Advanced Button. Here I can Delete, Format, Extend, and New
I haven't clicked any of these

I'm using a purchased copy of Windows 7. I also followed some YouTube instructions about 2 months ago when the harddrive started to act up and make a USB with a Bootable image or something. I can't remember the name but apparently I should be able to boot from the USB as well. Tried that with failed results but I'm not sure I went about it the right way
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Go back and highlight each one of those entries and click on delete, then go back to the install. It will setup whatever partitions are necessary.
 
S

SebGep

New Member
the computer just booted.... I don't know what happened. I touched nothing other than the power button...
The programs are all there and I have internet access.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Did you leave any USB devices connected or similar, whereas they were removed on the last attempt that was successful?
 
S

SebGep

New Member
the boot disk and usb are still in there but there were there when it was giving me all the problems. Should I remove them and attempt a restart?
 
S

SebGep

New Member
Used the computer for several days. Restarted several times with no problem. Go to boot it this morning and it wants the boot disk again. Is there anything I can try before I give up on the machine?
 
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