In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Computer crashed
gjshaw
Member Posts: 14,767 ✭✭✭✭
last week! It sucks. Come on a week with no GunBroker not to mention E-mail.
Oh yea we lost everything on it but it was 10 years old and the important stuff was updated on our laptop which was lent to the in-laws for a few days.[V]
Oh yea we lost everything on it but it was 10 years old and the important stuff was updated on our laptop which was lent to the in-laws for a few days.[V]
Comments
Just wanted to let those who asked ( Don't tell but I checked e-mail too [;)][;)]) .......
Everything is ok & if I keep the coffee going & the remote in his hand the shakes & DT's are pretty good !!! [:0][:0][:0]
I think my hard drive is froze up on my computer. When I turn it on it doesn't boot up right. When I click on the start button and put the curser over the programs link, nothing is there at all. It doesn't show anything . I am on my wifes computer to get help. How do I start up in safe mode?
Tap [F8] repeatedly during the beginning of the boot.
What would be a good new computer to look for and what kind of speeds should I be looking for?
Your post would lead me to believe that you've gone beyond the initial Windows splash screen and are actually seeing the desktop. If I'm correct here, then your machine has booted.
The fact that you can point with your mouse would then lead me to question whether the control buttons on the mouse are working. Simply point at whatever icon you wish to open and hit the <enter> key on your keyboard to check.
If this works, then it's simply a bad mouse in all likelihood. If this doesn't work then do as suggested in a previous post and hit F8 repeatedly as the machine comes up from a cold start. Select "Safe Mode" and see what happens. If the mouse works properly and the machine boots into Safe Mode, then you'll be able to run "tools" from the start menu. Just remember that if you can get to this point there isn't all that much wrong with your machine.
On the other hand, if you can't boot and if I've misunderstood your post, then there is a problem. Generally I share with my clients the following:
If your machine has reached the age of about three years, it's obsolete enough to consider replacement. Even if there exists no physical problem and possibly only a corrupt operating system my opinion holds. The time taken to diagnose and to set up the machine back to a usable state (if you pay a tech) will nearly equal the cost of a brand new PC.
For a somewhat newer PC it's still a roll of the dice. Depending on whether you made a system rescue disk when the machine was new or depending on the recovery media supplied with the machine, you'll possibly be able to replace a drive fairly easily should it have failed. The same being the case for a motherboard as drivers are included. Just remember that motherboards take memory and your old modules need to be compatible or you'll replace with new.
If you've neglected to make recovery CD's or have misplaced recovery media, then it's a different game. Unless you're a tech and have the components and skills necessary to totally rebuild a system you'll either pay roughly the equivalent of a new machine in repairs or you'll simply replace with a better machine for about the same outlay.
It's hard to get used to the idea of throwing a perfectly good (but broken) machine into the trash for want of a good OS. On the other hand when the cost of recovery equals the cost of a new system, then there really is no choice.
If you settle on a replacement computer or buying a new hard DISK drive to re-install windows to there is an inexpensive device that you can get that will allow you to take the files off of an otherwise dead computer and send them to your new one via the USB port.
EHow is a man friend figuring out problems on about anything
My computer will not boot at all, even in safe mode. Nothing, no mouse, no desktoop, just the options of booting from safe mode, Last known good configure etc., and I tried them all and nothing boots it up. I think the harddrive is toast. No signal found and it goes back to the black screen with the boot up options again.
I agree about buying new after 3 or 4 years of use.
If you have recovery media, then a new HDD isn't out of the question. If not, then it's probably time to consider replacement of the machine.
But you already knew that.[;)]
I tried that so I guess I'm off to the computer store on Monday for parts or a newer computer.
What would be a good new computer to look for and what kind of speeds should I be looking for?
Go here they have a store in the villages
http://www.refreshcomputers.net/
We got one from them a few monthes back all of their computers are the commercal grade
Sorry that I was so brief in my description of my problems.
My computer will not boot at all, even in safe mode. Nothing, no mouse, no desktoop, just the options of booting from safe mode, Last known good configure etc., and I tried them all and nothing boots it up. I think the harddrive is toast. No signal found and it goes back to the black screen with the boot up options again.
I agree about buying new after 3 or 4 years of use.
Disconnect power, pop the cover off, reseat RAM and REPLACE CMOS battery. You can tell what battery it is when you get it out. Most likely will be a CR2032. $2.99 spent on a CMOS battery is a heck of a lot cheaper than running right out and spending $499 on a new computer.
RAM modules being unseated will give an alarm and the machine will have no display. A bad module usually results in the "Blue Screen of Death" either during the boot or at some point when running an application.
CMOS battery has very little to do with the boot procedure in this case. Since the machine gets to the point where it's actually looking for the boot sector of the HDD I'm reasonably certain that we have a HDD failure.
As to a replacement machine... My biggest concern is that you'll be purchasing a machine with just as old a drive as your present system. Since you can't tell how many hours are on the drive it's a bit of a crap shoot.
Quality? Look inside and find that components are all pretty much the same. Some manufacturers attempt to make their equipment look different but it's mostly cosmetic.
If you're buying used it might be a good idea to pop the hood and look for a good power supply, good cooling fans, and take note of the HDD build date which is stamped on just about every label.
Too bad you don't have my setup, as you could fix it quick.
I bought a USB HDD, and a disc imaging program.
All I would need to do is install the new drive, boot from the recovery disc for the program to the USB drive, and ALL of my old HDD content is placed on the new drive just as it was.
No installing programs or OS's.
Hope you had anything important backed up somewhere,.....I'm sure you did. Good luck![:)]
Not to hijack the thread, but... my computer did the same thing as gjshaw's did. My son said it was the hard drive also. I'm on a borrowed computer now. Question is, is the data on the old hard drive recoverable? I have business documents and old family photos on it. Thanks for any help.
I asked the same question awhile back. The answer was , how much do you want to spend to get the info back. It was going to be in the hundreds if not thousands. Big gov. has the deep pockets to retrive stuff but you and I are SOL.
quote:Originally posted by TangoSierra
Not to hijack the thread, but... my computer did the same thing as gjshaw's did. My son said it was the hard drive also. I'm on a borrowed computer now. Question is, is the data on the old hard drive recoverable? I have business documents and old family photos on it. Thanks for any help.
I asked the same question awhile back. The answer was , how much do you want to spend to get the info back. It was going to be in the hundreds if not thousands. Big gov. has the deep pockets to retrive stuff but you and I are SOL.
Refresh was able to retreive alot of mine and the price wasn't to bad
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-system/after-windows-recovery-virus-all-programs-folders/fe6e2b08-4d66-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5
This looks like it would work for retrieving info from a harddrive.
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812161002