HALP! Girlfriends PC crashed...me thinks?

[mjmjr25]

There's no joke. Luke is pissy in personal life and launching attacks here for whatever reason, sad of course, but i'd like to stay on topic until this is hopefully fixed.

Turned PC back on after 20 mins. Had option to start in "safe mode", "safe mode w/command", "safe mode w/something else" and "start windows normally".

I chose "safe mode", her desktop came up normally (but larger icons being in safe mode).

After about 10 seconds it went to blue screen with a lot of text, "if windows has shut down it is to protect your data (or something similar)...if this is the first time please restart..." I couldn't read any more before it turned off.

Should I try ninja's degaussing or are there other more obvious / practical measures?

[Opa Opa]

Wrap it in a towel and put it in the freezer for twenty minutes. I hear that works for overheated xboxes. It should work for a computer; they both use Microsoft software anyway.

[irixith]

After about 10 seconds it went to blue screen with a lot of text, "if windows has shut down it is to protect your data (or something similar)...if this is the first time please restart..." I couldn't read any more before it turned off.

OK, so turn it off, and turn it on. After the initial bios text/screen flashes off, hit the F8 button a few times until that same menu (Safe mode, Start normally, etc.) comes up. Choose "disable automatic restart after system failure". When/if the blue screen appears, write down the code in the upper left... i.e. STOP 0x00000000. Then power off, because you told the system not to shut off. :p

That code will be your key to figuring out what's up.

[ninjainspandex]

oh god Mike I thought this was a joke thread DO NOT PUT THE DEGAUSSING COIL NEAR YOUR HARD DRIVE. Hard drives store data magnetically putting a strong magnetic field near it will seriously fuck it up...

[ninjainspandex]

wait a second Mike your married.... nice try bro

[mjmjr25]

wait a second Mike your married.... nice try bro

No no, don't let the tone of Luke's posts side-track, please. You know how technically unsavvy I am. I seriously was ready to try the deguassing.

Here is what I have now.

It's freezing on the main screen:

It says "F10" for setup (F10 does nothing). Version says 5.05 if that matters.

[ninjainspandex]

Lol not tech savy? I thought you said you do IT work as a living

[mjmjr25]

Lol not tech savy? I thought you said you do IT work as a living

Do you remember me? IT work? ...uhhh, no. Too funny, Clifton.

So i've now turned off, on, blue HP screen as seen above 3x in a row...I'm not worried about the PC so much as Amy's photos. She has over 30,000 photos of our kids and family from the last 13 years all on this photoshop software and we "think" backed up on a 2TB hard drive.

Any other suggestions aside fire barrel, freezer, or degaussing?

[ninjainspandex]

how old is the PC? could be bad memory. Can you plug the external HD to another PC and make sure all the data was backed up? if your comp is old might as well be time to get a new one.

[mjmjr25]

That's what i'm going to try next. The PC itself is of little worry, it's an HP Pavilion and is about 4.5 yo and has had zero upkeep / upgrades. I think I paid $500 for it with a wireless keyboard, mouse and Acer monitor.