mjmjr25 wrote: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.
keep in mind its probably not due to a corrupted hard drive so you could always take the hard drive out of your PC and access it from another computer. It is highly unlikely that your data is lost (as long as you keep that degaussing coil away from it )
Are you taking suggestions for what to do with the rest of the computer when you get it sorted out? Fire barrel 2: the barreling would be pretty epic. Now with less eyebrows!
flex wood wrote:Are you taking suggestions for what to do with the rest of the computer when you get it sorted out? Fire barrel 2: the barreling would be pretty epic. Now with less eyebrows!
Actually I was hoping you'd find a reason to drive up and look at it for me? The original Pizza Luce, homes! (dunno if that's true, but it is the best one).
flex wood wrote:Are you taking suggestions for what to do with the rest of the computer when you get it sorted out? Fire barrel 2: the barreling would be pretty epic. Now with less eyebrows!
Actually I was hoping you'd find a reason to drive up and look at it for me? The original Pizza Luce, homes! (dunno if that's true, but it is the best one).
Eh the original is where I used to hang out late night after work when I was in high school. But yeah I hurt my back last week and driving for more than 20 minutes at a time starts killing me, like I need drugs to move pain. It's getting better but I have a super full plate with a ton of stuff I need to finish by the end of the month.
mjmjr25 wrote: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".
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?
A risk of losing data every time you try to boot and run repair programs or Spyware scanners.
Since its a desktop, the hard drive should be easy to remove. Pop it in a USB enclosure and backup just the pictures and video files to another PC. There is a risk of dumping the rouge Spyware onto the other PC, but should be minimal if you copy over just the JPGs and MPGs. After the data is safely archived then go back to trouble shooting the bad PC.
Tell your friend a good idea is to burn backup CDRs and or DVDRs once a year to avoid losing all the pictures. It also helps if each year's pictures and videos has its own folder in the hard drive for keeping track of backups. The CDRs and DVDRs are a great way to send the JPGs and MPGs as "archival backups" to family members. Important not to use any "backup compression" or slide show compression programs, just burn the raw JPGs and MPGs so they can easily be copied or printed later on. Don't forget all the cell phone pics, get them on the once a year backup mode too.
I'd go with the degaussing. To be safe though I'd make sure to go over everything: PC's, laptops, game consoles, mobile phones, TV's, the fridge, your wife and children, local wildlife, everything. Viruses spread easily and the cause isn't always obvious.
the thought of Mike working in IT is the funniest thing in this thread. You guys remember when he thought that downloading a .zip of PSO meant he had installed it? And then he said he couldn't play it cuz it said he needed an "app" (Winzip, Winrar, etc...)?
To put it another way, ninja thought that this guy was in IT:
Spray the entire inside with WD40. The reason you PC is "freezing" is because the inside mechanics are seizing up similar to how engines do in a car when they sit for long periods. The small gears that push the electrical currents through the various pipes that connect each part of your computer have apparently rusted into a fixed position. They need to be loosened and WD40 should do the trick.
ORRRRR, You will get a blue screen for either a memory (RAM) error such as a memory leak which is nothing you can fix, it is bad programing in an application you are using. Or you have a driver issue. First we will rule out an application error causing a memory leak. The way to fix this is to type "MSCONFIG" into the "run" or "search" bar, depending on which operating system you have. This will bring up a dialog box, in that dialog box you will see a tab named "start up", uncheck all of those items and reboot. Then recheck one item and reboot again. If it is an application in start up it will make your PC freeze when you re-enable it. If it's not in start up you will have to try to run each application you use on a normal basis and pay attention to which app makes your PC freeze or get the blue screen. You can also reboot into safe mode. This will start your PC with the minimal amount drivers and applications that your computer needs to run. If your computer freezes in safe mode then you have a bad piece of hardware and the only thing you can do is try replacing parts until you resolve the problem.
However, you are saying that your PC is freezing at the HP screen. That immediately makes me think it's a hardware issue because that screen is part of your BIOS, it hasn't had a chance to load Windows or access any applications at that point. This could be a bad CPU, Motherboard, or RAM.
Here is how to check your RAM: Take all sticks out of their sockets. Take one stick and put it in the first slot and start your PC, if it load then you either have a bad memory stick or socket. So, take the same stick of memory you used initially and change it to the second slot and try again. Continue to each slot with the same stick, if they all load then you know that all the slots are good and that one stick is good. If it fails to load in a slot then you have a bad memory socket and therefore a bad motherboard. But, if all slots load fine, then try the next memory stick in the same way as the first. If the PC fails to load with the second stick, then you have a bad stick. Continue this with each memory stick. If all sticks and slots work, then it's not a physical memory issue.
Next check your CPU: the only way to do this is to swap it with another and this will be cost prohibitive for most people. Especially considering it's a prefab computer which was inexpensive to begin with.
If you can get it to load back into Windows there are tons of ways to check if your hardware is healthy.
Last edited by Frag Mortuus on Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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