Computer problem

[Nightowl]

I got a call that my computer will not boot up to the windows page. It seems that it just wants to go to the safe mode, then it backs out again and starts all over. It never gets to the windows page, and there was not a problem with it last night. Yesterday, I defraged it, and also did a malware scan on it, all came out good. I closed the computer down, and it closed down like always.

I went home last night, and it booted up no problem. I did the work I wamted to do, and then shut it down as always. Now I get a call that it won't boot up. There are many pics on that hard drive and they said that the computer says something about recovering files. I am not sure what is going on, but if I have to, I should be able to take the hard drive out and put it in another computer, and save whats on it?
I have been noticing lately that when you try to click on something, it takes awhile for it to load that page, like it has a glitch or something, but it gets over it. I am sure it is time for a new computer, but I don't want to loose anything on that drive by wiping it out and installing xp again. Does anyone have any ideas on whats going on, and how to fix it? I am not at home, so I am only getting this from those that are trying to get it to boot up, so I may be missing some info here.

I know that there is a way to reset the computer to a couple of days before this happened, but I think I have to get into the windows page first, which they say they can't. It is an E machine, with 4 gig of ram, and I have a 1 terrabyte external hard drive attached to it by USB. Any help is appreciated, as I have a laptop at home where I can still get on line to view any answers to my question. One of the things it also says is that the monitor is going to sleep. I guess I have not seen that before, but am not really sure on that. I am just getting this second hand, until I get home to night, and hopefully someone here may have some helpful info for me.

Richard

 

[freythman]

Hey Richard,

I have a few questions to hopefully understand your situation a little better:

What is the exact message you are getting when you try and boot? Please give us as much as you can.

What are your system specs? I see you have 4gb of memory and a 1TB External Hard Drive, but what about:

Processor?
Internal Hard Drive: How much total space? How much space is used?
What version of XP, and what service pack?

I'll try to help you the best I can, but I'm afraid you didn't offer up much useful information. I'm sure you can once you get in front of the machine.

 

[Nightowl]

Sorry about that. When I get home, I will give that all out. It is hard to know what is going on without me being behind the monitor, and getting it from stressed out family members.

 

[freythman]

I understand. It happens to me all the time...

 

[Nightowl]

Okay, here is what I have.

Emachine Computer

T-6212

AMD Athlon 64 3200 2.0 GHZ

Ram- 4 GIG, but they are not from the same manufacture. I tried to get the same, but the guy told me that they wew compatable with the other 2 GIG I had.

DDR SDRAM

Memory speed is 400 MHZ
Hard Drive - 160 GIG, with 99 gig empty

XP, with service pack 2

Here are the messages:

"We apoligize for the inconvience. The windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware change or software change may have caused this" I added the 2 extra gig ram, but no new software. It goes on to say:
Your computer stopped responding unexpecably or shutdown to save and protect for files. Choose last known configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked. If a previous startup attemp was interuppted due to a power failure, or if the power or reset button was pressed, or if your not sure what caused the problem, choose start windows normally.

Safe mode
safe mode with networking
safe mode with command prompt
last known good configuration
Start windows normally"

It will not let you select any of them, and resets and goes back and starts all over again. Now my son did change the date of the BIOS to see if that would help, and it did not. If there is anything I left out, I can easily pull it up on the spec sheet. Thanks. Okay, I am home. The bios date was just the day and time of the day, and I changed that back. I also took out those 2 memory sticks of 1 gig each, but it still is doing the same thing. It gives me 30 seconds to do something, or it starts all over again with the computers logo. The only way to shut the machine down is by pushing in the button. Could this be a corrupt driver? If so, how do I troubleshoot it, and get the right driver back on the computer?

Richard

 

[Nightowl]

It was a hard drive problem, but a new 500 gig hard drive did the trick. They plugged one of the hard drive to the other, and downloaded the contents of the bad hard drive. I will destroy the old hard drive. I guess too many bad sectors in it. It cost me a couple of steak dinners, so it was worth it.