Halp halp this is urgent!

[SimonS]

Bel Air Scanner : 0 infected paragraphs

The past few months, my computer's been giving me various problems across the board, boot problems ; I would get this error, or the boot sequence would freeze, the winxp logo would freeze, very sporadic, small problems. When these problems weren't occuring the computer is fine! like there's no problem. It's like russian roulette to boot my pc at times. Sometimes I can boot up nice and be good for the whole day. Other times I'd get the boot device error, or some kind of error.

If I am getting boot errors, they just faded away and I got the boot options menu pop up, Selecting 'Last know configuration that worked' sorted out the problems (For now). When I got to that screen I knew things would be ok.

I called out a tech friend to analyse my problems and he said the memory was a problem (I have two ram sticks). Can't remember the details exactly, but he swapped them around, and the problems were at bay for a long time!

Sometimes after a 'successful' boot, I get 'Delayed write failed' errors. I've had a couple over the past few days. A eboot / reset shuts them up. But the other day, I got the usual red cross error boxes saying so and so data has been lost. I reset the computer and it said some system files were corrupt and I needed the winxp disc to repair. But leaving the PC off and retrying a couple of hours later, was fine, like nothing happened! Stupid machine

Now I got the exact same symptoms. I switched the ram around AGAIN and that kept the problems away for a little while again.

Now The past couple of days have been terrible. Booting has been OKAY.
It's just the freezes while gaming. I have two flashing dots on the front of my pc case, when the game / pc freezes. These dots are solid light.

I just reset the pc and 50/50 it'll just reboot, or give me a problem of some sort, which if you just leave it alone (like a spoilt child chucking its toys out of it's pram, or as I like to say, a spoilt machine chuckin its files out the recycle bin) it soon sorts it self out.

THE PROBLEM

But alas, I am now 100% lumbered with the 'Reboot and Select Proper boot device' which, usually fixes itself after many resets, or just cool down time. But now it's not going away.

I don't even get a boot sequence (the white text and black screen). I've done some googling and other people who get this problem at least get their sequence and are able to access BIOS (which I hate the sound of doing). But My PC just beeps and I get 'Reboot and Select Proper boot device'.


So now I have nothing, nothing I can do.

I've swapped ram around. Checked connections to see if any are loose. That's as much as I can do (to MY knowledge).


I don't know much about BIOS, connections and stuff so advanced solutions (without proper explanation) are as good as instructions for a dog to drive a helicopter.


Specs (For what its worth)
AMD 4200
600psu
WINXP home SP2
2gb 3200 ram
250gb hdd

Sounds to me more like a hardrive problem,how old is the pc?Have you noticed any performance issues with your harddrive?Is the pc a prebuilt system or a custom job?

[Danimale]

I don't even get a boot sequence (the white text and black screen). I've done some googling and other people who get this problem at least get their sequence and are able to access BIOS (which I hate the sound of doing). But My PC just beeps and I get 'Reboot and Select Proper boot device'.

My SATA2 cable for my hard drive slipped off the mother board once. I received a "select drive to boot from: Abort, Retry, Cancel" or something to that effect. BUT it still posted and went through bios first.

I've had my CMOS jumper fall off, you might check that.

My CPU gave up it's ghost once, I believe it would not even post then.



I'm not a tech guy so I can only give info on what has happened to me and hope it relates to you.

[TylerDurden]

dude SimonS

i know how you feel. Around xmas time i got my pc's out of storage and the best one i had was doing the same thing yours is doing.

I had tried everything, from unscrewing the mobo from the case a little (sometimes if its too tight against the case it will give you an error)

i even tried switching hard drives. 3 diff ones. I went ahead and reinstalled 2 versions of windows xp. I then did the ram thing like you, but get this, you'll love this, know how i did get it to work ?

i only had my hard drive plugged in. No cd/dvd rom, no floppy, using onboard sound and video ! only ONE hard drive. It booted ! so what i did was put everything back together piece by piece, and my computer ran fine, until the mobo died. I had forgotten that the last time i was using the computer, i was having over heating problems. I had forgotten this, and while on my computer surfing pron (jk lol) the damn thing died.

all that messing around for nothing. My advice would be to figure out what works and what doesn't work. Try what i did, and only have the HDD connected. Then once you are in windows, check temps out, check whatever. Sometimes if your cpu or mobo is worn out or about to die, it will start heating up. (i think this has to do with not having proper air flow in the first place) After you've checked stuff out, connect things back one at a time.

You might just have to build a new comp :\

if you can figure out what works and what doesn't, then you can use that stuff on your next build. Floppy, cd/dvd rom, sound card, case, hell maybe even the hard drive.

Sounds like your RAM is gonzo.

d00der, if you look around on newegg, you can get a cpu/mobo combo real cheap, and sometimes they will offer things to go with a purchase, like ram for an extra 20 Butts..... Ahem.

how old is yer system anyhoo ? have you gotten a lot of use from it ?

If you spent $1000.00 on your pc, and used it everyday for two years, i'd have to say you got some pretty good use from it.

was it you who was wanting to get a new agp video card or something ?

I built my system for £475 minus the case/psu/router/monitor and sound card see other thread.Best bit of advice i can give is salavge your existing parts build your own system or get somebody to do it for you.Honestly fuckin about with prebuilt systems is a waste of time/ cash and effort i think most people here would agree with that.This way you spec your own parts instead of cheapest possible parts in prebuilt systems.

[SimonS]

nvm got myself up and running. Turns out a pink sata cable was unplugged from the mother board. Just plugged it back in and off I went.

Musta came loose when I was fiddling around yesterday. It's a very loose plug so I musta twigged it accidentally.

Weeew...

[Danimale]

After mine slipped off I wondered, why don't they clip on? Seems like a good idea to me. It took me awhile to find this, I never suspected it. It was still hovering over where it should have been so it looked normal.

nvm got myself up and running. Turns out a pink sata cable was unplugged from the mother board. Just plugged it back in and off I went.

Musta came loose when I was fiddling around yesterday. It's a very loose plug so I musta twigged it accidentally.

Weeew...

Least your problem is fixed now you should be be a very happy bunny.

[TylerDurden]

Now you can spend money on that new video card !

Get that ATI card you were talking about, it would go along with yer AMD CPU pretty well.

[xerent]

Dump it and buy a new one o/