I hate my PC

[Mr Phlanj]

my ****ing PC wont work. I went away for the weekend and i come back and while running a bath i go to put my PC on and it wont. It comes up with the ****ing "safe mode" "safe mode +ect" "run useing last working setup" and "start normaly".

none of them work and im ****ed off because i have just spent £30 on a new game and i cant even ****ing play it. I had a look in the setup and i dont see anything diffrent then to what it was before (granted i dont know what most of it dose).

so im going to cool off with a nice big spliff and a book and try to forget i subscribed to a game.........


P.S. when i choose any of the start-up options it will flash the windows logo (and the loading bar it has) then restart without any cut from the power, it just goes back to the begining again.

[Z°ⁿε]

A well documented problem on certain computers is if you have something plugged into the USB drive the computer won't boot. If not that, then all i can tell you is pop in the windows installation disc->reboot->reinstall that bad boy.

[stin]

Ouch, I know how you feel, my son done that on his laptop.

Luckily, I have a back up CD for his laptop, there are two options, one is to complete clean up (all the files will be lost) and start again and secondly, there is a restore point, just like the windows restore points. (I`m not a computer geek)

Took me a long time to fix his laptop up and running.

So, do you have a restore CD? for your pc?, it`s the only way to make it work? or go to pc repairs and they will fix it for you eventually.

Hope everything works out for you.

stevie:)

[q_dmc12]

Do a repair install* first, if that doesn't work it could be that the hard drive has failed..

* It only deletes and reinstalls the OS directories and ignores the rest of the file system; very little if anything will be lost.:+

Ps: I hate your PC too :D

[Mr Phlanj]

thanks for the info guys but no i dont have a boot disc but im sure i can get one. i did have one and went huntin for it but stopped when i rememberd i only have a XP for ACER laptops.

[blackwiggle]

I build my own PC's, so I do know a few trouble shooting procedures that might get you up and running.
Here are 3 easy possible fixes you can try before doing anything drastic.

Safe mode usually comes up when there has been a power surge,PC power supply is starting to fail or the BIOS settings have somehow become messed up.

Fix 1

Turn the PC off for a few minutes,then turn it back on again,press the delete button while it is booting so it opens in BIOS;some PC's require you press the control button,it depends on what motherboard you have,so repeat using that if delete doesn't work
Use the arrow button to get to the page [usually the last one] where it will give you the option "Load setup defaults" or "Load default settings",again depends which motherboard as to what it will say,then press enter,then arrow to exit > press enter again,it will ask if you want to save settings > press Y and enter.
If this fixes the problem the PC should boot as normal.

Fix 2

You need to open your PC up for this,so turn it off,it's very easy though.
Look inside at the motherboard,you will see somewhere on it a small round battery,get a small flat head screwdriver or pointy knife and press the battery holding clip in and take the battery out,remember which way the battery goes in,be very very careful taking it out,if you break that battery holding clip your stuffed as you will have to replace the motherboard,it easy,but I'm warning against haste.
Leave it out for around 15 minutes,then replace the battery,now try and boot the PC up,it should be OK and boot up normally if that was the problem.

Fix 3
This is a bit more involved,again you need the case open.
What your testing for is loose contacts between the power supply and the various components in the PC and possible failure of a portion of the power supply,[this has happened to me twice recently].
Firstly turn the PC on with the case open,have a monitor & keyboard plugged in.
What your looking for is to see if all the components that have fans,that these fans are operating.
So look at the power supply fan,the CPU fan,the graphic cards fan if it has one, any case fans etc,if any of them are not running it means either a portion of the power supply [one of the feed cables] is not working or that component has a loose connection or has died.
You should do this test twice,once for the fans and a second time for the hard drives.
Turn off PC,with case open have your ear next to the hard drive [s]and a finger touching the top of the hard drives case,turn PC back on again,listen to hear the HD reader arm move across the HD discs while feeling for vibrations from it,it's pretty quiet,so you might want to do this a few times to make sure,unplugging/replugging in the power supply cable if no sound is heard the first time.

So you basically look at everything while PC is on,then turn PC off,unplug then re plug in power supply connections to the various components and if that was the problem it should boot up ok when you power up again.

There is a lot of other causes for "Safe Mode" coming up,but I'd need the PC in front of me to possible fix it,at least you can try the ones above yourself.

[Mr Phlanj]

thanks blackwiggle I'll give fix 2 & 3 a try tommorow because i tryed #1 just before trying to see if hitting it would work :P.

[rdmx]

Blackwiggle, the things you're suggesting sound more like something for hardware errors, and I think the POST should have indicated if there was a failure there. That said, listen for any telltale clicking that could indicate a HDD failure but I doubt it's that from what the OP has said.

Sounds like you're having a BSOD.
At that menu where you select safe mode, etc, select 'advanced startup options' then select 'Disable automatic restart on system failure'.
Boot windows normally and when the blue screen appears, write down the STOP error code. This will help us help you :)
eg. STOP: 0x00000009c

[blackwiggle]

It's where he said this
QUOTE:P.S. when i choose any of the start-up options it will flash the windows logo (and the loading bar it has) then restart without any cut from the power, it just goes back to the beginning again.

Makes me think it's a corrupt BIOS ,so I'm pretty sure the battery removal for 15 minutes should fix it.
This is exactly the same thing that happened to me 3 weeks ago on one of my PC's,so it's pretty fresh in my mind.

Best to try this,and as you say getting the error report, before even thinking about reformatting etc.

[rdmx]

flash the windows logo (and the loading bar it has) then restart without any cut from the power
For me, that always means that there is a blue screen of some sort, thats what would cause it to restart while loading the OS.

[Mr Phlanj]

ok i tryed the battery, i double checked the conections and when i disable the restart on failer it shuts down without a BSOD.

I guesse im going to get windows 7 now :P

EDIT: as wiggles said i didnt say if itwas fixed. no, no its not :(

[blackwiggle]

I don't understand if it's fixed or still broken

[SaturnReturn]

I had something similar with my PC ages ago. I can't remember what I did to get it running again, but I know it involved various tools you can download from the internet which can help you recover things. There are Windows recover console ISOs that you can get for free which might help. You can also download a copy of Linux or something that boots from CD and access your files to back them up, then do a full restore. There should be options like that available to you before splashing out on a new OS. Someone else might have better ideas alone these lines than I.

PCs from brand name manufacturers don't seem to come with their own Windows install, or even recovery disks these days, but most have something installed on a recovery partition. I think they tend to do a complete wipe and reinstall of the whole system back to factory settings, but some might come with a separate recovery console. I forget what the usual key is that you hold to access this though, and you'd want to backup if you can. Although you can just take the hard drive out and put it in a USB enclosure to access files, so I guess that's not a big deal.

[Mr Phlanj]

ok i wussed out and have just payed for XP pro (man its soooo much cheaper now). I realy wanted to fix it and i tryed to understand what you guys are on about but i gave up :(.

I will see if i can do some backing up the way you talked about saturn because the only things i want to backup are my sound and graphics drivers, everything else I can download again anyway

[Mr Phlanj]

GOD DAMIT!!!!!!! i have formated my pc and everything is great apart from it dosnt seem to think that i can conect wierlessly. I phoned Vodafone (who my internets with) and they dont know whats worng.

I can conected wierd into the router but there is no 'search for wierless conection' option on my pc ><

[F.E.I.S.A.R]

I think they tend to do a complete wipe and reinstall of the whole system back to factory settings, but some might come with a separate recovery console. I forget what the usual key is that you hold to access this though,

Is the key "0"? To access my Toshiba laptop's Vista Recovery,I need to press and hold "0" when the Toshiba screen is on the monitor.

[Mr Phlanj]

YES!!!! i fixed it :P I AM ALL THAT IS MAN!!!!

now to fix the sound :P

[Koleax]

I love my Mac. :P

I can't believe I'm the first one to say that.

Okay, okay, I just like my Mac.

[q_dmc12]

The truth about apple users (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/apple) :p

err, um.. you da man phlanj!:+

[Mr Phlanj]

it's the worse thing about *owning a mac*, telling your parents you're gay

*replace with what ever you want*

nah i cant find the sound driver i need and i cant be arsed to open my pc again to find out :)

[blackwiggle]

I've just been through another problem with one of my PC's today.
I noticed that the damm screen would only partially load while web surfing ,then the mouse pointer would disappear and the whole thing would freeze on me.
No keyboard input would work,pressed the reset on the PC and sometimes it would load, sometimes not ,but it would end up freezing again as soon as I got on the net,wouldn't turn off at the PC case so had to turn off at wall socket :|. [NOT recommended]
From what I can workout in a error message that very briefly appeared on screen it has been an update to a program that has corrupted the video card drivers ,this has gone and crippled the whole PC.:turd
I finally got the sick PC to stay on long enough to remove the old drivers and install new ones,lucky I have other PC's to download the new drivers otherwise I'd be stuffed.
Fingers crossed this would of fixed it.