PC - Big problem - can you help?

[Frunkstar]

I posted it in this section so it would get seen, so please excuse the none SW post guys.

Right, looks like my pc may well be dead but what I know about PC's could be written on the back of a postage stamp, so I am hoping you guys that know a little more may be able to help as I am bloody miles away from the nearest PC repair outlet.

Had it about 2.5 years, its nothing special just a Dell Inspiron, turned it off normally about 2 hours ago & it was working find, turned it on & it got as far as the start up screen the one with the F2 & F12 options, the blue bar only fills half way & stops dead, it then goes to the windows error recovery page after about 5 min's (screen with start up recovery or start normally options), I have tried both & it just goes to a blank black screen & stays on it, with no noise but a background hum in the tower (nothing happening/no processor kicking in).

It will not go to setup or boot options via F2/12 on the page & the 3rd time I started it up it said Error at checkpoint 50, contact dell support.

I have took the side panel off & cleaned the dust off the board & the fans, replaced the battery & tried all I can, but its not playing ball.

Any ideas b4 I go on a long trip to get it looked at guys??.

My inclines are a dead motherboard :| but I may well be totally wrong, I do hope at bear minimum I can get my stuff off the hard drive as stupidly I don't have back ups

 

[aussiejames]

Plantman is the guy to speak to

 

[Richard_H]

Could be motherboard I suppose but after just 2.5 years that is pretty poor. Have you tried taking out the RAM / checking all connections to make sure that they are seating properly? My thinking is that it is the hard drive itself that may be at fault for this one. Can you get to safe mode from f8?

 

[Richard_H]

Spoke to my tech guys this morning who all said battery. They said take battery out and try to boot and see what happens. Also check to make sure battery is in right way

 

[Frunkstar]

Well slap me sideways with a wet kipper - its decided to work this morning :? had to go through the windows recovery process & it restored the system to an earlier date & time (clock was saying 1/1/2007 @ 06:50 :? ) after it sorted itself out :? :? but bar that she seems to be back up & running, just doing sweeps now to see if anything gets picked up on scans - be very happy if its all good I can tell you.

AJ - he was the first name that came to mind, thanks!

Cc4rhu - many many thanks for looking in to it for me m8, I did some reading on line (other half's laptop) & came up with battery as well, so replaced it last night, but it did not work, maybe just needed time :? , but I was not able to access any functions via the F keys at all & as for removing the ram - I know nothing!!, would not even know what the ram looks like, to me its a sheep with horns, I am so not techie minded.

Fingers crossed this will be a glitch in the system & now resolved, but if anyone has any concrete ideas as to why etc, please do LMK, as I would sure like to avoid a repeat incident.

Huge thanks to you 2 though

 

[snaggletooth]

Nice to see you got it sorted Frank, get your a back up mate they can be found for less than a Baggie these days :wink:

 

[Richard_H]

Great. When you change the battery you must go to BIOS and set correct date and time before bottling windows. This could just be a corrupted file which has stopped windows loading.

 

[Frunkstar]

Well just got home & back to square one, its up **** creek again doing the same thing, I have just got my usb hard drive out to drop all my info on to it as well :|

I will whip the battery back out & see if it re starts again after an hours power down, but I fear I may just have lost the chance to grab my files in the last start up - fool!!.

I did re set the date & time earlier, but just did it via the bottom left hand corned icon, could I have set it back off again?? & may I ask how I "go to the BIOS and set correct date and time before bottling windows"???

Ahrrrr! what a pain

 

[Richard_H]

When you very first turn the PC on you need to press a key to go to bios. Usually f2 but could be f12 or the del key. Personally once it boots i'd back up the data, wipe it and reload Windows.

 

[plantman]

Frank

Even if the cmos battery fails the system should still boot up, you just get a warning and "press f2 to continue"

It could be a corrupt partition on the hard drive, is it running windows xp or vista/v7 ect?

you should have an option to do a factory restore but that wouldnt get your data back. Your hard drive is still working and the data will be recoverable, you can plug your hard drive into another machine and browse the files to get your data off.
if you cant do this i could do it for you, if you pay for postage here and back ill do it for free.

as the computer boots up randomly its hard to pinpoint a fault, the cmos obviousy is an issue as the computer is losing the date and time, if you take that into a shop they will charge you an arm and a leg to recover your stuff when in fact is dead easy.

if i can provide any more info for you let me know.

Andy

 

[Frunkstar]

Thanks guys, sadly it seems to be dead as a dodo, it won't let me go to the bios & also won't allow me access to the recovery, it gets to the recovery or start normally page after about 5 minutes but when you select either it just goes to a black blank screen & just hangs.

We have a solid fuel fire here & when I opened the machine up it was pretty choked with dust, so I am guessing it may well have been an overheating issue that's fried something.

I will see if I can disconnect the hard drive & link it to this laptop, no idea how 2 as have never messed with the internals of a pc b4 but it can't be that hard - can it?

If I have no joy I would love to take you up on the kind offer Andy, any chance you can pm me your number & addy please m8

 

[JuniorChubb]

Good luck Frank...

 

[jedi_masters]

Andy's your man Frank, gave me sound advise when my puter had the blue screen of death. Good luck buddy, its amazing how much we rely on computers these days and when they don't work it seems like the end of the world!!!

 

[plantman]

could be a few issues frank, ill PM my details.

You could plug the hard drive into one of the computers i sent you, but you might struggle if you have no idea.

if you can get the hard drive out, package it up and send it to me, ill get your data onto a dvd if the hard drive is still working ok.

Andy

p.s then you could try a full restore from a CD the windows xp disk that i sent you will work on any dell machine.

 

[Frunkstar]

Thanks guys!

Stripped it right down & cleaned it to death this morning & its fired back up, not sure for how long, but long enough to retrieve & back up my info to a remote hard drive so I am bloody thrilled & relived to bits.

Pm has been returned Andy - huge thanks for your very kind offer of help m8, its really appreciated.

It seems to have restored itself to a much earlier date & I re set the clock in the bios settings, so fingers crossed it keeps on trucking for the time been.

Not sure if I should just do a fresh install now, but I don't know how to wipe the machine clean if I am honest - any pointers guys?

 

[Richard_H]

Make sure the boot order in the bios is set to cd/dvd as priority boot or boot 1 (they're all slightly different)
Insert the cd and power off
Turn back on and when told to press any key to boot the cd
Install a fresh new copy not repair when asked
Go through the are you sure etc screens
Format the hard drive when asked using ntfs option
Let windows do its stuff
Set settings as required such as uk keyboard

 

[Frunkstar]

Nice one thanks, I presume I then go back to the bios & change the boot up sequence?, sorry for all the question, pc spastic me me you know! :lol:

I take it I would be wise to wipe & re boot a fresh then?, as since this morning it seems to be working as it should :?

 

[Richard_H]

Yes. And personally I would then you can rule out any software issue

 

[flycasual]

The first thing I would do is swap the RAM.

If only I had the bugger in front of me: I hate remote support, it's frustrating.

 

[Frunkstar]

Well tentatively switched it off to do the fresh install & back to square one again with it not wanting to boot back up, got to laugh or I'de bloody cry about it, I think it must be something that's heat related, as I managed to switch it on & off 3 times when it did start up today & its worked fine all day after that (just left it on all day), but after been on all day & trying to re start, its back up **** creak, so presume its hardware not software, fingers crossed it boots up again tomorrow morning & If it does I'll try a fresh install. - ho hum, been one of those days today in oh so many ways - tomorrow will be good