Computer woes! Help? [elanya]

So... my computer is dying. At the least it needs a reinstall, and I don't have a Windows XP install dis. I do have the product code and such that came with the computer, but I don't know if I can just borrow someone else's install disc?

My other option is to install windows live, which I can get for $15 from the school, but not until Monday or so.

In case you are wondering, this is essentially my comuter. It is slightly different, buty I thik the specs are the same. I bought it in 2006. I'm making this post from work or I could tell you more :P "cause, you know, my comuter is dying -_-

what I man by dying is that everything is slow to load (like... 10-20 min to boot enough that I can run simple programs like the google chat program, more like 30 to try and get firefox up to snuff), and even when they open, things crash. Especially firefox crashes, but I've had problems with other programs as well (word, skype, VLC). This morning, nothing would load. I got it to boot in safe mode, and am backing up my fioles onto my external. I'll finish doing that tonight (right now it is just shifting over the stuff in the My Documents file, but there are some other things I need tucked away here and there - mostly irc log files).

I am fairly confident that part of thr problem is that i am running out of space. I ran the disc clean up yesterday/last night (i.e. I tried to open it when I got home at 5, and by the time I left for Houston around 5:45, it had actually managed to open enough that I could tell it what to do, and left it running while I was away. Ugh.), and that left me with about 6.5 gigs free. I will have to sacrifice some of my music for running space even if I get it reinstalled, but I really need a bigger hard drive, becuse I don't trust my external and can't really run things from it effectively anyway. This is also why I am a little wary of installing a newer operating system - for one thing I don't koiw if my computer could handle it, and also, I think it would take up more space (Y/N?)

So, yeah.... any help? Catherine said that she might have an xp install disc I can use, but I would like to know if I can at least actually use it before I get her to bring it over...

Some other notes: tis means I can only make calls to local phones, since I hve been using skype. So.... unless you have a 979 area code, I probably can't call you. Uuuuugh.

Any help = great! I will probably wind up going in to school this weekend to do computery/internet-y type work. And don't worry, come hell or high water, I will be at D2 on Sunday @_@

May

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
				1	2	3
4	5	6 1	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

That thing should still be capable of running fine.

When's the last time you actually wiped and reinstalled windows? It may be a lot of work, but that might be your best bet. I would stick with XP; there's no need to go so something newer/bigger/lamer. If you have a product key, you can borrow anyone's CD, or get a cracked key/full cd off the internets (I can arrange that, if you need).

What you'll need to do, since I presume you can't format your hard drive without losing the non-windows data on it, is install a fresh version, from cd, in a new directory (name it something like WinXP), and then install any apps you like freshly as well. Then delete your old windows directory. This is less ideal than formatting the drive, though. If you can offload your precious data to the external or something and format before reinstalling, that would be best.

[link] [reply]

In addition to this, I would probably take note of all the damn drivers that are necessary particularly for the internet and download those and have them on your drive now. NOTHING sucks more than reinstalling and finding out you cant get to the internet because you don't have the driver.

Either going to toshibas site first and grabbing drivers would be good or getting a driver disk like this: http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2093964/1892804/

Edited Date: 2010-03-05 03:21 pm (UTC)

[link] [parent] [reply]

but.... I can't load my browser >_<

I guess I could put them on the external from school, though.

ya totaly :) or you could just burn them on a cd from work?

Since it's working well enough to backup to external, I think she should take the nuclear option straight off. She'll still have to delete a ton of data manually, still have to defrag over a night or two... still have to buy or download a better defrag app than the one that comes with XP. (I like O&O Defrag.)

This sounds like "normal Windows build-up" slow-down, but it may be worth downloading the TestDisk bootable CD which does a pretty thorough scan for hardware errors. Also run MemTest86+ for a couple hours and see if you get a lot of memory errors. There's not much point re-installing Windows, if it's choking on bad RAM or a faulty hard disk.

Google says Win 7 will run on that laptop and I recommend the upgrade, although only slightly. If you've got the time to relearn the UI a little bit, definitely give it a try; if you need to get things running ASAP to get work done, maybe don't bother.

I don't believe in "normal windows build-up" (it's almost always a virus or a badly-written program/uninstaller that wrecks windows,) but I'd agree that running memtest and testdisk is a great idea. If your hardware is fine and your data is backed-up, a wipe can do wonders.

Having a full hard disk causes Windows problems, for sure. It really doesn't like it.

There's some cases where a particular edition of XP only works with keys for that edition, but usually you're good with any disc.

I would argue that badly-written install/uninstall processes and viral infection *is* "normal windows build-up." You can avoid it to an extent, but if you try out new programs frequently, and particularly if you're talking about downloaded stuff, the build-up is inevitable...

What you're more likely to get is registry fragmentation, where various bits of the Windows registry are stored in completely different parts of the hard drive, so all registry reads end up taking ages. Combine that with the bad uninstallers etc and you can get serious performance issues.

The whole registry is read into memory when windows starts, so fragmentation doesn't slow down running times significantly.

There was a great article on this on lifehacker recently:
http://lifehacker.com/5482701/whats-the-registry-should-i-clean-it-and-whats-the-point

so, wait, you are confusing me. I have never done a reinstall - do I need to defrag first, and then format? Or format and then defrag (I assume option 1?)

Sorry, bad phrasing. If you reinstall without formatting, you'll have to delete a bunch of stuff, run defrag, etc... but if you do a clean install, which includes a format, you don't need to defrag because the old file table is wiped out, and there's no extra deleting to do, since the format handles that. The downside is, if you forgot to back anything up, it's pretty well gone.

If you do format it, you should consider using the partitioning utility to make a "system" disk and a "data" disk, so that if you reinstall again it won't touch your data files.

If you format the drive, there's no need to defrag, because you've completely wiped and, uh, recalibrated it, for lack of a better word. A formatted drive is a fresh drive.

If the computer bites it, let me know. I have a portable which should still work nicely in my office that I don't use since I got the netbook, and also a tower PC that's gathering dust which I should be able to clean up for you. <3

It really sounds like a virus to me, by the way. If a hardware or software piece "dies" it either works or it doesn't. Just really bad performance is usually indicative of high load, which can often be caused by a virus or other piece of malware that has compromised your computer.

Try putting it in "safe mode with networking" - update your virus definitions, then run a full scan.

I don't think installing Windows 7 (I assume that's what you meant, since Windows Live is not an OS?) on your machine is a great idea with only 512 Mb of RAM.

Agreed - the system requirements want 1gb, so it may well not run at all.

Adam suggests backing up your data, and then reinstalling Windows. He also thinking that it may be a failing hard drive. A friend of ours was having a similar problem, and it was because his hard drive was failing.

elanya

Computer woes! Help?

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

May