Author Topic: IT type computer issue (Read 1546 times)

Stoney Mason · « **on:** May 23, 2011, 09:55:40 AM »

A cousin of mine dropped over their sony vaio laptop. Its a good number of years old and is running XP. She's given it to me with problems before and it was always viruses so I would remove the virus for her and put on anti-virus software and give it back.

This time though the machine freezes on the windows load-up up screen so I can't even get to the desktop to do anything and fix the solution. Same with any version of safe mode. The only thing I know to do is reformat her hard drive but is there any other possible solution I can try short of that so she doesn't lose all her data?

She also doesn't have her original windows discs that came with the machine although I have a copy of windows xp.

Brehvolution · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:00:30 AM »

Boot to the xp cd and choose the first repair option that you get. At the command prompt the CHKDSK /r. If there is damage to the disk, you should find out from there.

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #2 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:11:59 AM »

Thx. I'll try that.

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #3 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:22:38 AM »

hmm.... There doesn't seem to be a repair option there.

It says C: Partition2 [Unknown]

If I hit enter on it says the parition is either too full, damaged, not formatted, or formatted with an incompatible file system. It then gives me option to format it.

I can also delete the partition but no repair.

Does this mean its fucked and I should just go ahead with the re-install?

Brehvolution · « **Reply #4 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:48:51 AM »

This is the first screen you can interact with. Press R to get to the command prompt and run the check disk.

If it doesn't recognize the partition then you are most likely screwed.

The Sceneman · « **Reply #5 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:54:05 AM »

if you are screwed, urinate on the device for exclusive content

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #6 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:55:44 AM »

Quote from: Zero Hero on May 23, 2011, 10:48:51 AM

(Image removed from quote.)

This is the first screen you can interact with. Press R to get to the command prompt and run the check disk.

If it doesn't recognize the partition then you are most likely screwed.

I get a similar screen but mine doesn't have middle option there. Hitting R doesn't do anything for me.

Thanks for the help. I think I'm just going to format it.

Brehvolution · « **Reply #7 on:** May 23, 2011, 11:02:18 AM »

Sorry I couldn't help. Good luck.

The Sceneman · « **Reply #8 on:** May 23, 2011, 11:03:10 AM »

just format it and install the ultimate operating system: Windows 7

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #9 on:** May 23, 2011, 11:06:22 AM »

Quote from: Zero Hero on May 23, 2011, 11:02:18 AM

Sorry I couldn't help. Good luck.

No prob. I just wanted to make sure I at least took a few steps before blitzing her computer and now I can.

Quote from: The Sceneman on May 23, 2011, 11:03:10 AM

just format it and install the ultimate operating system: Windows 7

I would but she only has 1 gb of memory.

The Sceneman · « **Reply #10 on:** May 23, 2011, 11:08:47 AM »

That should be ample to run Win7?

But dont quote me on this

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #11 on:** May 23, 2011, 11:12:37 AM »

Quote from: The Sceneman on May 23, 2011, 11:08:47 AM

That should be ample to run Win7?

But dont quote me on this

I didn't think her computer ran all that great with 1gb on xp but if if I'm bored this evening I may try it out just to see how it feels. And if sucks I'll just put back on xp.

The Sceneman · « **Reply #12 on:** May 23, 2011, 11:24:00 AM »

well it's a Sony product...

ManaByte · « **Reply #13 on:** May 23, 2011, 12:10:47 PM »

My netbook only has a gig of RAM and runs the basic Win7 alright.

Phoenix Dark · « **Reply #14 on:** May 23, 2011, 12:31:36 PM »

Damn I wish I saw this thread earlier. Stony, have to reformatted? If not, you could try this. Choose the first option on the blue screen posted by pressing Enter. After you accept the license agreement and it searches for a Windows version it should give you the option to repair (R) whatever copy is found. If it does not give you that option...

You'd have to reformat I guess. Without the repair/recovery option there's little else you can do

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #15 on:** May 23, 2011, 12:50:48 PM »

Quote from: Phoenix Dark on May 23, 2011, 12:31:36 PM

Damn I wish I saw this thread earlier. Stony, have to reformatted? If not, you could try this. Choose the first option on the blue screen posted by pressing Enter. After you accept the license agreement and it searches for a Windows version it should give you the option to repair (R) whatever copy is found. If it does not give you that option...

You'd have to reformat I guess. Without the repair/recovery option there's little else you can do

Thanks. Yeah I tried it and it wasn't there so I'm going to reformat. But as always things are never as easy as they need to be. I was going to install windows 7 just to check it out on her machine but I get a boot error. Which apparently is due to the motherboard after doing some googling. So to do that I have to do some long ass work around to create a proper bootable dvd.

Fucking computers.

Pringo · « **Reply #16 on:** May 23, 2011, 03:52:06 PM »

While on the topic I've got a computer issue too if anyone's willing to help look at it. When playing games or watching video I get these horizontal bands across the screen. They move around a bit but seem to behave a bit differently depending on what I'm doing. In StarCraft II they almost look like the effect you get when videotaping a TV screen where you get these bands across the screen moving vertically. In Just Cause 2 there are still bands but they kind of jiggle in place rather than moving in any direction. So far I've noticed this issue while playing games, watching videos, and occasionally while loading websites.

This is a new PC I just put together and I'm trying to figure out what's causing this problem. I tried switching out my new GeForce 560 Ti for an old 8800 and I still seem to get the issue, but not quite as badly. I'm not really sure what other parts might be the culprit and I don't want to attempt to RMA anything unless I'm pretty certain that part is actually bad.

Here's a picture I tried to grab of the issue while playing Just Cause 2. The effect doesn't show up in screenshots.

chronovore · « **Reply #17 on:** May 23, 2011, 09:10:44 PM »

Quote from: The Sceneman on May 23, 2011, 10:54:05 AM

if you are screwed, urinate on the device for exclusive content

This is classless and insensitive.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

But I laughed.

[close]

naff · « **Reply #18 on:** May 23, 2011, 09:21:07 PM »

Sometimes if a computers giving me trouble installing a new OS because of old shit on it, I boot into a Linux LiveCD and use gparted to erase every POS left on there then go ahead and install what I was trying to install in the first place

tehjaybo · « **Reply #19 on:** May 23, 2011, 09:23:53 PM »

Sometimes when I'm having issues like this, it's possible for me to slave the drive in my PC, or to put it in an external enclosure, and go into it with my normal PC to try and recover data. That might be worth a try (given you haven't already formatted).

Fraction · « **Reply #20 on:** May 23, 2011, 09:52:18 PM »

If you want to recover the data, you could download and burn a copy of Ubuntu to disc and then boot off of it. The loader will give you an option to try Ubuntu without installing anything and this will give you access to the data on the hard drive without having to boot into Windows. Copy the data onto an external after that. Pretty straightforward and I haven't come across a computer that won't load Ubuntu (yet).

I think tehjaybo's option of pulling out the hard drive is the fastest way though, depending on how much you need to transfer.

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #21 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:36:28 PM »

thanks for all the help guys but I went ahead and blitzed it when I got home this evening. I installed Windows 7 on it also and its runs decently for only having a gig of memory.

Vizzys · « **Reply #22 on:** May 23, 2011, 10:50:07 PM »

try a different video cable pringo

Pringo · « **Reply #23 on:** May 24, 2011, 01:44:55 AM »

Quote from: Viz on May 23, 2011, 10:50:07 PM

try a different video cable pringo

Yep, found a spare DVI cable around to try out and it seems to have fixed the issue. Weird as I wasn't having issues with the previous cable before.

chronovore · « **Reply #24 on:** May 24, 2011, 08:23:25 AM »

Quote from: Stoney Mason on May 23, 2011, 10:36:28 PM

thanks for all the help guys but I went ahead and blitzed it when I got home this evening. I installed Windows 7 on it also and its runs decently for only having a gig of memory.

Dude, UBUNTU! You know UWANTU!

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Author Topic: IT type computer issue (Read 1546 times)