Computer Advice Please

[zeolite]

Seing as there is a lot of computer type techies on this board I am going to ask for some advice.

I have replaced my HP pavilion with this new one (Dell Inspiron) but I would like to fix the old one especially as the new one is Vista and my work software will still run on XP (and will continue to for the forseeable). Anyway I have the sick one out in the garage and with the covers off waiting for me to start operating.

Can anyone recomend a book/manual for a beginners guide to effing about with PCs and a friendly, newbie tolerant forum for any pesky PC questions?

I still have to diagnose the problem with the PC but it won't boot up and blue screen crashes out of the windows startup screen and goes to a DOS style screen giving you start options. All of which return you to this DOS style screen. I can access the help menu but nothing makes any difference. So what should I replace first?

Thanks all

[darranc]

did you install anything right before this started ?

Did any Microsoft patches get installed ?

Boot into safe mode, (from that dos screen) and go into the control panel and look at the dates of software installed, Try removing the latest installed stuff .. possibly patches.

If you cant even boot into windows safe mode i think you might be stuffed.

a reinstall of XP is in order.

I had a similar problem tho and it was a M$ patch.

[ed-209]

Seing as there is a lot of computer type techies on this board I am going to ask for some advice.

I have replaced my HP pavilion with this new one (Dell Inspiron) but I would like to fix the old one especially as the new one is Vista and my work software will still run on XP (and will continue to for the forseeable). Anyway I have the sick one out in the garage and with the covers off waiting for me to start operating.

Can anyone recomend a book/manual for a beginners guide to effing about with PCs and a friendly, newbie tolerant forum for any pesky PC questions?

I still have to diagnose the problem with the PC but it won't boot up and blue screen crashes out of the windows startup screen and goes to a DOS style screen giving you start options. All of which return you to this DOS style screen. I can access the help menu but nothing makes any difference. So what should I replace first?

Thanks all

What model number is your HP sticker is on the back of it, did you do any upgrades memory,video etc recently, HP and their sister compaqs have loads of things that can cause windows to hang some more details would be good, when booting in safe mode what is the last line before it resets/hangs/blue screens. in our tech tips we have over 200 ref's to hp/compaq problems.

Ed

[zeolite]

Quick reply here before I go and get some numbers.

Nothing had been installed and I can't get booted from the safe mode. It is stuck in that DOS screen. I have tried to boot from the recovery discs I made but that doesn't work either.

When trying to boot into safe mode it gets to the windows logo then flashes a blue screen very quickly before returning to the original screen.

The machine is 6 years old BTW and no upgrades have been done.

I figure that it is a hardware prob but what hardware?

[plimpix]

Install linux get rid of Windows!

I'm not a windows expert but is the blue screen of death not usually mean there is a problem in the kernel and this crashes the box. So could possibly be that there is a corrupt file/files in the windows directory that is not allowing the boot process to continue.

Have you tried doing a fresh install and not using the recovery cds? Can't be hardware if your able to get into dos mode.

I'm from the unix school of computing sorry wasn't really much help was i?

Edited September 10, 2008 by plimpix

[ed-209]

Quick reply here before I go and get some numbers.

Nothing had been installed and I can't get booted from the safe mode. It is stuck in that DOS screen. I have tried to boot from the recovery discs I made but that doesn't work either.

When trying to boot into safe mode it gets to the windows logo then flashes a blue screen very quickly before returning to the original screen.

The machine is 6 years old BTW and no upgrades have been done.

I figure that it is a hardware prob but what hardware?

You should not see the windows logo in safe mode you should see a black screen with lots of white text telling you what part of the windows process you are at. but if you see the windows logo and then a flash of blue before it resets to the startup options screen then windows has loaded and then crashed before the user interface has loaded. The normal way to get round this is to use a Windows PE disc and then check for damaged and or missing windows files. if you don't have a/have access to a windows PE disc you may need to do a recovery.

Oh 1 last think. if it's a P4 CPU sometimes they can just die when accessing the virtual memory paging causing Windows to do a STOP error. try changing the CPU.

[zeolite]

ed

Not sure what number you want but on the HP sticker there is

Win XP Media 2004

product key

I have been unable to do any recovery as it just stops at a pale blue screen.

Edited September 10, 2008 by zeolite

[ed-209]

ed

Not sure what number you want but on the HP sticker there is

Win XP Media 2004

product key

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

00045-804-130-895

That's the Microsoft windows label. look for the one that which tells you what model of HP it is should be near the power supply unit (where the mains cable plugs in) or take a good picture of the back of it.

Label will look like this

but thanks for your licence key anyway. must get that posted on all the dodgy websites.

Edited September 10, 2008 by ed-209

[ed-209]

I have been unable to do any recovery as it just stops at a pale blue screen.

have you had any repairs in the past.

Cause the pale blue screen sounds like a tattoo error. ie your computer has not been tattoo correctly.

have a look here for recovery details on hp Pavilions

http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx...0-a7eb9ef28023}

[zeolite]

Cheers Ed

HWF BOM 041010110SW BOM GB34

SYSTEM NO

DN168A#980

SERIAL NO

NLD423ZZ1YHRU

Hope I get it right this time. Cheers for the link.

What is a tattoo?

Edited September 10, 2008 by zeolite

[nanaki]

ed you may wish to edit your post to remove the quoted key as well mate.

website i used to help out a lot years ago for dedicated pc help is called houseofhelp. there forums are great and the mods dont mind answering the same question a million times.

[ed-209]

Cheers Ed

HWF BOM 041010110SW BOM GB34

SYSTEM NO

DN168A#980

SERIAL NO

NLD423ZZ1YHRU

Hope I get it right this time. Cheers for the link.

What is a tattoo?

The tattoo is some code stored in the bios that tell the recovery what software and hardware is in your pc. your hardware build of materials or HW BOM is 041010110 and software or SW BOM is GB34. you should be able to retattoo. tattoo is also called bioslock it is a demand of microsoft to allow recovery cd,hd,dvd's to be used.

To retattoo your pc you will need a HP recovery toolkit disc, you might be able to download one from HP Website.

Did you get the model number it's circled the image above.

Edited September 10, 2008 by ed-209

[zeolite]

M000 is what I think it says.

Edited September 10, 2008 by zeolite

[ed-209]

M000 is what I think it says.

I hope not cause there are 30 odd in the M range.

http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx...b-0e39c7a6ae73}

Just check your SKU code you pc is

HP Media Center m370.uk Desktop PC

this page on HP site is for your pc.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documen...;product=371157

Edited September 10, 2008 by ed-209

[zeolite]

Thanks again ed!

[st3ph3n]

I'll give Ed his due - he know's his Ubuntu from his OS2 Warp.

One thing I'd say is that this software - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ - is excellent for diagnosing a wee problem. One of the first things I reach for these days.

[ed-209]

I'll give Ed his due - he know's his Ubuntu from his OS2 Warp.

One thing I'd say is that this software - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ - is excellent for diagnosing a wee problem. One of the first things I reach for these days.

We use this as well, not really recommended for novices as you have the ability to wipe hard drives, clear bios's etc. but very useful for people in IT. Oh stephen I prefer scounix to Ubuntu(but it does have have good backup for beginners), and I am really sad I still have the floppy disks for os2 warp (pre cd).