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Topic: Computer Won't Start

Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 09-14-2004 05:42 PM

Make sure you're using a PS/2 keyboard.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-14-2004 05:57 PM

quote: Ron Yost
I have Charter Pipeline cable-modem service (highest speed, whatever that is) and am considering going to SBC DSL. Only reason is it's about $20 a month less.

$26.95 a month is a pretty good deal for DSL service, even if it jumps up to $39 after the first year.

My understanding is you have to be within 10,000 feet of either the main DSL switching station at the phone company, or within 10,000 feet of a fiber-optic extension from the switching station. I'm not sure what causes the 10,000 foot limit. My guess is it may have something to do with the voltage increase on the phone lines to make it hold both voice and data.

Here in Lawton, SBC has been adding fiber-optic branches out from its two main stations to cover all of the city. I'm within a mile of the main office in town. Technically, my connection is 384kb/s downstream and 128kb/s upstream. But it rarely ever runs that low. My downstream usually runs in the 700k to 1Mb range. The only thing that takes any time is e-mail uploads, which are confined to 128kb/s.

We have a wireless broadband setup at my work since it fall just outside SBC's DSL coverage net. There's a bit of latency with that connection, but my upstreams are a lot greater in bandwidth. It takes little time at all to e-mail something a couple megs in size. Our company did a tradeout with a WISP company for two building signs in exchange for 3 years of free wireless broadband service.

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Ron Yost
Master Film Handler

Posts: 344
From: Paso Robles, CA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 09-14-2004 06:49 PM

Steve,

Can you read the CD's directory using Windows Explorer?? If so, it should have autorun.exe in the root directory of the CD .. if it's an autorun disc, of course.

I don't have autorun enabled for my CD drives either, and to install programs, I just double-click autorun.exe to open the dialog box for the actual installer.

I'd close Windows Explorer after you have the installer's box in front of you and before you click INSTALL .. or whatever starts the install process. (I don't know if it hurts anything to leave W.E. open, but I close it.)

Thank you, Bobby .. and everyone. Helps a lot making my decision!

Ron Yost .. definitely NOT an expert in these things, but I do have a few miles using XP. You will like it once it's tamed, Steve. [Big Grin]

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 09-15-2004 01:27 AM

Apparently one can boot off the DVD drive. The disk they sent offered a couple options neither of which worked, one because it couldn't find the license agreement and the other because I don't have the admin password. (So much for open boxes, yes?) So they are sending yet another disk with which to reload from the ground up. I figured wtf, while waiting for that I will just go ahead and load XP Pro that I have but that was a bad idea because even retaining a drivers directory already on the machine and trying it every which way I could not get the on-MB ethernet port to run so that installation is kinda worthless.

Right now I'm running on the old HD in the new box because I thought I might have better luck getting the DSL going this way (W98SE) but no such luck and I'm on dialup so this is pointless too.

The plan is still to make a final determination if there is a hardware issue before my return ability ends. Which OS I use in the next couple days isn't that important.

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Jennifer Pan
THE JEN!

Posts: 1219
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 09-15-2004 02:52 AM

quote: Steve Kraus
Right now I'm running on the old HD in the new box because I thought I might have better luck getting the DSL going this way (W98SE) but no such luck and I'm on dialup so this is pointless too.

Yeah, I don't think having your old HD would really matter when trying to get any type of Internet connection. I could be wrong
on that.

I transferred my old HDs to 2 different towers before deciding its just not worth it. I'm starting a new clean tower now. I thought maybe a good way to deal with HDs is to get an external one or have your files accessible on a server of some sort on the net.

I had kind of a problem with my computer too when it started up. It's been acting up for the past month or so... it would restart for no particular reason. I assume it might have been the power supply but it wasn't occurring too often so I never replaced it. Until this past weekend it encountered a virus of some sort. My Anti-virus program found the problem but it froze. So I try to restart it myself. Needless to say after that it wouldn't let me access Windows let alone the BIOS. It kept restarting every time it got to that "Windows is configuring" screen or whatever it says. So I said screw it... I'm just going to get a new desktop.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 09-15-2004 03:44 AM

quote: Jennifer Pan
I thought maybe a good way to deal with HDs is to get an external one or have your files accessible on a server of some sort on the net.

I think it's possible to buy cradle/box type thinggies which convert an IDE drive into a USB external one. If I remember correctly, there was one on ebuyer.com (the US branch of which - total trivia - is not too far from you, in Chandler AZ) for around £20 not so long ago. The transfer speed is probably shitty, but (assuming they're reliable and not too fragile) this seems like quite a good way to get a portable HDD more cheaply than buying a dedicated one, e.g. if you have an HDD spare from an upgrade and occasionally need to transport large volumes of data around without burning CDs or DVDs.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 09-15-2004 12:44 PM

It's actually quite entertaining to let an HD wake up in a new computer as the boot drive (as opposed to just making it an additional drive which I have done for years). All that "I've found new stuff--let me install it" ultimately isn't as good as a reload. But odd that between the on-board LAN port, and moving over the old PCI Linksys board, and two different OS's neither could be made to be seen by either the ISP's software or the MS router/firewall software.

If I keep the machine I will definitely use my old modem though seldom would it be used. The included one (not on the MB thankfully) is a WinModem. ::shudders:: You just never know when I might want to boot into DOS and call someone with ProComm and that ain't happenin' with a WinModem! [Smile]

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 09-15-2004 01:30 PM

Gosh Steve, I really have to commend you for your patience. [thumbsup]

If I had that much trouble with a computer, or ANY electronic apparatus, I would have long ago taken it to my balcony and thrown it over the hillside. I would watch with orgasmic pleasure as it smashed into a billion pieces on the street 100 ft below. [evil]

>>> Phil

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Ron Yost
Master Film Handler

Posts: 344
From: Paso Robles, CA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 09-15-2004 01:50 PM

Me too, Phil. His story reminds me too much of the 'old days' with early Windows ... remember all the IRQ and DMA conflicts everytime hardware was installed?? Maybe you never encountered them, but I sure did. [Big Grin]

My current HP Win XP box (2-G Pentium 4, blah blah .. nothing special) was SO nice when I first got it home! It was fast! (Not DOS fast, but better than anything I've had for a LONG time), stable, and just WORKED. It's been a little downhill since (performance-wise), as I've added tons of stuff to it.

[Although, I did finally install XP SP2 last night (from CD that I got from MS) and my machine has, for some reason, sped-up remarkably!! Don't ask me why. I'll bet it found some 'nasty' I didn't know about and snuffed it.]

I DIDN'T install 'legacy' stuff in my new box, tho .. Win 98 programs, etc. I wanted (and got) a 'fresh start'. Maybe that's most of your problem, Steve?? No offense, and I hope you understand the way I mean that. [Smile]

XP simply shouldn't be hard to deal with as you're experiencing .. it really shouldn't.

I, too, think you should take it back. You have the patience of Job, Steve.!

Ron Yost

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-15-2004 04:56 PM

quote: Steve Kraus
Apparently one can boot off the DVD drive.

Thanks to improvements in BIOS chips for main boards, PC users no longer have to keep those damned 1.44BM floppies around for emergency boot discs.

I think some machines can even boot off of removable flash memory cards.

Still waiting for that MRAM thing (magnetic DDR memory). There's been vaporware talk about that stuff for years, but it could actually happen within another year or two. You could have your OS load itself into a bank of MRAM and allow a machine to boot up almost instantly.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 09-16-2004 10:42 AM

So last night running in normal configuration (my old drive back to secondary status) with an XP Pro non-SP2 I finally got it to recognize the LAN port and get back onto DSL. Without any protection I was immediately deluged with IE windows opening and software installing itself. I don't think I was even looking at anything other than F-T which of course has no pop ups. Hmmm...so this is the XP Xperience.

Alas still unable to connect via the MS hardware firewall (the software doesn't "see" it) but that may be due to having previously let an update run which would have updated the firmware and maybe that then becomes incompatible with the original version of the PC software...so need to run the update again. I hope the hardware firewall plus a software one like "Tiny" will suffice.

I still think I should wipe the disk and rebuild from scratch with the OEM disk when it comes. Then I'll have the machine as the factory intended and can start from scratch.

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-16-2004 11:48 AM

SP-2 killed our office computer too. I clicked yes when it asked if it should upgrade to SP-2. 5-days later it didn't start. We took it to the computer store where it was purchased and they got it going again.

Their recomondation is not to upgrade to SP-2 untill Microsoft works out the bugs. They have seen upgrades lock a computer before. The problem looked like a hardware problem, but all the hardware check out just fine.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 09-18-2004 11:42 PM

It turned out that the DVD the guy burned in the store was self starting so I let that reload XP Home (non SP2) although the 3 reload disks came from eMachines the next day. I presume those would do the same thing plus all the extra crap. So I may not bother. The reload seems stable and I straightened out my firewall issues. Between the hardware firewall (MS MN-700) and a software firewall (Tiny Personal Firewall) I hope to keep the baddies at bay.

As for my old box I wonder if it's worth bothering to find another ATX (I think) form MB & CPU to make use of as much as I can.

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Jennifer Pan
THE JEN!

Posts: 1219
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 09-19-2004 02:03 AM

quote: Steve Kraus
although the 3 reload disks came from eMachines the next day. I presume those would do the same thing plus all the extra crap.

Yes, eMachines does have alot of extra Ad ware and software that is unnecessary. Its what they have already packaged in their CPUs. Best Buy was trying to make a profit on supposedly customizing for the customer for a fee of about $70. Which basically all they would be doing was starting up the Win XP installation and deleting a couple of AOL Ads and software. Also they said it would take about 2 hours to complete this process. It took me 15 minutes maybe less. Plus, they wanted me to buy an Anti-virus for the computer. Ummm... I guess no one at Best Buy knew that Norton Anti-Virus is already installed in the system.

I obviously said NO to all of their gags. The guy selling the computer to me thought I was some dumb chick who didn't know a thing about computers. He kept giving me that... "You are stupid if you don't buy this product.." look.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 09-19-2004 08:09 PM

But come on, it's the Geek Squad! (As one friend said, "If they knew anything they'd be working somewhere else.")

My new machine is an eMachines T6000 (an already discontinued model apparently).

Athlon 64-bit 3200+ CPU (MS-6741 motherboard); 512M RAM; 160 GB 7200 RPM HD (Western Digital); ATI Radeon 9600 128 MB video card w/DVI & S-video out, dual channel; 6-channel audio (on MB), 10/100 Ethernet (on MB); 56K modem card; 7 USB ports, 1 Firewire, 8-in-1 Media card reader combo floppy drive.

$769. I thought that was pretty good for a store purchase.

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