My 'new' PC is bust, anyone any ideas?

[Nickthebassist]

I was given a PC by my muum that she no longer needed. 2.4ghz processor, 2 years old, used to work ok at her house on the net, never seemed to have a virus or anything else (took a while to load sometimes but it was ok). Anyhow, after it being in storage for the last year, I finally got round to setting it up, went out yesterday to buy wireless adaptor, monitor cable, and sound system. £70 in all, quite a lot for someone like me. So anyway I put it all together today, thinking I'll finally have a different PC to my dad (it causes huge arguements when we both want the same PC). I start it up, few problems with the monitor not working due to my adjustable voltage adaptor, sorted after about five minutes. All seems well, but when I go to click on my account on the login page, it jams. So I restart it, and try again. This time it lets me log in. However, it refuses to load Windows Media Player, saying 'insufficient memory'. I restart again, and this time I leave it a few mintues to see if it loads itself, but when I go to log in, it has jammed YET AGAIN. I figure it's something in the computer that takes a few minutes to load up, and when it's loaded it jams everything up. Any ideas as to how it can be fixed, as otherwise I will take great delight in smashing the little bastard to pieces, I have had ENOUGH of shite Microsoft based products!

[SS2.]

With the PC turned off, try removing and reseating the memory..

ETA - only suggesting this because recently a mate's PC was locking up at seemingly random times and swapping the memory sticks between slots sorted the problem..

Edited by SS2. on Thursday 3rd January 16:04

[whygee02]

How do you know the problem is a m$ one? Boot up in safe mode and take it from there.

[Andrew[MG]]

download, format, install, enjoy www.ubuntu.com

No more need to use windows!

[paul99]

Best to use a methodical approach, Remove any hardware added recently since it was last successfully booted and then try again.

If that doesnt work, try reseating the memory and all other cards and check all disk connections.

Trying booting it up in safe mode and check for any errors.

[Nickthebassist]

Ok cool. I am completely untechnically minded so removing anything inside the PC is gonna have to be done by my music tutor who built my other PC. How do I start up in safemode? (I always forget this!), and can I remove stuff in safemode (eg windows live messenger that saps tons of memory even on my dual core PC!).

[bigdods]

Try disabling automatic windows updates, thats caused no end of problems for me. Then change the virtual memory settings , sounds like the machine is way short of ram and isnt setup to use virtual memory.

Now you are going to ask how you do all this arent you ;-)

Start > Control Panel > Security Centre. Click on Automatic updates (the link near the bottom of the box under 'manage security settings') and tick the 'turn off automatic updates' box

Start > Control Panel > System. Click 'advanced' tab. then under 'performance' click 'settings'. Select the 'advanced' tab. In the virtual memory box click 'change'. Click the 'system managed size' button, then click 'set' then click 'ok.

May or may not help but these are a good place to start

[Nickthebassist]

bigdods said:

Try disabling automatic windows updates, thats caused no end of problems for me. Then change the virtual memory settings , sounds like the machine is way short of ram and isnt setup to use virtual memory.

Now you are going to ask how you do all this arent you ;-)

Start > Control Panel > Security Centre. Click on Automatic updates (the link near the bottom of the box under 'manage security settings') and tick the 'turn off automatic updates' box

Start > Control Panel > System. Click 'advanced' tab. then under 'performance' click 'settings'. Select the 'advanced' tab. In the virtual memory box click 'change'. Click the 'system managed size' button, then click 'set' then click 'ok.

May or may not help but these are a good place to start

Ok, but can I do it in safe mode? It's only let me log on once. It'sl ooking more and more to me like a virus has actually destroyed my PC, it's made some very odd noises indeed. How do I get in to safemode? It's an XP based PC if that's of any relevance.

[bigdods]

I think you can do it in safemode, havent been in there for a while to check. You get into safemode by hitting F8 as soon as the PC starts to boot. You might want to stick some AV software on there and give it a scan while you are in safe mode too. Download AVG from www.download.com

[Nickthebassist]

bigdods said:

I think you can do it in safemode, havent been in there for a while to check. You get into safemode by hitting F8 as soon as the PC starts to boot. You might want to stick some AV software on there and give it a scan while you are in safe mode too. Download AVG from www.download.com

Ok will do. No need for AVG.....I have Kaspersky, which I'm told makes norton, mcafee etc look very inferior.

[TheGriffalo]

Profile is corrupt... Try logging in as a different user.


Then, once it's working, power it down and put it in a box. It has a carbon footprint you know!

[cyberface]

TheGriffalo said:

It has a carbon footprint you know!

Definitely go for Linux Nick - having to run anti-virus scanners all the time on Windows wastes power and increases CO2 emissions.

[Hooli]

cyberface said:

TheGriffalo said:

It has a carbon footprint you know!

Definitely go for Linux Nick - having to run anti-virus scanners all the time on Windows wastes power and increases CO2 emissions.

cant you just get hybrid fans for it?

[Nickthebassist]

Ok, I can now log on and work the PC to a certain extent, cheers for the advice.

However, Windows Media Player will not load due to 'low memory'.

I can't delete MSN messenger 7.5 either.

I cannot delete a stupid speedtouch modem due to 'ikernel not being available'.

System idle process is using 99% of the CPU, is this normal?

If I minimize objects they disappear, they do not form a tab on the toolbar.

If I load up 'User Accounts' the box is empty.

Finally, I deleted my mum's old account on System Properties>Advanced>User Profiles, but her account still exists at log in.

[Rebuilda]

Nickthebassist said:

Ok, I can now log on and work the PC to a certain extent, cheers for the advice.

However, Windows Media Player will not load due to 'low memory'.

Identiy the speed of the memory and its type (sdram, ddr or ddr2) pm me the details and I will mail you some from the recycled PC's at work.

Nickthebassist said:

I can't delete MSN messenger 7.5 either.

Control panel - add remove programs - uninstall msn 7.5 then use add remove windows components to get rid of messenger.

Nickthebassist said:

I cannot delete a stupid speedtouch modem due to 'ikernel not being available'.

Reinstall speedtouch modem software, restart as required and then uninstall the whole package.

Nickthebassist said:

System idle process is using 99% of the CPU, is this normal?

yes

Nickthebassist said:

If I minimize objects they disappear, they do not form a tab on the toolbar.

is the tool bar just one unit high and is your monitor adjusted correctly?

Nickthebassist said:

If I load up 'User Accounts' the box is empty.

login in safe mode as admin - delete all other accounts and start again.

Nickthebassist said:

Finally, I deleted my mum's old account on System Properties>Advanced>User Profiles, but her account still exists at log in.

see solution above.

[Nickthebassist]

Rebuilda said:

Nickthebassist said:

Ok, I can now log on and work the PC to a certain extent, cheers for the advice.

However, Windows Media Player will not load due to 'low memory'.

Identiy the speed of the memory and its type (sdram, ddr or ddr2) pm me the details and I will mail you some from the recycled PC's at work.

Nickthebassist said:

I can't delete MSN messenger 7.5 either.

Control panel - add remove programs - uninstall msn 7.5 then use add remove windows components to get rid of messenger.

Nickthebassist said:

I cannot delete a stupid speedtouch modem due to 'ikernel not being available'.

Reinstall speedtouch modem software, restart as required and then uninstall the whole package.

Nickthebassist said:

System idle process is using 99% of the CPU, is this normal?

yes

Nickthebassist said:

If I minimize objects they disappear, they do not form a tab on the toolbar.

is the tool bar just one unit high and is your monitor adjusted correctly?

Nickthebassist said:

If I load up 'User Accounts' the box is empty.

login in safe mode as admin - delete all other accounts and start again.

Nickthebassist said:

Finally, I deleted my mum's old account on System Properties>Advanced>User Profiles, but her account still exists at log in.

see solution above.

Hmm, I don't really know how to indetify the speed of the memory, but I do know I have 192mb of RAm, pitifully small it seems.

Secondly, add or remove programs won't let me uninstall messenger, it just sits and tells me it can't.

Thirdly, Speedtouch software has probably been lost by my mum, she tend to throw stuff out.....

Fourthly, toolbar is one unit high, and monitor seems fine.

Fifthly, Safemode won't let me go on User accounts, the box appears blank with nothing in it. Same old story in normal mode.


Thanks for your advice I really do appreciate it, but what the hell is wrong with this PC? It seems to defy all normal ways of being fixed! It's driving me crazy! ing PCs I wish I had a Mac.....

[tigger1]

192Mb RAM? On a 2.4 Ghz machine running XP?

Whoever built that (if deliberate) wants a kicking (ok, maybe not but...) - that's what's killing you. Get that up to 512Mb and you'll notice a HUGE difference in performance, but 1Gig+ would be better.

[Jinx]

It needs a fresh install of the operating system - if you are sticking with XP then get some memory first (downloading ubuntu is a good idea - even if you only use it to test the memory) . Do you have the XP disk?

[Nickthebassist]

Jinx said:

It needs a fresh install of the operating system - if you are sticking with XP then get some memory first (downloading ubuntu is a good idea - even if you only use it to test the memory) . Do you have the XP disk?

Ok, I don't have the disk no. I'd like to reinstall everything really, start afresh.

[Hooli]

Rebuilda said:

Nickthebassist said:

System idle process is using 99% of the CPU, is this normal?

yes

really? if i look in task manager on here while its not doing anything its about 2%