TigerCat: If you have the original disk, just make sure your boot sequence boots from you DVD-ROM drive first

The first option you should get is Press Return to boot from DVD (or words to that effect) which of course you want to do. Then just follow the instructions. for setting up a new system.

Make sure you have the Product Key number though (25 digit code in 5 blocks of 5, numbers and letters) which will normally be on the install disk or the side of the machine, and like i said make sure you have anything you need to keep backed up first.

Its always best when problem get to much to start fresh

p.s. (edit) Do not worry about deleting anything, on install makes sure disk is formatted, which it will ask you, and all should be fine

MadMonkey: Thank You so much Mad! I haven't re-booted in such along time & was getting very much confused ( which isn't 1 of my strong points) LOL Can I be able to do this when I'm in safe mode?

TigerCat: Right, here we go lol --- No safe mode needed as long as you can set the following:

1. make sure that anything you need saved is backed up to DVD or another means, if not a problem do not worry.
2. make sure your Boot sequence is set to go from DVD first
3. load your DVD Windows install disk into machine
4. reboot
5. first thing it should say is Hit Return to Boot from cd ??? (if i remember correctly)
6. then just follow instructions, as i said when it asks about formatting the drive, YES

I do not really want to go into partitioning etc... as hopefully once we have your PC up running it will be ok.
Just post here and one of us will tell you the Main things to install to have a safe PC

I am pretty sure thats all you will need to get up running, if not Gordon Shumway or someone else will say something

Then of course you will have to reinstall any of your own software you use (internet connections etc...)

Actually, doing a complete reformating of your puter is preferred.. it is very simple to do for XP. You take the disk. Insert it in the puter. shut off puter.. and restart. it asks two questions similar to are you sure you want to? YES. It will delete everything on the HD.. Yes.

Definately make sure you back up the files you want on your puter that you need. Such as pictures and recipes and anything you created on your word programs. You can always redownload Spybot. And for free virus software AVG
Like any other virus software though, you can't have anyother virus software installed.

MadMonkey: and TigerCat, this time once you have your machine all nice and happy again, with all your own personal programs installed, internet settings etc i would suggest that buy a small portabale USB drive (20gb is sufficient) and use Norton GHOST to ghost an entire image of yur PC. That way if an error ever presents itself again you simply plug it in, select the GHOST option and bingo......in record time it will wipe your PC and GHOST it back to a nice working position....similar to the RESTORE in XP but much MUCH better

Adaptable Ali: I had a similar problem and found out that it was an incompatability with one of the Microsoft Updates, by simply downloaded the update for firefox it fixed itself

Adaptable Ali: Thats why i dont like Firefox. It 'gives" you so many "surprises" you havent asked for / need. Happens many times that you get a message "Firefox is uploading blah blah blah and will start in a few minutes".
Not to mention problems like yours with a frozen screen :( No i prefer a reliable browser as Internet Explorer.
Those who like new "toys" can play with Firefox LOL

Badinage:  Where do i, or how do i find the download that will fix it?

Andersp: I have to say, i have never had any problems with firefox until today......

Adaptable Ali: Firefox website www.mozilla.com and either download the latest version or the update

The pledges to download Firefox 3.0 on official download day has now passed the 1,000,000 mark.

One million pledges!

I had to do a factory reinstall on my desktop and now I cant find my "slave" hard drive 
Anyone know how to locate that please?


Thanx

Eric

Baked Alaskan: You could try right click on My Computer, and choose "Manage"

On the left side, under Storage, choose "Disk Management"

Then in bottom right, you should see all the drives connected to the PC - and should be able to right click on the un-mapped hard drive, and choose to assign a drive letter.

If it is not there - I guess the next thing I would do is manually disconnect the slave drive - boot up PC, then shut down - and then install the slave drive again to see if the PC will auto-find it.

coan.net:

Awesome, I will try that as soon as its done downloading current windows updates  :)


Thanx

coan.net:

OK  I'ts not there on the list  :(   
I hate to think I need to take the HD out  :(  
Wasnt easy for me to get in  LOL


Dang!

Mozilla are to release a third candidate for Firefox 3.0

O.K. Firefox 3.0 official release is June 17, 2008

So far 1.2 million people have pledged to download it on that day, setting a new software download record

You can get Firefox 3.0 RC3 from HERE (RC3 may not be the final version)

I will post the final link as soon as i can track it down

coan.net:

Any other suggestions for locating my slave drive before taking it out of the tower?  I really dont wanna do that  LOL   Might get me in trouble 

Baked Alaskan:

you dont have to take it out of the tower - just disconnect the cable once.

and you may enter the BIOS to auto-detect the hard drive again and then restart your operating system!

;-)

MadMonkey: i think it should be pointed out if im reading it correctly that download day dosnt actually start until Time is fixed on Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 10:00 San Francisco time which means in the UK ppl shouldnt download it till after 6pm tonight

There was a conversation on the BrainKing.com board which I would love to talk about more - so I thought I would try to bring the topic here since hopefully it will be something that can help others.

I'm a firefox fan, and I do have speed issues occasionally with this site - but not "REALLY" bad for many months now.

Anyway, it seems that a few think that Safari is working a lot faster then Firefox, so even though I have not downloaded Safari yet (but probable will try it out), I'm wondering how many add-on's you have in Firefox?

Myself - I have adblock plus & forecastfox. (of course it is obvious the more stuff you add to it the slower the program will go, so I don't try tons of add-ons)

coan.net: well i didnt have that many addons on firefox
2 i think it was but tonight using Safari ive managed to make more moves in 2 hours than i did for a week using Firefox

Snoopy: If you would like to do some expreiments, it would be cool to:

1. know what addon's you have in firefox.

2. Disable all addon's in firefox and try to use it for a little bit to see if there are speed differences.

... Not that I'm trying to get you away from using Safari - but would be cool if we could narrow down what addon's might cause issues.... in which that might help others who are also having issues.

coan.net: I have at least 12 to 15 addons with FIrefox, and this site speeds along for me. Firefox rocks.

coan.net: I just downloaded Safari. It is almost the same as Advant which I used on my laptop to play here. I like both. I am not really keen on FireFox and only used it because I simple cannot get on Brainking via Explorer. And I cannot read anything on the boards on my desktop on Advant . Advant works fine on the laptop though.

coan.net: I use firefox 3with a lot of addons and it flies on BK

coan.net: Monkey got 30 Add-ons

if one of you clever ppl here could please tell me how to copy and paste using the safari browser please

if one of you clever ppl here could please tell me how to copy and paste using the safari browser please


I have just copy and paste your Q....same as IE control C and then control V....worked just fine

Hey kool Bernice.. I tried right click an copy then paste but paste was greyed out..

Well, the news on the World Record attempt is....................................................


...................................Over 8 million — way to go!

Bernice: cheers got it!!!!

rod03801:


the 2 greatest add-ons known to mankind:

http://www.piclens.com/demo/



http://www.cooliris.com/

awesome: I checked both out - are they both the same add-on?

Haven't tried it yet - but looks very cool.... if it works that fast. I may try it out when I get some free time.

coan.net:

they are seperate add-ons

I am having a lot of problems with software and I suspect it is to do with Vista.

For example, we have Scrapbook Deluxe that installs on our XP PC downstairs but on our new laptop running Vista, it wont even recognize the CD to even attempt an installation

Does this sound like a Vista problem or does it sound more like a CD Rom drive problem?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

paully: this may be easily checked out by trying other cd-roms... .

generally, many progs and drivers still do not work properly under vista - but your equipment should at least read your cd-roms.

2 Firefox bits of news from last week:

Mozilla collapses under 14,000 downloads a minute

Company wraps with 8million downloads

Anyone out there help please lol

As much as i know about building & repairing PC's i have a problem

A friend of mine gave me his laptop as he said it would not start up at all, so i had a look.

You switch it on, and it does its normal stuff, showing processor, memory and all that stuff, and will let me get into BIOS if i want, but this is where it stops.

It will let me boot in anything, Safe Mode, last known working config etc..... but when it does, it shows the windows logo for a bit as if it is loading, then very quickly shows you a blue Screen of Death as we call it, then starts re-booting, and does the same thing again no matter what i try

If i had time to read the blue screen it may help, but its only there for less than half a second.

Anyone bods out there have any thoughts

MadMonkey: that exact thing happened to a friend of mine 2 months ago, he had it diagnosed and it was the HDD. He ended up buying a new laptop as this was the cheaper option

They helped my brother to get me back on-line..1 problem tho...they told him that you don't have to run a DSL modem when you get back on (or something to that effect) I tried re-installing att/yahoo so I can have High Speed. When I got everything registered an such..all the files associated w/ it...I'll get a box saying please wait a couple of minutes before I re-start, it had that message for more than that...I played an entire music CD! LOL....when I get the boxes cleared, there would be 1 box saying system rebooted. Would that mean that the system is being re-booted to att/yahoo instead of MSN & how long would it take before the modem is actually put into the comp? Before, I always had to turn the modem on before I even start the comp.

MadMonkey: sounds like either it's a problem in the mother board or possibly the processor is screwed up and shot

Thing is it could be many different things. OS got messed up and not loading correctly. Motherboard messed up. Memory gone bad. Hard drive gone bad. Fan/cooling not cooling unit enough.

I guess if I was troubleshooting it - I would first try to bootup with XP disk and reload XP (assuming XP is loaded)

After that, if you have extra equipment - try swapping out the hard drive for a different one.... same with memory.

it is just hard telling. I would hope for just a software (operating system reload), but it is hard to say.

coan.net: Yep, exactly what i am trying now. Its just a pain not being able to read the blue screen, i may have an idea then lol

MadMonkey: can't you take a photo of the screen? ;)

Gordon Shumway: Wish i could, but it just seems like it is starting Windows fine, but then the blue screen appears literally for no time at all, and it reboots

Anyway, put a new system on it and all seems fine , i just hate not solving things

MadMonkey:

My post is too late, but this might help in the future. It might also help those who have similar problems.

I have seen several similar problems before. Prior to running and reinstalling the OS, there are checks that you can do to see if there is harware damage.

There are three main reasons why this could be happening: a faulty CPU, damaged RAM or a damaged hard drive. This are usually the result of overheating, exposure to magnetic fields or physical damage (e.g.: dropping the laptop).

The BIOS chip is fine because it boots up and it lets you go into the BIOS settings screen.

The CPU is probably OK because it is letting you boot up and it lets you start the Windows boot sequence. However, it is still possible that the CPU is damaged. Go online and do a search for something like "CPU diagnostic software" or "CPU diagnostic freeware". I can recommend that you try these ones:

http://www.diagnoseprogramm.de/
http://www.binarica.com/downloads.html

or something similar. Then run a diagnostic on the CPU and other hardware. Binarica has tools for checking RAM chips and other hardware components. These tolls might not necessarily be adequate, so search for others in case these don't give you what you need.

The RAM could be a problem. Sometimes faulty RAM causes either a failure to boot, or a failure to load the OS. You can check the RAM chip if the BIOS Settings allows for a "memory check after boot up". You need to find this in the BIOS settings. If you cannot find it, you can go to the laptop manufacturer's website and find the motherboard manufacturer and model. The manufacturer of the motherboard will have online a user manual and tools for diagnosing problems with the hardware and for updating the BIOS. Check the BIOS version and determine whether you need to flash the new version into the BIOS. You need to do a memory test of the RAM chip, it is as simple as that. The Binarica site has a program called Gold Memory. That can test the RAM too.

The hard drive is my number one candidate here. To check and repair the hard drive you need to know the manufacturer and the model number. Go into BIOS and find who makes the hard drive. Go to the manufacturer website and in their dowloads section you will find diagnostic and repair tools for the hard drive. For example, Seagate had a program called SeaTools. That will do extensive tests of hard drives and reformat harddrives if necessary.

Other components can cause trouble too, like the video card. Again, a search of the manufacturer's site will give you tools for diagnostics. Most manufacturers of hardware components have diagnostic tools that are necessary for quality control. They release those tools to the public so people can troubleshoot problems with the computer. I recommend that you check as many hardware components as possible before you decide that the only solution is erasing the hard drive and doing a clean Windows install.

Once all hardware is checked, you can proceed to try to repair windows. The first step is to attempt to boot into DOS. You said that you can go into Safe Mode. Try to go into DOS with Safe Mode. Once you make it there run a program called CHKDSK. Simply type that in DOS and press enter. It will check the file structure in the disk and let you know if there are damaged files or folders. The program will attempt to repair some fo these problems.

If CHKDSK does not give you anything, you insert the Windows installation disk and try a windows "repair". Sometimes repairs work, sometimes they don't If something was wrong with Windows, usualy the rapair sequence will tell you what the problem was. If the repair fails then the only option is a clean install and that means wiping out the hard drive and reinstalling the OS in full.

Prior to doing that, you will need to decide if it is worth getting useful data back. That can be tricky and your first option is installing a new hard drive and putting windows in it, then accessing the data in the old hard drive. The second option is going to a professional who can extract all the data for you. It all depends on how you want to get that data back. I find that buying a new hard drive is often the cheaper of the two options.

If you decide to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS in full, I recommend a full wiping of the disk. You can use the manufacturer's program (e.g.: SeaTools), or a Free Dos CD, then useing commands like FDISK and FORMAT. In FDISK you would need to delete all partitions and then create a primary DOS partition using the entire hard drive. Once that is done, you can format with something like this:

format c: /u /d

That is a full unconditional format with verbose output, so you cn see every detail of the formatting process. This can take several hours to do, so start it in the evening and leave it running all night!

For Free DOS go to:

http://www.freedos.org/

Übergeek 바둑이: Thanks for that, great stuff to know

i was going to download it, but not sure if i can with vista.