PC Knackered - So Time for an Upgrade

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Shifty
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PC Knackered - So Time for an Upgrade

Post by Shifty »

Well my PC is knackered it wont load all i get is windows protection errors and I've tried just about anything to get it goin, I'm hoping to god my Hard Drive is ok cos thats where my .map files are :(

So because of this unfortunate Incident I've just ordered the following

Thermaltake Xaser 3 VM3000 Skull Case

512mb DDR266/PC2100 Memory

Asus A7V600 Motherboard

AMD Athlon XP2600 Barton CPU

Super Flower 420w Dual Fan PSU

I've slightly exceeded my ?250 budget (cos of the awesome case which I just had to have lol)

Hopefully I'll be able to drop my existing Hard Drive on to the new board back up all i got to CD and then format, after that I'll wack a clean install of XP over the top.

Anyways Wish me luck cos I really don't want to lose my 1st Real Map.
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Post by crunch »

I hope all your info is still available on your hd........but in the future, make backup cd's of your work! Then there is at least no stress that you lost your map. :wink:
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drive

Post by tltrude »

If you do have access to a second PC, try pluging in the drive from the bad PC--as a second drive.
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Post by Shifty »

Normally i do back up crunch but hadnt while id been doin mammut radar i did intend to soon but............

and hooking up as a second drive i'd not thought of that but i dont have access to another anyway
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Post by Axion »

*Crosses Fingers*

Good Luck, Shifty, I hope everything turns out well for you.
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wait

Post by tltrude »

If you give us which Windows you are using and the devices you have, we could look up the Windows protection error on the internet. What was the last thing you did before it crashed? A new device? New software?

I have a feeling it will still be there with the upgraded parts!

Another thing you can try is to unplug all devices/cards except your hard drive, monitor and mouse. If you have a Windows startup floopy disk, then leave the floppy drive pluged in too. A bad device/card can cause a Windows protection crash.
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Post by M&M »

well,u can still try a few things (dont know it u tried them yet as u didnt mention what u tried)
does the window open in safe mode?if so backup ur files and nuke that windows (format its drive) and just reinstall.
if it doesnt and u have a startup disk somewhere use it(anyway u can get into the dos ).type scanreg that should fix any registry errors which could cause such problems.
if u also managed 2 get into dos mode than u could backup ur files via does commands ,if u dont know how i guess i can tell u but 1st u must get into dos mode 1st (try borrowing a startup disk from a friend)
u could always backup this stuff on ur friends harddrive if its possible (that will involve ofcourse disconnecting ur hdd from ur pc).
try reinstalling windows without formatting,sometimes it can fix things up (usually not) but it could give u a window 2 move ur stuff b4 u reformat
wait a min,how do u have net access then?u siad u dont have access 4 another pc :shock: :?

but if i were u id look on the good side,ur getting one awesome pc man.id hope that will happen 2 me and id lose all the important files i have on my harddrive(s)(i ve got alot) 4 a pc like that :wink: :P .
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Post by Shifty »

1st off I have Windows ME (Slap me now!!!)

I was playing mohaa when I came out of it the resolution had changed the start button took up most of the screen so I rebooted then I started getting this windows protection error whenever i restarted with no error numbers (Oh and only reason im online is cos im at work)

and to answer the other questions
Another thing you can try is to unplug all devices/cards except your hard drive, monitor and mouse. If you have a Windows startup floopy disk, then leave the floppy drive pluged in too. A bad device/card can cause a Windows protection crash.
1st thing I did was to try this as I had the resolution problem I suspected my Gfx card was fried but then put another 1 in and the problem persists so my urrent feeling is maybe te AGP Port on my motherboard is the problem (hence the upgrade, but if it wasnt im due an upgrade anyway)
does the window open in safe mode?
I try to get into safe mode and it seems to go well but then it freezes on a grey screen and goes no further
if it doesnt and u have a startup disk somewhere use it(anyway u can get into the dos ).type scanreg that should fix any registry errors which could cause such problems.
I have an emergency boot disk which is used in conjunction with system restore - on it there is an option to go to command so i went there and did SCANREG/RESTORE but then it said this command doesnt work in dos mode
if u also managed 2 get into dos mode than u could backup ur files via does commands ,if u dont know how i guess i can tell u but 1st u must get into dos mode 1st (try borrowing a startup disk from a friend)
Really I have no idea what the commands are please teach me :)
u could always backup this stuff on ur friends harddrive if its possible (that will involve ofcourse disconnecting ur hdd from ur pc).
Only spare PC I can get my hands on is my 4 yr old nephews but its so dam old and i just couldnt get the hard drive out, then i gave it back cos he wouldnt be happy if I broke it (I can't take constant crying)
try reinstalling windows without formatting,sometimes it can fix things up (usually not) but it could give u a window 2 move ur stuff b4 u reformat
Unfortunately being an utter dumbass I bought my PC from Tiny with windows ME pre-loaded the only cd they gave me is the restore cd and it don't function like an installation disc.

Hopefully my idea that the AGP slot is knackered will be right and by putting my hdd on the new mobo i'll be able to nip in backup and then restore the pc to factory settings, (I'll have to get XP soon but I have to save up now)

I just really dont want to lose the map file for mammut radar its like 10mb I think.

Oh and I got to a point where I threatened my PC with a large fall out my bedroom window!!!!!!! (It still wouldnt play ball) :(
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Post by Shifty »

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Post by wacko »

Shifty wrote:Oh and Heres the case im having :D
This is a pretty, though I would spend that money in somthing rather inside...
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Post by M&M »

Oh and Heres the case im having
wow,can it hyper space ,does it have turbo charge and does it run on solar power and stuff :D
i agree with wacko,get good stuff inside and save the money .u dont need 2 have an outer space machine like this one (the specs u mentioned earlier were very good)

1st off I have Windows ME (Slap me now!!!)
:evil: i have it 2 and i dont want 2 be slapped :P .

I was playing mohaa when I came out of it the resolution had changed the start button took up most of the screen
happens all the time .usually the engine 4 some reason fails 2 return the resolution as it was after shutting the game,and a restart would fix it but in ur case i dont knwo y this happened.
persists so my urrent feeling is maybe te AGP Port on my motherboard is the problem
no way.if it was the problem nothing would appear on ur screen.there is no middleground here,it either works and u can c stuff or it doesnt and u cant c anything .
I try to get into safe mode and it seems to go well but then it freezes on a grey screen and goes no further
maybe u should try 2 leave it 4 a while ,sometimes it needs a long time 2 get into safe mode and looks like its frozen (sometimes it also freezes)
I have an emergency boot disk which is used in conjunction with system restore - on it there is an option to go to command so i went there and did SCANREG/RESTORE but then it said this command doesnt work in dos mode
impossible that it doesnt work,i tried it a dozen times.
probably it displayed

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bad command or file name
or something like that.or maybe cause ur using the command on the disk,not the one in windows.
here is what u should type at the dos screen

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c:\ (then click enter) ----this step if u are not on drive C already ----

cd windows\command  (click enter)
now ur screen should look something like this

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c:\windows\command>
type

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scanreg
this should open up the registory scanner and fix any problem that is with the registry automatically and inform u of the results
Unfortunately being an utter dumbass I bought my PC from Tiny with windows ME pre-loaded the only cd they gave me is the restore cd and it don't function like an installation disc
y dont u try and c if tiny (if that is a companies name) can fix it 4 u,also if u want 2 fix it ur gonna need a windows cd so borrow 1 from a frined or buy a new one
Oh and I got to a point where I threatened my PC with a large fall out my bedroom window!!!!!!! (It still wouldnt play ball)
ill tell u how u can play inside that SOB so he will always know ur serious.just scroll down :wink:
Really I have no idea what the commands are please teach me
the commands are really simple.im supposing u know nothin about dos but u have a good mind :wink: however u should use them only if scanreg failed 2 fix ur problem

DIR ------lists all folders and files in the directory u are at (note:all folders are placed between square brackets like so [ folder ] ) (another note: there are several parameters u can type after this command and b4 pressing enter
/o this aranges the files and folders in alphabetic form 4 easier viewing
/w this displayes the files and folders in a wide form 4 easier viewing (try it without this parameter 2 know what im talkin about)
/p 2 pause the list after it fills the whole screen so u can c it (usually folders dont have enough files 2 fill up the screen but might come in handy when viewing files inside the windows folder)


all the previous parameters can be used in conjuction with each other like so

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dir /w /o /p 
(must have spaces)

CD (name of folder) ------opens any folder u put instead of the words in the brackets ,ofcourse dont type the brackets in any case

COPY (what u want copied) (place u want 2 copy 2) -------copies whatever u put in the 1st bracket 2 the location u put in the 2nd bracket e.g:

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copy c:\mohaastuff\blahblahblah\mymaps d:\*.*  
this will copy the mymaps folder 2 drive d:\ (note:if u are in the folder mohaastuff\blahblahblah u only need 2 type copy mymaps d:\) (another note:adding this *.* is 2 avoid copying the folders data into a file with the same name ,the dos isnt that smart)

MOVE ------same as copy but moves the stuff, deleting its original location

DEL (name of fili-----deletes the file in the brackets but u sohuldnt need it as format should get rid of it (note:trying that on a folder will delete all files in the folder and not anything in its subfolder,2 delete the folder its self use DELTREE

FORMAT (letter of drive :\) -----formats the drive u selected (note:there are several parameters u can add after this command b4 pressing enter but i guess ur only gonna need this /Q which delets all data on the drive making it much faster than the normal command )

thats about all u need that i can think of right now.here is a brief example of how i will copy a folder named blah from the desktop 2 a folder named backup on drive D (note that the 1st charecters b4 the > charecters are already typed out by the dos,so i only type whats after that,also every new line is after i click enter,also dos usually shortens folder names larger than 8 letters putting only 6 and replaces the rest with ~1 ,~2 ,~3 )/color] anything between ----are notes 2 u----

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a:\>c:\
c:\>cd windows
c:\windows> dir /w /o /p ----all lines after this i dont type,this is the info the dos types 2 u---
-----some stuff will appear here then --------
[alluse~1] [applic~1] [command] [temp] ...... -----and so on
[favour~1]  [desktop] .......
cdmanager.exe win.com blahblah.exe ........
------u get the idea-----
 252 files    1,823,325 bytes
 33 folders  2,224,213 bytes are free
-----------this is where the dos finishes typing------------

c:\windows>cd desktop
c:\windpws\desktop>dir 
----2 or 3 lines of nonsense here------
[newfol~1] [newfol~2] [newfol~3] 
[mystuff] [blah] mohaa.exe shortcut.pif 
screenshot.tga porn.jpg ........

 14 files       123,325 bytes
  3 folders    233,324 bytes are free

c:\windows\desktop>copy blah d:\backup\*.* 
this could also be acheived by

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a:\>copy c:\windows\desktop\blah d:\backup\*.*
after uve got all ur files then type

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format c: /q 
which should erase everything on drive c
enabling u 2 install a clean windows on a clean drive

at last i finished typing that stuff :D . imo u should conserve ur money 4 something u need more rather then wasting it on a fancy lookin pc from an obviously expensive company ,but hey its ur money u can do with it whatever u want (like sending it 2 some1 who needs it more like me :P).this is a software problem but if u were wanting 2 upgrade ur computer 4 a long time then this is a good chance ,if not then stay with ur old pc and just reisntall windows if system restor didnt work
i hope i helped u get that file u wanted :wink: .
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Post by Shifty »

1st of thx M&M i really appreciate it unfortunately due to not recieving an email about gettin a reply i didnt see this till just now :( and due to being rather unwell lately my brain isnt functionion on full wattage i forgot to check this thread :oops:

Anyway i'd allready ordered the stuff when i writ the last post so i got it all together but had to restore to an earlier point to get some stuff working (this didnt work before)

Anyway i've last a few things off the map so its not as bad, but im gonna get XP then wipe this sucker and go from there thatll be a while as im broke now lol

Thanks for all the help and I know dos a lil better now m8 so cheers
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Post by Axion »

I'm glad to hear that this was only a minor setback for you, and not a nightmare.

:)
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Post by M&M »

oh well,i hope u like that pc .i guess it was destiny that brought u and the pc 2gether :D
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Post by Shifty »

Only trouble is in my down time i've come up with some cool ideas for new projects and this has put it all back, but least it wasnt fatal so thank bob for small mercys (bob cos im not relgious, also cos silent bob rules!!!!)


:lol:
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