Topic: my p.c.

[nibbles]

:'(

oh please can someone help me, my p.c. has gone completely crazy!
it is running in 'safe' mode, ive tried to re-set countless times, ive shut down and started it up again and its still doing it.
i dont even know if ive posted this in the right place as it cant cope with the graphics and just keeps flashing so i cant read anything properly.
ive tried to fix windows and that hasnt worked either, please can you help?

[Sandra]

Hi Nibbles,welcome aboard.
Can you give us some information about the PC,graphics card and Operating System please?
It sounds as if its hanging on the video drivers so they will need them reinstalling I should think.
Are you happy enough taking the graphics card out?
If so uninstall the drivers for it while in safe mode.
Remove the card and reboot it.
Shut down and replace the card then hopefully your OS will detect the card and ask for the CD to reinstall the drivers from when it restarts

[nibbles]

sandra
thank you for your reply, unfortunately i havent the knowledge to do what you say lol
i think id better call an expert in
thank you so much though, id better learn to live with out my lifeline lol

[Sandra]

Ok Nibbles,Nil Desperandum  
We can try something else maybe.
Can you tell me which operating system you are using ie Win 98,Win ME or Win XP etc ?

[nibbles]

yes i use windows ME
everytime i reset it tells me to change my colours to 256, it is currently on 16, but when i do that it says i must reset the computer, i reset and its back to 16 again.
sorry sandra im useless with computers lol

[Sandra]

Ok there are a few things that we can try that we can go through as slowly as necessary.
It definately sounds like it needs the drivers reinstalling,when did it start to go wrong and had you installed anything just prior to this problem happening?
Do you have a win ME CD that came with your PC ?

[nibbles]

no i havent got the disk, my friend put the pc together for me, ive had it over a year now and its been working fine except....

recently (this doesnt happen everytime) when i start it up it makes a big strange noise. when it makes the noise it doesnt recognise the keyboard as being plugged in or the modem, if i unplug and replug the keyboard it works, but the modem doesnt work unless i reset the pc.
this happened tonight and i reset it before it had started up properly, thats when it switched to safe mode.

i tried going to control panel/ system properties/ device manager and it says everything is working correctly.

[Sandra]

The device manager will not show the problem that we are looking for in safe made as it only loads the minimum drivers to get to that stage.
I think that the first thing that we should try is to do a System Restore to an earlier date.

We can do this in safe mode so restart the pc and follow these instructions :

How to Start and Use System Restore
To start System Restore, follow these steps:
Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.

The first time you use System Restore, there are two options on the Welcome page:

Restore my computer to an earlier time
Create a restore point
Click Restore my computer to an earlier time and click Next.

A calendar appears.
In the calendar, choose which Restore Point to roll your system back to.
Click Next.

You are prompted to close all applications before completing the Restore process because the computer will restart.
Upon completion of the restart, a confirmation screen appears. Click OK to continue using your computer.
The next time you start System Restore, you will see a third option, Undo my last restoration. This is available in the event that the Restore Point you rolled back to does not correct the original problem that you were having and so you can easily get back to the point in time that you started troubleshooting.


If you havent installed any programs or uninstalled any recently you may have to "go back" quite a while but the system restore should only undo the OS alterations and not any data that you have saved on your pc.
If you are unsure about anything get back to me as I will be around for an hour or so yet  

[nibbles]

sandra, forgive me for not coming back in last night, but i had a terrible time lol

i tried about 8 different restore points in the end, ranging from a recent system set one, to the one my friend set when he dropped the pc off at my house.

none of them worked, it just kept saying unable to restore!

i gave up in the end and went to bed lol thought a rest might do it good!

alas! its still dying!

the good news is ive booked in for a repair and itll only cost £40   i really dont know what im doing lol

but thank you so much sandra for trying to help me  
this site is a really good idea and you are all doing a marvellous job! keep up the good work  

ill be back to have a proper look around when im up and running again (hopefully)

thanks again  

[Sandra]

Thanks for letting me know Nibbles.
I am fairly certain that it is just a graphic card/driver issue.
I hope that you get it fixed soon  

[ketamininja]

^^ Is everything happening in 'SAFE MODE', or only some things?
What I mean is can you see the Windows START button without the SAFE MODE writing in the corners - at all?

I presume so because I'm not sure you can get online in SAFE MODE as the drivers wouldn't have loaded  

Just want to be sure you have this 16 colour problem in the REAL version of windows...!

[Sandra]

As far as I can tell K he is only getting into safe mode.
Its probably simple to fix if the PC was in front of someone who knew a little more than Nibbles does.
If he keeps visiting the forum,in a few weeks hell be delving inside his pc and sorting these things out by himself  

[Simon]

I started to wonder if the 'safemode' box in msconfig > boot.ini had somehow been ticked.  The PC would only boot into safe mode then, wouldn't it?

[nibbles]

hello! im back lol
£80 later  

first of all, nibbles is a she lol

secondly you guys were so great trying to help  

by the time i got the tower to the shop it wouldnt even switch on, the processor had burnt out, AMD athlon, the chap said they often do that, anyway he gave me a new one, that was lying around yey

parts of the motherboard had gone too he said, but my boyfriend had an old tower, so we swapped bits from there.

he also put in a new modem and 120 MB RAM

total price was £80, im really chuffed with that, its working like a dream now

so thanks again everyone
nibbles  

p.s. the site looks cool with all these colours!

[Sandra]

Hi Nibbles,glad it didnt turn out to be too expensive for you and that its up and running again.
Burned out components are quite hard to diagnose without the PC being in front of you unlike a lot of things,so hopefully if you do have any future problems we should be able to get you up and running a little easier and at no expense  

By the way there is a place in My Profile that you can put Male or Female in,sorry for assuming that you were a guy but you did say that you didnt have much idea about computers so I naturally thought you were a bloke