Topic: Defrag crash

[Clive]

A friend just phoned to say that she attempted to carry out her monthly defrag on her Win Me computer and after 10 seconds it crashed.  She attempted the operation a further 3 times but with the same result.  I suggested that she tries turning her screensaver off but she has not had the problem with leaving it on before.

I've asked her to check that her AV software is up to date (she says that it is) and run a virus scan as I read that there was a recent virus causing crashes.  However, her machine is only crashing when she attempts a defrag.

[Lona]

I had the same problem Clive. She should disable her antivirus and firewall and any programmes that are running in the backround.  Her defrag should work a treat after that.

[Clive]

Thanks Lona.  I'll phone her in the morning to let her know.

[joudi]

Could be worthy to tell. Probably she has P2P Downloading program. If so, she must close it.

[Clive]

Thanks Joudi.  I doubt if she uses P2P as she is on PAYG but I will phone her to check later on.

[Clive]

She's going to try it in safe mode and will get back to me.  If I remember correctly it's F8 in Win Me?

[Simon]

I think it's F8 in most of them, Clive.

[ketamininja]

I've noticed this happening quite a lot in ME.
In fact, I have seen many many bugs in ME.

Try a scandisk first - there may be corrupt system data.
Also, get the updates for ME if possible.

[Clive]

I'm going to pay the errant computer a visit this evening so I'll be able to see what's going on for myself.  Apparantly the machine is working at a snail's pace and stuff isn't fully loading properly.

[Lona]

Perhaps Clive, she has not been emptying her internet files or history. Also check the Recycle bin as it could be brimming with files as well. I would imagaine that the antivirus and firewall is using a lot of memory, therefore defrag would be impossible to run.  I always have to disable mine scanning when defraging.

[Clive]

I'll bear that in mind Lona.  

[Clive]

I managed to start it up in safe mode and scandisk ran to the end.  However the computer immediately crashed and refused to start in safe mode the 2nd time.  All I had was a grey  blank screen with "safe mode" icons in all 4 corners.  As she had little of value to her on the machine I decided to use the rescue disk and it went through all the actions.  But Windows didn't start up and it said that there was a missing VMX 24 (I think) file.  It's a two year old Packard Bell machine and she has 4 years extended warranty so she is going to get her money's worth out of it.  Incidentally, it turns out that she hasn't updated her virus checker for several months.

[Simon]

I wonder how she will stand with her warranty, as far as viruses go?  As far as I know, most warranties wouldn't cover damage caused by a virus, as it is up to the consumer to ensure they have adequate protection, but I'm    so could well be talking out of my hat!

[Lona]

Clive, you could download that file from the net and copy it into her system.  I did that for my daughter and hers works fine now.  I wouldn't get an engineer out for missing files.

[Clive]

Well PC World sent her a letter only a few days ago asking her to fetch her machine in for a free health check under her warranty so that's what she's going to do.  When she has it back she will bring it to me so I can reinstall all her software and sort out her internet connection.