lovetoread
hello daddy
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2001
- Posts
- 42,978
^^n00b^^
GeeBee Tech Support thread - pose questions, get answers
- Thread starter islandman
- Start date
^^n00b^^
lovetoread
hello daddy
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2001
- Posts
- 42,978
Mr Doe,
Is this program auto starting in safe mode?
Is this program auto starting in safe mode?
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
I've already checked out the BIOS (CMOS technically), but thanks anyway. I doubt the problem is there. I hadn't changed the settings before the problem occured and there's no new hardware either. I suspect I have an actual virus and not just a shitty OS.
Yes. Yesterday I tried all available modes: Normal, Safe, Safe w/ Networking and Last Known Good Configuration.
I've left her off for about a day. I'll spin 'er up again right now and see what I get.
Last edited:
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
Okay, now Safe w/ Command Prompt is available. I could've sworn it wasn't there earlier, which is odd.
Anyway, tried that and the same problem occured. Screen goes black and shows cursor as though it's loading the desktop normally, then the blue "Configuring Updates" window pops up and freezes at 0% progress. I've tried leaving it that way overnight or longer but all it does is reboot itself after some time at 0% and then run into the same problem all over again. I,m turning it off now when I'm not using it to save stress on the hardware.
Anyway, tried that and the same problem occured. Screen goes black and shows cursor as though it's loading the desktop normally, then the blue "Configuring Updates" window pops up and freezes at 0% progress. I've tried leaving it that way overnight or longer but all it does is reboot itself after some time at 0% and then run into the same problem all over again. I,m turning it off now when I'm not using it to save stress on the hardware.
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
I've been thinking of upgrading to Windows 7 anyway but before I do that I'd like to determine if this HDD is still good.
Is a failing HDD a likely cause of this problem? It is several years old and it's been a rig that's has been kept on for the majority of their lives.
Is a failing HDD a likely cause of this problem? It is several years old and it's been a rig that's has been kept on for the majority of their lives.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
Check the HDD's S.M.A.R.T data, which will tell you the health of your HDD.
Open Command Prompt
Type in (no quotes) "wmic"
Hit Enter
Type in "diskdrive get status"
Hit Enter
If the results displayed are anything other than 'OK', you should no longer trust the HDD with your data.
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
Okay, thanks. I'll try to get a command prompt.
Update: Virus won't stick around long enough for me to enter that in the CMD window.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
Lots of reasons why S.M.A.R.T. will give you a "bad" status, but the most important thing to note is that your drive is on its way to being dead.
Suggest you back up your critical data off the OS drive. You can rip out the OS drive, plug it into an external hard drive enclosure, plug that into another computer and perform the backup.
Once completed, you can install one of your other drives into the original computer and install 7 on it.
You can also clone the OS drive onto one of your other drives if you want a functional computer right away.
KRCummings
Uh...
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2004
- Posts
- 76,511
This is a dumb question I'm sure but I keep getting different answers and my knowledge on the subject is old (in tech years). Is RAM compatible in unequal sizes?
Used to be you were always told to always upgrade in pairs or least only put in a match for whatever you had. 2g and 2g, etc.
Now my son has a laptop with four and wants to push it up some and I have a 2g lying around. When I looked it up I got so many different answers that I just gave up and bought a 4 for him. So now I'm just curious.
Used to be you were always told to always upgrade in pairs or least only put in a match for whatever you had. 2g and 2g, etc.
Now my son has a laptop with four and wants to push it up some and I have a 2g lying around. When I looked it up I got so many different answers that I just gave up and bought a 4 for him. So now I'm just curious.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
Assuming same type of RAM (DDR, DDR2 SDRAM, DDR3 SDRAM), voltage and latency, you can plug in the 2GB you have lying around. However, if the laptop isn't ancient, adding a different capacity RAM (2GB vs. the original 4GB) will negate the RAM's ability to function in dual-channel mode.
Basically, it'll slow down the laptop's performance to the 2GB RAM level. Your son might not even notice the slower performance, though he will if he plays games. In the end, you did the right thing and matched the new RAM to the current RAM. 8GB on a laptop is more than plenty.
KRCummings
Uh...
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2004
- Posts
- 76,511
Yeah, it's for gaming mostly so I didn't want to take the chance and slow him down. Figured 8 would be more than enough.
At least it's cheap nowadays. Wasn't that long ago RAM cost in the hundreds.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
You're welcome.
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
It's the most common reason in my experience but I can check it out further later.
Do I need an enclosure? Can't I just turn off the 2nd machine, plug an SATA cord into the appropriate place on HDD with it set to Slave on the jumper or BIOS and boot it all back up?
Sean
We'll see.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Posts
- 96,204
SATA drives don't have master/ slave jumpers.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
Since this "help" is free, yes, you need an enclosure.
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
ETA: The SATA drive I'm looking right now has a jumper block. It's right next to the data tab. Aappaerntly for 1.5 vs 3.0 G/s.
So can master/slave be set in the BIOS?
Well, I don't have an enclosure.
Okay...so it's doable the cheaper way, but because you're providing this advice for free I should be doing it the more expensive way instead? Is that the gist of it?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
No.
Since I'm helping you for free, I'm going to what's easiest for me, i.e., I'm not going to spend the time to post back and forth with you about your BIOS settings.
If you want to do it another way, feel free. Either way, you know what you have to do.
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
That makes sense. I just wanted to make sure it would still work the other way. Anwyay, bottom line is I can't boot from the "bad" drive and in order to recover anything from it I need to slave it to another drive first.
I think what I'll do is get the new OS, install it to one of the newer HDDs on the same machine and then see what I can recover from the bad disk. That should work, right? It would be easier for me than involving a separate machine.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
You don't need to boot from the bad drive in order to recover anything from it, hence the magic and wonder that is the external enclosure.
Sean
We'll see.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Posts
- 96,204
You just need to set your boot drive in BIOS. There is no master/ slave setup.
John Doe
Justified Snob
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
- Posts
- 54,121
What? I was recapping what you told me. Not telling you that I couldn't do it.
Of course I don't need to boot from it. I thought we already established anyway that's why I can't boot from it: because it's bad.
Didn't I mention that I have more than one HDD in the rig?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2001
- Posts
- 66,715
ffs, you don't need to slave it to anything to recover data from it. Use an external enclosure and be done with it.
I'm starting to understand a little of what LTR must go through on a daily basis. Thoughts of smacking John Doe upside the head with a baseball bat are starting to run through my head.
Similar threads
