HELP-- A computer has gotten a blue screen and doesn't work.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

For taking the disk (hard drive?) out and attaching it to another computer to check its files there, how is that done? Just take out the hard drive and swap it into another computer? Also, strongly suspect that the other computer was broken by CHKDSK. Also, the two Windows updates (the patch and service pack 1) stated that once installed, they can't be uninstalled.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

Hi jedi.

I am not sure. When Puppy linux begins booting up, it SHOULD give you a scrolling description of what drivers are loaded, and what pieces of hardware are functional. Not using PL, I can say that MEPIS is THE BEST as far as “just working” right out of the box. If you have an older machine (not TOO old, but anything within the last 4-5 years) MEPIS always “just works.” Now, If you have some really funky obscure “E machines got this really cool network card on closeout from Pakistan which needs these drivers” nic in your machine, it might NOT pick it up, but I have yet to use it when it did not just grab the stuff and load it up. When you d/l the iso file, then burn it to cd AS A CD IMAGE. It has been so long since I used Nero or the other programs (windows cd burner, too), that I can’t remember the exact commands, but you shoudl be able to scout around and find how to be sure you burn as an IMAGE and not a FILE. I use the linux stuff now (it is so much easier) and K3B is really idiot proof.

[James W. Fannin]

I haven’t read the whole thread, but I’d be interested in isolating the problem if I were you. If you have the same kind of drive interface in another computer, just attach it and power it up. When it comes up online, try to access the files. You may continue having errors; if so, it’s the file system or the drive’s hardware. If not, then you have hardware issues on the down host computer.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

One more thing. If you have access to the second machine, just change the jumpers on the bad drive to "slave" and boot from the good machine. You should be able to browse your files AND to transfer files to the bad drive AND to CHKDSK the bad drive that way. Again, I always prefer linux, but that is what I know. If you are not that familiar with it, then try hooking the drive up to a functioning machine. I fixed a drive that had the krnl file corrupted that way once. Finally, if a file IS corrupted, and you have your old W2k install disk, you can copy selected files over. Some windows head here can tell you how to "unzip" the windows cab files while leaving them archived (I have done this before but I can't remember the archiving tool you use. There are lots of shareware apps for this) and then copy the file over, and then add the last letter in the file. For example, if the corrupted file is abc.exe it will show up as abc.ex_ once it is "uncabbed" just copy it over and change the letter at the end (which is all windoze does when it is "installing").

I am sorry I am not more help. I remember this kind of stuff happening to me and I know it is not pleasant. Please feel free to question and I will try to help if I can.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Some of this could seem stupid, but--once again--personally not that tech savvy:

• just change the jumpers on the bad drive to "slave" and boot from the good machine.
  What are the jumpers, cables, and doesn't the hard drive have to be protected if it is outside the computer? And what is slave. Obviously the hard drive from the broken computer is being connected to the working one, but how exactly?
• CHKDSK the bad drive that way.
  Previously CHKDSK ran automatically after the computer restarted after downloading the updates (.NET service pack 1 was the last to be downloaded/installed). And consider that to have been what broke the computer in the first place. But what are the instructions for running CHKDSK voluntarily?
• try hooking the drive up to a functioning machine.
  By swapping hard drives, or by putting it into something with a cable attaching it to the computer via a usb port? If the latter, what's the thing that holds the hard drive called?

Again, greatly appreciate your and others on this thread's willingness to help. Also currently have a low opinion of Windows. If it wasn't for those updates, the broken computer probably wouldn't be broken.

Ironically, the updates (avast, the patch, and .NET service pack 1) were downloaded to prevent a virus from destroying the computer. Turns out at least one of those updates could have been more destructive than a hypothetical virus.

[snowsislander]

If you are going to put the guy on a linux version. you should stick with MEPIS. It sees everything, installs drivers for everything and gets the guy on the internet right away, and allows him to poke around in his file system to see if he can do anything with the data and/or os. Make it easy on the newbies, and NOTHING is easier than Mepis.

Thanks for your advice, but in my opinion my answer was also a considered one.

MEPIS is a fine Debian derivative, but I think that it falls in the Knoppix school of massive distributions.

Generally I have found that Puppy and DSL are excellent with hardware (DSL in particular is good with older hardware that is happier with a 2.4 kernel.) They are both quite fast (they try to run completely in memory) and generally support very reasonable windowing systems on small resources. They both download in a reasonable amount of time on limited bandwidth --- the cd images can be quite small for both, unlike Knoppix or MEPIS.

But since apparently my suggestion of Puppy has not resulted in a positive situation, I will happily echo your suggestion of MEPIS (or Knoppix.)

I just booted both Puppy and MEPIS on an older machine; Puppy as I expected was much faster (it's running entirely in memory, but MEPIS has to reference the CDROM), but both did a perfectly good job of detecting the hardware and getting things going. Puppy at 95 megabytes was a much faster download than MEPIS's 700 megabytes.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

There’s a linksys cardbus(?) on the broken computer. When Puppy is run, the cardbus doesn’t light up, and no internet connection is detected.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

What are the jumpers, cables, and doesn't the hard drive have to be protected if it is outside the computer? And what is slave. Obviously the hard drive from the broken computer is being connected to the working one, but how exactly?

HERE is a nice little tutorial on that issue

But what are the instructions for running CHKDSK voluntarily?

run-->command-->chkdsk

By swapping hard drives, or by putting it into something with a cable attaching it to the computer via a usb port? If the latter, what's the thing that holds the hard drive called?

If you have a usb adaptor for a hard drive, then use it, otherwise just follow the instructions in the tutorial linked above.

[snowsislander]

There’s a linksys cardbus(?) on the broken computer. When Puppy is run, the cardbus doesn’t light up, and no internet connection is detected.

By coincidence, the machine that I booted Puppy with had a Linksys Ethernet board in it. If you would like to, you can look under the setup icon (or the setup menu choice) and find networking, and from there is a detection/setup area.

[cbkaty]

.......begin shopping for a new one.....

Wipe clean the infected one and use it as a backup....or router...etc...

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Where? The two option in Network Setup are load driver in the Driver Modules section, and in the Interfaces section, the button is eth0. However, when eth0 is selected, the options are to: test eth0; auto DHCP; and static IP. There isn't a wireless option (which there is when trying on this computer, which also has a linksys ethernet board (it also had the option of ath0 along with eth0, and ath0 was the one with the wireless option). When Windows worked on the broken computer, the card lit up and worked. Now it doesn't. Do the drivers have to be installed first, and then the computer restarted so that the card can light up and be detected (since it ordinarily lights up during the start up)?

And MEPIS won't download; it keeps stating that the operation timed out.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

Wireless is a booger on many systems. I can't even remember what the parameters were when I had to assign wireless "ports"

And MEPIS won't download; it keeps stating that the operation timed out.

Mepis just picks up on about every wireless card I have seen, installs the drivers, and connects to the internet.

Try Here

this page has several other d/l sites http://www.mepis.org/mirrors

[snowsislander]

Where? The two option in Network Setup are load driver in the Driver Modules section, and in the Interfaces section, the button is eth0. However, when eth0 is selected, the options are to: test eth0; auto DHCP; and static IP. There isn't a wireless option (which there is when trying on this computer, which also has a linksys ethernet board (it also had the option of ath0 along with eth0, and ath0 was the one with the wireless option). When Windows worked on the broken computer, the card lit up and worked. Now it doesn't. Do the drivers have to be installed first, and then the computer restarted so that the card can light up and be detected (since it ordinarily lights up during the start up)?

I am not quite clear why you are trying to get wireless going? If it's not necessary to your setup, I would try to get a wired connection working first.

But to go over both: for the wired connection, I would choose the "test" option first, and then if it succeeds, try the "Auto DHCP" option.

For wireless, it should have autodetected the card (unfortunately for this test, mine was able to even though it is one of the annoying Broadcom cards), but if it didn't, you can try to find the matching driver.

Assuming that you get to the point that you do have a wireless driver up, then the process is very similar to that of wired connections. Click on the interface button, but then choose the "wireless" button. Enter any access point information that you need to (encryption or SSID, for instance) and then hit the "Scan" button. Choose your wireless network, and then use the "Back" button. Now, like the wired connection, do a "Test" and then an "Auto DHCP".

(Two gotchas that slowed me down on responding to your posting: I was testing to make sure that my instructions actually worked, and (1) the client box I was using actually has an explicit "wireless on" and "wireless off" toggle that I forgot to toggle, and (2) because I changed my router to one that supports wireless, I had two machines that ended up using the same ip number since the new router automatically started at the same number as the old router when handing out DHCP leases. Neither will probably affect your setup, but passed along for what it is worth.)

[Bigh4u2]

Pull all cards out of the machine except the Video.

Remove all the memory.

Now, with just the hard drive installed, put only the minium amout of memory necessary for XP back in and boot to ‘Safe Mode’.

If you are still getting the error, shutdown and swap the memory chips with the ones you kept out of the machine.

Reboot in ‘Safe Mode’ again.

Remove all drivers in ‘Device Manager’.(uninstall)

Reboot your computer normally and let XP reinstall any device drivers it needs. You may need your XP disk for this.

Once that is complete, reboot the computer normally and check to see if you still get the ‘Blue Screen of Death’.

If not, then shutdown and reinstall the remaining memory.(unless you had a memory error in the first boot)

Boot again and check for the ‘blue screen’.

If everything is ok, then shutdown and reinstall any network or modem cards you have.

If not, then suspect that one of the memory chips, that you just reinstalled,is bad.

If everything checks out, then reboot normally and run ‘chkdsk’ on the drive to fix any broken or ‘cross linked’ files.

Hope this helps.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated. Though the computer has Windows 2000 instead of XP, your instructions seem (at least on the surface) easy enough to follow. Still have to go look for a diagram on how a computer is set up (i.e. how the video chip, memory, hard drive, etc. look, and where they are), however.

[Silly]

If you like spending your time troubleshooting, use a PC.

If you like spending your time being productive, get a Mac.

You can get a Mac Mini for $599, connect your existing keyboard, monitor and mouse to it, and have a full Mac experience for next to nothing.

I also just found out that the Apple TV, at $299, runs OS X. (Apple doesn't support it, but it works.)

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated. It seems that for the card to work, a driver called either: BCMWL5; lsbcmnds; or WPC300N_20061107.EXE has to be loaded, but those options aren’t available. (The card is called WPC300N v1). Also haven’t been able to get Puppy to stay on the hard drive on even this computer (which works and with which Windows can be accessed—on Windows now; even on this computer Puppy hasn’t been able to be set up to connect to the internet).

[Bigh4u2]

http://www.howtobuildyourowncomputer.net/start_building_your_own_personal_computer.htm

May not be the same as yours, but it will give you an idea what everything is, and where it goes.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Is this site legal (or rather the downloads available on it)? If so, would a boot disk help get the computer functioning again?