Dang it, Repair Feature on XP

[thcri]

Last night when I shut my laptop down it just hung up. After about a half hour I just shut it off. I have seen this before and didn't worry much about it. This morning I get an error that says the "Config.sys" file is corrupt or missing. I am then told to do a repair with the installation disk. Fine I do this, I hit the R for repair but then it asks me what windows log on I want to repair or enter for exit. I hit 1 because there is only 1. This is from what looks like a DOS prompt screen. But when I hit the one my laptop just sits there and eventually it sounds like the hard drive is running, the light is off and I don't see anything happening. I have now waited over a half hour. Has anyone else used this repair feature and is this typical for it to act like it is not doing anything?


murph

 

[Doc]

It doesn't sound good murph. I've never done what you are doing, so I do not know what you should expect.
You might have to do a reinstall. They are pretty straightforward and painless. I've never done that with XP, since I was very slow to convert. W2000 did all I needed it to do. But I have reinstalled 95,98, NT, w2k etc. and it always recovered with all files in tact. Hopefully XP will do the same for you.

 

[Big Dog]

Did you try Safe mode, restore or are you unable to get that far.........

 

[thcri]

Did you try Safe mode, restore or are you unable to get that far.........

For some reason I can't get the safe mode to work? I thought right at the starting windows screen you hit F8. But not working for some reason.

But I have reinstalled 95,98, NT, w2k etc. and it always recovered with all files in tact. Hopefully XP will do the same for you.

That was my second thought but when I start that process a message comes up that says it will delete the existing user and all information including "My Documents" and the desktop.


This laptop has been giving me problems lately and I thought I solved all of my problems last week by reformating the hard drive. Guess not.

murph

 

[Doc]

I've never seen that message. If it says it will delete your files, I suspect it will do as it says.
Do you have a fresh backup from when you formatted last week?
I wonder if you have a virus, and you reloaded it from backup.
.....it's sounding worse with each post Murph.

 

[Big Dog]

For some reason I can't get the safe mode to work? I thought right at the starting windows screen you hit F8. But not working for some reason.

F8 before the windows screen............ soon as your power up, start hitting F8. If your doing when windows screen shows it's too late!

 

[thcri]

I've never seen that message. If it says it will delete your files, I suspect it will do as it says.
Do you have a fresh backup from when you formatted last week?
I wonder if you have a virus, and you reloaded it from backup.
.....it's sounding worse with each post Murph.

yeah I think I am hosed. I was able to get safe mode to work if and only if I do a F12 Boot menu. But it comes to the same error. I called a puter place and they said 99% chance hard drive is history. I have a lot of stuff backed up from a week ago. My big problem is I did do a whole bunch of programming in the last week that is history. I know there is at least 40 hours of programming that is gone. I am going to go to this computer place that can test it and possibly pull some stuff off. So I be looking for a new laptop. About the only place I could get one today is Best Buy which to me is not a good buy or even a good place to buy.

murph

 

[Doc]

That was my next guess. Drive problem. Maybe the computer place or Best Buy will sell a hard drive for it.

 

[thcri]

I did take it in to a computer place. They just called me back and told me it was the hard drive. They have a 20 meg and a 80 meg in stock. I had a 40 meg that was not half used but I told them to put the 80 in. They think they can pull the real important files I need off the old drive. So I just have to cross my fingers and hope they can get what I need.

In a way I hate spending the money on a laptop that is 4 years old. But it was a good laptop until a month or so ago and should be again with a new hard drive. What is importand is getting the files.


murph

 

[Doc]

As long as the screen and keyboard are okay I think it's worth replacing the hard drive. Heck you'll probably get a few more years out of it.

You might want to set up a lan at home and backup key files from the laptop to your other computer via an automated job nightly.

It always seems hard drives fail at the worst possible time.

 

[bczoom]

You might want to set up a lan at home and backup key files from the laptop to your other computer via an automated job nightly.

I had that setup but now prefer just using an disk external drive with a "Briefcase" on it. It's fast and reliable.

 

[Big Dog]

I had that setup but now prefer just using an disk external drive with a "Briefcase" on it. It's fast and reliable.

Same here!

 

[thcri]

Same here!

I had a shortcut on my desktop that I would just have to click on and it would copy to our server. But it is worthless if you don't click on it.

 

[thcri]

I just called in to the computer place as they are open on Sundays. They have one heck of an incall business with people bringing in their home computers. He told me he would be done within the hour. I asked how much the bill was going to be and he told me he would be right around $200.00? That seems to cheap to me however I was thinking of moving the RAM up a bit and he is going to take out two 256 chips and replace with two 512 chips for $120.00. All in all I am very happy with their service and will seriously think of moving my business to this place.


murph

 

[thcri]

Just one month ago I lost my hard drive. One month later my laptop goes down again. Ha Ha I had everything backed up this time. My hard drive is fine but a whole glob of files became corrupt. Took it in to the guys that replaced my hard drive and hard drive is fine. However as the computer would come up it would tell them what file was missing. They kept adding files one at a time as told was missing until they got bored and then just reloaded everything. They ran all kinds of test, checked for virus's and whatever and could find nothing. Only thing they can think of is maybe a conflict in hardware that could have caused this.

In about three weeks I am starting a very large project that involves programming computers remotely from my laptop. Once this project starts it can not stop. The project will go on for 8 weeks minimum. I want to buy a new laptop. I can go with another Dell, or a HP, or anything else but even if brand new if something goes wrong I will have to ship back for warranty service. This company that did the repairs on my laptop sells a brand called Spartan. I have never heard of them. However, they stock parts for this brand and if my laptop goes down, they can have me running pretty much the same day?

Has anyone heard of this brand and have any reviews on them?? I checked pricing and find they are pretty close or a bit less for comprable other brands.

murph

 

[Junkman]

So, what is your question or problem........ to me, this is a no brainer..... go with what they sell and service and leave the problems at their door. I think that you need to trade that computer for some common sense!!!!!!! Junk.....

 

[Kwiens]

You can specify same day on-site service when you purchase your Dell laptop. It just costs more.

K

 

[thcri]

So, what is your question or problem........ to me, this is a no brainer..... go with what they sell and service and leave the problems at their door. I think that you need to trade that computer for some common sense!!!!!!! Junk.....

Has anyone heard of this brand and have any reviews on them?? I checked pricing and find they are pretty close or a bit less for comprable other brands.

Have you heard of this brand. I know I need a new laptop as I can't take a chance on the one I have anymore.


murph

 

[Doc]

I'd never heard of Spartan laptops, but googled them and got quite a few hits.

http://www.biyntech.com/spartan_laptop_and_notebook_models_and_pricing

At first look they look okay to me.
Like Kwiens said, you can get in home Dell support. I have it on my Dell Laptop, but have never used it. It did not cost extra as far as I remember.

I do use Dells Gold support on servers I admin, and they do show up within the time guidelines and take care of whatever issue we are having. They are not perfect, but they have done a good job when we needed them.

 

[thcri]

I see you get hard drives now that spin at 7200, but most pre-made laptops only come with a 5400. Is this something the common person would notice or not. If I configure the same laptop with the 7200 it adds alot.


murph

 

[Doc]

7200 will make all you disk reads & writes faster. While it is noticeable, I would not hesitate to go with 5400. From my experience SCSI 7200 drives fail sooner. Not sure if that would carry over to laptop IDE drives though.

 

[thcri]

Ok so I got my new laptop today. I went with an HP and the main reason was the serial port. I need a serial port. I had a USB to serial port on my last on but found I was losing a lot of information during my uploads. This has gotten me in a lot of trouble so I went HP.

My problem, I loaded my Office 2003 on the new laptop and it says I can not activate it because it was activated once already. I have tried to find a phone number for Microsoft, which I did but they won't let me activate it unless I pay them $49.00. Which to me is a crock. Does anyone know how you can get around that or even a forum site of people that will tell me how to get around this quirk?


murph

 

[Junkman]

I believe that if you put the original disk into the old machine and uninstall it, then it can be installed on the new machine without purchasing another license. If you check the price of Office Software, you will find that the $49 is a bargain if you have to pay it.... Junk

 

[thcri]

Junk,

I did a search and found some instructions to do just that. I uninstalled it using the CD not the Add/Remove feature in XP. But it still did not work. I found though where you could activate it over the phone, it said you computer had to be plugged in to the phone jack. That did not work either but dumb ass me the number there posted was not the number my computer was to call, it was the number I was to call. Da, you call them, tell them your story and then they give you a number to activate. Works like a charm.

However, if you try to do this with a pre-loaded version you can not move it to another computer. Luckily mine was not pre-loaded so I am up and running.


And for Bob_S. I sure love this new NON-Apple Computer Just had to through that in.

murph, just like a kid with a new toy

 

[Doc]

Glad you got it all working Murph.

Darn if I understand the type of license MS sells which says you cannot run it on a differnet machine if it came preloaded on a machine. It just don't seem right that they could do stuff like that.