My computer woes - any advice?

[megalomania]

I have been having trouble with Windows lately, so I reformatted my puny little drive and reinstalled Win 2000 pro. Unfortunatly I have been getting the same problem. This has prompted to upgrade my harddrive. I have just purchased a nice WD 120GB 7200rpm drive and replaced my existing 3GB drive. It installed fine, and the windows CD loads all the install files onto the drive. The problem I am having, after it finishes loading the files and reboots to load windows, nothing happens. All I get is a curser where it should then proceed to load windows.

Does anyone happen to know why this is happening, or what I should do to make the damn thing work? The only solution I can forsee is perhaps I don't have the BIOS properly configured like it says to do in the HD instructions. Unfortunatly I don't know the key combo to get into BIOS on my old Compaq system. Everything I try dosn't work, unless perhaps I am typing it too slow. I put my old drive back in for now, but it is oh so small :( I'd hate to take my computer in to the shop and pay $30 for them to change a few things in BIOS that I could easily do myself if only I knew what I was doing.

[Anthony]

You can't get to the bios by jabbing the delete key when your computers POSTs?

[Rhadon]

Besides DEL, F1 and F2 (and perhaps even ESC) are common keys to enter the BIOS. If that doesn't work, just try the other F-Keys :)

[Sparky]

So you are currently posting using your 3 gig drive which works, but is too small for you? Or is Windows not booting up on your 3 gig drive either?

From your descripition of the problem I personally don't think that it has anything to do with your BIOS. By the time Windows is booting up the BIOS is finished with. I recommend installing a different version of windows or maybe just using a different CD of Windows 2000 since the one you have may be screwed up. In any case Microsoft has a huge database of problems associated with windows, and this one is probably on there so you could try and figure it out from there.

If your 3 gig drive boots up fine then just install the 120 gig drive as a second hard drive. Then you don't waste your 3 gig one. IIRC from when I did this, all you have to do is plug both hard drives in, and set the jumpers on each. The jumpers are little pins on the back which you connect together (short) with a little plastic bit. The jumpers tell the computer what role the hard drive has. Your 3 gig (the one you boot from) has to be set to master, and the other to slave. Then you boot up and install the driver for your 120 gig drive. The BIOS is probably already set to automatically detect hard drives as long as the jumpers are set, so you shouldn't have to change anything in there.

Usually when you boot up, there is a small line of text that says what button to push to enter BIOS setup. If there isn't one you could try looking in your motherboard manual for how to get in.

[Nihilist]

Sparky's idea is probably the best, but just to add on a little, if you're going to use both the hard drives, I would suggest installing windows on the 3 gig drive, and putting nothing else on it at all, and storing all of your files on the other drive, it would improve performance slightly.

However, if you really want to get the other drive working, it can probably be done too. It seems like maybe it's set to boot from the wrong device, you can change this in the BIOS(if you haven't figured out how to get into the BIOS yet from the advice of the other posts, then I can't help you there). Also you might want to check to make sure that the pins on the hard drive are set-up correctly, if you're going to use the 120gb as the boot drive, then it should be setup as a master.
Another thing, is the screen completely blank when it stops going? and what kind of cursor is it(i.e. normal windows cursor, or crappy looking blocky cursor)?

[ALENGOSVIG1]

I've got a tip that will fix ANY windows problem. Format your hard drive and install linux. :D

Putting all of your files that are accesed during boot time on the slower 5400 rpm hard drive with slow seek times (unless your 3 gig is 7200 rpm, which is very unlikely) would DECREASE your performance. You should have the OS on the highest performing disk.

Since you have a 3g hard drive, im guessing your system is quite old. In some older systems, the bios can't properly detect large drives like the 120. I have some old OptiPlex G1's and they detect large IDE disks as 8gb EIDE disks and nothing works properly.

Try flashing your bios to the latest revision.

[megalomania]

It turns out that older Compaq systems do not have BIOS on the motherboard at all. Instead you have to load up a special 2 boot disk utilities disk when starting up the computer to run the utilities. I accessd the BIOS from this utility and saw that the confoguration is set properly. What I will try is setting my HD jumper from cable select to master and seeing if that work as I too suspect it is not looking at the disk. The cursor I get is just a flashing underline _ and nothing else. This is the line you would get without any kind of OS, DOS etc.

I think the current problems I am having on my system are related to my modem. Some months back there was a power outage and my modem was damaged, it will not hang up. I have to physicially pull the phone cord out to reset the phone to be able to dial, otherwise it acts like a phone off the hook. It's very annoying, but I haven't gotten a new card. Just recently my current problems started after yet another power failure. The problems start when the program "svchost.exe" fails. This prog only fails when I start the modem (dial up my ISP). The prog usually crashes a few minutes later after logging on. Usually I connect to the net right away after a reboot, and in a few minutes the program has its error. Subsequently I left my computer run for an hour or two after booting and didn't get the error. I ran just Internet Explorer with connecting and it ran fine for some time, until I connected. Finially I connected to download service pack 4 and also eventiually got the error. So I am pretty sure it is the modem causing trouble.

The funny thing is I have a new modum, but I can't make it fit in my PCI slot. There is a small metal tab in the way that just barely keeps me from pushing it in. I may have to dremel the back of the case away. Or I could just buy a new damn computer. This is actually why I bought the hard drive, it's the first component of my new system that I am building from scratch. Anyway, off I go to change jumpers.

[nbk2000]

Your old computer may not be able to recognize such a large drive. Likely, the drive is default set to LBA mode, rather than the older CHS mode which your system requires.

Since you got a Western Digital drive, download the drive utility from their site, and use it to find the CHS equivelants to input into your BIOS. That should make it viewable at least.

Next, partition the drive into 6GB chunks, using the windows startup disk "FDISK" utility. Make the entire disk a DOS partition, then divide it up into the chunks using the "Extended Disk Partition" option. Make the first partition bootable. Then make sure that your drive jumpers are set with your 3GB drive on the end of the cable and set for Master, and the new drive on the middle cable connector set for Slave.

Be sure your BIOS is set to boot first from the 3GB drive, which may be labeled "HDD0".

[Nihilist]

Another thing you might want to check out, is what format your drives are in. A system as old as yours, might not support NTFS, so make sure that when you install windows you format the drives using FAT32.

The program "svchost.exe" is a windows service. I can't tell you which one, as they all run as the process svchost.exe, however, there are an incredible number of excess services that windows runs by default, which you can turn off in control panel. Here is an excellent guide as to what you can/should and can't/shouldn't turn off http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm . That guide is designed for XP users, but you should still be able to follow it. Even if turning off the services doesn't solve the problem, it will increase perfomance enormously, not to mention security and privacy(some of the services allow microsoft remote access to your registry).

ALENGOSVIG1: Yes, you're quite right, it will decrease performance if the 3gb drive is slower than the 120gb, which is quite likely. But it will increase performance in that the OS and the data are on seperate partitions. You could also just partition the 120gb drive to do the same thing, which would be the best way to go.

[FrankRizzo]

megalomania: That svchost.exe failure sounds a lot like fallout from the Blaster worm. Since you're running win2k and the problem seems to occur after you get connected, I'd be willing to bet good money that your machine is crashing because of RPC requests from others infected machines querying yours. Check the add/remove programs section of control panel. Does the close button have a funky spelling on it? If so, you definitely have a problem. Download the blaster fix from Mcafee: http://download.nai.com/products/mcafee-avert/stinger.exe That should fix your svchost problem, and then go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and get the latest updates.

[megalomania]

It turns out I did indeed have the blaster worm :( Thanks for that program FrankRizzo! Does that apply the patch to prevent reinfection, or just rid your system of the worm?

I consulted a higher power on my harddrive and came to the consensus that my system is just too old to recognize such a large hard drive. I have added it as a second harddrive and it seems to work fine. I will try to keep the small harddrive free of as much stuff as possible to reserve it just for windows.

[a_bab]

I've also got the Blaster, but the first issue i noticed was the lack of copy/paste. Then I noticed I can't drag and drop. And finally, the Add/remove problem.

[FrankRizzo]

No prob man...glad I could help. The stinger program removes the worm program and turns off access to the RPC (remote procedure call) service in win2k, which is what is being exploited for the worm to function. You will still need to d/l the latest service pack from Microsoft to finish the procedure.

[Flake2m]

Mega: you made one of the same mistakes as me when it comes to computers.
NEVER BUY A COMPAQ OR HP PC.

Our family bought an HP computer about 3 years ago. It was fairly fine for the first 18 months then when I realised i neede to upgrade the bloody thing it just wasn't possible. Firstly the case was too small to fit a new motherboard, the PSU wasn't powerful enough, the motherboard was a Slot-A duron as well a host of other problems. So in the end i decided to save up and buy my own computer, starting from scratch.
I ended up buying a very capable XP2200, 512mb RAM and motherboard for AU$750. All in all in all I have spent about AU$1200 on a case, PSU, Drive and graphics card. If you need some new hardware do your homework and find out what you want and how much it'll cost.

I am amazed that your 3gb HDD is enough run windows. Most people have atleast a 10gb partion to run windows these days.

[a_bab]

Why 3 Gb wouldn't be enough ? Windows will take in the worst case up to 1 Gb (with lots of temps files, drivers, you know, when it gets cluttered). The installed programs (not games, of course) coud add another gigabyte. So you are left with 1 gb, unless installing large games, having several movies/mp3's and so on.

I also have a 3,2 Gb hdd and I have win2k on it, without problems. I store the media and the rest of my stuff on a larger hdd though.

[nbk2000]

I've had windows down to under 80 megabytes, so you don't need a huge ass drive to run it, unless you're running some kind of bloatware like Office 2000. :)

[megalomania]

ACK! The program didn't take, there are virii everywhere acording to my new install of McAfee. Even that program I downloaded has become infected. I have no idea how to put out this fire, I half wonder if my win 2000 CD isn't itself possibly infected with something. This worm is hiding somewhere and reinfecting the system. I guess I had better reformat and reinstall windows again and start from scratch :(

How in the hell is it smart enough to infect stinger.exe? Is it possible this worm is running so rampant that as soon as I connect to the internet in gets me and corrupts the system before I can download the patch?

[Rhadon]

If you can get access to a second computer which has an antivirus program installed on it, I'd suggest to take the infected HD out of your computer, put it into the other PC and clean it. I did this a few times and it did always work without any problems.

[a_bab]

Well, I had the same problems. I even reinstalled win2k only to get the same problems again. So what I did was to install a MS patch (the worm remove tool didn't find anything)

Check this link (http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win2000/Q_20707803.html)

[nbk2000]

Mega, have you tried installing from the Win2K disk I sent you? That's sterile. And you really shouldn't install ANYTHING other than the O/S till you've got the anti-virus installed and running. I'm assuming you're installing only from manufacturers discs, and not from any CD-R media?

[Anthony]

Turns out the Blaster Worm was what was causing problems on my machine too.

Fresh install of win2k, all my shit installed and then I have to use fucking AOL for 5 minutes to get online to sign up for a half decent ISP, and I've got it. Fucking AOL, fucking win2k!

I've run the antivirus program , but as mega says it comes straight back. Unfortnately I can't just install the patch, because I need service pack 4 first, which is too large for me to download. Thankfully someone is lending me a CD copy.

I like the way the microsoft website states that you're not vulnerable to the worm if:

a) you have the latest service pack and have installed the patch.
b) you're running win95 or win98

Another case of Win98SE ruling all over the place :)

BTW, the accusations towards AOL are NOT exagerated, if anything it's worse than people say. I honestly wouldn't use it even if it were completely free. I had to reinstall Internet explorer to completely remove it (after uninstalling it).:mad:

[Rhadon]

Just out of interest: Did those of you who got infected use a firewall?

[megalomania]

Looks like I survived the storm (demons of this computer I exorcise thee!). The damn patch won't install unless you have service pack 2, by the time you download the service pack you'll probably get reinfected which will flub the install of the pack :mad: Fortunatly I was able to get pack 2 installed after I exorcised my demons and before I got his again. Thus I patched my system and am now running well. What an ordeal this has been!

3 weeks ago I said to someone "I actually want to get the blaster worm since it tries to hack Microsoft." I'm eating crow with that statement. Now of course everyone knows the code was ineptly written to begin with and tried to hack the wrong address. And of course there are all the other problems it causes.

[nbk2000]

Since we're discussing computer problems...

I finally got the Win2K service pack 2 downloaded, via DUN'd Juno (only took 3 days :rolleyes: ), and now the bastard won't install! :mad:

The file isn't corrupted, rather, the installer uses my F: drive (which is on a different HDD) as the temp drive for unpacking even though C:\TEMP is set in the variables for that purpose, and then I get an error message saying that the files failed to copy to F:\.

I formatted the C drive, reinstalled the O/S from CD, and got the bugger to work, but then it won't boot while I have my other HDD connected! I have two hard drives, so I can back up files from one to the other, and the idea of having to unplug one drive so I can use the other is unacceptable.

A possible problem is that the drive controllers think the IDE drives are SCSI, which they're not, but it still works. I tried re-installing the motherboard IDE controller drivers, and it didn't help.

Any suggestions? BTW, the other O/S on my other drive is Win98SE, and I'm only futzing about with Win2K because I have to have it in order to use Acrobat 6.

[Nihilist]

You can't have two seperate drives hooked up that both think they are the boot drive. They will literally fight with each other over it, and it doesn't turn out very well for the user. You will have to install a bootloader of some kind like LILO or bootmagic, or the like. Also you might want to check in your BIOS to make sure that it is set to boot off of the correct physical drive(logical partitions are meaningless here).

[nbk2000]

Obviously I needed to clarify a few points.

Each drive is on it's own IDE channel, both are set to MASTER on the end of their respective cables, with the SLAVES being a CD-RW and DVD drive.

Which drive boots first is handled by the BIOS. I've been using dual drives for the last few years, and know how to configure that part. :p

The drive I've got Win2K installed on is the primary drive on the primary IDE channel, with the 98 drive being on the secondary IDE channel.

I have the BIOS set to boot to HDD1 (Win98), which then gets me a bootup menu to either 2K (default, on HDD0) or 98.

Like I've said, I've gotten it to work when 2K was installed on the primary drive, without the secondary drive connected, but that means having only one drive connected at a time, because I can't startup either O/S when they're both connected, and I'm not tolerating that.

++++++++++++

Well, the above is now all moot, since I've got it to work. :)

I unistalled the Win2K UDMA driver that was default loaded by the MB setup, and installed the 98 version instead, and now it works. :D

Acrobat 6 looks good. Though there's a slight problem with it, since it won't let me edit PDF's that I digitally signed, since the imported keys aren't considered mine", thus I can't remove them. :mad: Meaning I got to keep the old version 4 to remove the signatures from my own fucking files! :rolleyes:

I tried the JPEG2000 compression on one of my gem books. It reduced it by about 15%. Not astronomical by any means, but then again I wasn't setting it for maximum compression since I'm keeping the picture resolution as high as possible, given the nature of the subject matter. ;)

To the person who asked, the serials worked, but not the keygens. Also, the service pack was so large because I don't have a modem driver that's 2K compatible, so no net connection when using 2K, thus no net install. Besides which, the network installation version has EVERYTHING in it, so I don't have to futz about with multiple net installs if I change something later. :)

[Jumala]

Perhaps the problem is already solved now but I want to tell my knowledge about compaq and large harddrives.

Older PC´s also compaq can only support 8,4 GB (newer 32GB) harddrives.
The BIOS is unable to detect and to handle larger drives.
The compaq BIOS is stored in a 256 KB service partition on the harddrive.
If this partition was removed by fdisk or other programms the PC don´t work anymore
and it is hard to remake this partition.

In standart PC´s (BIOS on board) it is easy to overcome this problem using a PCI controller card with own BIOS (Promise or Highpoint) but compaq don´t work with service partitions on external controlled drives.

So you must use the 3 GB primary with on board controller and the 120 GB with a promise controller.

Win 2k can only support 80 GB direkt. 120 GB needs the "biglba=1" line in the registry. Perhaps a new servicepack can solve the problem too.

The programm "registry system wizard" can also make these changes to the registry.
I have downloaded it here (sorry only german language)



download (http://www.soft-ware.net/system/steuerung/tuning/p02950.asp)

I hope it helps.

[Anthony]

Well, I could get service pack 4 to install, some fucked up error about compatibility, or my O/S or the pack being free and the other not or some such bullshit.

So I did the ultimate patching and installed win98 - over the top of win2k :)

I had a cool hybrid of the two OSs, unfortunately nothing worked...

So format, install win98, reinstall all my shit, a lot of effort but at least I'm back up to speed.

I wasn't using a firewall, never have and haven't really had a problem. I might try one though. Can anyone recommend the firewall included with PGP, or another piece of free (or freely available) piece of software?

[Rhadon]

I don't have experience with the PGP firewall, but Sygate Personal Firewall is a very good one. Unfortunately it's not free. When the Forum FTP is back up, I could make it free, though :). Zone Alarm is a free firewall, but I don't like that one, most probably because it didn't give you much security in earlier versions (don't know how it's with the latest version).

[ALENGOSVIG1]

IPtables..

[FCUK]

ALENGOSVIG1, said program is for Linux. And it seems most are running either Windows 98(SE?) or Windows 2000 Professional.

However, At Guard is a good firewall for a Windows machine. And you can download it at: www.stophack.ru