Desktops forum: Fixing An Aging PC

Did you re-install the OS after this cleaner damaged the OS?

Also, did you do you yearly canned air cleaning?
Bob

Thanks both for your information.

I haven't reinstalled Window XP yet. Do I need to reformat the hard drive when I reinstall the OS?

I opened the cover and vacuumed inside two or three months ago. Is the type of cleaning called canned air cleaning?

I will run CCleaner to see whether it will help or not.

I get a blue screen when I start my pc. I restart it with the safe mode and run CCleaner. The frozen menu problem is gone. I still get a blue screen after another restarting.

It doesn't seem that I can reinstall Windows XP on my pc. "Setup cannont continue beause the versin of Windows on your computer is newer thatn the versin on the CD. ..." is a message from I click "install Windows XP".

What I can do right now?

Sounds like there is more than a cleaning that computer needs.
Have you tried to use system restore?
Going back as far as you cam ,ay help get you away from the problems.
Also another thing would be a virus. If you can get into SAFE MODE I would try a couple things.
First open a cmd prompt: click on start then run and type cmd hit enter.
A black box will come up, type "chkdsk /f"( without the "s) and hit enter. Let it run and when finished reboot into: safe mode with networking.
After it loads open a browser and do a search for Malwarebytes cnet/ or just copy and paste this link in the address bar on the browser.
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
Download and install and run a full scan of c:/

After it runs and it finds anything delete them all ! Follow and read the boxes on the program on how to do this, pretty simple.
Then reboot the computer and see what you have.

smile
minahan1

Uninstall service packs then try running installation.

My PC TuneUP is an official version. If I reformat the HD, all files will be erased. I need to backup all or some of files on the HD before reformating.

Your original post was about repairing the PC, not saving files. I take it now you need to format in order to get back to a stable PC again. Besides all the fixes, if none of them work and you can't do a repair, you're stuck. Try to boot into safemode with networking after hitting F8 during boot-up. Once in safemode, try to save any files to a flash drive or ext. USB HD. Otherwise. its going to get hosed as time goes on, which if you hadn't already run your current AV pgm. to see if any virus, malware or trojans are present. Take action if any found and hopefully return to a stable system. But, if after 10yrs. you never did any progressive cleaning or maintenance, it maybe too late or one heck of a job to recover. Your complaint is not uncommon for an older PC or unkept one, so it becomes harder to resolve, which the easiest way to become stable again to reformat and reload OS, drivers, updates etc.,. Critical files should have been kept now and then on some time table in order to reduce this headache.

If not already, and XP own restore feature was active, use a restore point before the troubles began. -OR- as already explained get your hands on a XP repair disc, this NOT a restore/recovery disc but it does fix OS issues and such. Vendors offer them online, some are free(trusted source???) but many for small cost. Access to an XP install disc which is recovery/restore see if the repair console is present and use it. Google for hints and tips to explain usage.

tada -----Willy

Thanks for your suggestion on booting disc. I don't know whether I need to go the round or not though.

This is what I would do:

Take the sides off the computer and use dry canned air designed just for this purpose to blow out all the dust that has collected inside over the years or since the last time you did it. Pay special attention to ALL fans. I take them out and clean any encrusted dust with an old electric razor brush before hitting them with the canned air.

Get rid of that PC-TuneUp program. Those things are just bad news straight across the board. As suggested elsewhere in other answers to your question do get CCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-malware. CCleaner is great for general housecleaning and MBAM is great for getting mal-ware and other files that AVs just can't or don't look for. Remember to run your UPDATED AV program, CCleaner and UPDATED MBAM all in Safe Mode to clean your computer of any nasties that could be causing your problems.

If none of that helps the problem I would do a clean install of XP. IF you wind up having to do an OS re-install you can follow the directions that Michael Stevens give on his website at http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps I think that you'll find that he is quite complete in his guide.

*****Just know some things before you start your re-installation process:

1. You WILL lose all of your files when you do this. Therefore, as stated elsewhere, back up what you want to keep - ALL documents, photos, videos, music, everything - to some sort of removable media. I bought a 30 gig thumb drive to keep my stuff on. I just keep it with my computer at all times so that I can add my new stuff to it every few days. This way if I have any problems I don't run the risk of losing what I need/want to keep.

2. You WILL need the CDs that came with your computer originally. Without those you can't go any further.

3. I, personally, wipe the drive before an OS re-install so that the re-installation is truly a clean install. It's just better that way. You can use any one of the programs listed at http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/free-data-destruction-software.htm <---That website is for education only. Please download any software you want from it's OWN site to avoid getting something you don't really want. (E.G.: Cleaner from http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER) rather from anywhere else, etc. AND if you do use such a program make double sure that you do NOT wipe the partition that houses your Recovery Console.

4. I like to keep all of the Service Packs for XP burned to CD so that as soon as the OS is finished installing I can do it from them rather directly from the internet. Get the ones that you need for your system here: XP Service Pack 1a https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19751 XP Service Pack 2 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28 Service Pack 3 contains everything in SP 1 and SP 2 so if/when you get it, you won't need the other two https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24 Caveates with SP3 are that you will have to pass Windows Genuine Advantage and there are other issues with SP 3 that you may want to consider which you may want to research to see if you really want to install your updates with it. Start at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936929 first and then do some googling for other info. The reason I'm giving you this information right now is that XP is at it's End of Life. Read about this on Microsoft's Lifecycle Fact Sheet at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle The main thing, though, is that these service packs will no longer be available after April 8, 2014. PERIOD. So download all of those Service Packs, save them to a CD and put it with your XP Installation CDs.

5. You will need the software to all of your peripheral hardware like
printer, camera, etc. to re-install them once you get your OS
re-installed. In addition to this you will need installation media for all of your other software like AV, third party firewall if you use one, other programs you like and use, etc. This means the original CDs or .exe files (burned to CD or thumb drive) that you downloaded or can download for your system. Once you have all of your software - including new versions of your AV - downloaded and/or gathered together you can go ahead and wipe your drive and begin the re-installation process described on Michael Stevens' website above.

6. Once your OS is finished re-installing, you can then update it with the Service Pack file(s) that you downloaded and burned to CD in step 4 above and then start installing all of your other software. I like to make a manual restore point after the installation of each piece of 'new' software that I install on a new OS installation so that if anything goes wrong, I may be able to fix it with that and then re-install just one piece of software rather than all of them or the whole system all over again.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!


<i>NOTE: While this is written for XP a lot of the ideas projected here may be kept in mind for XP's successors, too. </i>

"Reformating the hard drive seem to be a pre-condition of reinstalling XP." Not. Assuming you're using either the Dell installation discs or a Microsoft Windows XP disc, you should get a dialog asking whether to reinstall or repair Windows. Repairing actually reinstalls Windows but leaves your programs and data intact. Reinstalling formats the HD first, wiping all data, what is called a "clean install". If you're using Dell's discs, it won't be all that clean, it'll be loaded with bloatware. But it's still better than leaving all the old errors and (probably) corrupted registry keys in. Clean installs always run better.
"Another option is to install Vista." ONLY if you have a very fast processor and loads of RAM, say 3GHz+ and 2GB+, and if that's the case I recommend 7 rather than Vista. Or even 8. Vista is another of Microsoft's premature releases, is resource-hungry and has stability problems. A machine designed for XP will have problems with it.
"I don't know whether I need to go the round or not though." How badly do you need those files? Can you recover them in Safe Mode? It might be as easy as booting into Safe Mode, plugging in a USB flash drive and copying a few files to it. How much data are we talking about anyway? Whatever you decide to do I wish you luck!

I guess I did miss that. I still believe the easiest solution would be to use another OS from a bootable CD to transfer files to another medium. And I'd certainly check the PSU first, but then I have the tools to do that on hand and I realize not everyone does. But 10-year-old computers are very good at eating power supplies and the symptoms may well resemble what we have here. BTW the same is true for the hard drive; we may well have a hardware problem and be wasting time thinking of software upgrades.

Another thought for the mechanically-minded: remove the HD, install it as a slave in another machine (perhaps a replacement computer?), and the data is there for the taking (assuming the HDD is still good). That should be done by a shop or at least a geek, since it will almost certainly involve installing an IDE drive in a SATA-based computer. But it handily solves the problem of migrating files to a new system.

Why not start fresh?