Re: I hate friends of friends with computers....

ToolPackinMama wrote:

David Maynard wrote:

Reinstalling the O.S. is a reasonable start to fix "my son wiped the hard drive" 


That's what I thought.

but with the problems you're seeing you need to step back to the beginning and verify everything as it should not take that long even with 128 Meg of RAM. 


That's what I thought.

First thing I'd want to know is what did the kid do, both to 'wipe' the hard drive and any repair attempt's. Did anyone remove it, play with jumpers, BIOS settings, or what? There may be some clues in there, not to mention it could simply be that the hard drive has problems and that's what got it to begin with.



The reason the kid was even asked to help is because they tried to install a new version of NORTON internet security, and THAT is what (allegedly) rendered the PC unusable. 

What does 'unusable' mean?

I've heard of people having problems with Norton IS but not wiping out a hard drive.


Assuming the answer is the typical "I didn't do nuttin," this is a good place for memtest. Not that it'll tell you specifically that memory is good/bad but it'll give a system test. 


OK I got memtest on disk.  I'll try it.

While that's running check the XP CD because if it's damaged it'll have trouble copying files.


I'm certain that the XP install CD is not the problem. 

If I had a dime for every time someone told me they were 'certain' ;)


After memtest run complete stem to stern hard drive diagnostics. If it fails you've got your problem.


And how do I do that? Explain, please. 

Download drive manufacturer's diagnostic tools and run them.

If all that passes then remove all partitions from the suspect hard drive, repartition, format, and then manually copy, on the suspect machine, the entire CD to the hard drive. 


OK, I know how to do all of that.

If all that passes and you've still got install problems then you'll likely have to crack the case open and do more detailed hardware diagnosing, like cleaning, loose cables/cards, dead/slow CPU/case/PSU fan(s), jarred this or that, PSU voltage checks, etc. Frankly, I do that first but many people are leary about cracking the case open. But if they've been inside then definitely check the insides first.


OK, good advice, thanks. 

.

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