Re: d4550 processor running too slow

On Jul 26, 2:00 pm, JayB <J...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
my sister recently had brought her dimension 4550 computer to me,
complaining it was very slow, and corrupted, and wouldnt work right.
i assumed the usual spyware, rootkit,
but then i saw hard drive fatal errors,
so i knew the hard drive was bad.
i separated the hard drive from its tower and worked on the hard drive
in another computer to recover data, which was irreplaceable.
i could not get the drive to load under windows, the entire fat table
was corrupted.

Was the hard drive bad or was supply power defective causing
numerous strange problems? It is a Dell. That means you execute
Dell's comprehensive hardware diagnostics before fixing anything. Did
the Dell diagnostics only cite the drive as defective or did it also
see other problems? Are those numerous unrelated problems directly
traceable to a common source - defective power?

You saw something, then assumed? Or did you examine Task Manager to
first identify what was causing slow processing? Did you review
hardware history in the system (event) logs? Windows will do anything
to work around problems (making those problems difficult to find).
But Windows will also record those problems so that even intermittent
failures can be seen by the tech later. What did those event (system)
logs report? And what did Device Manager report? Other information
along with reports from Dell's comprehensive hardware diagnostic.
Identifying defective hardware comes from those facts. Spinrite may
have only been reporting typical failures found when DC voltages are
sufficient to boot a computer but then cause failures. Windows may be
slaving overtime trying to work around that failure.

Long before trying to fix something, first collect all facts
including data from the Dell comprehensive hardware diagnostics that
execute without beong complicated by Windows.
.

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