I am hoping one of you bright people may be able to help me with a problem I have with my computer.
I was using my computer then came away from it leaving it switched on but with nothing running. When I went back to it, the mouse and keyboard were frozen and I had no choice but to press and hold the power button to get it to shutdown. When I started it up again it only went so far then it froze.
I have an original Windows 7 CD, when I put it in the CD drive the PC should boot from the CD first. I get the options to either boot from the CD or start Windows normally. It makes no difference which one I choose, the PC starts to load the files then stops/ freezes.
I thought once I had found the Windows CD Rom my problems would be quickly over, how wrong was I.
If you have any suggestions I would be very grateful as I find using my phone or tablet very trying.
Cheers John.
I'm not an expert, but can you start it in safe mode and go from there? I think you have to hold F2 or something as you start it. You can try all the F buttons, it won't hurt; but I'm sure a geek will be along shortly to put me right!
Good luck, :)
Really hope that using the DVD you didn't install anything ... fingers crossed.
Anyway - boot in as normal but hold / press repeatedly the F8 key for Safe Mode. Select the Safe Mode (with networking) and you should get a basic Win7 system ... From there, close down & restart as normal - should be OK ...
[edit] Give "Last Known Good" a try before you give Safe Mode a go ... just recalled this option ...
Quote from: scotsoft on August 01, 2015, 07:38:06 PM
I am hoping one of you bright people may be able to help me with a problem I have with my computer.
I was using my computer then came away from it leaving it switched on but with nothing running. When I went back to it, the mouse and keyboard were frozen and I had no choice but to press and hold the power button to get it to shutdown. When I started it up again it only went so far then it froze.
I have an original Windows 7 CD, when I put it in the CD drive the PC should boot from the CD first. I get the options to either boot from the CD or start Windows normally. It makes no difference which one I choose, the PC starts to load the files then stops/ freezes.
I thought once I had found the Windows CD Rom my problems would be quickly over, how wrong was I.
If you have any suggestions I would be very grateful as I find using my phone or tablet very trying.
Cheers John.
John Do you have an F?? key on boot up which allows you to go into a system repair mode (mine has) - If you do then have you tried system restore (assuming you have it switched on) - go back to the last saved version.
Otherwise - if you have a 'Recovery' partition, as a last resort you can reinstall your system to factory defaults. Unfortunately you then have to reinstall everything and may lose your data if its all on the C: drive
:beers:
Another possibility is that your memory chips have failed, my old desktop PC did this a few years ago and an new memory board brought it back to life.
Quote from: MikeDunn on August 01, 2015, 08:17:00 PM
Really hope that using the DVD you didn't install anything ... fingers crossed.
I did not install anything from the Windows CD, I was/ am prepared to reinstall Windows if need be but I cannot get that far before it freezes.
Anyway - boot in as normal but hold / press repeatedly the F8 key for Safe Mode. Select the Safe Mode (with networking) and you should get a basic Win7 system ... From there, close down & restart as normal - should be OK ...
Tried that with no success
[edit] Give "Last Known Good" a try before you give Safe Mode a go ... just recalled this option ...
I did that also and the :censored: still froze.
I have never had a memory chip fail on me and that would be an expensive thing to eliminate.
Thank you all for your suggestions so far, please keep them coming.
Cheers John.
It's unclear - can you get into Safe Mode ?
No, I cannot get into safe mode.
The computer is freezing just as it starts to load in Windows and it is always at the same point that it freezes.
I did try a few of the options that were available for me to choose from.
I realise that I have W8 on my laptop, but I had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. (Could not do anything - safe start/system restore etc.). I forget why, but I had to restore the laptop to factory settings. Once I did that, the laptop did exactly what yours is doing. Apparently, because of the restoring of factory settings, the laptop had downloaded over 120 windows updates. :censored:. From what I found out later, most laptops can not cope with so many updates, so it 'goes to sleep' and appears to have frozen. :veryangry:. It eventually sorts itself out and starts to work normally, although it did take about 3 hours! :o. My problem probably bears no relation to yours, but it just might help you, (or someone else). I hope you do get it sorted out though. David.
Thank you David ;)
I have left it in it's frozen state to see if anything happened but it just stayed frozen :help:
What sort of age is the patient?
Quote from: Jack on August 01, 2015, 11:02:04 PM
What sort of age is the patient?
I can't give you an exact answer to that as I can't remember, but it will be around five or six years old.
Quote from: scotsoft on August 01, 2015, 11:10:58 PM
Quote from: Jack on August 01, 2015, 11:02:04 PM
What sort of age is the patient?
I can't give you an exact answer to that as I can't remember, but it will be around five or six years old.
It's getting on in life but that's not necessary a reason for your problem.
Is it a desktop and if so when was the last time you had the side panel of to remove any dust blankets that's formed inside? I'm pondering that something is overheating and therefore shutting down.
Quote from: Jack link=topic=28994.msg321815#msg321815
It's getting on in life but that's not necessary a reason for your problem.
Is it a desktop and if so when was the last time you had the side panel of to remove any dust blankets that's formed inside? I'm pondering that something is overheating and therefore shutting down.
Good idea but surely it would only shutdown after it has been running and not when booking up first thing.
Cheers John.
You're right John, I had assumed it had been running for sometime when the symptoms started appearing, you mentioned in your first post that you were using it, left it for a while and it's when you came back to it that you had the problem.
Something inside me is saying leave the patient to go completely cold, ie switch it off and unplug it until the morning. If it comes into life then side panel off and a good clean inside may help it along. You obviously have another PC/laptop/tablet/smartphone to communicated with or else how are you able to post on the Forum. If you still have a problem then the next stage for me would be to think about the following.
Are you able to get into the System BOIS, it's normally achieved by pressing and holding down ESC or F2 while powering up? It the area where you can change and configure basic settings.
If you can't get into the BIOS settings I would begin to think that the motherboard or some other major component, such as the cpu, has develop a problem, and with the age of the patient it would be uneconomical to source a repair.
If you are able to get into the BIOS it could be that your hard drive may have failed.
At this point John I'm sorry I can't be more helpful to you.
I can get into the Bios and I can't see anything amiss there. I did select to load in the default settings, but that had no effect.
I am completely baffled and that is why I posted here in the hope someone would point out something I had missed or forgotten.
I have a smart phone and a tablet which are fine for basic use.
Thank you for your suggestions.
I still might go for a clean out and while you're inside check to see if all the plugs are firmly in place and there is no visible signs of problems. It unlikely, depending on the plugs, but one may have worked loose with vibration or other movements.
I've been lead to believe that the original term "computer bug" came about because when an IBM engineer in the very early days, when valves were used, found a fault caused by dead bugs inside the casing.
Google computer dust problems to see how it can kill a PC.
I would suspect a memory chip as Caz said on an earlier post. Some BIOS allow you to do a full POST rather than the cursory one it normally does. Worth trying. It takes s time as it does check every memory location. But if it starts to load, I don't see anything else it could be. Try popping the chip(s) out and reseating. Heating effects can cause poor connections.
Ooh ah. Getting heavy... these days I reckon it's easier and possibly cheaper to go out and buy a new laptop.
The problem of lost data remains, however. That's why I'm tempted to go out and buy one of those Seagate back up drives.
Doesn't help with your prob, though, John.
Sorry!
George
Quote from: scotsoft on August 01, 2015, 10:09:48 PM
No, I cannot get into safe mode.
The computer is freezing just as it starts to load in Windows and it is always at the same point that it freezes.
I did try a few of the options that were available for me to choose from.
Hmmm. Safe Mode selection is
before Windows is loaded ...
Can you (in BIOS) select the full self-test (normally PCs do the abbreviated one); this may show a problem area. Otherwise ... can you talk us through what happens from when you start from cold, each change the system makes ? It's starting to sound like the issues are outside Windows and with the PC itself ...
Sounds very similar to the problem I had with my laptop a couple of months ago, John.
I had to get Windows removed then reloaded onto it (cost me about £50)
If you are navigating the bios ok that means keyboard is not the problem (one of the first things the bios checks)
I was about to suggest that it may hang on trying to load Windows which could be memory or other chips problem OR it could be a bricked drive (the bios can not find the MBR on the drive).
Is there any indication of the drive spinning / repeated clickings, flashing of the drive activity led on the keyboard.
In which case an exotic solulution may be to try to boot from a "Live CD" Linux installation or a Live flash stick in the USB
Can you get to another computer to download one ?
Smaller ones (eg. Puppy) are about a 700Mb download.
Quote from: MalcolmAL on August 02, 2015, 11:56:17 AM
In which case an exotic solulution may be to try to boot from a "Live CD" Linux installation or a Live flash stick in the USB
Can you get to another computer to download one ?
Smaller ones (eg. Puppy) are about a 700Mb download.
'scuse quoting myself, now that I have had coffee and got brain cell working ! :-
No need for full Linux OS
you can download smaller Live ones specally with diagnostic tools, for CD or flashUSB ( or even floppy if your machine , , , :) no ? :) )
Google ' Linux live diagnostic ' or even ' recovery disc '
Not played with them myself, only the larger Linuxes.
Had a similar issue a couple of years ago and finally decided it was a corrupted part (boot section?) of the hard drive. Since I did not have a recovery disk/drive :doh:, the only solution I could come up with was to replace the drive and start fresh. Since I wanted to recover the data I had on the bad drive if possible, I invested in an new drive and a SATA to USB adapter to see what I could recover from the old drive. Total cost was under US$100 and I managed to recover approximately 90% of what I wanted from the "bad" drive.
May or may not be the same issue but did not see it mentioned as a possibility above.
Good point by Jon , another advantage of the Live CD/Flash approach is that the tools included can attempt recovery of data from the C drive (from all of the C if the problem is elswhere in the dead computer )
It sounds like the BIOS is ok, so with luck it will still have its 'boot from CD' ability (need the boot order changing in the BIOS) ? and also 'boot from USB' (needing enabling (toggling) in the BIOS ).
If all else fails, get the drive out and into a USB caddy or harness and then plug it into your new computal :)
Quote from: MalcolmAL on August 02, 2015, 02:21:17 PM
It sounds like the BIOS is ok, so with luck it will still have its 'boot from CD' ability (need the boot order changing in the BIOS) ? and also 'boot from USB' (needing enabling (toggling) in the BIOS ).
It was mentioned at the beginning that the Win7 Disc was tried so as to reinstall but even that didn't work, even if the HDD didn't start, normal BIOS default would move to the next option looking for an OS to boot from, usually the Disk Drive.
A case strip, with the exception of the cpu from MB (unless you have some thermo grease to refit), and clean may help in that everything will have been reseated into its relevant clean socket, memory chip, daughterboards etc.
Quote from: Jack on August 02, 2015, 02:46:48 PM
It was mentioned at the beginning that the Win7 Disc was tried so as to reinstall but even that didn't work
Er - no !
I think you mis-read that particular post ...
Quote from: Jack on August 02, 2015, 02:46:48 PM
Quote from: MalcolmAL on August 02, 2015, 02:21:17 PM
It sounds like the BIOS is ok, so with luck it will still have its 'boot from CD' ability (need the boot order changing in the BIOS) ? and also 'boot from USB' (needing enabling (toggling) in the BIOS ).
It was mentioned at the beginning that the Win7 Disc was tried so as to reinstall but even that didn't work, even if the HDD didn't start, normal BIOS default would move to the next option looking for an OS to boot from, usually the Disk Drive.
Ok, so the BIOS is already set to look at the CD for bootable OS. But I still dont follow your logic.
The original post says "I have
an original Windows 7 CD"
it doesnt say THE original, if you want to analyse everything that has gone earlier !
Just cos it wont boot to A windoze OS (either on CD or on HD) dont mean it wont boot to a Linux rescue disc ( which by its nature will not go looking for every bit of hardware on the computer which may have failed and that Windoze may require to be present etc&etc )
Anyway there is always the saying "any port in a storm" and I was not precluding any of the other suggestions of blowing out cobwebs, reseating chips etc.
We still dont know if he has access to another computer to obtain such a rescue, I just thort it a cost free option to mention, was all.
John,
It may be worth trying this : http://www.7tutorials.com/create-usb-memory-stick-system-recovery-tools (http://www.7tutorials.com/create-usb-memory-stick-system-recovery-tools)
Won't hurt your PC on boot / running, but may help recover. Sounds like you may have damage to the disk and/or essential files very early in the local boot process.
Thanks for all your suggestions, I am very grateful.
I am going to work through them all and will report back when I have.
So if I don't appear online you will know I am working through your suggestions which will take me some time. I just don't want you to think I am ignoring you by not replying to your posts.
:NGaugersRule:
Cheers John.
Quote from: Only Me on August 02, 2015, 06:12:34 PMI love an armchair pc repairer but it does sometimes add confusion to a task ;)
Tsk tsk, whatever do you mean sir ?
I'm sorry if we trod on your professional toes whilst we tried to help John, by way of conversation and humble suggestions, in his hour(s) of need before you joined us.
Carry on ol' chap >>
Let's stay focused and see if we can solve scotsoft's problem, guys :thumbsup:
Very sorry to hear of your problems. I have recently had exactly the same problem. Boot the computer up (desktop sytem) and after around 10 mins it just freezes. I could not even carry out the usual Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reset, so had to turn the computer off via the switch at the rear.
Anyway, I am lucky to know a guy who runs a computer shop local to me. Popped it down to him last week, and after running a thorough diagnostic check of the whole system, it turns out to be the hard drive that has gone a knacker. Luckily, everything that was saved to the hard drive has been saved (very lucky, as I don't keep back up's) :dunce: I shall from now on though! :goggleeyes:
My system is getting on for 6 years old. You really don't expect these things to happen do you?
Good luck, and hope you can get it sorted very soon.
Cheers, Anthony
Quote from: MalcolmAL on August 02, 2015, 05:02:20 PM
Ok, so the BIOS is already set to look at the CD for bootable OS. But I still dont follow your logic.
The original post says "I have an original Windows 7 CD"
it doesnt say THE original, if you want to analyse everything that has gone earlier !
The BIOS is already set to look for a cd first.
The Windows cd rom is
THE original cd rom.
Quote from: Only Me on August 02, 2015, 06:12:34 PM
My other advice is to push the power button and keep pressing the F8 key until the advanced menu appears... If you can get here and then select boot to safe mode without networking and that starts make a note of the device file it stops booting at.... I suspect mup.sys ;)
I can bring up the advanced menu by pressing the F8 key and have tried selecting most of the options open to me with no joy. The file you mention mup.sys is not appearing.
I am still looking for a solution and will keep looking as cash is in very short supply due to my vacuum cleaner has packed in and needs replacing, the electric shower has packed in and needs replacing :veryangry: :veryangry: :veryangry:
cheers John.
Just in case the heads are crashed ... I'd be tempted to lift up the base an inch & drop it down ... But I'd also see about getting a new disk first & rebuilding ::) Disks are cheap ...