OOPS!! Forgot the link to Knoppix... http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-info/index-en.html
-p -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: OT: I am SOOOOOOOOOO happy! Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:32:34 -0600 From: Paul <[email protected]> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> Is everything in the BIOS OK? Can you update the BIOS to the latest version without running the OS? You might try creating a Knoppix disc and booting from that. You might have to go into the BIOS and change the boot order so it looks for the Knoppix disc first. If that runs OK it would seem the problem is in the HDD. You said you had managed to rescue the data, but Knoppix will allow you to mount the HDD to see if it's working OK or to move data to another disc. Just mentioning this 'cause Knoppix has saved my bacon a couple times... -p On 11/14/2014 11:57 AM, John wrote:
NOT! I've spent the last week trying to ressurect my sister's computer (Compaq Presario manufactured by HP). It had crashed on her and she couldn't get it to boot. I managed to rescue her data from the hard-drive. While I had the hard-drive out, I gave the inside of the case a thorough cleaning. Put the hard-drive back in & tried to do a system restore to return the operating system, Vista Home Basic, to Out Of The Box condition. The diagnostics included with the system restore passed the hard-drive, motherboard & CPU, but failed the memory. I replaced the memory. I've also run diagnostics of my own - 20+ passes of Memtest86+ on the new memory & Spinright 6.0 on the hard-drive. It takes about 24 hours for each of those to run to completion, so that's 2 days right there. Both diagnostis completed without finding any errors. Still, the computer kept crashing when I tried to run Windows Update. I finally overcame that by booting into Safe Mode and running the Norton Removal Tool. After that I was able to run Windows Update from the Control Panel and install updates 2 & 3 at a time. Running it from the taskbar crashed the computer again. I've spent 5 days downloading & installing updates, rebooting and downloading & installing updates again. I got down to one last update that wouldn't install, and according to Microsoft support (via Google) I needed to install Service Pack 2. Looking at the requirements for Service Pack 2, I have to have Service Pack 1 installed in order to install Service Pack 2. Service Pack 1 installation failed. It gave an error code, but before I could write it down it flashed to a BSOD, which also shut down & rebooted before I could write down the error number. It wasn't one I'd seen before. And now, it won't start again. I get a BSOD & reboot OR a black screen & reboot OR it gets to the logon screen & goes black/BSOD when I enter the password. I can't even get into Safe Mode. Safe Mode with Networking goes black & reboots as soon as the last driver loads; Safe Mode without networking BSODs & reboots ... in either case it doesn't pause long enough for me to write the Stop Code down. Thank you for listening. I don't feel any better, but at least I've been able to vent.
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