56 replies to this topic

[becky7234]

Is there a diagnostic tool that will check my pc configurations, compatability, settings, Since installing a new 800GB HD? The whole system is doing all of the following: Flashing black screen for 2-5 sec, automatically random reboots, shuts down all browser [IE6] windows randomly, freeze/frozen at random times. My HD is SATA, 800GB not partitioned. I'm not even sure the cmos or bios are correct. My OS is WinXP Home.

[Doug]

There are several tools that may be of use to you.

D-A-L Hardware Scan
this simple JAVA based Hardware and Operating System Scan will give you a one page overview of what is installed on your machine. (but will not give you information about compatibility and fine-details of configuration)
http://www.d-a-l.com/hardwarescan/
It is a safe tool that will not invade your privacy.
You will have to "allow" several steps of JAVA processes to run. (all of which are safe)
You will receive your "Results" as a single page with a URL address that you can post back here for assistance.
___________________________

Belarc Advisor
http://www.belarc.co...e_download.html
Provides a great deal of detail, including some about your installed softwares
Very useful and safe tool.
Belarc Advisor does reveal Product Identification Information that you should "edit out" prior to posting to a Forum.
Again, you will receive a Reports page which you can copy/paste into your next reply for assistance in analysis
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Everest 2.20 free (used with operating systems up to XP, but not Vista nor Windows 7)
http://majorgeeks.co...wnload4181.html
Excellent inventory and details of your machine's components
Easy to use graphic interface and Reports that you can save/copy/paste to your next reply for assistance.
Everest has a useful analysis of Temperatures and Voltages in addition to inventory of components and operating system
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PCPitstop Full Tests / Overdrive
http://www.pcpitstop.com
A remarkable inventory and Performance analysis.
Great Graphical Interface gives you current components and useful measures of their current performance rating.
PCPitstop Full Tests are ActiveX driven (safe)
You must register and create a user name and password (free use of the test and results)
Excellent for getting an overview of how your machine is performing.
You can copy/past the URL address of your PCPitstop Full Tests results into your next reply for assistance.
PCPitstop provides "Tune-Up Tips" which help the user recognize some of the settings and features that could be adjusted to improve machine performance.
PCPitstop also offers a variety of "paid products" all of which are "good and safe" but not recommended.
PCPitstop Full Tests / Overdrive also provides tips and links to information that will help the user perform the recommended repairs and adjustments (free).
If you prefer, we can help you perform the same types of adjustments to improve your machine performance manually for free.
Post a link to your Results if you wish to have assistance.
________________________________

Go give each of the above a Test Drive and have a look at the Reports.
Then decide which (or combination of which) gives you the specific information you may be looking for.
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*** Note: Adding a SATA HD, should not impact a machine negatively.
Power Supply may be over-stressed by adding "any" new hardware.
Use one or a combination of the above scans to give us a better picture of your machine.

Best Regards

[8210GUY]

To add to the great help above, I notice your using ie6, this suggests you may not be running with all the updates, and possibly even the service packs, if this is the case installing the latest service pack (which is sp3) and updates may give the system what it needs to deal with the new hard drive. I can't recall at what stage this came into play, but IIRC hard drives over a certain size would be more than the system can handle, I wonder if this may be the case here ? The simplest way to check what service pack your running (if any) would be to click on Start - Control Panel - System, with the system window open the general tab is shown by default I believe, and there it will tell you your OS and any service pack along with ram and CPU, you will be looking for sp1, 2 or 3 (note it will only show the latest one installed), hope this helps a bit.

[becky7234]

I hope you peinted that.

Edited by becky7234, 30 May 2009 - 04:22 AM.

[8210GUY]

Sorry no time to explain in full, but please quickly edit your post, remove the detailed reports because they are giving out your xp licence key, will help in a minute but please remove that part quickly for your own safety.

[jephree]

I removed the Belarc keys.

[8210GUY]

That's good, sorry for a quick reply there, I needed to catch you before you disappeared so the key's were removed ASAP, and with all the info there I didn't have time to see how many such details may of been exposed, but had a slower look since and you now appear to of removed the delicate info, so now we can turn to the issue at hand. Right your running sp3, so thats good technically speaking, but it looks like you still have some updates to install, but I can't see them making a difference to the drive, but obviously from a security point of view you are best installing the latest updates as they come out as theoretically they close security holes, but thats another area there. The service pack(s) are the main thing that could of affected seeing the drive, so as you have the latest of those installed we need to look for other causes here. Now from skipping though the above I noticed there was no sign of the drive, at least I couldn't see it, but it's possible I overlooked it as there is a lot of info there, but what have you done with the drive ? What I am wondering is when you've had it connected, I am wondering if you have been able to see it ? Does it show under your My Computer ? What I would suggest at this stage, is boot with the drive connected, this assumes you can't see it as asked previous here, click on Start - Control Panel - Administrator Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management (on the left), look for the new drive in there, when you see it right click on it and select to Format it, the system will ask about setting a new partition, if so say yes and accept what it throws at you then start the format. Obviously if partitions are required then that would be the place to do it, but ATM I'm just concentrating on getting the drive to be seen and behaving in the system, but the drives makers have a utility that may be better for doing this, but with this new technology partitions are more of a personal choice now rather than required. Should the drive not be visible under the Disk Management then it may be a bios setting, but lets leave the bios for now as it can cause all sorts of issues if you change the wrong thing, if need be we can get the manual for that board and direct you as to what settings to change, but we will face that if it is needed, but see if this helps first. *edit Sorry jephree, head was spinning with the amount of info there, I thought the OP had done that lol, Thanks for acting so quickly for them.

Edited by 8210GUY, 29 May 2009 - 07:16 PM.

[jephree]

No problem 8210GUY

By the way the drive is detected:

Logical Drives

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Drive Drive Type File System Total Size Used Space Free Space % Free Volume Serial
A: Removable Disk
C: Local Disk NTFS 194466 MB 8802 MB 185664 MB 95 % DCF3-A9C7
E: (VRMHOEM_EN) Optical Drive CDFS 556 MB 556 MB 0 KB 0 % 8077-9C00




Physical Drives

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



[ Drive #1 - PLATINUM 200G 8F7200 (189 GB) ]

Partition Partition Type Drive Start Offset Partition Length
#1 (Active) NTFS C: 0 MB 194466 MB

Sort of blends into all the data.

[8210GUY]

I must be having a blonde moment then lol, I did see that when I first looked, but I did not see it as the 800gig drive, as best I can figure thats a 200gig drive ? According to a couple of conversion tools 800gig = 819200MB, but I must admit getting my head round these various measurements can be a bit much at times lol.

[jephree]

You are correct. I missed the original note of 800GB. Sorry. My blonde.

All the posted scans show a 200GB drive.

Hopefully becky can clarify and utilize your suggestions in post #7.

[8210GUY]

LOL at least I haven't totally lost the plot yet rofl Think I'll head to bed before I crash and burn lol, way too many late nights lately, will check back when I get up to see whats happened then, but it will be dawn soon here lol.

[becky7234]

LOL at least I haven't totally lost the plot yet rofl Think I'll head to bed before I crash and burn lol, way too many late nights lately, will check back when I get up to see whats happened then, but it will be dawn soon here lol.

Hello I removed the post of the reports (hopefully you have it printed or copy/pasted somewhere?)
Do you still need PCPitstop many hour Full Tests ??

The drive is recognized, CMOS SETTING TO auto detect. It is 800GB, not 200gb. Non partitioned.

#1
(Active)
NTFS
C: 0 MB 194466 MB
But this looks mysterious.

I originally had all updates, including SP3 but thats when the trouble started.
So I "Went back to an earlier time when my computer worked normally" restore point, but not to lose SP3.
So now my PC is very confused.

When my original HD crashed, I still had my CD which is what I loaded on my new HD, and it's telling me I have to activate in 30 days? So It's not seeing this as a genuine copy of windows. How crappy is that??? Very crappy. So my friend found a site [he's used before alot] that bypasses WGA and lists all updates by month with downloads -right from MS-. www.softwarepatch.com. It's a clean site! I really only want the updates I need, and I will deal with MS by phone if I have to.

But as I said after installing all updated AND IE7 [to April 09] is when it began doing more odd things.

The original odd things [prior to updates and IE7]
were3 second black-out screens
random IE6 shutdowns, right in the middle of doing something, IE closes.
boot up problems [hung at black screen].

Which is why I chose to add all updates [to date] and add IE7
and it was a bit more freaky after those updates.
So as a last resort I restored to an earlier time -up to but not taking out IE7.

Do I need all the updates? Are some of them causing my problems?

Seeing this HD has NOTHING on it, I could reformat and start off at square 1 with your guidance go at it from the beginning, from installing the HD to CMOS & BIOS settings and partioning, to OS install.

What is easier for you?

Stepping into the cake batter with too many eggs, or start a whole new cake? hahahahahahaha!


I should tell you also, that I am using another PC to communicate to you, not the "sick" one!

Edited by becky7234, 30 May 2009 - 06:12 AM.

[8210GUY]

Well I saw the sunrise yet again lol, mental note:- must get more sleep lol. Right to begin no reputable site ANYWHERE will get involved with ANY attempts to bypass ANY official (m$) tools to ensure your running a genuine system, and sites that advise on such things are not always safe, so such practise should be avoided for your own safety. You didn't need to remove the above text as it happened, luckily jephree was here at the same time and removed the delicate info from that, but so your aware, that scan includes your m$ key in the report, so posting that online means less scrupulous users can steal your key and abuse it, possibly to the point m$ block it as pirated, so when posting such reports do make sure you physically remove that part of the report, then no one can get your licence key. Now that said I think we need to go back to basics, the information is confusing, so starting from step 1 is the simplest option IMO. The fact you have a 2nd system to get help is great, it means you can always get help if something goes wrong, so lets start with the connected drive in the troubled system, what drive is this ? I ask as it still appears to be a 200gig drive, not the troubled 800gig ? What is your goal with the 800gig drive ? Do you want it as a secondary\slave drive to store files on ? or do you want to install to it ? And if you can give us the drive make\model ? we can then direct you to a utility to prepare the drive, if you reply with this then we can advise the best route to achieve your goal.

[becky7234]

BY BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a 200 gb HD>>!! sorrrry, now I'll read your response.

[becky7234]

There is only 1 HD [Platinum 200GB- 7200 RPM- ATA/133-3.5 SERIES] Id like it Partitioned to 2 or 3 drives.

Edited by becky7234, 30 May 2009 - 09:32 AM.