errors

Hello  Please rad the amended section below which I did a day later!

The desktop froze with an error regarding a spool. Then it would not tun on as the power button was yellow not white.

i got it to appear on the screen and imaged back to a stable date. However another error appeared about 7 words which had underscores between them.

I did not bring the errors as it is solved and did not to waste your time.

I updated Windows as I went and updated both the printer and video card drivers. I cannot understand why this happened but am suspicious of an app that is not compatible with Win 10 x 64. It is Windows Essentials which, however,  does not get removed when you upgrade from 8.1 to 10. 

I am going to look for trouble now and run SFC.

 I read about the errors and it said it could be any number of reasons.

I hope never to see them again.

Peter, in the blizzard of 16 with 3 feet of snow and 40 mph winds - it is a lovely 18 degrees.

Nice day to be in FL.

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>>Today, I have run SFC and it is fine. I then ran the Dell diagnostics for hard drive, memory and a lot more. I did not see power supply though.

It took 30 minute for the first test and another hour for the rest of the thorough test.

The PC seems to be running well and passed all tests.

**I am now asking a question, if you will ;

When  computer does not start as in my case. Instead of unplugging the power and re- plugging it, is there a safer way to get it started. I have a Macrium flash drive but the PC needs to be on.  Is there a way to start the machine if you can insert a flash drive or open a DVD bay?  This seems impossible to me b/c I have to tap a key to get into the BIOS and this cannot be done if it will not start.

I have heard of Rufus as a way to make a bootable flash drive. Could you please tell me about it if it would help a PC that does not power up?

Thank you

Peter

usually when the power button is yellow and not the normal white it means the pc is in a sleep or hibernate mode (never use them so can't remember which.) and if for some reason it won't come out of it (lots of reasons why, most need a bios or driver update to fix.) then an easy way to turn off the pc is to just press and hold the power button in for about 10/20 seconds and it will power off then just press the power button again to turn on the pc and it should start up as normal.

you can use the press and hold power button method any time to quickly turn off any pc.

rufus is exactly what you say it is, a program to create bootable usb sticks, without getting technical it does this by writing the needed structure and files from a bootable iso image (such as a linux live iso, windows install iso, macrium reflect recovery iso.) to a usb drive instead of burning the iso to a disk.

it will NOT help you if your pc will not power on for any reason, it is a very handy program though and is recommended a lot by the experts to make bootable usb sticks instead of burning a cd or dvd.

should add (if memory serves) to bring a pc/laptop out of a sleep mode all you usually have to do is tap a keyboard key or move the mouse and it's only hibernate mode that you need to hit the power button once to bring it out of that state and back to your desktop.

Hi terry

I tried a hard boot and everything. Maybe I did not hold the button long enough as you say.

I moved from Macrium to Aomei due to $ and it is doing the job but lost all the Macrium images.

I do have a flash drive that I can bot to as an imager so i assume that will suffice to get me to an image at least.

My mouse seems to be not working as though the batteries were dying but I replaced them and they read fine on the volt meter.

I changed the pad which seemed to help a bit and unplugged then re-plugged the flash drive as it is wireless. Any ideas? 

I am going to ask about incremental backups so I'll start a new thread and thank you again.

Peter

to be honest peter i don't understand how you lost your macrium images, never heard of aomei and personally i'd use macrium free version, the free version should still have allowed you to restore the images you've made with the full version and would still allow you to create backups just maybe not with all the options like incremental backups but certainly full backups which in my opinion is all most people need.

no idea what the problem is with your mouse but if new batteries failed to fix it then it might be on it's way out, in my experience mice and keyboards need replacing a lot more often than they should.

no idea why you need incremental backups but if it's just because you change one or two files regularly then maybe a simple copying of those files to the backup drive or the cloud regularly is enough along with a full backup image for you to not lose anything important in case of a drive failure.

Hi terry

You know, I tried every way possible to get the free macrium but it is not until you are about to install that there are 2 dots; one to enter a license and one for a trial of 30 days. I know i could run ver 5 but I think it is wise to use current programs.

I created an image with Aomei and recovered it with the rescue disc  smoothly. There are many options and i tried a lot of them It s a program much like macrium. I am not in dire poverty but pushing 80 and retired a long time on disability places restrictions on what i do "monthly".

I plan on using Aomei much like I did macrium. I will still image full backups in conjunction with my 2 similar portable data flash drives.

I am glad you explained about the mouse as I was not aware of their relatively short life. I have blown it out, changed USB ports,  checked batteries and pads. I guess it is time to replace the mouse and USB stick.

So, I lost some images but have one now of this machine and the laptop. They too are aging as all does. The desktop had the power issue and the laptop is due for cleaning and pasting.

They are 4 1/2 years old so I will replace the laptop as necessary with a Chromebook for my wife who only surfs and emails and see if I can hold onto the desktop as long as i can.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Peter

P.S.I was going to recover the clean install image with macrium then image with Aomei but took the easy way out. I  doubt I will need  7, 8, or 8.1 again but have the media if necessary. One good thing is that I created a Windows rescue disc today on a 16 GB stick. It is a huge file, as you know. One day at a time.