Me nuts? Getting there!

[Joe90]

Computer turns on fine

Windows XP loads and does its thing

Desktop comes up and not all of the icons display correctly: My Docs, My Computer, Outlook and IE don't show as they should

If I try to open any one of them, the cursor changes to show that its working then after about 5 seconds it goes back to normal. Nothing will open.

I have tried to open the control panel, it did eventually after about 6 minutes.

So after HOURS of messing around, trying this that and the other, I decided to cut my losses and re-install Windows XP - easy you would think WRONG!

Tried to install it, it won't run, so I decided to uninstall it first and then try again, so went to control panel (waited 6 mins) uninstalled it, rebooted............its still there!

Basically I want to know whether to give up and go and buy a new hardrive or whether this is worth persevering with?

There are only so many hours in a day before I lose the plot and throw the computer out the door...lol

Any advice would be gladly accepted
Joe

[zelkea]

Hey Joe,
I am a little confused are you trying to uninstall an application or the OS (Operating System)? If you were reinstall the OS when you booted from the CD did you receive an error? Do you have a SATA or ATA133 controller in your computer? You may need to load drivers for your controller by pressing F6 during the beginning of windows installation. Before you reinstall I would look at your task manager and check to see if your CPU is pegged, if it is determine which process or application is pegging it. Did you install any hardware, software, or drivers before the problem started?

AJZ

[Joe90]

Thanks for the reply

Thats pretty techy for my brain, because of all the problems I was thinking that I could just wipe everything on the computer by re-installing the OS for Windows XP but thats what won't work

Sorry I don't know what 'pegging' is, except when I hang the washing out lol

I know that when I had an old computer a guy used a disk to wipe everything off and then I installed the OS, but I don't have access to this disk now

I didn't receive any errors at all, everything is just really slow or won't open at all and the icons don't look as they normally would, they are white boxes

I installed a Roxio Movie creator which I have now uninstalled.......in fact have uninstalled loads of things as I was thinking it was memory but that hasn't helped at all

On the verge of going out to buy a new hardrive.........

Hey Joe,
I am a little confused are you trying to uninstall an application or the OS (Operating System)? If you were reinstall the OS when you booted from the CD did you receive an error? Do you have a SATA or ATA133 controller in your computer? You may need to load drivers for your controller by pressing F6 during the beginning of windows installation. Before you reinstall I would look at your task manager and check to see if your CPU is pegged, if it is determine which process or application is pegging it. Did you install any hardware, software, or drivers before the problem started?

AJZ

[zelkea]

Joe,
Pegged means your CPU is running at 100% or close to it. You can check this by pressing ctrl+alt+tab at the same time. This will bring up Windows Task Manager once it is up click on the Performance tab when the system is idle the CPU Usage should be around 5%. If it is at 80-100% click on Processes click the box on the bottom left "Show processes from all users" then sort by the CPU column and let me know if any of them are 50% or greater and the name.

AJZ

[Joe90]

Ok will do that, have to turn this computer off and boot that one up and then come back to you thanks

[Joe90]

Ok did that, this is what it said

CPU usage once idle was at 1% (before it had said 3, 6, 9, 13, 51, 3, 1%)

System idle process said 98
Explorer.exe 01
lsass.exe 02

[zelkea]

How was the speed of your computer when System idle process was at 98%? How much free disk space do you have?

[Joe90]

The speed was sloooooow, the memory is ok as I have uninstalled everything pretty much

[zelkea]

Have you scanned your system for viruses or spyware? Do you know how to reinstall XP? Do you have a your Windows XP disk?

AJZ

[Joe90]

No I can't scan, computer won't let me, yes I have the XP disk and know how to reinstall, been through the control panel, uninstalled it, tried to reinstall, tried different ways, tried doing what I know

Do you think its caput?

[zelkea]

There are viruses out that prevent antivirus software from running. Before you throw in the towel try running an antivirus scan via trend micro http://www.trendmicro.com/hc_intro/default.asp. Follow the link click scan now.
XP cannot be reinstalled via the control panel in order to reinstall XP you boot your computer with the CD-rom in the drive. You maybe doing a system restore via the control panel but that is not a clean installation. If you go this route, make sure you have all your data backup you will need to format the hard drive before you reinstall the operating system which will erase all your data.

AJZ

[Joe90]

Thanks.

I have tried to install with OS in drive and rebooting - nothing happening.

I won't be able to run that scan as I can't get on the internet on that computer, nothing works.

Even if I was to copy it to disc and then try it I doubt it would work, nothing runs etc

Thanks for trying to solve my prob, I think I am going to have to dump it and get a new one

[zelkea]

If you go into the bios (usually by pressing del or F2 when your computer is starting) and select boot from the top of the screen ensure the CD-Rom is listed before you Hard Drive. If it is have the XP disk in the drive when you boot. While the system is still has a black back ground you should see press any key to boot from the CD.

[Joe90]

Thanks I followed your instructions but it didn't work, it just won't run.

Its driving me mad! Had to walk away for a while lol