That is 32 bit memory addresing limit. 4 GB minus dedicated video memory. If you upgrade your OS to 64 bit you'll get the full 6 GB available to your OS.
After quite some time (months) I've decided to clean up my email inbox, and the last email I got was a notification from Daniweb. Being reminded of good old times, I've decided to log in and check what's happening. Just as I forgot to log in from time to time, I forgot my password. "No problem" I thought to myself, "I'll just reset my password, and all will be fine." Little did I know that it would lead me to the existential crysis of the day. Sure enough, my email address wasn't enough. Dani added 2 questions for me to prove that I'm human... And I failed. Being human that I am (I really, really am!) and having preferences and being overly-opinionated in every possible field, my answer to "What kind of device is IPad?" was "Crappy". Not that I find it crappy, I just generaly dislike mass-produced consumer items, but that doesn't matter.. what matters that I'm too much of a human to remember my password and not enough to pass as one.
its a heat up problem for sure, the the cpu fan checked. and make sure you do not use it on any fabric, it should have atleast .6 cms clearance for hot air to pass through.
Wanda, seems like your HD failed. PXE-ROM is the network card ROM that is used to boot over network, which is usually the last device in boot sequence. First one usually is hard drive, followed by DVD drive. If it fails to boot from first device, then the BIOS moves to the next in the sequence.
Unless the sequence got altered, or the cables are unplugged/not contacting well, then the probbable cause is failed hard drive.
I say that it is cracked soldering somwhere around the PSU, or PSU is failing. In any case, my advice is to take your laptop to professional service shop and have it repaired. Hopefully, the motherboard won't need replacement. If it does need to be replaced, I suggest you consider getting yourself a new laptop instead. More $$, but with allot less problems.
Doubleclick the speaker icon in the traybar (volume control window should pop up), click options/properties, click the "recording" radiobutton, make sure "microphone is checked in the same window below, click "OK". Now the volume control window should change to recording control. Make sure you select "Microphone" as a sound source. Also increase the mic volume.
Dead RAM is easy to figure.. just try powering on without any RAM at all. You should get some feedback (beeps, or error message). In other words, confirmation that RAM is the culprit.
But I highly doubt that RAM is the culprit, since it would manifest in other ways. What you are describing seems to me like 80% Mobo and 20% CPU.
Is video card fan plugged in mobo, or is it directly powered from PSU?
Power outage can raise havoc with sensitive electronics and, in theory, it could fry mobo and/or other sensitive components, so if it was brand-new before outage, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is impervious to jolts.
My advice is to strip it down to bare essentials, and go from there (PSU, MOBO, CPU, Video).
- in "run" (start menu) type "GPEDIT.MSC" - locate Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System - locate "Turns off the Autoplay" and set it either to "disabled" or "not configured" (which is default) - locate Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System and repeat the above step
There are several way to block autorun feature that I could pull from the top of my head:
- AV software - usually can be set to allow autorun CDs - Group policy settings - bit hard to find.. can't remember which one exactly - system (explorer) settings - that's one that you actually applied with that reg file
Windows update. "Automatic" update by default means you need to leave the machine running over night, but you can always go to the microsoft update yourself and check the situation yourself.
There's program called prime95 somewhere on the net. It is used to calculate prime numbers, but that's besides the point. It features CPU/RAM stress-test, and it is a good way to indicate failing CPU. If the CPU is causing such shutdowns, it will take a minute or two of the torture test for the error to occur.
The "Check Cable" message would indicate that there is a connection problem of HD. Possibly HD failure.
.. OR it refers to network cable, in which case it is actually trying to boot from LAN. (in which case you should see "PXE*something* agent.." message prior to "Check cable")
If you have (and I believe you do) a floppy drive, then you can use bootable floppy to flash BIOS update.
The fact that you can't change boot sequence would suggest a dead CMOS battery, in which case you would suffer from things such as losing time/date and other BIOS settings.
BIOS upgrades come exclusively either from manufacturer of the whole machine (in your case DELL) or, unlikely, but possibly, from the BIOS makers (as in BIOS being a piece of software, usually programmed by Phoenix, AMI and such). Malware in BIOS is always possible, but not in manner of BIOS upgrade. Rather the "usual"way through the normal every-day use, but those viruses would need to be highly specialized for certain types of BIOSes. I think that kind of malware is a thing of a past, with windows security leaking all over the place. I mean, why hustle with the BIOSes, if hacking XP is easier?
For the XP memory limit, it's 4 Gb for 32bit XP and 128 Gb for 64bit XP. (And yours is 32bit)
Don't forget about silverlight. Something tells me that it will become a new HTML.
Anyway, to get back to the topic, previously I've digged out some info on Presario 700, and that info says that expansion slot for RAM takes up to 256 MB, but lincko here claims that his took 512, so don't hold my word on it. All I can tell you is what's in manual, and manual says 256.
You might consider streamlined and slimmed down version of XP. I'm not sure, but I think that if you own a legit copy of XP, you would not be in breach of copyright if you downloaded something like TinyXP torrent (don't know for sure, though).
If clearing CMOS doesn't help (either by using the clear CMOS jumper, or removing the coin-shaped battery and waiting couple of minutes before putting it back), then it certainly is either CPU, mobo or RAM.. giving that PSU is OK.
Also, try reseating all the cards you have plugged in.
- bad overclocking - not-too-compatible RAM with mobo - RAM going bad - not enough voltage for RAM or CPU - CPU going bad - driver issue - VGA going bad - mobo going bad
If you post more precise conditions on which this error occurs, you might get more precise reply.
Solved? Hmm... It's only question of time before the bad sectors reappear. The only REAL solution here is drive replacement.
Recently I had such case. Bad sectors appearing anywhere on the drive. Mostly in the areas of pagefile, but several times the system drivers and/or registry files were affected, thus rendered the OS unbootable.
My advice to Dihno is to backup registry files and key drivers. That's what kept my OS going until I replaced the drive.
There is a program called HDD Regenerator (not freeware, but trial version will help too). It re-magnetizes the failing sectors so they become readable (and usable) again. So,
1. The hard drive has bad sectors (no fix) and should be replaced.
isn't necessarily so. (although, bad sectors will most probably reappear, but it will give you a chance to do a backup before you replace the drive).
Difference between the trial and paid for version is that trial recovers one sector per session.
If you can't use ANY USB device (flash drives, external HDs...) in 2.0 mode, then you should reinstall motherboard drivers. If that doesn't help, then you have failed USB controller, as in part of the motherboard. Ultimately, you will need to replace the motherboard, but in the meantime you can get one cheap USB PCI card.
Look in device manager and see if the drive shows there (under "disk drives"). If it does not, then the problem if of hardware nature (dead drive, or poorly connected), but I'm kind of convinced that AV scan is somehow responsable for this.
If the drive shows there, but no partitions are displayed in dive management, then your partition table is corrupt. It is remotely possible to fix that using chkdsk/fixmbr/fixboot in recovery console. To do so, you need to boot main PC from XP Setup CD and choose recovery console. Even so, it is possible that you wouldn't be able to access USB drive at all (even if it was healthy). I suggest you prepare so-called "f6 drivers". Those are ones that are loaded via floppy drive (providing you have one) when booting from XP Setup CD and you press f6 for additional drivers, but that is only in case you can't access the drive without them.
In recovery console you will need to type "map" command (no parameters) to see if the drive shows. You will see the list of drives, or only one drive, in which case the USB drive is not accessed, thus not fixable this way. The output of map command should look something like this:
\Device\HardDisk0\Partition1 (this is your main PC's drive and first partition) \Device\HardDisk0\Partition2 \Device\HardDisk0\Partition3 ... \Device\HardDisk1\Partition1 (this would be USB drive) \Device\HardDisk0\Partition2 \Device\HardDisk0\Partition3
Check Disk Management on the PC you connected the drive to. (My computer/manage)
There you should see all drives and partitions connected and running. If the drive is OK, it should be on the list. Also, if the drive's Master Boot Record and partition table are OK, you should see 3 partitions + 1 unused diskspace, and format of those partitions.
If all the above checks, then make sure the partitions are mounted (assigned drive letter). Otherwise, they would be invisible to windows explorer, and therefor inaccessible.
Once you have all partitions mounted, it is possible that you will need to change the ownership in order to unlock full access to the drive. If you are using XP Pro, then you should uncheck "use simple file sharing" in folder options. (in Windows explorer click tools/folder options/view). That way you will have detailed view on access, sharing, security, ownership and so on.
What you need to do is rightclick on the partition you want to access and allow full access for "everyone". If you don't see "everyone" on the list, then you must add it. Simplest way is to click "add", then "advanced" and "find now" and select it from the list.
If you are denied to change any security settings, then you might need to take ownership of the partition (advanced/owner).
Bare in mind that each file and folder can have it's own security settings, so if you hit any access barrier, you …
That tends to happen with XP. The source of the problem is corrupt registry file "system" (no extension) in "SYSTEM32\CONFIG\". Usually windows keep several backups of such files. If the recovery is enabled, then the most recent one should be in "System Volume Information" folder on your C: drive. If it is NTFS-formatted, then you will need to give yourself access to that folder in order to manually recover that file. Also, you will need to figure out which file it is, since recovery service renames them (extensions are unchanged). You can use current file's size as a reference to determine which is the one you need, and date-stamps to figure out which one is the most recent.
All you need is to boot via CD (using burned ERD iso image, or alike recovery bootable tools) or USB. In the worst case, you can (if you have more than one partition/hard drive) install temporary Windows and use that copy of windows to boot and recover that "system" file. (long way around, but can be done, if you are out of booting options).
Avoid using "system" file in "C:\WINDOWS\repair" folder, because it most likely to be without any laptop-specific driver information, and could cause you further trouble.
FYI, since it is "system" file in question, then your drivers information will be impacted. Installed software won't.
Don't be surprised if, after you successfuly boot to your original Windows, you get "new hardware found" popups.
