Hi' all,
I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One of my
friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such an ancient
computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired which is probably
what I will have to do cause I can't fix my current problem. I was
attempting a defragmentation when suddenly blue screen with text Win32k.sys
page fault in non page area. Now the tower lights up but nothing on the
screen. I only have restore disks and I tried putting one in but nothing
happened.
Does anyone know if this can be repaired?.
thank you,
Pippa.

Pippa wrote:
> I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One
> of my friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such
> an ancient computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired
> which is probably what I will have to do cause I can't fix my
> current problem. I was attempting a defragmentation when suddenly
> blue screen with text Win32k.sys page fault in non page area. Now
> the tower lights up but nothing on the screen. I only have restore
> disks and I tried putting one in but nothing happened.
> Does anyone know if this can be repaired?

Not enough information, really.

What you describe could be hardware failure - and dependent on what failed,
what the computer specifications are and what your needs are - it might not
be worth fixing - or it might be. I mean if all you do is surf the Internet
a little, check email and pay bills and it was a Pentium D 3+GHz with 1+GB
of memory - it's probably a keeper. If not - may not be.

So - if you unplug the computer from power, plug it back in, power it on -
you don't even get a startup screen? A POST screen that has nothing to do
with Windows? Anything at all?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:57:22 +1000, Pippa wrote:

> Hi' all,
> I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One of my
> friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such an ancient
> computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired which is probably
> what I will have to do cause I can't fix my current problem. I was
> attempting a defragmentation when suddenly blue screen with text Win32k.sys
> page fault in non page area. Now the tower lights up but nothing on the
> screen. I only have restore disks and I tried putting one in but nothing
> happened.
> Does anyone know if this can be repaired?.
> thank you,

If that error is referring to a page swap file, it is a problem on the hard
disc. Without knowing your other system hardware (processor, amount of RAM,
etc.), I can't say for sure. But I have received a Toshibal Tecra M2-S410
laptop with a faulty HDD. I am considering replacing that HDD. Should be
possible for about $70 plus tax. And I will be going up from 40 GB to 320 GB
in the process.

I'd say, with a Pentium processor, and 1 GB of RAM, a $70 investment in a
new HDD would be reasonable. Since you still have the OEM install discs, you
are ahead of me (I used a Linux Live CD and copied the contents of the i386
folder; it remains to be seen if I can install the OS from those files).

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

Thank you for responding,
I do a little more than surf the net and emailing pay bills online. I can
usually fix things if I have a screen but that's about it, I even help
friends remotely but I need access to their desktops. However, here are my
specs. Intel Pentium4/Celeron CPU. I only have 512 MB memory now but did
have another stick which died so at the time couldn't afford to replace it.
I have a 40 gig hard drive, but could do with an external HDD. High
capacity, Enhanced-IDE HDD, DVD burner, 7 in 1 card reader. I never open the
tower, because I don't understand anything except the RAM sticks where I put
the 512 RAM in. that's about it really.
Pippa.

"N. Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1u564l3f8v8eo$.(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:57:22 +1000, Pippa wrote:
>
>> Hi' all,
>> I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One of my
>> friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such an ancient
>> computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired which is probably
>> what I will have to do cause I can't fix my current problem. I was
>> attempting a defragmentation when suddenly blue screen with text
>> Win32k.sys
>> page fault in non page area. Now the tower lights up but nothing on the
>> screen. I only have restore disks and I tried putting one in but nothing
>> happened.
>> Does anyone know if this can be repaired?.
>> thank you,
>
> If that error is referring to a page swap file, it is a problem on the
> hard
> disc. Without knowing your other system hardware (processor, amount of
> RAM,
> etc.), I can't say for sure. But I have received a Toshibal Tecra M2-S410
> laptop with a faulty HDD. I am considering replacing that HDD. Should be
> possible for about $70 plus tax. And I will be going up from 40 GB to 320
> GB
> in the process.
>
> I'd say, with a Pentium processor, and 1 GB of RAM, a $70 investment in a
> new HDD would be reasonable. Since you still have the OEM install discs,
> you
> are ahead of me (I used a Linux Live CD and copied the contents of the
> i386
> folder; it remains to be seen if I can install the OS from those files).
>
> --
> Norman
> ~Oh Lord, why have you come
> ~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

Shenan, I don't get anything at all on the screen since I got that
Win32k.sys message on the blue screen.
Pippa
"Shenan Stanley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Pippa wrote:
>> I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One
>> of my friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such
>> an ancient computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired
>> which is probably what I will have to do cause I can't fix my
>> current problem. I was attempting a defragmentation when suddenly
>> blue screen with text Win32k.sys page fault in non page area. Now
>> the tower lights up but nothing on the screen. I only have restore
>> disks and I tried putting one in but nothing happened.
>> Does anyone know if this can be repaired?
>
> Not enough information, really.
>
> What you describe could be hardware failure - and dependent on what
> failed, what the computer specifications are and what your needs are - it
> might not be worth fixing - or it might be. I mean if all you do is surf
> the Internet a little, check email and pay bills and it was a Pentium D
> 3+GHz with 1+GB of memory - it's probably a keeper. If not - may not be.
>
> So - if you unplug the computer from power, plug it back in, power it on -
> you don't even get a startup screen? A POST screen that has nothing to do
> with Windows? Anything at all?
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>

Pippa wrote:

> Thank you for responding,
> I do a little more than surf the net and emailing pay bills online. I can
> usually fix things if I have a screen but that's about it, I even help
> friends remotely but I need access to their desktops. However, here are my
> specs. Intel Pentium4/Celeron CPU. I only have 512 MB memory now but did
> have another stick which died so at the time couldn't afford to replace
> it.
> I have a 40 gig hard drive, but could do with an external HDD. High
> capacity, Enhanced-IDE HDD, DVD burner, 7 in 1 card reader. I never open
> the tower, because I don't understand anything except the RAM sticks where
> I put the 512 RAM in. that's about it really.

It sounds like hardware failure to me, probably the hard drive. You can do
the troubleshooting yourself but based on what you wrote above it would be
more sensible to take the machine to a competent local tech. Don't use a
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot

If it is just the hard drive, it is probably worth replacing. If it is the
motherboard, it is time to move on.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Malke,
Thank you for that information, very useful. I do know a young man who is a
technician and I trust him, so will give him a call. I hope it is the hard
drive then.
Regards,
Pippa.

"Malke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Pippa wrote:
>
>> Thank you for responding,
>> I do a little more than surf the net and emailing pay bills online. I can
>> usually fix things if I have a screen but that's about it, I even help
>> friends remotely but I need access to their desktops. However, here are
>> my
>> specs. Intel Pentium4/Celeron CPU. I only have 512 MB memory now but did
>> have another stick which died so at the time couldn't afford to replace
>> it.
>> I have a 40 gig hard drive, but could do with an external HDD. High
>> capacity, Enhanced-IDE HDD, DVD burner, 7 in 1 card reader. I never open
>> the tower, because I don't understand anything except the RAM sticks
>> where
>> I put the 512 RAM in. that's about it really.
>
> It sounds like hardware failure to me, probably the hard drive. You can do
> the troubleshooting yourself but based on what you wrote above it would be
> more sensible to take the machine to a competent local tech. Don't use a
> BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.
>
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot
>
> If it is just the hard drive, it is probably worth replacing. If it is the
> motherboard, it is time to move on.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
>

"Pippa" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi' all,
> I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One of my
> friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such an ancient
> computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired which is probably
> what I will have to do cause I can't fix my current problem. I was
> attempting a defragmentation when suddenly blue screen with text
> Win32k.sys page fault in non page area. Now the tower lights up but
> nothing on the screen. I only have restore disks and I tried putting one
> in but nothing happened.
> Does anyone know if this can be repaired?.
> thank you,
> Pippa.
>

Pippa

Take it to a repairer, not one of the big stores and not roving repairmen
who drive red cars. If the tower beeps once after the power button is
pressed, it may not cost too much to get it going again. If you hear no
beep, be prepared to pay more..

--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

"Mike Hall - MVP" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> Take it to a repairer, not one of the big stores and not roving repairmen
> who drive red cars. If the tower beeps once after the power button is
> pressed, it may not cost too much to get it going again. If you hear no
> beep, be prepared to pay more..

Collateral point: if there are any owner-operated old-style
PC stores where Pippa lives, they probably sell used
refurbished PCs (traded in by business office users.) A
couple of good stores where I live sell complete used WinXP
PCs for $150 to $250 that would suit Pippa for the next
5 to 10 years. Monitors are usually extra, and in Pippa's
case it may be the monitor (or cable) that failed cf.
> I don't get anything at all on the screen
if this means no POST message and no A: prompt.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:57:22 +1000, "Pippa" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> Hi' all,
> I'm having problems with my 5 year old Acer XP Home computer. One of my
> friends remarked that she doesn't know I how cope with such an ancient
> computer, I didn't think it was too old to get repaired which is probably
> what I will have to do cause I can't fix my current problem. I was
> attempting a defragmentation when suddenly blue screen with text Win32k.sys
> page fault in non page area. Now the tower lights up but nothing on the
> screen. I only have restore disks and I tried putting one in but nothing
> happened.


As others have already said, this sounds like it's very likely a
hardware failure.

Regarding your friend who said she doesn't know how you cope with such
an ancient computer, I completely disagree with her point of view.
There's really very little difference between a five-year-old computer
and a new one, except for things like speed and disk space.

The issues of speed and disk space can be addressed by replacing
components as needed, just as if the components need to be replaced
because they have failed. The only real consideration for you should
be whether it makes more economic sense to replace a few components or
to buy a whole new computer. Often with an older computer, buying a
new computer is a better deal, especially if you would have to pay a
service person to do the component replacing for you.

So my view is that you should think about whether you find the speed
and disk space adequate for your needs--not only now, but whether they
will remain adequate in the next few years. If yes, get it repaired.
If no, look into getting a new computer.


> Does anyone know if this can be repaired?.


The answer to all questions like this is yes. Anything on a computer
can be repaired (or rather replaced--in practice almost nothing is
ever repaired). The only real issue is finding out exactly which
components or components need replacement.



--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
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