Several Problems Getting Worse!

[Guest]

I have a Dell about 3 years old with a 145 GB HD with 76% free space. Last
year I had viruses and successfully got rid of all of them. I have Norton,
Ad-Aware and Defender. I have updated to IE7, had XPSP1 and updated to XPSP2.
I keep getting the Blue Screen of Death, it freezes up a lot, I constantly
get errors to send Microsoft, and last night my screen saver showed up, but
would not move. It is extremely slow. I have not downloaded any new hardware
or software except for the automatic updates from Microsoft. (I have the old
slow dial up) I have been told to just wipe my HD clean. How do I do this? I
have everything backed up and have all disks that came with the computer and
all disks for software and all disks for hardware. I do not want to have to
pay someone to do something I could probably do with a DETAILED tutorial.
This is getting worse every day. I've tried to use a registry cleaner and
memory test. They just stop in the middle of working. HELP! I'm running out
of ideas.
Thanks in advance for any help from anyone!
Peggy

 

[Earl Grey]

Hi PeggyLee:

As long as you're prepared to erase your hard drive and start over, you
might want to show your computer to a professional technician, just to
find out what's wrong. "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed
to repeat it" if you get my drift.

Fortunately, Dell has detailed step-by-step instructions on their web
site for erasing your computer and re-loading all your software. It's in
the technical support section.

Earl Grey

 

[mikeyhsd]

if you live in a own that has a LARGE public library, contact them and see if there is a computer club.
or try the high schools, or colleges nearby.
there are usually people happy to help in the computer clubs.
(e-mail address removed)@sport.rr.com

I have a Dell about 3 years old with a 145 GB HD with 76% free space. Last
year I had viruses and successfully got rid of all of them. I have Norton,
Ad-Aware and Defender. I have updated to IE7, had XPSP1 and updated to XPSP2.
I keep getting the Blue Screen of Death, it freezes up a lot, I constantly
get errors to send Microsoft, and last night my screen saver showed up, but
would not move. It is extremely slow. I have not downloaded any new hardware
or software except for the automatic updates from Microsoft. (I have the old
slow dial up) I have been told to just wipe my HD clean. How do I do this? I
have everything backed up and have all disks that came with the computer and
all disks for software and all disks for hardware. I do not want to have to
pay someone to do something I could probably do with a DETAILED tutorial.
This is getting worse every day. I've tried to use a registry cleaner and
memory test. They just stop in the middle of working. HELP! I'm running out
of ideas.
Thanks in advance for any help from anyone!
Peggy

 

[Jamie Benson]

Howdy PeggyLee! As a word of advice you may want to give Dell a call
if you happened to get the warranty extended on it. I know for at
least a while now Dell has placed what they call "system restore"
partitions on their PC's so that if you need to get the computer back
to the way it was directly out of the box you can. I'm not sure how
long this has been in place, but it may be worth a check.

The reason I suggest this that otherwise you may have to download a
lot of drivers for it off of Dell's website and they can take a while
on dial-up. I know this specifically because I have had to do this
twice now. I use wonderful ol' dial up too. For me it was a bit easier
since I do this kind of thing ALL the time but it can be a bit
tricky.

You may also want to run some more hardware checks. I know this may be
a bit redundant, but it never hurts to check. All you have to do, at
least on my Dell PC, is when the screen that pops up in the beginning
previous to the windows screen, press F12. This will take up to a boot
menu. From there, you want to select the option for hardware utility
partition or something like that. This will have a ton of hardware
tests you can run to make sure that your hardware is A-OK. You might
not have this with it being older, but I am almost sure you do.

Hope that helps a little.


Jami Benson