Trouble in the Dell

[Don Phillipson]

How wise is a complete reinstallation of WinXP on
a Dell Dimension (DIM 2400) via the Symantec Dell
PC System Restore (which the manual says on p.43
is "only as a last resort . . ." ?

Problem is ultra-slow operation (apparently not caused
by firewall, AV software etc.) I suspect damage to the
hard drive but am uncertain whether the cause is drivers
(software) or hardware malfunction. Evidence:

1. ScanDisk of C:\ would not complete. I was surprised
to see the GUI console reported:
-- one small FAT32 drive (no drive letter) 30 Mb
-- one normal drive C: NTFS about 38 Gb.

2. DOS CHKDSK /F reports
Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
Cannot continue in read-only mode.
(This is not because I logged on as user, not as administrator, is it?)

3. I downloaded 25 March new Dell diagnostics DELLDIAG.EXE
This runs in a DOS box but fails to execute, reporting
"memory protection fault"

I have so far failed to find in either the printed manual
or Dell documents on line either "memory protection fault"
or any reference to the hard drive being in "read-only mode"
or any mention of FAT32 drives. The PC remains cripplingly slow.

 

[Malke]

How wise is a complete reinstallation of WinXP on
a Dell Dimension (DIM 2400) via the Symantec Dell
PC System Restore (which the manual says on p.43
is "only as a last resort . . ." ?

Problem is ultra-slow operation (apparently not caused
by firewall, AV software etc.) I suspect damage to the
hard drive but am uncertain whether the cause is drivers
(software) or hardware malfunction. Evidence:

1. ScanDisk of C:\ would not complete. I was surprised
to see the GUI console reported:
-- one small FAT32 drive (no drive letter) 30 Mb
-- one normal drive C: NTFS about 38 Gb.

2. DOS CHKDSK /F reports
Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
Cannot continue in read-only mode.
(This is not because I logged on as user, not as administrator, is it?)

3. I downloaded 25 March new Dell diagnostics DELLDIAG.EXE
This runs in a DOS box but fails to execute, reporting
"memory protection fault"

I have so far failed to find in either the printed manual
or Dell documents on line either "memory protection fault"
or any reference to the hard drive being in "read-only mode"
or any mention of FAT32 drives. The PC remains cripplingly slow.

I would do hardware troubleshooting before messing about with software
solutions (the restore to factory condition). It does sound rather like you
have some hardware component (which could be the drive and/or other things)
that is failing.

First back up your data!

You really want to run hardware diagnostics outside of the operating system.
If you got a Dell Resource CD with the computer, you can boot with it and
the Dell Diagnostics are on there. The Dell Diagnostics may also be
available from a special partition on the hard drive which you get to by
pressing F12 at startup (boot priority selections). But since the drive is
suspect, you may want to use a diagnostic utility downloaded from the drive
mftr.'s website. Seagate's SeaTools For DOS works very well also. For
diagnostic utilities like that, you download the file and then create a
bootable CD by burning the .iso as an image - not data - to CD-R.

Change your boot priority to the optical drive by pressing F12 at startup
and run the diagnostic. If a hard drive diagnostic run outside of Windows
won't even complete, you know the drive is toast. That doesn't mean there
aren't other components failing but it's a start. Obviously if the drive is
bad you need to replace it.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Malke

 

[Ed Covney]

First back up your data!

Better yet, re-install to a new HD and save the original
as the back-up.

Don't Panic!

OK.

Ed

 

[Brian A.]

How wise is a complete reinstallation of WinXP on
a Dell Dimension (DIM 2400) via the Symantec Dell
PC System Restore (which the manual says on p.43
is "only as a last resort . . ." ?

Problem is ultra-slow operation (apparently not caused
by firewall, AV software etc.) I suspect damage to the
hard drive but am uncertain whether the cause is drivers
(software) or hardware malfunction. Evidence:

1. ScanDisk of C:\ would not complete. I was surprised
to see the GUI console reported:
-- one small FAT32 drive (no drive letter) 30 Mb
-- one normal drive C: NTFS about 38 Gb.

2. DOS CHKDSK /F reports
Fixed 2 corrupt attribute records.
Cannot continue in read-only mode.
(This is not because I logged on as user, not as administrator, is it?)

3. I downloaded 25 March new Dell diagnostics DELLDIAG.EXE
This runs in a DOS box but fails to execute, reporting
"memory protection fault"

I have so far failed to find in either the printed manual
or Dell documents on line either "memory protection fault"
or any reference to the hard drive being in "read-only mode"
or any mention of FAT32 drives. The PC remains cripplingly slow.

Don,

If you have updated any drivers lately or reinstalled the OS, suspect drivers
to be the cause and/or malware. I just completed getting a Dell Dimension 8200
back up and running that was slow as molasses for a client who had reinstalled
the OS via Dells disks. The issue was caused by the video drivers and once
uninstalled/reinstalled with drivers from Dells support site the machine now
runs as it should. It may not be your problem but it's worth checking.

Start with running a new instance of Explorer.
Press ctrl+alt+del to start Taskmanager.
Under the Processes tab Right click on Explorer.exe if it's presently listed.
Click End Process in the popup menu.
Click the Applications tab > New Task button.
Type in the path or browse to and select Explorer.exe which should be in
c:\windows.
Click Open > Ok.
If your system now runs significantly faster you know something other than
physical hardware damage is the cause.

Now run msconfig to see if you can pinpoint the cause:

Start > Run, type in: msconfig and press Enter or click Ok.
Under the General tab click "Selective Startup" > Apply button > Ok.
Reboot when prompted.
If the system is again running slow click the Services tab > Hide All MS
Services selection box > Disable All button.
Under the Startup tab uncheck all items listed.
Click Apply > Ok.
Reboot When prompted.
If your system now runs significantly faster you know something other than an MS
Service is the cause of the issue.
Before systematically reselecting to find which Service and related Startup may
be the cause, recheck Process System.INI file and reboot. If all still goes
well reselect Process WIN.INI file and reboot. If all is still running well
you'll need to reselect the unselected items and reboot each time in-between.

A way to make the process less time consuming is to only reselect related
items under both tabs that are specific only to the app/hardware they were
installed by/for.

For other clean boot information:

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434/en-us

How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560/en-us



--


Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[LVTravel]

All the other posts are important but first check the way the OS is
accessing the hard drive.

Right click My computer then click Device Manager. There click the + mark
next to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Once the controller list is opened
double click on the Primary IDE Channel then click on the Advanced Settings
tab in the window that appears. Transfer mode should be set to "DMA if
available" and the Current transfer mode should be "Ultra DMA Mode"
(preferably 5 but may be a lower number) but should not be PIO mode.

If PIO mode, click OK then Right click on the Primary IDE Channel and then
click Uninstall. Click OK then restart Windows. Go back into the same
location and find the Primary IDE channel again. If it is still at PIO
mode, the hard drive or the drive's cable is going bad and needs to be
replaced.

What has happened: XP will go to slower access speeds (DMA 3, 1 or PIO mode)
if there are more than a few read/write errors when accessing a hard drive.
It is permanent slowing until the device in uninstalled and then
reinstalled. If it keeps happening, the hardware is failing.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Don, what happened when you tried booting up and pressing F12 to run the
Utilities Option from there? I'm not certain you can run DELLDIAG in that
command box and get it to work from there, but you should be able to boot up
and run the Utilities.

If you can determine it's not a hardware problem, keep in mind if you go the
Dell PC System Restore route (Ctrl-F11 at boot), it will put your system
back to the day it was shipped, and you will lose all software installed
since then. So it is a last resort.