cdburn doesn't work

[Curtis Croulet]

My Toshiba laptop has WinXP with Service Pack 2. I'm experiencing
occasional computer errors, which I think may be due to a bad memory module.
I'd like to test the computer's RAM. OK, so I download Microsoft's Memory
Diagnostic software. The first thing it wants to do is write a diskette or
CD-ROM with a .iso file. To do that, I need a Microsoft program,
cdburn.exe, which is included with the Windows Resource Tool Kit. So I've
downloaded and installed that the Windows Resource Tool Kit. However,
cdburn.exe doesn't work! When I click on the .exe file, nothing happens.
How do I get it to work?

 

[Curtis Croulet]

Well, I found out that cdburn.exe is a command-line application. It worked
from the command line, but whether the disk it produced is useful is another
question. The Phoenix BIOS on my computer has an option to change the boot
disk, which begs the question: if I tell it to boot from CD-ROM, does that
mean it'll *only* try the CD-ROM, or will it go to the C: drive if it
doesn't find a bootable disk in the CD drive, the way older computers tried
the diskette drive first and then the hard disk?

 

[Guest]

My Toshiba laptop does the same....At times Im not sure that I even have a
burner. Any help u get please pass it on...as i will do the same..

 

[Curtis Croulet]

My Toshiba laptop does the same....At times Im not sure that I even have a

burner. Any help u get please pass it on...as i will do the same..

Much has happened since my first post. Sometimes, merely posting a question
helps to clarify the mind. Some on-line research indicated that the
"blue-screens of death" may have been due to a problem with the hard-drive,
or a virus, or spyware, or a RAM problem. It's hard to know. As several
websites suggested, I did a virus scan and malware scan. They found
nothing. Since there was a good possibility that the problem was a bad spot
on the hard-drive, I ran CHKDSK. I wouldn't run under WinXP, only as
something that fires off as Windows boots up. The final report flitted by
so fast, before the machine resumed booting, that I don't know if it found
anything or not. It later occurred to me that CHKDSK is exactly the same
program that we used under DOS, and I could have run it from a command line,
and then I could have studied its report. I'll know better next time.

I never did attempt to boot from the CD-ROM to run the Microsoft Memory
Diagnostic Tool. It would involve changing the BIOS, which I was reluctant
to do without assurance that it would boot from the hard-disk if it couldn't
boot from the CD-ROM.

 

[Curtis Croulet]

My Toshiba laptop does the same....At times Im not sure that I even have a

burner. Any help u get please pass it on...as i will do the same..

cdburn.exe must be executed from a command line. Go to "run" under "start"
and type in "command." That'll give you a DOS command-line interface. If
you used DOS in the old days, you'll know what to do. It'll help if you
have an old DOS book laying around.

After a particular bad run of system errors -- whatever they are -- I went
into the BIOS and changed the boot order so I could get it to read the
Microsoft Memory Diagnostic Tool from the CD-ROM drive (goes there before it
boots from the HD). It reports no memory errors. Hmm. I'll run CHKDSK
again, from a command line, to see what I get.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:18:09 GMT, "Curtis Croulet"

After a particular bad run of system errors -- whatever they are -- I went
into the BIOS and changed the boot order so I could get it to read the
Microsoft Memory Diagnostic Tool from the CD-ROM drive (goes there before it
boots from the HD). It reports no memory errors. Hmm. I'll run CHKDSK
again, from a command line, to see what I get.

Better to check the RAM using a MemTest86 boot CDR for 24 hours (leave
a different boot CD in place so you can spot a spontaneous reset) and
then check HD with something like HD Tune (www.hdtune.com). preferably
from a Bart CDR boot.

MS doesn't "get" hardware troubleshooting, which is understandable; as
bad hardware is "not their problem" (and irreversible corruption of
your data is "not their problem" either), they're used to assuming
hardware is good and data is backed up and thus zooming straight into
getting the OS and file system working again.

See:

http://cquirke.blogspot.com/2007/01/bad-ram-bad-ram-tester-design.html

http://cquirke.mvps.org/pccrisis.htm

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