hardware or software problem??

[Guest]

So many things wrong I'm not sure where to start. I can't even determine if
I have a software or a hardware problem or maybe problems with both. This PC
belongs to a friend. It is a Compaq Presario Win XP Home. 256MB RAM and a
18 GB hard drive that is partitioned 9 and 9. The D drive is labeled
"system save" but it is empty.

CD does not read any discs. CD is recognized in windows but doesn't spin up
or show any files.
Modem and network card not recognized by windows
USB devices not recognized by windows (Jump drive, Wireless plug )

Can not open Explorer, My Computer, or Control Panel except in safe mode.
Can open Device Mgr. in safe mode but nothing displays... no devices.

Since the pc won't recognize my jump drive or a CD or connect to the
internet I am having a difficult time even adding a diagnostic program. PC
does have a floppy disc and I was able to run the windows memory diagnostic
and McAfee Stinger which showed no errors. I also ran check disc and there
were some errors corrected.

PC gets a Dr Watson error in normal mode when you try to open My
Computer/Explorer. The error is: Dr Watson postmortem debugger has
encountered a problem and needs to close. Error signature
Event type: BEX
P1: drwtsn32.exe
p2: s.1.2600.0
p3: dbghelp.dll
p5:5.1.2600.2180
p6: 4110969a
p7: 00012954
p8: C0000409
c9: 00000000
Files includes path...Temp\WERb09e.dir001\drwtsn.exer.mdmp
and path..Temp\WERb98e.dir001\appcompat.txt

I deleted almost 20,000 files from c windows and c windows sytem32 that were
all .exe files with null data (0kb in size). I've seen this before and
believe it is result of a virus. I also know that PC did have a virus at one
time but I don't think it was successfully removed since friend reports that
it hasn't been the same since then.

Does anyone have a clue where to start? I would reformat and reinstall
windows if the CD would read a disc. Also, owner put in a new CD thinking
that it was faulty but didn't solve problem.

Thanks Patti

 

[Guest]

I should also add that there are no good restore points to go back to.

thanks patti

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

So many things wrong I'm not sure where to start. I can't even determine
if
I have a software or a hardware problem or maybe problems with both. This
PC
belongs to a friend. It is a Compaq Presario Win XP Home. 256MB RAM and
a
18 GB hard drive that is partitioned 9 and 9. The D drive is labeled
"system save" but it is empty.

CD does not read any discs. CD is recognized in windows but doesn't spin
up
or show any files.
Modem and network card not recognized by windows
USB devices not recognized by windows (Jump drive, Wireless plug )

Can not open Explorer, My Computer, or Control Panel except in safe mode.
Can open Device Mgr. in safe mode but nothing displays... no devices.

Since the pc won't recognize my jump drive or a CD or connect to the
internet I am having a difficult time even adding a diagnostic program.
PC
does have a floppy disc and I was able to run the windows memory
diagnostic
and McAfee Stinger which showed no errors. I also ran check disc and
there
were some errors corrected.

PC gets a Dr Watson error in normal mode when you try to open My
Computer/Explorer. The error is: Dr Watson postmortem debugger has
encountered a problem and needs to close. Error signature
Event type: BEX
P1: drwtsn32.exe
p2: s.1.2600.0
p3: dbghelp.dll
p5:5.1.2600.2180
p6: 4110969a
p7: 00012954
p8: C0000409
c9: 00000000
Files includes path...Temp\WERb09e.dir001\drwtsn.exer.mdmp
and path..Temp\WERb98e.dir001\appcompat.txt

I deleted almost 20,000 files from c windows and c windows sytem32 that
were
all .exe files with null data (0kb in size). I've seen this before and
believe it is result of a virus. I also know that PC did have a virus at
one
time but I don't think it was successfully removed since friend reports
that
it hasn't been the same since then.

Does anyone have a clue where to start? I would reformat and reinstall
windows if the CD would read a disc. Also, owner put in a new CD thinking
that it was faulty but didn't solve problem.

Thanks Patti

Running WinXP on only 256MB RAM and a 9 GB HDD is asking for trouble to
begin with. You do not specify the processor, but I would bet it is a
Celeron.
You are running McAfee, which is more than worthless, as it only lends a
false sense of security.

The D drive is supposed to have the Restore Image that would have allowed
you to restore the computer to a like new state, but since the user has
apparently wiped that (although the files should be hidden), you are out of
luck doing a restore. You could spend the money and order a Restore CD set
from Compaq, but in all honesty the money would be better spent buying a new
computer.

The computer was probably long obsolete even at the time it was purchased.
By the time you upgrade the RAM, buy a restore CD set, buy a larger Hard
drive...it would be better to just buy a new computer. You can get a very
good computer with a Sempron processor and 512MB of RAM for $300. Stay away
from the Celeron. The Celeron is the worst POS processor ever foisted upon
the buying public.

Bobby

 

[Guest]

Hi there Patti,

I don't know how hardware savvy you are, but you might want to try the
following:

1) Swap the system memory modules (Memory sticks)
2) Check in the system BIOS and make sure that the boot order has the CD-ROM
before the hard disk (It may have changed since the ROM was replaced.
3) If you can get it up and running, run a chkdsk with a /f /v switch to see
what gets fixed.
4) If you can, run the restore at this point if the problem persists.

It sounds like something is causing some fatal write errors to the operating
system. Try to recover it first, but a reload from scratch may be necessary.

Hope this helps!

Best Regards,

~Will

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Running WinXP on only 256MB RAM and a 9 GB HDD is asking for trouble to
begin with. You do not specify the processor, but I would bet it is a
Celeron.
You are running McAfee, which is more than worthless, as it only lends a
false sense of security.

The D drive is supposed to have the Restore Image that would have allowed
you to restore the computer to a like new state, but since the user has
apparently wiped that (although the files should be hidden), you are out of
luck doing a restore. You could spend the money and order a Restore CD set
from Compaq, but in all honesty the money would be better spent buying a new
computer.

The computer was probably long obsolete even at the time it was purchased.
By the time you upgrade the RAM, buy a restore CD set, buy a larger Hard
drive...it would be better to just buy a new computer. You can get a very
good computer with a Sempron processor and 512MB of RAM for $300. Stay away
from the Celeron. The Celeron is the worst POS processor ever foisted upon
the buying public.

Bobby

My last two computers have had Celeron processors and have been
trouble-free, except for the recent MS security upgrade fiasco.

Bill

 

[Raztax]

You obviously arent a gamer..celerons are fine for surfing the web and
emailing gramma....but when you need real performance (gaming, 3d
rendering etc) celeron just doesnt cut it. I don't think they were
'foisted upon the buying public' because if you buy a cheap cpu, then
you get a cheap cpu. Pentium and Athlon chips are more expensive for a
reason.

Patti - I think format and clean install is a good idea here. Try
booting the pc with the Windows cd in the drive (hit a key at the
'Press any key to boot from cd prompt). If the pc doesnt recognize the
cd on startup, then you either have to change the boot priority in BIOS
to put the cd drive ahead of the hard drive, or if the disk really isnt
being recognized at that point, then you need a hardware tech.

 

[Mich]

So many things wrong I'm not sure where to start. I can't even determine if
I have a software or a hardware problem or maybe problems with both. This PC
belongs to a friend. It is a Compaq Presario Win XP Home. 256MB RAM and a
18 GB hard drive that is partitioned 9 and 9. The D drive is labeled
"system save" but it is empty.

CD does not read any discs. CD is recognized in windows but doesn't spin up
or show any files.
Modem and network card not recognized by windows
USB devices not recognized by windows (Jump drive, Wireless plug )

Can not open Explorer, My Computer, or Control Panel except in safe mode.
Can open Device Mgr. in safe mode but nothing displays... no devices.

Since the pc won't recognize my jump drive or a CD or connect to the
internet I am having a difficult time even adding a diagnostic program. PC
does have a floppy disc and I was able to run the windows memory diagnostic
and McAfee Stinger which showed no errors. I also ran check disc and there
were some errors corrected.

PC gets a Dr Watson error in normal mode when you try to open My
Computer/Explorer. The error is: Dr Watson postmortem debugger has
encountered a problem and needs to close. Error signature
Event type: BEX
P1: drwtsn32.exe
p2: s.1.2600.0
p3: dbghelp.dll
p5:5.1.2600.2180
p6: 4110969a
p7: 00012954
p8: C0000409
c9: 00000000
Files includes path...Temp\WERb09e.dir001\drwtsn.exer.mdmp
and path..Temp\WERb98e.dir001\appcompat.txt

I deleted almost 20,000 files from c windows and c windows sytem32 that were
all .exe files with null data (0kb in size). I've seen this before and
believe it is result of a virus. I also know that PC did have a virus at one
time but I don't think it was successfully removed since friend reports that
it hasn't been the same since then.

Does anyone have a clue where to start? I would reformat and reinstall
windows if the CD would read a disc. Also, owner put in a new CD thinking
that it was faulty but didn't solve problem.

Thanks Patti

Nobody has addressed this yet, I think it's obvious,
Do you have the proper drivers loaded ? or did you accidentally delete some
of the driver files ?
borrow an XP disk from a friend and do a re-install when prompted choose
install windows and not repair on that screen,
it will find your windows installation on the next step and choose repair
there.
the downside to this is you will have to call Microsoft to reactivate (most
likely) and they will issue you a new code.

Mich...

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replies. lots of things to think about here. I have a CD
of Winxp so tried booting to it and thought it might work for a bit but then
I got the message that the file ultra.sys is corrupted - setup failed. Will
try a couple of other things and post back later. Doing a defrag now while I
research ultra.sys.

I had done disc check a couple of days ago and it found some errors and
supposedly fixed them.

No good restore points and still not recognizing a CD except when I tried to
boot with winxp disc. system bios set to boot 1 CD 2 floppy drive 3
hard drive

I did the windows memory check and it came out okay.

Will post later.

patti

 

[Raztax]

When booting from the cd, how far do you get? Do you get to the first
menu where is says "Press enter to install Windows or press R to repair
using recovery console" ?
If you can get to that menu, which options have you tried?
If you cannot get at least to that menu, then it doesn't look very
good.
Ultra.sys is a driver file (looks like a maxtor driver)

If you get to the first menu, you can try replacing the ultra.sys file
from the windows XP disk. First, select the first R prompt at the first
menu (R to repair using recovery console) at the next screen press 1
and then enter...type in the admin pass or just enter if there is no
admin password.
At the dos prompt type: expand e:\i386\ultra.sy_
c:\windows\system32\ultra.sys
This command is provided that your cd rom is drive E: and windows is
installed to c:\windows...adjust yours accordingly.

Another command you might want to run from this screen is chkdsk /r
that is a disk scan, but it will take a while to run.

When looking around for ultra.sys errorrs, I noticed quite a few virus
hits pop up, and the symptoms you described in your initial post could
indicate a virus..so I still think that format/clean is the best course
of action here.

Also - if that error came up during a format/clean (and not a repair
install) then you might want to look into some drive diagnostic tools
from the hard drive manufacturer as it is possible that the hard drive
itself has failed.

one other note - do NOT borrow a disk from a friend as was suggested
above to do a repair install...not unless you are sure that both
versions are the same (service pack 1 or 2 on your original disk and
OEM vs retail) as the product keys are not interchangable, so you could
end up with invalid product key errors, and have to repair again.
Although, it sounds as if you have the disk already.

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

It could also be that your CD may have a blemish preventing it from reading
correctly. Take a look?

 

[Guest]

I gave this pc back to the owner. I believe it still has remnants of a
virus. I can't read any CD's at this point. The system ignores that they
are even there.

Big hunks of windows appear to be missing. I think they need to pull the
hard drive, format it then reload an operating system of some sort then put
it back in the pc to see what happens. Beyond my knowledge level...

thanks for everyone's help.

patti

 

[Guest]

No problem - alwasy happy to help

I gave this pc back to the owner. I believe it still has remnants of a
virus. I can't read any CD's at this point. The system ignores that they
are even there.

Big hunks of windows appear to be missing. I think they need to pull the
hard drive, format it then reload an operating system of some sort then
put
it back in the pc to see what happens. Beyond my knowledge level...

thanks for everyone's help.

patti