1. It is my personal computer and our IT department a very cheap and
supports only problems with accessibility to email,connectivity and
files in direct support to my job here at UTC, if it is not a
university owned computer.
2. I re-installed the OS from the restoration media and it starts to
boot up and I get the Windows XP logo and then a blank screen.
3. Since I am on my own,where can I get the software to make a boot
disk as you have suggested.
Download memtest86+. Scroll half way down this page, to find the
download section. If you're in a hurry, a single pass of this
test is sufficient. The memory test cannot detect all possible
memory problems, and is mainly good for "stuck-at" faults. For
electrical noise type problems at the Northbridge, other tests
are needed. I typically use the floppy version, because all my
machines still have a floppy.
http://www.memtest.org
For hard drive testing, you look at the manufacturer of the drive.
Seatools for DOS (comes with vopy of FreeDOS, floppy version may no longer
fit a single floppy forcing customers to make and use the CD version).
Since Seagate bought Samsung hard drive division, it's possible their
test software is on the site as well.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD
Western Digital has Data Lifeguard. You'd use the DOS version if
you no longer had a working Windows install to start from.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&lang=en
For a complete operating environment, there are things like BartPE.
I've made myself a Bart CD, but you have to add the tools to it that
you expect to need, so it requires a good bit of tinkering. I tested
my copy in a virtual environment, so I wouldn't waste a lot of burnt
CDs testing it. I eventually burned a copy to disc for later.
You can also download a Linux LiveCD, and in that case, no tinkering.
The recommended version at this time, is 10.04LTS, to avoid the
Unity interface of the more modern versions of Ubuntu.
(Select 10.04LTS. Select 32 bit version. 700MB download. Then, convert
the ISO9660 file to a boot CD with Nero or Imgburn.)
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
When the Ubuntu CD is booted, the menus are at the top of the screen, on
the left. The "Places" menu, may show the Windows partitions you have.
You can open a partition (i.e. mount it) and have a look, if your
partitions were still there.
http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/extra/LINUX/small/ubuntu1004rc-small_001.png
If you go to Accessories in the Applications menu, you can open a
Terminal session. There are tools such as TestDisk (which is available
for several operating environments), but at this point, we have no
need of it, because you've already blown away your old C: drive,
so there is nothing to see or repair.
(TestDisk - it basically re-computes the partition table, but can also be
used to browse files on a partition.)
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
If you want to examine the primary partition table of your hard
drive, you can use the "fdisk" command in the Terminal.
sudo fdisk /dev/sda # for the first hard drive
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb # for the second hard drive
sudo fdisk /dev/hda # disks either have names in the sd
# or hd series, according to the
$ whims of the OS (unpredictable)
You'd use a command like "p", to print the current partition table.
And "q" to quit when you're finished. You can also create Windows
partitions using the Linux environment, but no reason to go there
yet.
For some of the tools, you need to use Synaptic Package Manager, to
download and install the tool. For example, if you don't like the fdisk
suggestion for viewing partitions, the "gparted" tool will give you
a pretty GUI to look at.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/GParted.png
At this point, the main reason for booting the Linux LiveCD, is to see
whether your hardware works without delay. If you detect hardware problems
while using the Linux environment (i.e. Places partitions won't mount),
then it's possible to do a bit of testing from Linux, but there
are glaring gaps in the coverage. I still don't have a good video
card test strategy for example, and I've spent up to a week trying
to whip good test cases together for it. (I'm trying to find
an "easy" test method, that doesn't require writing a book
)
For a good test of your CPU and memory, while in Linux, you can
use Prime95 from Mersenne. They have a test option, and it does
a calculation with a known answer, and can detect "roundoff errors"
and other faults. Generally, if you can complete four hours of
that, with no errors shown and no test threads stopped, your
CPU and memory are solid. Prime95 will not test the whole
memory space. Only memtest86+ covers close to all the memory
bits. Prime95 covers only a subset, but does a much more
thorough (noise inducing) test case. Since you're running
Ubuntu and a 32 bit disc, you'd download the Linux 32 bit
executable.
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
This is not even close to a complete and methodical test
strategy, and what I'm hoping for at this point, is some
indicative symptoms will pop up. For example, if the
computer just shuts off during the four hour Prime95 test,
it could be the CPU heatsink needs to cleaned, or the
CPU fan has stopped spinning and the computer is overheating.
The Seagate and Western Digital disk tests, are for their own
brand of disks. You have to discover the brand name of the
disk, and go to that manufacturer site and get the diagnostic.
The diagnostic is not intended for end users, in that it
produces a terse error number and no words of encouragement.
If the diagnostics pass, then you know the disk isn't
completely bad. But the diagnostic doesn't really tell you
whether the drive needs to be replaced. If an error code
is produced, that error code is used to convince the
manufacturer to support a warranty claim you're making.
In terms of simple hardware checks of the visual variety,
take the side cover off the PC and check the state of fans
and heatsinks. Check that the video card cooling fan is
still spinning. If the video card were overheating due to
fan failure, that might account for the black screen
just as Windows makes an appearance. Your Linux LiveCD
test case will also be driving the video card, and if
the Linux screen doesn't appear either, that confirms a
hardware problem of some sort.
Paul
