I Am Totally In Need Of Help

Discussion in 'Software' started by AlwaysEnuff, Feb 27, 2004.

  1. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    [/FONT]
    Ok. I am not a genius on computers. But I can fix minor problems, and reinstall programs, install hardwares, and do a little configuring. BUT.... I have a friend, who has NOTHING, and just lost her job and cannot afford to get or fix her computer. I don't like the computer she has, I wouldn't have bought it, but she has it, and I cann't do anything about it.

    She calls me. He computer is running tooo slow. Takes 20 minutes to log online, etc., I couldn't go there to help her, for a couple days, so she and another girl decided to reformat the harddrive with teh cd recovery disk. The only thing is, out of 5 cd's only the first one would install only to 10% and kick her out, going to the dos screen saying NO EMULATION and that is as far as it booted. Well, she called me. Now, she has winxp but only had a 98 boot disk and she was using this.
    I booted her computer up to see what was the matter in the dos. Well there wasn't anything in it. Here are her speks and I will tell you what I see now.

    Presario 6300
    Intel Celeron 1.4 ghz
    128 sdram
    40 gb dma hard drive
    48 x cd rom

    Now..... she said that the girl at her house performed an fdisk!!! Yikes!
    so I typed fdisk /status and see a Partition of 38,000 MB and thats it. The computer will not boot by itself. I made a dos boot from my computer, but it wouldn't work in hers. I downloaded winxp boot disks and went through the scenerio, and it tried putting winxp in, but wouldn't take her disks, it wanted mine. But mine, I cannot install because of the code. I had to call windows and get a new code one time at installation again, because they said thats how they protect from copying from computer to computer.

    Ok... Any suggestion. I need to know what steps exactly I need to take to get this back to normal to install its own recovery disc. It just will not go past 10%. Then with my xp disk, during setup, it will not put in a number of .dll files it says it cannot copy.

    Plese help. She needs her computer, and she cannot send it away. I am sorry I haven't been here in a while, but I have a crappy system myself. and its hard to surf. Thank you

    Enuff!
     
  2. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    first off if its a pre built computer the recovery disks will probably no longer work if the HDD has been fdisked and formatted

    has she still got the license key for her xp its usually on a sticker somewhere on the machine

    then i would suggest booting from your xp cd using her key and you can format the drive properly during the install

    sorry if ive missed something but your post was a bit jumbled


    edit:hi robo sorry didnt see you, i was under the impression they had wiped the drive
     
  3. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    I just talked to her, and she said thats why she formatted it in the first place. some guy walked her through the format because she wouldn't have known how to do it. told her to do a full restore, but then 10% through it kicked her off. and said no emulation. So, then he says, get a win 98 boot disk. This is crazy. I have her tower here at my house, thinking I can work from mine to hers downloading things, but nothing will work. I have an HP recovery disc but that won't work either. and that is where my win 98 is. I thoght maybe starting with win98 then upgrading to win xp, but just nothing. Where do I start????
     
  4. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    just to follow on from robos advice
    i was under the impression it was an xp machine
    do you have the license key for xp
    she is entitled to one with the machine
    compaqs usually have them stuck on the side if not i would ring customer service and ask for it might save you the dollars

    just reading through again and if you have key

    boot with a 98 floppy go through Fisk again and make sure the partition is set active
    then make sure you format it as well
    then set first boot as CD
    boot with xp CD and run installation with her key
     
  5. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    thanks robo
    sometimes wish you had these damn machines in front of you it would be so much easier otherwise its like shooting in the dark :)
     
  6. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Ok. Now, I am going to try not to sound jumbled (lmao) sorry

    I tried the fdisk again, and I assumed I did NOT want fat32, so did not do that. The computer would not format at that time. It stated it couldn't format. I think it may have said can't format a network drive.

    I booted from MY xp disk It went through the partitions again, asking me which one to use highlighting the only one there. Does this matter that there are 38,000 mb listed there? Without sounding stupid, where are the other 38 GB?????? seriously, I have not done this before. But this is how I learn! You guys are excellent!

    Ok, so xp did the formatting for me on the disk, and went into setup. (never got to the cd key area) after setup started, I have a list of files it will not write to the hardrive during setup, and the only thing that worked at that point was skipping the file. Needlesstosay, setup ended unsuccessful, rebooted back to where I started in the beginning. Yesterday...., the machine would boot right to windows xp setup without any disk in, like it was finishing what it started, but it will not go anywhere. it shows the different screens of what xp can do, but stays at 39 minutes left ! Basically it froze up.

    When running fdisk and reformatting. I run fdisk, do I pick large ?
    Then NFTS? ( I think I typed that right). Then, after reboot to format, am I booting from the win 98 boot. Or the 6-win xp boot disks that I made.?

    OH mY I am lost, and she is in tears. Her kids did something to this system, and she needs this by tomorrow to put some orders into Avon. Because that is her ONLY job.

    You guys are great. Thank you for your patience to my stupidity, but this is actually how I learn.

    AE
     
  7. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    ok im just having to have some lunch with the wife

    ill be back fairly soon if noone has ran you through FDISK etc ill take you through it when i get back
     
  8. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    ok im back
    first off boot with the floppy and select fdisk
    when prompted select (Y) to enable large disk support
    then at the next menu select 4 and check your primary partition is set to active you should see an A there to confirm this
    if its not set active press esc to return to the menu and select 2 and set the partition active
    press ESC-ESC and then reboot to the floppy again

    you can start without cd-rom support
    at the command prompt type format c: /s (not sure but the /s may not be supported anymore in which case leave that part out)

    you will then recieve a message warning all data will be lost etc etc just press Y and enter this can take a while so have a coffee and a smoke
    when finished you will be asked to give the volume a name thats up to you just press enter for none

    now you can either reset the bios to boot from the cd-rom drive and boot to the xp cd
    or you can reboot the floppy again and select WITH CD-ROM SUPPORT
    once loaded it should give you the drive letter of your cd drive generally this will be E
    so at the command prompt type E: then enter
    you should get a prompt beginning with E: now type setup (assuming youve got the xp cd in the drive)
    and it should start the xp installation

    post back with results

    (man its so much easier to do than it is to type it)
     
  9. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Ok, I am going to try this part real quickly, for I am getting ready to take my 15 year old to court.... (like I don't have enuff stress).

    I will post as soon as I see something working or not working... thanks.. I am trying this part now, I have a bit to kill but not much time.


    Smoked all my smokes... but one...... during all this pc trauma. Gotta get outta here to buy some more.!

    AE
     
  10. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Ok, I just went through the first part of the fdisk steps, and everything was fine, and the partition WAS set active. BUT once rebooted. It said format NOT support on drive c:

    Now what?

    I will reboot again and try again.
     
  11. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    hi m8 sorry im in and out myself
    did you try the format without the /s as i mentioned
    and in fdisk is your primary active drive listed as C
     
  12. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    ok, went through the fdisk again, and made sure, when it rebooted, it was talking about drive d: now. looks like it all pushed back. But when I typed format c: /s it worked this time, it is formatting as we speak.

    Earlier when I tried typing e: and setup for the xp disk, it told me I couldn't run it from dos.

    Have you experienced that.

    Well, I have to go to court now, or atleast take my little guy to the sitter. It will be done formatting for me when I get back later. thank you

    Gina
     
  13. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    after the format you should reboot and if your using a proper boot disk it will ask if you wish to use cd-rom support you must select yes
    after a while loading it should allocate you a drive letter for your cd drive this is the letter you must use it may be E or F or G
    once you note the drive letter for example E type at the flashing cursor E: and enter you should then see a flashing E: type DIR and enter now if your xp cd is in the drive it should list all the files on the cd there should be one called setup so that would be the thing to type at the prompt
    E:setup
    now its a while since ive used this but if it doesnt work you will have to reboot and boot from the cd

    either way good luck with it and with the court appearance :)
     
  14. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2



    Ok... I had a second to check and write back. I guess things were pretty smoothly around here than normal getting the 3-yr old together.

    Ok. I did everything you said.. and booted from CD as you said. Glad that option was there, because the computer will NOT take me to a bios at all.

    OK. I typed e: which is not f: and yes it brought up the directory. so I typed setup and it said cannot be ran from dos. I did again and again and again

    so....... I am screwed. the setup ran the other way, with just the xp cd. but it skipped so many files, would not write some of them. then it said it had to be restarted to configure, but when it restarted it started at the beginning again asking about partitions.

    This stinks!

    Gotta go... and YOU have been a godsent... thanks.
    gina
     
  15. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    ok gina dont panic life does stink sometimes

    now i know you said this earlier but is this happening again after youve formatted the drive
    if so is this a proper xp cd and not a recovery cd
    also make sure the disc isnt scratched or dirty

    maybe were missing something here so reading back if this is a compaq machine does it have more than one partition on it, so can you post exactly what it says in Fdisk when you choose option 4 to display partition information we may have to delete all partitions not needed

    ok ill wait 4 you to post back and see if i can think of anything else weve missed or maybe one of the other guys will have some ideas
     
  16. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Ok... I am back from court, and need to start dinner also, so I will do that between your replies.

    Ok. The xp cd I am using is MY Dell cd. Labelled Operating System Microsoft windows XP Home edition--- It came with my dell that I don't have any more.

    Ok. The partitions were only one partition made with ntfs.. or something like that. Saying it is active, and has 38,000 (some odd bytes) MB . Drive was f ormatted successfully but only when it switched drive c to d for some stupid reason. I am not sure. I am going run the steps ALL over again to see what is different.

    Ok... so... after formatting and rebooting from CD support option, I type E: setup, and it says NOT alowd to do this from Dos. So.... I boot cd only and it goes into setup and does NOT finish.

    I will do this again, while I am waiting for you to answer this.

    thank you again
    Gina
     
  17. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    ok the boot from cd option should not make a difference to the installion of XP and
    the drive is partioned correctly and is formatted ok :)

    the windows installation begins yet cannot install all files and does not finish

    which i think leaves us with a bad cd, possibly the dell cd wont install on a different machine if i remember you say that the cd does not ask for a license key is that correct if so there may be the problem, is there anything else written on that cd
    i will await your reply and then i will probably start a new thread to see if anyone has any knowledge of dell

    or some hardware issue what were the exact problems with the pc in the first place
     
  18. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Ok, Change of plans.

    Got the computer fdisked properly, to where it went right into format c: with NO /s

    NOW... it is formatting.... I am typing. Next step is crucial, because I noticed some small small print on the dell xp cd. It says. Reinstallation CD of Windows xp Home Edition. Not used for programs or drivers. Ok... so basically that was probably my big deal. It isn't an offical windows install disk.

    So... the only thing that I have and can find from people here is the 98 cd. So I am going to try to get that into the pc.... and hopefully it will work, and we can work on upgrading at a latter time.

    Cross you fingers.

    If this works... I will email a homemade italian spaghetti dinner to you........... big thanks, and patience to you , you are all great here.
    gina
     
  19. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    Well done Gina

    i was getting confused there myself for a bit until you mentioned the cd was from dell,glad my troubleshooting skills hadnt deserted me :p

    ill hold you to that :D

    anyway dont forget to let us know how the 98 install goes
     
  20. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    so far so gooooood!
    Windows 98 went from the dos menu typing setup... wooo hoooooo... and it is installing, and so far hasn't kicked me out.

    Do you suggest leaving it at 98 or trying to upgrade?
     
  21. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    i would suggest leaving at 98, get that working and then if you want to upgrade, buy yourself the proper upgrade cd
    the disc you have from dell is not a proper upgrade disc you can buy xp home upgrade discs for a fairly reasonable price these days

    however if it does what you need with 98 and you are on a limited budget theres no need to upgrade at this point
     
    1 person likes this.
  22. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Its restarting now, but a problem occurred. It was looking for driver16.cab on the cd and couldn't find it. Should I manually install it after everything is up and going?
     
  23. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Well, all that for nothing.
    The product key that they gave me with the cd on the book, does not work. I am dealing with a bunch of yA-hoos down here. lmao
     
  24. eclayton

    eclayton Sgt. Shorts-cough

    Gina,
    My many sympathies for the trouble you are going through, and when you get this sorted out, my limited knowledge says to stick with Windows 98. You only have 128mb of SDRAM, so I don't think your machine will handle 2000, much less XP. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.

    I wish I could help, but the General is one of the best, so you're in good hands!

    Good luck!!

    Eric
     
  25. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    hi Gina
    sorry to hear you are still having problems
    ok first off ive got the driver 16.cab file i cant post it here as its 1.7mb but i can mail it to you if you send me a private message with your e-mail addy,
    but just to be sure check the disc is clean and there are no scratches or dirty areas which may stop the data being read



    secondly please post exactly what version of windows 98 you have check the cd and ill sort something out for you :)
    so you can install and get back up and running
     
  26. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Good Morning all. Now that I have been sleeping on this, because I took the tower to my friends house working smoothly last night, and was still there until almost 11pm. I got the tower there and hooked everything back up. I noticed some tech problems with my monitor on her tower, and I figured it was because it was an old monitor from 1998. So, I didn't worry. ok.... Windows 98 went in smoothly, after typing in the OEM code about 6 times it finally went in, except the driver file, and ONE other file. The system did perform an illegal action after booting. Ok. If the system can't hold xp, why did they ship it to her with xp in it? Well, anyways, I plug in the tower, and now we have to install her dial up programs, and her internet ISP disk, etc. The computer will not install the internet ISP disk, BECAUSE the colors have to be on 256 and atleast 600 x800. Ok... NOW I go into display, and the display choices are ONLY 2 colors,and 16 colors. After installing her monitor disk that came with the compaq (piece of crap) lmao....... It still did NOT change. So, needlesstosay, cannot do much with 16 colors.
    On top of that, it cannot find her modem. I don't understand something. I had a Dell pc. with xp... really had no trouble, and then took it to work one day, and it became property of my ex boss, who I filed harrassment charges on, he fired me, and wouldn't let me have any stuff. Ok, so I am fighting to get my computer back. In the meantime I pulled out of my closet my HP tower from 98 with win98 on it. I am on this right now. Grant it, the speed isn't the greatest on the internet. but I only have 64 mb of memory, and I run this pretty smoothly. This little dinky thing is doing better than her pc... Why? Is it becasue I maintain mine, and keep it running smoothly? Is it becasue I know what to open and what not to open? I am not sure. So, I had an option last night I was going to run by you before I did this tonight after my party I have to do tonight. My aunt has a compaq presario 5000 my friends is the same but a 6000. She has the win ME in her computer, and was willing to let me borrow all the disks that came with her system to try running the ME in her system. What do you think? I had ME in "THIS" computer until I lent it to mymom, and she didn't return it, and had to reformat one day, and didn't have it to put back in. with 64 ram it ran great, and just loved the go back feature.Do you think it is worth a try? One more thing. I cannot get this system to boot into the bios for anything. That is another issue.
    Gosh I wish shipping wasn't so expensive, I would just ship it to you general... lmao.

    I need to figure out how to private message you on here, and I will send you my email addy. Thanks a lot.

    Gina
     
  27. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    ok first off the reason you have no colours is because you need to install the video card drivers so you need to know what video card is in there and then you can install the drivers
    download this and run it on the machine to find out what exactly the video adapter is and then we can sort out the drivers
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=181
    this will also give you the information on the modem so we can install some drivers for that
    generally windows 98 keeps the driver files on disc rather than the hdd so maybe not loading the driver cab has stopped any drivers installing so get the file i e-mail place it somewhere safe go to my computer -properties -add new hardware and hopefully it will find the graphics card then follow the options and point it in the direction of the driver cab file

    the windows me idea is ok if you recieved the full windows me cd with the machine but generally with compaq they are only recovery cds and the actual os is installed on a seperate partition on the hard drive

    as for the bios you will need to try pressing one of these keys as soon as you start the machine
    either DELETE - F1--F2--F9--F10

    to send me a pm click on my name and select send private message

    unfortunately Pennsylvania is the other side of the world otherwise id come round and fix it it can be so frustrating not being able to get hold of the machine personally
     
  28. AlwaysEnuff

    AlwaysEnuff Private E-2

    Immmmmmm Back!
    LMAO.. You will never believe this General:
    Ok, so I burned the files you gave me. Plus burned a copy of winzip to unzip the one file. Got the computer iinfo I needed, etc., etc., But.... This Win98 disk that whatsamaface gave to my friend Donna, was never kept in a case, and alll totally scratched up. Now in the lighting in my house, LMAO burning out bulbs everywhere.. I didn't notice, until I got there. Ok, so of course, I am trying to find these stupid drivers, and wouldn't you know, they keep asking for the win98 cd, and wouldn't you know it, they kept NOT FINDING it! Ok, so I fake out the machine to find a video driver for the display that will atleast get me to 256 colors so I can atleast upgrade the IE, and then, put in her internet dial up, so we can go online there, (since the stuff is now at her house) and talk to YOU... or download other things. NOPE... not happening, as soon as I rebooted the settings it went right back to 16 colors. and lowest resolution. Ok. so... You would think the Compaq Pres. Monitor CD made ONLY for the monitor for the driver would work. NOT... that didn't even accomplish anything. This win98 cd, is so screwed up, that we are going to look for ME, just so in the future the drivers will be on the OS. I brought it to her attention that one day once she gives this cd back, it may ask for it, and she isn't going to have it. So best that we don't use it. So, basically.. I deleted the partitions, fdisked it AGAIN, and set the primary partition, and formatted c: and shut the computer down, Unitl WinME arrives. Sound good???? I hope so, because I am tired, and burnt.

    Take Care General! I know that during this ordeal I have smoked my ownself to chest pain... LMAO....! At the price of ciggarettes, there shouldn't be ashtrays next to the pc to be able to smoke......lol
    Thanks again
    Gina
     
  29. General_Lee_Stoned

    General_Lee_Stoned BuZZed Lightyear

    hi Gina
    I'm sorting all your stuff right now so don't worry you will be up and running real soon :)

    hey we all smoke too much especially when I'm on my machine just the natural thing to do ;)

    hang in there :D
     

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