Little bit of help with old Gateway...please.

I'm using my old Gateway and it is as slow as molasses!! I did an upgrade from Windows 98 to XP. One problem is I noticed an awful lot of programs running at start-up, programs that I don't need. How do I change which programs run at start-up?

The only reason I'm having to use this old thang is because my Dell is down. :cry If anyone would like to offer any advice on what to do next with my Dell, please look at my thread: "Need help after MBR infection...please!" I'm at my wits end...and I really, really, really need my Dell back this week!

Your help is, as always, greatly appreciated!!

 

Easiest and best way to manage startup programs in XP is this, http://majorgeeks.com/download619.html. When installed, it will place an icon in control panel. Click on the icon and it will show programs that are running at startup and allow you to select which ones that you want! Hope this helps!

As for the Dell, I'll have to read the thread before replying!

 

I really need to know what model Dell computer that you have! While I doubt that it is fried, more information is needed. The model and service tag number would be great. That way I can check and see what recovery options came from the factory for this computer.

 

Pssst... if the Dell has a virus infection, the Malware Forum is where you should post about it. The malware fighters in this place are phenomenal, and there's practically nothing they can't handle.

 

... and that is essentially the problem. XP's resource needs vastly exceed those of 98. I have an older box too on which I have both XP and 98SE installed, and XP crawls on that too. 98 is fine though.

My advice - reinstall 98.

 

Some info on the Gateway could help also.

 

The Dell is a Dimension E510 and the service tag is 25RT991. It doesn't have an infection now...it did have an MBR infection, but Chaslang helped me clean it. However, after it was cleaned, I couldn't log on to IE, so he told me I needed to reinstall Windows. I used a CD to do that. Windows was installed, I got a "Setup is starting Windows" screen, then a "Welcome to setup" screen...but then on the restart I got a black screen telling me that there was a "Floppy disk seek failure". I went to setup and turned the floppy drive off, but I still get that same message. I have tried switching the BIOS, that doesn't help either.

The Gateway is a Model GP6-RW. I had to install XP so that I could hook it up to my Verizon high speed modem. This one will just be used by my husband occasionally...the Dell is the one I use for my business.

If I don't respond to your reply very soon, it won't be for the lack of trying! I tried to log on to the 'net for 2 hours this morning before I gave up. Waited about an hour and was finally able to log on. I attempt to look for any replies at least every few hours, because I am so desperate to get the Dell back. So if you don't get a reply from me right away, it's only because I'm having so much trouble getting logged on.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your help!!

 

How much RAM is installed in the Gateway? Shows that it uses PC-133 so it is an older machine. (but you already knew that.)
XP seems to prefer 512MB minimum.
What type of CPU and speed?

 

dazedandconfuzed,

This is concerning your Dell. I did search and some E510 models came with a recovery partition and some didn't. Those that didn't shipped with a recovery CD. Now the bad news, the recovery partion/feature was on the C: drive which you overwrote by installing Windows.

I'm assuming that you know how to set the boot order in BIOS, so please set it to boot from CDROM first, hard drive second, and floppy drive third or disable the floppy drive if you don't use it. As you had a MBR infection and it was cleaned, it doesn't mean the the MBR didn't have problems after cleaning the malware. Installing or reinstalling Windows does not overwite a MBR if one is on the hard drive already. So for this reason, I would ask you to download this, http://www.majorgeeks.com/Dariks_Boot_and_Nuke_d4596.html. There are two ways to use it, either make the floppy or the bootable CD. If you choose the CD route, the ISO file is the one that you would want to burn to a CD. This can be done with this, http://www.majorgeeks.com/ImgBurn_d4870.html. Both applications that I linked to are freeware.

After burning the CD and/or making the floppy, boot the computer from it. This program will write 0's to all the sectors on your hard drive and it will be in as shipped from the manufacturer state minus the wear from being used. This will overwrite the MBR.

Then you will be ready to install Windows again. Noticed in your post that you were originally running Media Center with SP3 and tried to install XP Home. Not sure if that caused any problems!

If you have any problems with this, please post and I will try to help!

 

When I try to download those programs an Adobe Acrobat screen pops up! What's going on with that???

 

I honestly don't know about the Adobe Acrobat popup! I just tried both links and they go to the MG download page and the application! Which computer are you doing this on?

 

I'm guessing the Gateway has 128MB or 256MB of RAM and the Dell has 256MB RAM. Both computers, if you expect to run XP, should have 1GB of RAM installed - if possible.
My husband has a computer running windows 2000 with only 256MB of RAM and it really limps along. Windows 2000 isn't as memory hungry as XP is.

 

I am trying to download on the Gateway. (Remember...I don't have Windows on the Dell, so I can't log on to the 'net with it.) I can get to the MG download page, and I click to download the app. But it downloads to Adobe Acrobat.

Would you believe the Gateway has 64 MB of RAM!!! I believe the Dell has 528 MB. I'm not doing anything to the Gateway until I get the Dell up and running.

I may borrow my daughter's tower to do the downloads I need for the Dell. I'll post as soon as I've tried the downloads.

 

When you download an installation file you can choose where it is to be downloaded to, and if you don't choose it will download to the same folder that the last download went to - in this case Adobe Acrobat. So when you get the dialog box asking whether you want to run or save, navigate to your desktop, or My Documents folder so you can find it afterwards.

 

dazed, when you click on the one of the two links cited, a window will display in your browser that has links to two MajorGeeks sites and internode for Darik's Boot and Nuke under the heading "Download locations". Pick one of the links and the program should respond as Earthling stated.
Sometimes the battery on the motheboard discharges, the information stored can confuse things such as the settings for date, boot order, how much memory it has, and so on, leading to problems such as the failure to seek on the floppy drive. Is it possible the battery on the motherboard has discharged? If the date setting is incorrect when you boot the machine, it is likely the battery is on its last legs.
tom

 

The 64MB of RAM is one BIG cause of slowness.

 

hrlow2 --- ESPECIALLY for XP... 98 should do Ok with that much memory. 95 ran on 8M machines, better on 16 and a lot better on 32M. Just my opinion...
tom

 

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. I will check the battery on the Gateway.

Novice...I borrowed my daughter's Dell desktop, I'm on it now. I downloaded the dban-beta .zip folder, but I can't find the ISO file. :confused

 

dazedandconfuzed,

If you examine the zip file before extracting, it is the last one listed. After extracting the files, it will be the one dban-beta.2006042900_i386 ISO. This is what you will want to burn to CD. Does your daughters computer have WinZip on it? I believe that XP and later have built in zip file capabilities. If you have problems unzipping the file, post back and I'll walk you through it.

 

ARGH!!!! Okay...I found the .iso file. I burned it to a CD. I set the boot sequence to boot from the CD and ran it. It seemed to work fine. I then inserted a Windows XP Pro CD and it installed all the files, etc. When it finished it said it needed to reboot. But...after the reboot, I get the Dell splash screen, then a blank black screen, then the Dell screen again. This is a continous loop! Should I try the procedure again? Does it matter that I am installing XP Pro? Should I use the XP Home Edition CD?

 

When you say that dban seemed to work fine, did you let it finish (takes a while), and did it say anything at all on the screen like finished with errors?

Can you boot in safe mode?

Pro or Home shouldn't make any difference concerning this.

 

I believe it said finished with no errors.

I can't get to safe mode. When I start the PC, the Dell splash screen appears, then a blank black screen, then the Dell screen, then a black screen...in a perpetual loop!

 

Please put your installation CD back in and start going through the process. You will come to the part where installation checks for Windows already being installed. If an installation of Windows is detected, choose the repair option. If a previous installation of Windows isn't detected then go through with the whole setup process.

 

Posting this while sobbing hysterically!!

I put the CD back in and here's how it went:

The first screen said: Setup is loading the files

Next: Setup is starting Windows

Then, a screen that has "For The Recovery Console Press R" and options Enter=Continue R=Repair F3=Quit

If I click "R", I get "Welcome to Setup...This portion of the Setup program prepares MS XP to run on your computer." Then, "Recovery Console press R", and at the bottom, "Enter=Continue R=Repair F3=Quit". If, at this point I click "R" again I get a black screen and am taken to the Recovery Console. It says "Type Exit to quit Recovery Console and restart the computer". Then "1:C\Windows" But I can't type anything...all I can do is press enter, which starts running the CD again.

Now, if, on the Setup screen I click Enter to continue, first I get the Licensing Agreement screen, the next page says:

"The following list shows the existing partitions and unpartioned space on this computer."

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

The next part is highlighted.

Cartition 1 [NTFS] 131072 MB <130582 MB free>

Enter=Install D=Delete Partition F3=Quit

If I choose to Enter to install, I get the following:

"You chose to install MS XP on a partition that contains another operating system. Installing MS XP on this partition might cause the other operating system to function improperly"

****ALSO...my screen is split!!! The top is at the bottom and the bottom is at the top!!!! What the ****??

Can this 'puter really be fixed?? I'm so frustrated!!

 

No go. Same as the last post! I read a thread way back on page 6 or so that said something about the SATA drive and having to install a different drive to load XP. Would that perhaps apply to me??

Just grasping at straws now.

 

dazedandconfuzed,

You were right in questioning about the SATA drivers, as a search with your service tag number shows that your computer did indeed ship with a SATA hard drive. Before, I had only searched the model for information. My bad:-o! This is a link to the Dell download center for your drivers. http://support.dell.com/support/dow...temID=Dimension 5150/E510&TabIndex=&typeid=-1. I believe that the one that you want is the first one listed as it is the newest offered. This should be put on a floppy disk and used in the setup installation where at the bottom it says press F6 if you need to install additional storage drivers ( something close to this I believe ) and XP should install fine after this.

Hopefully your daughter's computer has a floppy drive as it will be needed. The program when downloaded and used is supposed to make the floppy disk that is necessary. If you disabled the floppy drive on your Dell, you will need to restore it for this to work.

It will be necessary to go back through the installation process to get to the screen where the F6 option is listed at the bottom.

Hope this helps!

 

GEEZ!!! One obstacle after another! Yes, my daughter's computer does have a floppy drive. However, my Dell has an internal integrated floppy drive! I have no place to insert a floppy disk. Any way around this one?

(So close...yet so far! )

 

The way his(her) luck seems to be running, won't be able to boot from USB.

 

No, but I will try that.

Ummm...I dunno. :-o Where would I look for it?

hrlow2...doies that mean I'm a goner???? (And I am a "her". :wave)

 

The key word there is "seems".
Doesn't mean absolute.
Just hang in there.


(And I'm a guy.)
:wave right back at you.

 

thumb drive, stick drive, pen drive, USB stick if you don't know where to look then you do not own one.
Looks similar to this:

 

Good one plodr! :-D :-D :-D

So, if I get one of those little stick things...will I be able to follow through with Novice's instructions?

 

Hey...I have a SanDisk 2 GB Cruzer Flash drive...is that the same thing as a thumb drive, stick drive, pen drive or USB stick? rolleyes

(And before you ask, I'll save you the trouble...YES, I'm a blonde!) :-D:-D

 

Whoah! Back up, guys! A hard drive has already been recognised by XP in this installation.

@dazedandconfused: do you know how many hard drives your computer has, and how big they are (it is)?

 

Oh thank you, thank you Collins. I sure as heck don't want to make matters worse!

Since I can't get into my Control Panel to look at my System specs, the only thing I could do is go to System Setup. I don't know if any of this will answer your question about the number of hard drives, but here's the info:

System Info
Bios Version = A02 (10/13/05)

Processor Info
Processor Type, Clock Speed, etc.
Multi Core Capable = No
Hyperthreading Capable = Yes
64 bit technology = Yes

Boot Sequence
1. Onboard or USB Floppy (not present)
2. Onboard SATA HARD DRIVE
3. Onboard IDE HARD DRIVE (not present)
4. Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive

DrivesDrive 0: SATA 0 ON
Controller = Serial ATA
Port = SATA 0
Drive ID = WDCWD1600JS-75NCB1
Capacity = 160 GB
Bios = This drive is controlled by the system bios.
Link Speed = 3.0 Gbs

Drive 1: SATA 2 ON
Controller Details:
Controller = Serial ATA
Port = SATA 2

Drive 2: PATA 0 & 1 (I believe these refer to the DVD-ROM & DVD+/-RW drives.)
Controller = Parallel ATA
Port = PATA-0 (PRI IDE Master)
Port = PATA-1 (PRI IDE Slave)

SATA Operation:
RAID Autodetect/ATA
RAID ON

(This is set to factory default RAID Autodetect/ATA)

Hopefully this will help. rolleyes

Even though it isn't set that way now, I did try to boot with both Onboard SATA HARD DRIVE and Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive each as first in the order.

 

Sorry, this does not provide the required information.

The reference for your Dell, as far as I can make out, is for one hard drive.

Thus it has already been recognised in the XP setup so all posts asking for you to provide AHCI drivers (using a floppy / usb stick before installing) are null and void.

However, this points to a different, potentially bigger problem with the machine.

A test I would like you to try, if you can, is to download ubuntu, a totally free operating system, based on Linux, burn it to a CD, and try and install it.

If ubuntu installs, then there is a problem with your CD or something windows doesn't like.

Ubuntu can be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/

A guide to burning to CD can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/switching/installing-burning.html

 

Thanks Collins! One thing before I do that...will it cause any problems with this computer I'm using? It's my daughter's, and I wouldn't want to screw hers up also. :-o

 

collinsl,

Did you read the whole thread before replying? Dazedandconfuzed has tried two Windows CDs, Home and Pro, with the same results on both. I believe that what she typed was from BIOS, as Windows will not boot. Installing Linux should be a non issue as it seems to provide SATA support which XP doesn't without drivers, unless using a newer motherboard. Her computer booted and ran dban which is Linux based.

Just had to ask, and now I will watch and learn!

 

Hey guys...is my Dell not fixable? Should I just trash it and buy a new one? What about having a new motherboard installed? Would that fix my problem?

 

I know what you need to do, I just don't know how to do it.
Your Dell has a SATA hard drive. Your computer does not have a floppy drive. Your version of XP is so old that it does not recognize the SATA drive so it doesn't see any place to install windows. You can not load the SATA drivers because there is no floppy drive.

Choices:
1. Find an old IDE hard drive, put that in and install XP to it. Maybe after it installs, the install can be cloned to the SATA drive and you can use that instead of the IDE drive.
2. Slipstream the SATA drivers onto your XP install disk
3. Borrow an internal floppy drive and install it (assuming that you have the motherboard connector and a power connector on your power supply) just so you can load the SATA drivers and install windows.

Probably the easiest is to slipstream the drivers to your current XP CD. I don't know how to slipstream but I'm sure there are many geeks posting here you know how to and what program is the easiest to use to do it.
Note: you will need another computer with a CD burner in order to create your new XP install disk with the SATA drivers.

 

Well, plodr, if you're a "major geek", and you don't know how to do that slipstream thingy...then there's absolutely no hope for me!! :cry

 

Please both reference post #24 where it clearly states that a 160GB hard drive has been recognised by the XP installation.

Please also reference post #20 where it is clearly stated that XP has copied all files and then goes into a reboot loop.

Thus we are dealing here with a reboot loop, not a SATA AHCI issue.

 

The person used dban. That zeros out a drive. I do not think windows is installed on the SATA drive.

The Windows install CD says this post #24
"The following list shows the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on this computer."
Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(no disk in this drive)

To me that says, Windows can't be installed because it can not find a disk to install to. It looks at SATA (RAID is on) and the two optical drives and can't find any drive to install to.

 

Sounds like, from that, it needs to be formatted.

 

collinsl,

I agree with plodr and hrlow2 on this. While I think that it could be considered a boot loop issue to some degree, the computer seems to be trying to find some device to boot from which it can't, and this would mean that Windows wasn't installed or didn't make the hard drive bootable. There is no Windows splash screen, just a black blank one! Just because setup recognized a hard drive being present doesn't mean that it can communicate with it.

As you seem to disagree with all of us on this ( nulled and voided suggestions about Sata drivers ), perhaps you can explain to dazedandconfuzed the steps and procedures that need to be followed to get out of this boot loop! I'm sure that it would be much appreciated. These are the steps and procedures that I have been waiting to learn from!

 

It then says

In reference to post #20, this is what I was saying:

I would solve the problem if I could, but at this stage I am just trying to steer you towards what I think is the correct issue.

 

Collinsl, Novice, hrlow2 and plodr...thanks so much for all your efforts to help me with my dire pc situation. I do appreciate all the time and effort you guys have put forth.

Unfortunately, I can't wait any longer to attempt the repairs. (A good friend of my hubby's has said that his nephew can fix it.) rolleyes

I would love for you guys to continue this thread with your ideas and suggestions though. Who knows how long it will be until I screw up another pc. :-D

Thanks again,
dazedandconfuzed
:wave

 

You are more than welcome for what little help that I provided! Continuing the thread past this point would be futile in that someone's nephew is going to fix it for you! Please note that you had at least two of MG's heavy hitters trying to assist in this thread, TimW and plodr. No one was at a loss as to what you should/could do to fix the problem, and I'm referencing this thread, http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=212820. Indecision on which advice to follow caused the time problem that you experienced! Best wishes and lots of luck with the Dell.

Be careful about installing 64 bit apps on 32 bit systems or your daughters computer will be the next victim!:-D