Computer cannot go into windows

I don't know whether this is a hardware or software problem.

I am using this AcerPower F1 desktop, and running on windows xp. When I turn on the computer, it does not show anything on the monitor screen but I can see that the computer system is moving but there's just nothing on the screen. Then, I just switch off the computer power and turn on the power again. This time I can enter into windows and everything is running fine, but when I was surfing the net halfway, the computer suddenly shut down and restart by itself. Then the next day, I turn on the computer again nothing show up on the monitor screen, after trying a few times, the computer can start again and I just let it conduct a disk check, I saw some message like c:windows\internet logs..... not valid. When I get into windows, there's a an error message saying something like "system has recover from a serious file error". I also realised that I cannot system restore to an earlier date successfully. As for now, sometimes I can start up my computer and can get to windows, sometimes I just cannot start up my computer.

What could the problem be? Please advise me, I seriously need some help, thank you.

 

Hello, Winterlove

Firstly examine your pc. Check for signs of dust and dirt around the vents, better clean out with a vacuum or air blower. Does it run warm to touch? download and run one of the temp monitors from major geeks. Start with Everest as it has many other uses. If you feel up to it, remoce the power lead, open the side panel and do an internal clean. Make sure all the memory modules are properly seated.

Then back up your important data, just in case your hard drive is failing.

Next do software clean up.

Empty your internet cache
Run Disk cleanup
Run Checkdisk
How full is your hard drive?

If you like download ccleanerslim from MG an use this utility.

Post again with the result or if you need help with any of this.

 

I already cleaned out the vents with vacuum cleaner earlier. And yes, it is warm to touch. Will probably try and do a more through internal clean tomorrow.

Downloaded Everest temp monitor.
Here's some of the information

Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

Motherboard
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 2600 MHz (26 x 100)
Motherboard Name ECS 661FX-M (Deluxe) / 661FX-M7 / SF2 / Abit SG-72 / Acer E61ML / AOpen s661FXm-US
Motherboard Chipset SiS 661FX/GX
System Memory 256 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (11/06/03)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X (64 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
Monitor Acer AF715 [17" CRT] (EUF0108006)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter SiS 7012 Audio Device

Storage
IDE Controller SiS PCI IDE Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive WDC WD400BB-00DEA0 (37 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8525B (52x/32x/52x CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (FAT32) 38152 MB (11983 MB free)

Temperatures
Motherboard 42 °C (108 °F)
Aux 37 °C (99 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 2163 RPM

Please let me know what other information you will need.


Software clean up done
Emptied internet cache
Disk cleanup done
Run Check disk

Hard drive's used space 25.4GB.

Thanks for your help.

Actually, I also realised that when I cannot start up the computer, once I unplug the monitor cable and replug it to my computer, I manage to start up my computer to go into windows, so it's really strange.

 

Temps are fine
I take it the stuff I suggested hasn't helped?

I hope it's not faulty capacitors look at their home page also

http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

12G free on a 40 G hard drive (less something for the recovery partition)
You have made the Acer recovery disks haven't you?
Your hard drive is verging on the overfull anything over 50% is overfull and windows performance degrades rapidly after this. Defrag stops working at 15% and system restore at 5% empty.

Have you tried ccleaner yet?

Studio T

 

I think my computer is working better as for now after all the vents cleaned up, power lead vacuumed, will need to observe to see whether the same problem occurs.
I haven't really check for bad capacitors yet, but will do so if needed.

Nope, I haven't do the acer recovery disks yet because I thought I will leave it to a last resort. I do have all the necessary recovery disks that come with the operating sys but I do not know how to make the recovery disk, haven't did it before, is it I just boot from the recovery cd itself?

Regarding the defragment, I was just trying to defragment my disk two days ago but that computer just shut off by itself halfway so I guess I never get to finish the defragmenting.

I have the ccleaner, used it already, I didn't download ccleanerslim, it's about the same function, right?

 

Glad things are improving. As the pc gets older and more cluttered you need to do more housekeeping.

Great you don't need to make the CDs if you already have them! Some manufacturers put the recovery stuff onto the hard drive and expect the user to copy it to cd, which he rarely does.

Any version of ccleaner is good.

Defrag will bomb out if other programs are running in the background. These can be screensavers, audio/graphics helpers etc.
Run from safe mode and stop all other programs in task manager first. Run defrag several times and you will see a steady improvementuntil it only take one or two minutes and the visual indicator shows no change. Clear out anything you dont want or were going to delete anyway - there is no point shifting rubbish around your hard drive.

You can defrag the boot process by going to (in regedit)

HKLM\software\microsoft\dfrg\bootoptimisefunction
double click on enable and enter Y

This defrag will happen next time you boot and will spedd up the boot.


You have only 256 Mb of RAM memory. You would see a real improvement if you added more. Post again if you want to do this as there are some settings to change afterwards. You may also like to think upgrading to a larger hard drive within the next year.

Studio T

 

Hi, I am back again. Just to let you know my computer is working fine for the past few days, and I do hope it will continue to work well. Thanks a lot for your help. I am still considering upgrading the RAM and Hard drive, because I may just get a new computer after few years more.

 

If it does the job why spend more?

Good ending.


Studio T