# Pc Help!



## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Had big problems lately. Upshot is my PC is booked for an expensive drive replacement on Tues.

However since reistalling Windows, not been to bad - touch wood.

However it has just gone over old copy of course.

Keep getting message registry needs fixing. Can anybody recommend a good program? The drive diagnostic was done by phone by Sony them selves. If I can fix th obvious things for now, new drive can wait till can afford it easier. Virus scans, etc not saying it has a big problem. Tried a total reformat but it said drives were mounted, then locked when i try unmount them.

Thanks.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

if its only the messages that are a problem (pain) and windows is running ok you should be able to turn them off (cant remember where but someone will ) ,most registry 'fixers' just delete dead keys ,the best ive found is jv16 powertools ,its shareware but you can give it a try , hopefully it will delete all the crap in one go on its first scan.

jv16

to turn the warnings off >

type 'services.msc' no qoutes in the run box

scroll down the list untill you see 'error reporting service' ,double click it and change to 'disabled' then apply and exit (close)

that should stop it moaning at you i think


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Hi Paul, I read of your PC woes elsewhere but thought you may have been sorted by now so didn't reply









My immediate thought is that you don't need a new hard disk. Your hard disk is obviously working so why replace it?

What you do appear to have is a corrupted Operating System. As a rule of thumb I never try to repair (or upgrade) an OS by installing over the top of an existing one. A clean install is the only way to go if you want to avoid a lot of problems later on. There are lots of "Registry Cleaner" type programs out there but in this case I don't think they're going to help you and may actually make the situation worse.

If you can, delete the original partitions on your hard disk and install the OS again completely from scratch by booting the PC from the original CD (I assume we're talking Win XP here?). Important data can then be recovered from backups after re-installing the OS. Please tell me you have backups!


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## Running_man (Dec 2, 2005)

Mrcrowley said:


> Had big problems lately. Upshot is my PC is booked for an expensive drive replacement on Tues.
> 
> However since reistalling Windows, not been to bad - touch wood.
> 
> ...


Totally agree with Richard - Rebuild the system! If you've had your PC over 12 months using the same software setup, I'd save all of your work, pictures etc and boot from the Windows CD, format the drive and reinstall everything from scratch. It can be a long boring task but it's good to do every 12 - 18 months and will leave you with a healthier and noticeably faster system. Installing over the top of an exinsing installation doesn't clear everything out and you're often left with the same problems as you had before.

In my experience, Windows of any flavour needs a reinstall every so often if you want a fast, stable system. At work when people complain of slow systems but by the time it takes to delve into the cause of the various software issues we've solved the problem by reimaging their hard drive from the network. It never fails.

Andrew.









Better still, buy a Mac...


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Running_man said:


> Mrcrowley said:
> 
> 
> > Had big problems lately. Upshot is my PC is booked for an expensive drive replacement on Tues.
> ...


Thanks lads.

Problem is, it wont let me format the drives to install a fresh copy. Says disks need unmounting first. However then says lock cant be unmounted.

If i can get past this I have XP here ready to reinstall.


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## Running_man (Dec 2, 2005)

Mrcrowley said:


> Thanks lads.
> 
> Problem is, it wont let me format the drives to install a fresh copy. Says disks need unmounting first. However then says lock cant be unmounted.
> 
> If i can get past this I have XP here ready to reinstall.


If you boot from the Windows XP CD it should go on OK.

Andrew.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

how are you trying to format the drive ? by letting windows do it on setup? ,try pressing F8 on boot then choosing 'command prompt only' then type format c: at the dos prompt.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

pugster said:


> how are you trying to format the drive ? by letting windows do it on setup? ,try pressing F8 on boot then choosing 'command prompt only' then type format c: at the dos prompt.


That's when it brought up all stuff about unmounting disks. Never had that on past PCs before.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

have you tried 'unmount c' no quotes in command prompt ? you may have to type A: first then unmount c ,something about not being able to unmount a drive in use blah blah i think.

you can also try killdisc theres floppy and cd iso with autoboot.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Check your BIOS settings. Make sure that your PC checks for CD's before the hard disk when looking for bootable devices. Place the Windows XP disc in the CD Drive and reboot the machine. The PC should then boot off the CD and enter the intallation/setup program and not mount any file systems on the hard disk.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Mrcrowley said:


> pugster said:
> 
> 
> > how are you trying to format the drive ? by letting windows do it on setup? ,try pressing F8 on boot then choosing 'command prompt only' then type format c: at the dos prompt.
> ...


Well done it now.My Win disk was an upgrade. So I need to get am original. Until then my pc is useless. Will contact a friend tomorrow.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Depending on your set up at home, it might be worth trying to get XP Pro rather than Home Edition if you can. This includes Terminal Services so that you (or someone else) can connect remotely to your machine via RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). This could be useful for future support/diagnosis as it's a lot easier to let someone see the problem for themselves rather than trying to explain it over the phone 

We can go through that later, if you want.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Thanks for that Rich.

I have 2 versions of Windows on their way from relatives-home edition and corporate. My brother tells me not to even bother with the latter. If you think this wise let me know please. Once I have one or other on I have XP Pro upgrade disk. So should be ok right?


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

I'm not sure what the "corporate" version is. Sounds like it might be a volume licensing edition which means the license for your machine would effectively belong to the company that paid for that license. Probably best avoided for all sorts of reasons.

If you install Home Edition, then it is possible to upgrade to Pro, although whether your Pro upgrade disc will work or not I don't know. We'll have to try it and see.

If you eventually end up with the Pro version the next steps would basically be:

1. Give your machine a static IP address if it doesn't already have one

2. Install Terminal Services

3. Create a firewall rule that forwards external connections to Port 3389 (the default I think, if I remember correctly) to the static IP address of your machine

4. **Important** _Disable_ the firewall rule _until_ you want someone to connect to your machine to diagnose a problem


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Cheers Rich. I will be in touch once I have normal Windows running. Go from there eh?


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Well, up & running again, not wanting to tempt fate.

It's so annoying in times like this that when you buy a PC, they're now too stingy to give you a copy of the OS. I've been through 3, third time lucky. A woman at Microsoft told me I could install 98, ME or XP, then use my XP Pro disk.

I borrowed a copy of 98, & the PC didn't want to know. Thankfully Pauluspaolo came to the rescue with a copy of XP. Many thanks for your help today Paul, & to you others who gave advice. Much appreciated. Right, now i'm going out to sell the bloody thing.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

I sometimes have days like this:


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Like that one Rich.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Know how he feels.

I have a running PC, but no sound. Now is that down to Windows or Sony's sound card? It has no name on it so dunno what drivers to download.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Right-click the My computer icon on your desktop and select Manage from the menu.

In the left-hand pane of the Computer Management window, select Device Mananger.

In the Right-hand pane, all of your computer's various devices will be displayed.

Those with a problem should be highlighted by an exclamation mark in a yellow disc.

Right-clicking on the various devices and selecting Properties will help you to troubleshoot any problems.

Also, try Start, Settings, Control Panel, Sound and Audio Devices. Maybe you have the volume control turned right down or have muted the speakers?


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