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pc crashed!help!


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#1
scarface1100

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I have an older dell dimesion desktop, approx 5 years old...it has a pent 4 ,1.8gz, and a fairly new 200gb hard drive installed about a year ago....the computer was basically my old junker computer that worked fairly well ;I used mainly for surfing the internet & downloading music & that type of stuff.I wasn't running any virus protection or any spyware.The computer started slowing down so I decided to do a full system sweep using mcafee virus software- in turned out there were several threats on the computer....well I am not to computer savy, so I decided to try to delete the files & folders the threats were located in(one being a win32 folder, I think??),& when I tried to restart, windows would not boot up; actually nothing would, it just says "invalid system disk,please replace disk & press any key"...this message appears immediatly when powering up the computer.
so I know I must have deleted some very important files, because the computer was working fine until I started deleting stuff(pretty stupid, huh?) :blink: ....I was wondering if there is anything I can do to fix this problem & get this old thing running again. Or if there is a way I can recover any info off this computer. Or is this computer just one big paper weight now? I have another new computer that I use for work, but it would be nice to have this computer working again just for recreational purposes & learning...This computer was basically my old beater car, never do any maintanance , just ride it until the engine blew up......
any info is appreaciated. :whistling:
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#2
Kemasa

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The machine is still useable (it is faster than what I am using right now :-).

If you have a normal install disk, you could try reinstalling the OS. I think Dell ships with CDs that completely reload the OS, so you don't want to do that until you get any data off that you want.

You could move the disk to another machine and get the data off, but make sure that you run a virus check on the other machine first, then install the disk. You could also get another disk to reinstall the OS and use the existing disk as a data disk.

It all depends on how you want to do it and how important the data is on the system.
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#3
p-zero

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It sounds liek you have an old Dell Dimension 81/8200. I still have one and it still works GREAT! Anyway, sounds like you have deleted some system files. Try doing this first, start your compter up when the dell logo appears on the bottom of the screen it says 'hit f8(f10 sometihng like that) for options. This should take you to your BIOS. There will be a tab that says boot priority or boot sequence, scroll down to it set it to boot from your cd/dvd drive first. insert your windows xp disk let it boot. Itll prompt you to either reformat the drive or repair it. Select the repair drive option and let it do its thing, depending on how many files youve deleted this could and more than likely will take a while so be patient. When its done itll restart and it should boot into windows normally. And there you go it should be repaired. if that doesnt work then do what kemasa said, and try getting all of your wanted files (music,etc.) off of it. Or you could just get your old HDD plug it in as a master drive set the problem drive jumper to slave and try to get your info off of it that way. Hope this helps.
-P.
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#4
scarface1100

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well , I tried to reinstall windows , by doing the repair procedure & saving old files, while reinstalling windows. Half way through the installation ,an error occured:
" SUWIN has caused a General Protection Fault in Module VERX.DLL at 0002:24AE."
It gave me the option to ignore or cancel; Ignore had no responce & cancel would just terminate the whole process. I tried several times & still the same results . so then I just tried to reinstall windows without saving any old files still on the disk & I still got the same result... :whistling: ....
I installed a 2006 norton anti virus disk & it did an emergency scan & it says there is no viruses or corrupted files...after the scan is complete it shows the results of the scan ,which appear o.k. and " a:/< " prompt comes up waiting for me to enter somthing......the only other cd that came will my Dell Dimension that looks useful besides the windows reinstallation cd, is " backup: dell-installed programs"disc ,however the computer will not boot off this disc...ive never made any other recovery disc's or backup disc's...i've heard somthing about creating emergency disks with my norton av cd ...I wonder if this might work?I read a little in the norton av user's guide & it said there should be a disk doctor prompt when starting with the av software , but it does not come up; it will just immediatly do a system scan when trying to boot with the nortion disc............Im lost.........
how could I move this disk to another machine like kemasa said, if that is my only option? & if windows will not reinstall due to this error, does that mean my hard drive is fried? by the way, it is windows Me that came with this Dell, I don't know if that will make any differance.....
sorry for the 101 questions .
thanks again for any help.

Edited by scarface1100, 13 May 2006 - 10:24 PM.

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#5
scarface1100

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I found this correction procedure for the " SUWIN VERX.DLL " error message when trying to reinstall windows me :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SYMPTOMS
When you try to reinstall Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) on a computer that has a previous installation of Windows Me, the installation fails when the file copy process is 60 percent to 70 percent completed. When this issue occurs, you may receive one or both of the following error messages:
An error has occurred in your application. If you choose ignore you should save your work in a new file. If you choose close, your application will terminate.
SUWIN caused a general protection fault in module verx.dll at 0002:24AE
Back to the top

CAUSE
This issue may occur when you try to reinstall Windows Me on a computer that has Windows Media Player 9 installed on it.
Back to the top

RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, you can use an MS-DOS emergency disk to start your computer. Then rename Windows Media Player files to revert your version of Windows Media Player to version 7. After you reinstall Windows Me, you can upgrade Windows Media Player to the latest version. To do these things, follow these steps:1. Use an MS-DOS startup floppy disk to start your computer.

Note If your computer starts from the hard disk instead of from the floppy drive, you may have to change the start sequence in your computer's CMOS settings.a. Insert the Windows Me Startup disk.
b. Click Start, and then click Shutdown.
c. Click Restart, and then click OK.
d. When the computer restarts, choose Start Computer with CD-ROM support, Start Computer without CD-ROM support, or Minimal Boot.


2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, and press ENTER after each:• c:
• cd windows\system
• ren wmp*.dll *.lld
• ren wmp.ocx *.xco
• cd \progra~1
• ren window~1 wmp9

3. Remove the Windows Me Startup floppy disk, and then start your computer normally.
4. Reinstall Windows Me.
5. Upgrade Windows Media Player to the latest available version. To do this, visit the Windows Update Web site. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Windows Update.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I know this is causing my error, because I have windows media player 9 .I don't have any ms dos emergency disks. do I need to create one off another computer that is running ME?
Im a little confused on steps 3 & 4 , due to my situation , where my computer will not start normally. I would like to try this first , however , would it just be easier to try and install windows xp instead, or am I looking for more problems? If xp is a good option , where can I get a free copy off the internet to download to a dvd?
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#6
startechie

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this will completely wipe your hdd and all partitions. you will need to boot to your Dell resource cd which came with the pc. (drivers disk) choose with cdrom support. when you will need to run fdisk to recreate the partitions then you can reinstall a fresh copy


Debug script.
http://support.dell....c=us&l=en&s=gen

Reinstallation guide. (win ME) dell.
http://support.dell....c=us&l=en&s=gen

after you reinstall your OS the first thing you will want to do is install the CHIPSET DRIVER!
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#7
scarface1100

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what is the chipset driver?
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#8
startechie

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Intel chipset is the driver for the motherboard components. IE: IDE bus controller, ACPI, SMbus controller, etc. If you install the drivers not in the recomended order it is posible you will have to reinstall the OS completely again. Recomended Order.

1. Intel Chipset
2. Video Card
3. Sound Card
4. Keyboard and Mouse
5. Modem Card
6. Network Card


http://support.dell....18FB934DB390E93
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