[Ruth L. Wexler]

[size=7] After I boot up with a lot of ominous noise and I try to open an application the system starts opening and opening ( I shut down after the 96th iteration). I tried reformatting but that did not help. Is there any way to resolve the problem without trashing the hard drive?
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Welcome to G2G, Ruth

Could you explain a little more clearly what the problem is please?
Am I right in thinking that your computer loads Windows ok (i.e it boots up to the Windows desktop ok) but opening any application/program causes the system to crash?
Can you describe the exact behaviour a little more clearly? i.e does it freeze, do you get any errors messages/blue screens etc?

Also, what sort of noise is the system making at boot up. Can you tell where the noise might be coming from?

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G, Ruth

Could you explain a little more clearly what the problem is please?
Am I right in thinking that your computer loads Windows ok (i.e it boots up to the Windows desktop ok) but opening any application/program causes the system to crash?
Can you describe the exact behaviour a little more clearly? i.e does it freeze, do you get any errors messages/blue screens etc?

Also, what sort of noise is the system making at boot up. Can you tell where the noise might be coming from?

[Ruth L. Wexler]

Welcome to G2G, Ruth

Could you explain a little more clearly what the problem is please?
Am I right in thinking that your computer loads Windows ok (i.e it boots up to the Windows desktop ok) but opening any application/program causes the system to crash?
Can you describe the exact behaviour a little more clearly? i.e does it freeze, do you get any errors messages/blue screens etc?

Also, what sort of noise is the system making at boot up. Can you tell where the noise might be coming from?

the system does boot up and then when I want to open something (anything) it just starts ok and then continues making more and more iterations of the application. It sort of freezes except for the iterations which is probably because the processor is so tied up. I am sorry but I can't describe the noise other than it does not seem healthy. Sort of clunk,clunk..... thanks Ruth

[Samm]

OK, it does sound like you may have a problem with the hard disk.


Can you please try the following steps :

1) Open My Computer & right click on the C: drive icon, then select <properties> from the drop down menu.

2) Can you make a note of (i) the total size of the C drive (i) the amount of free space left (iii) the file system used i.e NTFS or FAT32

3) Next, go to Programs->Accessories->System tools->Disk cleanup. Tick all the options in the disk cleanup window (ie Temporary Internet files, temp files etc) & click OK.

4) When disk cleanup has finished, go to the Run.. command on the start menu & type in cmd then click OK. This will open a DOS window. At the prompt, type: chkdsk c: /f /r
This will automatically fix any problems with the file system & then run a bad sector (surface) scan. It will ask you to reboot at some point in order to complete the check, so let it do this.

5) Once chkdsk has finished & rebooted etc, go to the Run.. command again & type msconfig <OK>
On the first page of msconfig, clear the checkbox thats labelled 'Load startup group items', then click Apply & OK. Then reboot the system

6) After rebooting, go to Programs->Accessories->System tools->Disk Defragmenter & run defrag.

7) Once this has finished, run msconfig again & this time tick the 'Load startup group items' box to re-enable it, then reboot.

Please note that chkdsk & defrag are likely to take a while to complete, so be patient!
If chkdsk finds any problems, let me know. Also let me know the values you recorded in step (2).