Computer Help

“My uncle just bought a kick as PC, but needs a printer, scaner, and fax. He is looking at the HP K60. Its an all in one deal. Can any one find me one of these that costs under 290$?


Thanks for your help”

“[a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11043054&m=488&cat=502&scat=505"]”

“Thanks, I just called him an left a message. However that was the HP v40. He is looking for the HP K60. But, He may like this one.”

“Just posting to keep this thread alive”

“i suck!”

“Still trying to keep this thread alive”

“Dude All in ones suck... The printer goes out, and you lose the scanner too.. Don't be a dumbass..”

“Let it die with some dignity, boy.”

“Okay, damnit....so I upgraded my dell a couple month ago to service pack 2. Finally had teh guts to it, and didn't have a problem until now.

Today it shut down all by itself. Just turned itself off.

I am not able to go back into safe mode,
last known good configuration,
or safe mode with c:>

won't let me do it. Will reboot itself over and over. I am able to see a blue screen, but it flashes by so quickly that I am not able to read what is giving me the problem.

Sort of figure it's the video card. not sure why...thought i read real quick apg during c:> booting (that was the line when it started to reboot again)... but I could be wrong.

Now...before I do the strastic and reinstall windows XP (I think it's Professional, not sure though right now)...

anyone know if there is anything else I am missing??

Will it even let me reinstall windows over the newer service pack 2 version??

Yeah, I am on on my office computer right now.”

“I used to get problems like that when the actual RAM (memory) chips inside the computer were failing. This sounds similar, so I would guess hardware failure to me. I don't think it has to do with SP2, because you would've seen any problems with that immediately.

Can you call Dell tech support about it? That would probably be your best bet.”

“oh boy...I can remove each chip to see I guess... Don't want to deal with dell support right now. i'll check it tomorrow.
so you don't think reinstalling of windows is needed huh?

Hmm, never had a ram problem, so who knows. could be.”

“Okay, I took a picture of the blue screen so I could read it. it's really hard to read anyway (blury) but this is what part of it said: 'A problem has been detected, and windows has shut down to prevent damage..."page fault in non paged area"
everything else is pretty much the same ol' blabla....

could be this, and that, and this...

here the picture:
lol...i know hard to read, but hey...i only had a split of a second.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/224700614/226724241EpHnqJ

still think it's the ram mem?
hmm, could be because I haven't installed any new software, or hardware within the last weeks. the damn printer gave me problems before, everytime someone else logged in into their login screen and I came back to my screen...well the printer gave me an error.

I did notice the last couple of days that I for some reason had to type in my password twice...it sort of send me back to the login screen after it displayed the desktop for a couple of seconds. It did that since yesterday or the day before.

don't know. damn!!
last edited: 12/03/04 10:16:34 PM”

“OK, nix that idea. I think you might have some bad RAM. Try pulling sticks and see if the problems go away. If not, then I think your problems are worse.
last edited: 12/03/04 10:49:11 PM”

“sheeshhh bit...u and that edit feature!! grin
last edited: 12/03/04 10:55:55 PM”

“Yah, if the serial connector isn't hooked up, it can't tell the computer to shut down. One of my wife's friends had a problem with her computer just shutting down on her, and it turned out to be the UPS. Like I said above, probably bad RAM.”

“dammit, I had a feeling u would say that.
Never really had a 'puter problem that I wasn't able to fix, even if it took a while...sort of was at a loss there...
damn...

hey...were u able to read the blue screen?
heehee, pretty good idea huh? heehee”

“hey this might sound dumb but try pulling the battery and letting it sit for 2mins then putting battery pack back in and powering it up.”

“never mind i was thinking it was a laptop....sorry”

“Ooh, good point. If you have a UPS connected to the serial port, try unplugging it from the serial port and seeing how the computer behaves. If it behaves fine, then there's a problem with the way the UPS program is set (ie, it's incorrectly shutting your computer down).

If you don't know what a UPS is, then this is not a problem...

Oh and by the way, the blue screen you got is actually the infamous "blue screen of death". It's just that the 5th generation of Windows (Windows 2000/XP) present it as a stop error and a memory dump, rather than just telling you that a fatal exception has occured, like in the past.”

“I'm going through the same thing right now. I added more ram and the blue screens began a week or so later. They began only on start up, then after a week or so it would blue screen while I was up and running, wiping out anything I was doing at the time. I got replacement modules from Crucial, but the blue screens started again. Funny thing about my blue screens, the message would change from one thing to another....I think I got a total of 5 different messages.

It seems to run fine on the original sticks. I'm going to swap the originals for my new modules and see what happens. When I tried that before the thing wouldn't even start.

In my case I suspect a bad motherboard or ram slot. While it does sound like you have a hardware problem, the blue screens can also be caused by bad drivers.

Reformatting might help if it is a bad driver, but you may not be able to if it is a hardware problem.

What year and model is your Dell? If it's newer and running dual channel memory you can't remove just one stick, you have to remove both (they have to be installed in pairs). How many slots are filled? Have you added any new programs or hardware recently?
last edited: 12/04/04 10:23:25 AM”

“not one of the newest models anymore. i think 1.4 ghz or so. I checked and the memory is pretty much filled with 4 chips. I think the ecc ram, or what was the name again? I paid a bunch of more for them back then.

Haven't added any memory to it, so it shouldn't be a compatiblility problem.

I didn't take anything out because it's a #&%!$ to reach the memory. I'll do that next week when I have time and money I guess. dammit!!

Formatting my HD: yeah... I have some pictures on there that are not on CD's yet, so it would REALLY, really suck if I would have to format.”

“Perhaps you'll get lucky and it will be one of your ram modules gone bad....of course, all you have to do is find which one.


Good luck.”

“You can always put it into a friend's computer temporarily (as a second hard drive, not as the boot drive) and get your pictures either onto their hard drive, or onto CDs. Then you can reformat it and not lose your photos.

But it sure does sound like bad memory or another hardware problem to me, too and in that case reformatting won't help much.

Start with the cheapest thing, checking the RAM. Re-seat it, and make sure and blow out the slots with canned air. Then maybe you can borrow a video card from someone to test that out. Remove or unplug everything from the computer that is not necessary, leaving only the hard drive, video and keyboard/mouse. If it works that way, add things back one at a time until you find the problem.”

“FYI, I've had three Dells at work have problems that were remedied simply by reseating the memory.”

“Gemini, it's happening because you removed that cute picture of embear and y'all from WebShots.”

“Yeah, the more I check the more I think it's teh memory or the video card. Sort of hoping for the video card. So much easier to take out. lol. I opened it yesterday, played around a little. Pretty damn dusty in there. Need to get me some air and hardware. Can always exchange them later. They know me pretty well at office max. LOL

Hate the spot where dell puts the memory. I have a dell manual, but...it's on the dell hard drive that doen't work. Smart huh? But i never printed it out. Idiot!! oh well...Right now I still have this computer, so I am fine.

Ya, ya, stovy!! that happend before me removing the pics. I think?? didn't it? Dang, I can't remember anymore.”

“For some reason my mouse keeps freezing up on me while pages load sometimes. The only way to fix it is to reboot...until it does it again. I also have some skipping in the cursor too. Anyone know what's wrong?”

“Probably not a problem with your mouse, sounds like your system. Do you have enough RAM? If it's an optical mouse have you checked the batteries (not likely the problem if it's only happening while pages load)”

“Have you tried substituting another mouse?
Have you loaded any new software recently?
Have you checked to see if the cable is plugged in tightly?
Have you run a adware or spyware scan recently?
Is your computer a piece of crap on its last legs?”

“The user is drunk????”

“Is the user wearing pants?”

““Is the user wearing pants?”
bitpusher
12:23:24 PM
12/09/04
ignore this user

Please say yes.”

“It's all the unauthorized software that gets into the computer, cuts down your speed, clogs up RAM and sometimes fouls up, thus blocking your mouse and/or other things. I call it unauthorized trespassing into my home and would like to see some strong laws against it.”

“Do you have enough RAM?

*Yes. It’s brand new problem that just came up.

“Have you tried substituting another mouse?

*No. I don’t have a spare.

Have you loaded any new software recently?

No.

Have you checked to see if the cable is plugged in tightly?

*Yes.

Have you run a adware or spyware scan recently?

No. I recently cleaned the hard drive out of this type stuff.

Is your computer a piece of crap on its last legs?”

*No. It’s a nice speedy Compaq.

“The user is drunk????”

*Dude! It’s like frickin’ 1:30PM. I sobered up from breakfast hours ago.

“Is the user wearing pants?”

*Do underpants count?”

“Spare mice are like $5 now, it pays to have one lying around.

Didn't you recently load a new browser?”

“Get Spybot and Adaware and run them 10 times.”

“USB 2 question...

so a while back I bought a DVD recordable...it came with a USB 2 card I had to install...
then i brought the computer to the shop because i need to recover the hard drive info...and well...all of a sutton it didn't recognize the card as a usb 2 card.

back then i suspected someone exchange the usb 2 card for a plain old usb1 card...but wasn't sure...

a couple month ago i bought another usb2 card and installed it...AGAIN my computer does not recognize the card as a USB2 card. Tells me that it is a usb1 card, and will read it as such...even my mp3 player that will upload much faster from the usb2 card tells me it is only a usb 1 card...

now I am wondering...am I that lucky? did someone really exchange the USB2 card for a plain USB1 card?? Twice in a row??

or is there something else wrong? I can't really find anything... i don't see what the problem could be, i really don't...

strange...”

“Did they change your motherboard?”

“nope...they did get my hard drive data and then exchanged the hard drive. I think they did install windows xp again. can't really remember, it was either htem or me. I do know that they installed a new hard drive without my approval. i jsut wanted the data of my old drive...

the usb card is in a pci slot...”

“This may be a Service Pack issue:

If you are using Windows 2000, I think it needs to be at least Service Pack 3 in order to be able to use USB 2.0. Otherwise, it will only recognize it as USB 1.1.

Same thing goes for Windows XP, but I believe you need Service Pack 1 for that system.

Right-click on My Computer/Properties to see which, if any Service Pack is installed on Windows on your computer. You can also check out Windows Update for more details.

Finally, you may want to check with the card vendor's website that you are using the correct driver for the USB adapter.

Good Luck!
last edited: 12/14/04 9:45:10 PM”

“ps i have updated all my windows now. it should recognize it. shoot...this dell right here already has 2 usb2 ports...and it recognizes them...but not the cards...

correct driver. did check that.
is there a way to see after taking the card out if it's usb 2 or not? i honestly really think i was twice cheated out of the card.
i mean i didn't have a problem installing the card before...so now all of a sutton?? it's just really strange...

i know it even stranger that this happend twice...but hey...

it's an easy way to cheat the stores...think about it...”

“Is the device you're trying to use USB 2.0 compatible, and are you sure you're using the correct driver for that? Have you installed that driver since you installed the USB 2.0 card in your computer?

When you install a USB 2.0 controller, Windows actually creates 2 devices out of it. One uses the USB 2.0 driver, and the other uses the USB 1.1 driver. When you plug something into the USB plug, Windows automatically determines if that device is USB 2.0 compatible. If it is, it will use the USB 2.0 driver; if it is not, it will revert to the USB 1.1 driver.

It's possible that your device's driver is causing the USB controller to revert to USB 1.1.”

“You may also want to make sure that you have a USB Root Hub 2.0 installed in under Universal Serial Bus Controllers in the Device Manager (Right-click on My Computer/Properties/Hardware tab/Device Manager button).

If it's installed correctly, it's not a problem with the USB controller. If it isn't, you may have to contact the USB card manufacturer to find out what went wrong.”

“Since you don't know how the shop installed/upgraded XP, this might apply to your situation.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329632”