Bit OT - WinXP PC locks up!

[Nick]

Ignorance on my part, but how do you make a slipstreamed install cd? I have heard of it but have no idea of the processes involved. Nick.

[Adrian Brentnall]

Hmm - as I say, 99% of the time it occurs while I'm using this web design program - and I think that I first noticed it after installing the latest version of it ....

...however - that's not a big help, as the files it works with aren't backwards compatible, so I can't go back to V11....

I'm in the process of migrating my various sites away to a new program called 'WYSIWYG' which has many advantages - not the least of which being that it doesn't trip over its own shoelaces and fall flat on its face!

Have turned on DrWatson - so we'll see what it notices the next time there's an incident.

Thanks Adrian

[Adrian Brentnall]

That'd be back in January..... there's been a fair few installs & upgrades since then.

As I say - the problem occurred round about the time the new version of this software came out - so I'm perfectly prepared to believe that's where the fault lies....

Thanks Adrian

[Adrian Brentnall]

Somebody else said that - I didn;t know that trick - thanks - will try that next time it falls over

Adrian

[Adrian Brentnall]

I've just turned Dr Watson on (sounds kinda kinky!) so we'll see what that shows next time there's a crash

Thanks Adrian

[Adrian Brentnall]

It's a Dell - so it may not be standard Would that cause a system freeze.... as in 'display fine but not responding' ?

Thanks Adrian

[DavidM]

I've found the people on this site very helpful when I had problems:

'll have to sign up in order to post, but it's free. They will even "talk" you through a whole set of diagnostics, some I'd never heard of.

[John Rumm]

Hold the power button down for 5 secs - bit kinder than yanking the mains.

Any random reboots? Do you get any messages on recovery?

What processor is it?

[John Rumm]

Yes, you can opt for a repair install of most XP CDs. This will go through the motions of sticking everything back on into the same directory.

Another option is to install to a different directory say c:\win2 - then you will get a parallel install with a choice of which to run at boot time. That lets you try out a fresh install and see if that is any better but still leaves the option to go back to the old one as was if it proves not to be.

You may find the Dell disks are recovery disks - these may not have the options to do a repair or parallel install. If so find a proper XP CD (and slipstream it to SP3 if needs be)

Certainly faster from what I have seen so far.

Install MS virtual PC and then you can play with these things in a nice sandbox and find one you like without making major changes to your machine.

[Tinkerer]

I had similar problems with Netobjects Fusion. It was version 10 and the problem occurred after installing all the updates. Reinstalled Fusion but ignored the updates and all was well. Might not be your problem, but then again......

[John Williamson]

I've got it to a routine. All the data's on D:\, with the images of the install CDs and DVDs, so it's format C:/U, and go for it.

I do back up all the data to another system first, just in case, but I do that most days anyway. All data is present in at least three, often five, locations on different machines and USB drives.

If you'd seen my flat, you'd know.....

[Tinkerer]

I just installed XP and kept all the old progs etc. Took a couple of hours. All you do is a normal install but, when asked about formatting, opt to keep the existing file system and ignore activation requests. Windows creates a new Windows folder and users folders but adds a 0 to all their names. Once the install is finished you can edit boot.ini to remove the additional entry so that it points to the original Windows folder and then delete all the folders with a 0 on the end. Reboot and you are back with your old system. I have done it several times on different machines and it has worked every time so far. By the way, first boot after the install, you will have a choice of two Windows XP systems. Choose either, then edit boot.ini as above, reboot again and clear out the 0 suffix folders.

[Adrian Brentnall]

No random reboots - no messages on recovery

According to 'my computer;...

Intel Dual Cpu E2200 @ 2.2ghz

Thanks Adrian

[tony sayer]

Why do you do that John?. Which version of Win are you running as we have a good mix of WIN 200 Pro and XP machines around and all in there're running fine, some been on the go 6 odd or more years!...

[John Williamson]

I've not personally used this method, but:-

one way.

[hugh]

In message , Adrian Brentnall writes

How much memory have you got?

[Tabby]

Mistake. IME you need to wipe the disc and redo everything, or regrets are likely. Its not hard.

Now that people have broadband its very easy. Nothing like it was in the dial up years.

Hugely. Ubuntu has transformed linux from geekdom to even more newbie friendly than windows. Mint has sorted ubuntu's niggles out. For a machine that age I'd suggest Mint 7 (but not mint 9 or 10). Mint 7 comes with firefox 3.0, upgrade it to 3.6, 3.0 has problems.

Then set up dualboot with mint and xp, if you know how to partition the disc suitably (windows needs NTFS, Linux needs ext3) or know someone that does. Mint likes 10G or so as ext3, plus a 2G swap partition, and give xp the rest.

Dual boot has real advantages: when windows dies, linux will work fine until you sort another machine out, you can use linux to fix windows, and you can play with linux now and then, and seamlessly move over to it any time if you like.

John Williams> I've got it to a routine. All the data's on D:\, with the images of the

Excellent plan. Use the previous machine's hdd as the new machines C:, and use a new bigger disc for the data disc D:. It makes life /so/ much easier. Computer dies? Just plug the disc into another, its that easy. Need to reformat and reindtall OS? Just unplug data disc, wipe all, then plug it back in. Data never at risk.

NT

[Robin]

Yerrbut - you can look in the Event Viewer *now*. See

look in the application and system logs in particular for the red error events and see what their source was.

PS If you have not looked at the logs before be prepared for an awful lot of errors and even more warnings. Most are ignorable.

[Steve Walker]

I used to work for a company fifteen years ago that backed up their system to tape, kept a copy in the "fireproof" safe and another off-site, plus backing up to remote servers on two different continents. An excellent backup system, except that most of out information was still on paper drawings and quite often you'd find one that was not only the only known copy in the world, but was so aged as to be almost unreadable!

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

I had similar problems with random lock-ups, but in my case it was after changing to Windows 7. Went back to XP, fine, re-installed 7, random crashes. After trying many things, I eventually downloaded a free memory testing program (I can't remember which) which could be burned to disk and booted from and I quickly tracked it down to a few faulty bits in a couple of memory locations. I removed the offending memory and everything was fine again. I had a similar experience with another computer many years ago which would run Windows NT fine, but crashed mid installation when installing Windows Me (NT didn't allow the use of the USB ports, hence the change to Me).

SteveW