Dead Computer?

[Cloverjo]

My Dell computer with XP has been running very slowly for a while, and was excruciatingly slow earlier today. I decided to restart, but it won't. I get a screen briefly showing the Windows logo and saying "resuming Windows" with an option of pressing F2 to Setup and F12 for Diagnostics (or something similar) and then a black screen with a white mouse arrow, and that's it.
I have switched off and on manually and pressed F2, but there was nothing to help there. I then reswitched off and on and pressed F12, where I was able to do a test of all components, which passed.
I have tried pressing F8 during the boot up phase, but this does nothing.
Any more ideas please?

[Cloverjo]

Hi methyl.
It is a desktop about five years old, maybe more. Can't find a model number. No hardware upgrades. It has always been slow, but just before this problem it was ridiculously slow. It has never failed completely like this, though.
Thank you.

[galeck1947]

As XP finishes next year in April you should be considering a replacement computer with Windows 7 you can still order one until 24th October 2014 if you don't wish to use Windows 8

[Hypognosis]

Can you find your Windows XP master CD?

If yes, you'll need to power up the computer to get the CD drive drawer open. Insert the CD and press the restart button.

Press F2 to get to the computer setup menu (what I refer to as the CMOS setup screen) and look for an option which lets you change the order of priority for bootup drive. Any option which puts the floppy drive or DC drive ahead of the hard drive should work. F10 to save and exit.

The computer should start and proceed to boot from the CD. A menu should appear which will allow you to run the "Windows Recovery Console" and other options.

Just beware that "reinstall" of Windows entails totally wiping out the user data on your hard drive. If you make regular backups of data, this isn't a major problem. However, you're then back to the condition of XP when you bought it and have to do a stack of Windows updates to get back to where you were yesterday.

Having said all that, 5 years is the point at which I'd expect a hard drive to begin to fail. Let us know whether you use the Windows tools called Disk Cleanup, Scandisk and Defragmenter regularly, occasionally, or never. If the answer is "never" there may be some scope to make it better again.

A replacement hard drive could be a cheaper alternative to a whole new computer and your local computer engineer could possibly help with moving data from the old drive to the new - your last hope if you have no backup system in place.

[Cloverjo]

Hi, hypnognosis. I have a recovery XP cd for my previous computer, which was a different make, but a tech guy on another forum said this should be ok as long as XP version is the same: home or pro. I don't think they are the same, but this is my best hope it seems. However, the comp itself has been threatened with being thrown out of the window many times, so I'm not bothered about that itself, but there are photos, videos etc. that I want to keep. Should I still try the recovery cd? From what you said, I guess not. Thanks for your help.
Btw, I have used disk cleanup, defrag etc. a couple of times, but not for a while. Stupidly, I never think a computer will fail.

[thumper93]

dont do a repair /recovery its not worth it do a complete reinstall its just as long and will give you a better working comp
if you can't get the cd draw to open get a pin and put the piont in the tiny hole on the cd draw press in and it will open
you will of course loose all your comps doc pic etc

[Cloverjo]

Thank you, thumper, but I really want and need some of my docs and pics so that might be a last resort.
I have tried using the recovery cd for my old comp, but it won't recognise it or do anything. I guess I'll have to get someone to look at it, and hope he/ she can salvage my important stuff.
Thanks for replies, guys.

[MichaelZZ]

You say you have "..tried pressing F8 ... but this does nothing." Have you actually tried tapping the F8 key repeatedly immediately you start booting up)? This will take you to "Safe Mode". You should be able to run Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org) which may detect and remove any nasty infections you've picked up.
Another thought occurs to me:
Have you installed all the recommended Windows updates? (My daughter's laptop was running horrendously slowly and it turned out that the reason for this was that it was trying to install updates. When she got fed up of waiting she'd turn it off but next time she switched on it went through the whole procedure again. If you just let the updates run, which could take an hour, this may solve at least part of your problem.
There are a couple of other things you could try but I'll not confuse the issue at this stage.
If you let us know how you go on there's sure to be someone on here who'll walk you through "Memtest" and "AdwCleaner.
Hope this helps.

[Hypognosis]

If I remember rightly, the Master XP CD should at least allow you to seee a boot menu with an option including "Boot Windows in Safe Mode".

If you can remember back to the days of the DOS prompt, you may find yourself in familiar territory. You ought to be able to at least browse the contents of drive C:

If the HDD allows you to browse contents then there is hope that your local computer repairer might stand a chance of doing data recovery/transfer onto a replacement HDD or onto a replacement computer you buy from new.

Short term, they could transfer photos etc onto a USB stick or burn them to DVDs, so that you don't have to hurriedly shop for the new PC.


Safe Mode bypasses much of the operating system and viruses or malware dependent on those higher level functions are prevented from running. If the computer is still chronically slow in this mode then it absolves recent software installations from being the cause, leaving us with the choice of dodgy HDD or some other hardware fault.

[Cloverjo]

I managed to get the comp to access the recovery cd and it started to look promising until it asked for the administrator password. I have no idea what this is. I don't have a password for day to day logging on, and I tried just pressing Enter. No good.

[Hypognosis]

I wasn't expecting that problem. It might be the case that only the shop who sold you the computer would know the Admin password and who's to say if they retined that info. At the very least they'll want to charge you £50 for out-of-warranty servicing/repair.

I searched and found this (try not to click on the adverts, trying to sell you products to fix this specific problem)

http://www.wikihow.com/Log-on-to-Windows-XP-Using-the-Default-Blank-Administrator-Password

It's self-explanatory enough but in the 'Tips' section are some technical details which are beyond my understanding and only after those are one or two caveats that might have been more usefully placed at the top of the page.

For instance, if you only had one "User account" on your PC, then it probably had administrator priviledges. So, when it asks for admin password, your regular logon password may have been what it wanted.

Errr, you did have a logon password, right? (that's another debate, save it for later)

One of the other caveats was about XP SP2 possibly behaving differently from the worked example and suggests selecting "Safe Mode with Networking".

Hope this helps.

[Cloverjo]

Thank you for your trouble, but I'm afraid pressing F8 on starting does not bring up a Safe Mode option or do anything else. I have tried tapping, holding down and just singularly pressing F8.
A blank Admin password is not accepted, nor is any of my usual password choices.

[Cloverjo]

Hooray, hooray. My computer is back! Thank you hypnognosis for your time and help!
For those with a similar problem who happen to stumble across this thread: removing the power cable, pressing power button for 5 seconds, reinserting power cable, restarting brings up the safe mode menu, and then you know what to do from there.

I must look at MichaelZZ's suggestions when I get back from work later.
Thank you all again.