A computer that may be beyond repair...

**rambo** · 03-14-2005, 10:15 PM

Someone asked me to repair their computer, because it's been ridiculously buggy. It freezes nonstop, can't use IE, nothing is really working. I tried to defragment it, but after about 3 years, this thing is beyond defragmenting, it would take about 2 weeks for the program to run its course. I'm wondering if completely reinstalling XP would help, or if I should have them buy a new hard drive all together, and then reinstall XP. All the really need to do is internet surf and word process.

Any approaches a guru would suggest?

**purplelaceteddy** · 03-14-2005, 10:19 PM

a 3 year old ...un kept HD.....man sounds like a nightmare...and all they did was surf the net...i bet theres Virus on it from here to hell and back.....

how big is the HD.? i'm thinking 3 years ago...can't be too large......

**BigMike J** · 03-14-2005, 10:26 PM

Why not format and reinstall?

**max2extreme** · 03-15-2005, 06:35 AM

yea, just format and reinstall..always helps.

**arthurb999** · 03-15-2005, 11:53 AM

Yep. Format and reinstall windows... will be like night and day.

**Juggernaut** · 03-15-2005, 01:14 PM

There you have it Rambo...three reformat and reinstall's and one how big is the hard drive. Let me know if you need any help....I can lay my hands on my computer and heal it from here.

**rambo** · 03-15-2005, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by Juggernaut

I can lay my hands on my computer and heal it from here.

It's a computer, not a 12 year old boy, so calm down.

Thanks all, will do.

**clhp20** · 03-17-2005, 03:13 PM

get an eval version of System Mechanic 5, Run everything that it has to offer, then defrag last thing,, Try that before you go to the hassles of reinstalling, and then trying to get old programs back.

System Mechanic, is a very good tool. It will clean your PC from top to bottom with no worries of deleting something that you might need.

Also. run a Virus scan to see if it is infected...

Last result. REINSTALL XP

**Arf** · 03-18-2005, 01:18 PM

ummmm .... load device manager .... and expand all the listings... you will need to know what vid card sound card and ether it has at a minimum .... take a screen cap and print or just write it all down ..... get a standard win9x boot disk and fdisk the partition table..... remove the pri partition reboot and create a new one ...set it to boot .... and
once at a: ...fdisk / mbr to make sure the mbr is clean and no exec viruses remain ....
pop in xp cd and do a fresh clean install.... once installed boot ...go back to device manager and locate any yellow "?" ...refer to ur screen cap of device manager before u formatted and google the drivers for that system.... btw xp sux ...use 2000 or nix.... /me arf's ... :: (ps if u need help pm me...)

**Sapper** · 03-18-2005, 09:37 PM

Chances are, they're loaded up with spyware and adware. Get Ad-aware and spybot and use them in tandem:
http://www.security.kolla.de <- spybot
http://www.lavasoft.com <- ad-Aware

I do this stuff in my free time, and I have yet to have to wipe a hard drive.
Good luck.