Computerrrr ERRORRR

[OminancE]

anyways.. we have 2 computers in our house, ones a really really nice gaming computer which is my brothers ( that i play on ..).. and other is my mom's computer that can't even run anything, she just uses it to sign into work and for her photography...

we have an older computer, with a decent graphics card that i can't even remember off the top of my head, but it could run source and alot of other games clean.. but the problem with it is,e verytime it runs up and what not, it'll go to the windows Xp screen, get past that, then the profile log in screen where you put ur password in.. after that the screen will go completely black ( as if it were about to show ur background start up image).. and then reset..

im not huge into knowing how computers work, i just love playing them ).. anyone have any advice on to what i should do?..... it's not a custom computer, it's a shuttle one that we bought years ago from Best buy, was supposed to be for gaming... and it's amazingly small, 1/3rd the size of a regula rtower.


-om

 

[OminancE]

and if i can't get it to run again, is there another way i can atleast get the programs off of it without taking it apart and having to put pieces into a diff computer to grab the programs..? i'd ask my brother, but he works about 70 hours a week ( 2 jobs).. and i don't bother him, he doesn't bother me kinda relationship lol.

 

[Badger]

sounds a lot like a ram issue really. Maybe an HDD issue but that feels like a stretch. Um. try swapping your mothers DDR into your comp and see if it'll boot. That is. if you're motherboard supports her ram. I really don't know from your info.

If all else fails, all you need to do is log onto steam on another computer using YOUR account and you can re-dl all your games for free. So you shouldn't have any trouble really with transferring games. Unless of course you have a handful of games that aren't a part of steam. Then you may have to swap the hard drive somewhere else.

 

[Insurge]

Solution: Don't watch teh pr0nz.

Well if it won't boot at all im not sure, sry. You could try a complete reinstall of windows but then u wud lose all your files

 

[OminancE]

meh yeah, msot of the games i want aren't part of steam, plus all my prom pictures from about 3-4 years ago are on there lol.

 

[bakerthree]

while booting it up have you tried it in safemode. this can be done during the start up by hitting the F8 key I believe. Also if you don't want to play with the ram from your moms computer you could just switch the ram in your slots if you have more than one stick.

do you hear any beeps while its booting up?

 

[Flippy the Squirrel]

Additionally, in the F8 menu (which has have to technically hit just before the Win XP splash screen), there's also an option called "Last Known Good Configuration," which will boot with portions of the registry in place that were earmarked as functional the last time you successfully got to a desktop. It's not always a guaranteed fix, but worth a shot.

Failing that, safe mode is a good option. Sometimes just getting into safe mode then back to regular Windows will fix things, although not always. Just to be safe, run CHKDSK /X from a command prompt from within safe mode, and that'll prompt you to set up your computer for a disk check the next time it boots.

If you just can't get into Windows, you can install XP into a different directory (e.g. C:\WINDOWS.000) and use that to gain access to your files long enough to back them up. Once you've done that, completely erase the hard drive and reload so you have a clean operating system install, and you should be back in business.

Need I mention the importance of backing stuff up regularly, which would help you avoid this problem?

 

[gamblor]

Also, if you really want to verify whether or not it's your RAM, try downloading Memtest86 from www.memtest86.com and then put the CD in and boot up the computer. Let it run for a while (an hour or 2 maybe?) then press esc and one of the options will be to view the results (option 4 or 5 I think). It will tell you if it found any errors.

 

[klay]

For a second I thought you were having a problem I had a while back. But My computer would crap out before windows would load with a stop . errorx10.
But since this appears to be a different problem I don't know what else to add to this that hasn't already been said. The only thing I can think of is before you try to reload your system, try a system restore to the last time you can remeber the system working. But really I don't know what else to tell you.
As for moving your files to another PC, if your willling to pay a little bit of money, I'd reccomend a external hard-drive