Re:Pulling the Plug On Windows, Literally

From: Bruce (parcxman_at_netscape.net)
Date: 05/19/04 

Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 17:44:09 +0000 (UTC)

Bruce <parcxman@netscape.net> wrote in
news:Xns94E0C55F9482Dparcxmannetscapenet@204.127.204.17:

> Hi,
>
> I've got a retired friend who, for three years, literally pulls the
> plug on his machine when he gets ANY kind of error. For instance, he
> runs OE, and if the yellow triangle appears in the lower right hand
> portion of his screen because when OE went out to the Comcast mail
> server to check for mail, and the mail server for whatever reason
> couldn't be reached, he pulls the plug on the machine. When the
> machine boots back up, the yellow triangle is gone, so he tells me
> that fixes the problem. There are many other times he pulls the plug,
> and thinks this solves problems. We've been round and round on
> this...
>
> Lately, during normal operations, and especially after his screen
> saver comes on (with other programs running in the background), his
> machine has been displaying an error saying that it can't access the
> hard drive. I don't know if this is a system error or application
> error. From what he describes, it sounds like a system error. I'll
> find out more later. What does he do to make this error go away? He
> pulls the plug. However, now he's getting thrown into Safe Mode. I
> get the phone call to help him out.
>
> Now, since the Sasser worm is in the news, he swears this is causing
> his problem. He runs WinME. I know this is an XP ng, but I have a
> general question, unrelated to a particular OS.
>
> I suspect that all the plug pulling and not shutting down orderly,
> along with never (3 years) defragging, has caused a lot of broken
> clusters. Could this be true?
>
> I suggest a partition, scandisk, and installation of XP.
>
> Thanks,
> Bruce

On May 10, I took time off work and made the 2 hour trip to my friend's
place to do a clean install of XP from ME. I left home at 8 am and
arrived back home at midnight. We still have similar, if not the same
problems, we had with ME. I now don't know if I have a power supply,
motherboard, memory, BIOS, or hard drive problem.

(I want to thank you all for your input and suggestions, and for
identifying some of the issues of which I had to be aware.)

Here's what I did. Sorry it's long, but it's mainly lays out the
process:

1. Copied out all data and OE address book to cd
2. Unplugged all peripherals
3. Inserted Microsoft Windows XP Upgrade cd into cd rom (This was a genuine
Microsoft Windows XP upgrade cd, from Microsoft) turned off machine
4. Turned on machine
5. System asked if I wanted to do an upgrade or new install
6. I said new install.
7. System asked to insert qualifying Windows cd; I thought system would
recognize current WinMe installation, and not ask for cd I called
Gateway Computer, who told me to insert their Gateway WinMe restore cd,
which would be the qualifying cd.
8. This didn't work. The system said it wasn't a qualifying version.
Gateway told me to reboot with upgrade cd in cdrom. This time, system asked
again if I wanted to do an upgrade or new install.
9. I said new install, but this time it didn't ask to insert
qualifying cd, it came up with other options such as scan and write
zeros to hard drive.
10. Gateway told me to write zeros to hard drive, and call them back when
done. This process took 2 hours. System reported
back that hard drive had no errors. (Ron, I never did check BIOS for or
use S.M.A.R.T. utility.) I called Gateway back.
11. They told me to reboot, still with upgrade cd in cdrom. (I thought I
should have repartitioned, but...)
12. System again asked if I wanted to do an upgrade or new install.
13. I said new install, and I was again presented with the scan, write
zeros, etc. options. Gateway told me to write zeros. I said but...we
did that. Why is this pass going to be any different? They told me
they didn't know why it didn't work, but just try it again, and call us
back when done. I began the write zero process again.
14. Thirty minutes through this two hour process, I got skeptical that this
session of writing zeros would end any different than the first, and I
didn't want to deal with Gateway, so I cancelled out and decided to go
purchase a new hard drive at Best Buy. I got a new hard drive, but
didn't install it yet.
15. Out of curiosity, I decided to start up machine
with XP upgrade cd still in cdrom, and still with old hard drive. To my
surprise, system asked if I wanted to do an upgrade or new install
(rather than the write zero choice again) I said new install.
16. System asked to insert qualifying Windows cd I had with me an old
retail Win95a cd from a long since decomissioned machine of mine. I
inserted it, and it was recognized as qualifying. Good news?
17. System asked if I wanted to create FAT32 (quick), FAT32, NTFS (quick),
or NTFS partition. I tried both NTFS options, but none would work.
Sorry, I don't remember the system reponse. Probably due to not completing
writing of zeros. I choose FAT32 (quick).
18. System chugged along, formatted, etc. and asked if I wanted to do
custom
or typical XP install. I choose typical.
19. After XP was installed, I inserted the Microsoft Security CD, which
installed SP1, all updates through October 2003, and turned on the
firewall I then applied a Sasser and Mblast patch I had gotten from my
IT dept. at work. I verified firwall was enabled, and connected cable
modem. I configured IE to reach the internet.
20. I checked for updates with Microsoft, and installed all 9 that were
still needed. I installed anti-virus software.
21. This one stumped me...before I reconnected two printers, I looked at
the printers and other hardware panel, and it showed that both my Canon
and HP printer were installed. I don't understand this. I connected
both printers, and both communicate and print just fine.
22. I installed the old OE address book to the new OE 6. I transfered all
saved data files to new setup. Set IE homepage to yahoo. Set screensaver
to 3D flower box. (Seems like minor comments now, but important for later
remarks.)
23. Rebooted machine. Works fine.

My friend wanted to see how to reboot machine, so as not to depend on
pulling plug, so we did a start\shut down\restart. This time, I got the
recover screen, asking if I wanted to start with safe mode command
prompt, normal widows start up, last known good command, etc. I choose
last known good command, and machine booted up. I restarted again, and
it booted up fine, but I had a QUEASY feeling. It was 10 pm, and I had a
two hour drive home. I told my friend to call if he had any problems.

Friend calls next day, says home page is reset to MSNBC and screensaver
is set to Windows XP. All else is still fine. I say I have no idea at
this point what has happened, but to call me if needed. Next day I get a
call that the system is going black screen and then recovery mode, i.e.
how would you like to start Windows...safe mode, etc. I tell him to
always use last known good command, which always works. It will do this
at least a couple times a day, if not more. Now friend blames Windows
XP, and undercurrents of me, too.

However, the reason we finally upgraded from ME to XP is BECAUSE this
recovery mode had become more and more frequent under ME. Now it's
still here under XP.

I'm wondering:

Remember in step 21 that the new XP intall listed my two printers before I
even connected them to the pc? Could there be ANY remnant of the old ME
configuration which is still causing this recovery mode to keep coming
up? I know it sounds unlikely, but...

Believe me, I don't mind installing a new hard drive, but I'm not now
sure this would solve the problem, unless my admittedly far, far out
supposition above is true.

I'm no longer curious as to what is causing the problem, I just want to get
it fixed, but I don't want to install a new hard drive, have the same
problem, and have my friend look at me like it's my fault or XP's fault.
(Please, no comments about friendships, as this friend really needs my
help, and I can take the misplaced criticisms.)

So, if not the disk drive, could it be something else? Pulling the plug
could have caused hardware problems, as Ron mentions, other than drive
related. Power supply, motherboard, ram, BIOS?

I guess my next step is to replace the hard drive, and pray.

If you've gotten this far, thanks so very much.

Sincerely,
Bruce

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Pulling the Plug On Windows, Literally
    ... he pulls the plug on the machine. ... 1)I'm driving up on Monday to install WindowsXPHome. ... upgrade disk that he got from Gateway/Microsoft in December 2001. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: authentication
    ... you shouldn't have any problem with activation, especially since your friend ... technically your friend has purchased the license to install it on ... >> sell me the upgrade. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: How Do I Re-Register XP Upgrade?
    ... Tim typed: ... > have a friend I would like to pass my XP upgrade along ... If you did an upgrade, what you have is presumably not ... needs to do is install it and activate it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Windows XP profetional
    ... Professional upgrade is a one-way street, ... But if your former friend used an illegal upgrade, ... buy a full retail XP Pro and do a repair install. ... HOW DO I GET XP | PROFETIONAL UNISTALL? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)
  • Re: authentication
    ... technically your friend has purchased the license to install it on ... Microsoft has the hardware configuration associated with the ... He bought the full version and wants to> sell me the upgrade. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
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