Re: A conundrum on XP Pro retail

"deebs" <deebs@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O3ANhMgBIHA.3940@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
System:
AMD 4800+
3 Gig RAM
4 Seagate 250 Gig platters

Problems:
Profound.

Maybe using beta software introduced instabilities and a recent new floor
required taking the home network to pieces. The laptop and Mac Pro work
very well but the Freecom Storage Gateway will not allow access to the
internet and the PC went flaky. Very, very flaky typified by powering
down unexpectedly in the midst of things.

Sudden and abrupt power-downs without an immediate and automatic attempted
restart indicate serious hardware problems.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to diagnose these inexpensively because, aside
from re-seating components and connectors, you have to swap in other
hardware - power supply, memory, CPU, motherboard. It can be *any* of
these components.

Safe mode gets to the Mup.sys hang (yes, I know that seems bad enough).
ESET nod32 has gone into incredible sulks.

My usual routine in the past was to confuse the PC by removing some
platters and reinstalling the OS but it won't let me do that this time.

If there are memory problems, these will often not allow an install to
complete. You'll get "cannot copy file" errors that really mean that the
file was corrupted in memory and the copy failed for that reason - not that
the disks are damaged.

You need to address the problems indicated by the shutdowns.

A heck of a lot of personal data and quite a few activation based
applications are in limbo.

Set the drive aside and use another one while you are sorting out the rest
of the hardware issues. If you need to replace the rest of the system,
save the drive and use it as the base of the new one; you will need to do a
repair install to maintain the installed apps.

Otherwise, most vendors *are* aware that systems fail and allow for
reinstallation.

For maximum safety, clone that drive to another and work with the clone, to
protect the original data copy.


Should I just scrap the PC or is there some redeemable approach?

You should proceed carefully because diagnosing the problem, let alone
fixing it, can be expensive.


The power downs are frequent and predictably unpredictable. For instance
the PC will power down while editing or attempting to edit the BIOS.

Clearly then this is not an OS or disk issue, since the BIOS program uses
neither.

Does it sound like Vista is the best answer?

No. It sounds like there are hardware issues that no OS will or *can*
address.

You have to fix or replace the damaged hardware.

On the other hand I hear that Vista is not too happy with SMB.

(It's a good job I have the Mac Pro yes?)

If you can do your work on the Mac, then yes it's good you have another
system.

However, the Mac OS is no more reliable than anything else when run on
failing or damaged hardware.

HTH
-pk




.

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