PC gone strange

[Phil K]

At first I put it down to a crappy free prog from sharewareonsale "vogue internet exploration" which sorted all sorts of problems, for example, every time bar once or twice I rebooted, startup took an age and needed to be "repaired" and even when removed it seemed to keep coming back even after system restore. Then "not responding" all the damn time, and browsers horrendously slow, and explorer crashing all the time. I decided to reinstall Windows. Then FORMAT and reinstall. Even here, it's very very slow. Its equivalent of "not responding" the sea green circle, and when finally I get it to begin installing, it's s….l…o….w….e….r than ever before. Before that prog, Reinstalling Windows was pretty quick all considered (Ive done it three or four times for variety of reasons ! ) Anyone have any ideas ? I thought of RAM memory problems, and I'll test that when I get my PC going again. Windows Explorer crashing so often is odd

[Phil K]

....the "getting files ready for installation" should take 10 minutes or so it's now been more than an hour and at 75%

[Phil K]

Driving me up the wall. It's been nearly 3 hours and the green progress line at bottom is barely two thirds along. Supposedly on "getting finished" but.....I need to get do certain things and get out !!!!!! Why is this taking ten times longer than usual, if I've formatted ?
Nearly a further hour on, and that damned 5 white dots going in the circle under the blu window showing no sign of doing anything other after 15 minutes, in what should take seconds.
WHY ? Why is this all taking so long ? Why are boot ups becoming marathons ? I'm expecting another light blue screen saying something's wrong and collecting data before rebooting. Couple of minutes further on and it's STILL not moved past blue window and 5 white dots. Nearly 20 mins now

[SpywareDr]

Sounds like the hard drive may be failing.

Recommend downloading and burning the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) to CD. It has Hard Drive diagnostics (plus much more). Simply boot your computer from this CD and select the utility you want to run.

Note: If you aren't sure who made the hard drive in your computer, Seagate's Seatools will work with most any make of drive.

The following instructions may prove helpful for burning the UBCD .iso file to disc: How can I write (burn) ISO files to CD or DVD?

[Phil K]

I'll certainly try that if I can manage with an old laptop the PC though....Still refuses. Only now it's refusing to allow Windows to be loaded on ANY of my HDD. "windows cannot be installed on this drive" I'm sure it's linked into that damned uefi or whatever it's called .....what doI do now ? Formattings only made matters worse

[SpywareDr]

Try resetting the BIOS/UEFI to factory defaults then run RAM diags, which are also on the UBCD.

If there's a problem with the hardware, the software will never work right.

--

Is this a PC, laptop, AIO?

How old is it?

If it's a PC, is it a DIY or factory?

What's make and model?

[Phil K]

Must be hardware. Doing this on my iPad.
It just won't install Windows, even after formatting HDs
Says it can't install to this or that partition.
Can't even see WHAT it is that's wrong.
Bought new motherboard and an AMD X4 750k to replace my i5 2500k trying to keep cost of replacing down. Using old ddr3 RAM on new build too when it arrives. Even new case and power.
Is there a way I can test motherboard and i5 to see which is done for ? (Only had em a year)

[SpywareDr]

You need to start over by assembling and running a bare-bones system outside of the case:

1. Remove EVERYTHING from the case.
   
   
2. Place the motherboard on a non-conductive surface, such as cardboard (motherboard box) or plywood. Do *-NOT-* place the motherboard on the anti-static bag! It can actually conduct electricity.
   
   
3. Install the CPU, thermal grease and heat sink. (Intel Guide / AMD Guide)
   
   
4. Install 1 RAM module (stick).
   
   
5. If applicable, install the video card and attach the power supply connection(s) to the card if your card needs it.
   
   
6. Connect the monitor to the video output.
   
   
7. Connect the power supply to the motherboard with both the 24-pin main ATX power connector and the separate 4- or 8-pin power connector.
   
   
8. Connect a power lead from the power supply to the power connector on the CPU fan.
   
   
9. Connect power to the power supply.
   
   
10. Do NOT connect ANYTHING else.
    
    
11. Use a small screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch connector on the motherboard. Consult your motherboard manual to find which two pins connect to your case's power switch. When you momentarily touch both pins with a screwdriver, it will complete the circuit and boot the system.

With any luck the system should power up and you should get a display. If so, assemble these same parts into the case and try booting once again. If the system now fails to boot, you have a short in the case and need to recheck your motherboard standoffs.

If the system did not boot up, more often than not, you have a faulty component. Start swapping parts until you determine which one is defective. Best bet would be to start with the power supply.

[Phil K]

Power supply ? But surely it wouldn't even allow me to do what I'm failing at now ?
(Bit of humour I don't really feel !) But thanks for the advice. Going nowhere fast !

[Phil K]

Got it going eventually. The problem was solved because I looked up an error - the number 800 was in number with an -f- at end thats all I can recall ! And some feller from the far east said do this and that at this time, and while it did away with the partitions and everything on that HD, it DID work, and I reinstalled Windows and it's working fine so nothing wrong with motherboard or i5 cpu. Too late, as I'd bought stuff to rig out another comp (problem with that one now !!!) I'd bought cheapest decent I could afford an AMD Athlon II X4 750k and an Asrock FM2A75 pro 4 motherboard.
The only bother with the above is that although it does have on board graphics of Radeon 7*** level, unless a graphics card is put in NOTHING appears on screen. Tried an HDMI & DVI connection and couldn't be blacker on screen. Tried fiddling with buttons and if I'd managed to get into bios, I'd have had a look around. But literally nothing.
I'd love to know why, and the asus had no problem in this regard, and while I have a MSI R7770 bought and be on its way in a couple of days, I'd like to check WHY. It ran with a borrowed graphics card, so problem isn't a dead board

[Train]

on board video gone belly up. Seen that and on board nics do that.

Put in video card or nic cards as needed. 7 and 8 years later they both are running.

[Phil K]

Yes that seems to be the case.Hoped thered be something I'd missed but it certainly seems to be the case. I have an MSI R7770 on it's way from Amazon(when they can be bothered to get off their arse and DISPATCH it) ...best I could afford at moment -wherever I look theres a big bill in front of me. I feel like a pelican.....

[Train]

Using a old AMD 5450 video card myself. Plenty good enough for what I do.

[Phil K]

It was the AMD cpu - apparently (unknown to me) the motherboard needs the cpu to be able to use the onboard graphics, and the cpu I'd bought - the AMD X4 760k didn't have that capability. So after much losing my temp with the Irish and Indian agents on Amazon on phone, I eventually got an American one who managed to help. I got a refund (sending back the 760k in it's box, etc of course) and bought an A8 6600k which is an "APU" which is AMDs term for a cpu which uses onboard graphics. The Graphics card I cancelled after more than 3 days they hadn't bothered dispatching....well wasn't terrible, and I am impatient, but Amazon WAS brilliant for dispatch now it's no better than eBuyer.
Soooo....I'll use the onboard graphics until I can get some money together and maybe get a 750 Ti Maxwell graphics card. No rush !

[SpywareDr]

Tip: If you purchase a lot of stuff from Amazon, their "Amazon Prime" is well worth it. You get everything in two days. And if you want it in one day, it's $3.99. (Ordered a big heavy office chair on a Thursday afternoon and had it by 2 PM on Friday ... for $3.99 shipping).