[Pro]Problems after boot

After booting up, none of my programs will initialize. Explorer doesn't respond at all, and Quicken begins but then stops responing. Settings are unaccesable as well. I am trying to do a restore now, and task monitor shows that it is running, but it is running very slow because it shows 99% idle. I have been getting the Dell Monitoring System warning that it has detected that drive 0 on the primary EIDE controller is operating outside of normal specs, but my computer has just recently became inoperable. Any ideas?

Download and run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility (they all run from floppy, so you don't need to get into Windows), and see what it reports. Here are the common ones:

Seagate Seatools

IBM / Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Maxtor Maxblast 3

Maxtor PowerMax

Western Digital Software & Drivers

Fujitsu Utilities

ok, thanks. I downloaded the floppy, but how do I run it? I don't know how to run it.

You'll need one clean (empty) floppy in your drive; run the download, which will create the floppy. When done, reboot your computer with the floppy in the drive to run the diagnostic.

If necessary, change the boot order in the BIOS so that the floppy is before the HDD.

Hello Bobrobert :)
If you are struggling with that it might be easier for you to run the Dell Diagnostics.

Reboot and during bootup you will see options usually in the top right hand corner
F2
F12

Quickly click F12 and then choose "Dell Diagnostics"

Run the checks here
You might need your installation CD if you have one.

Elaine

Thanks lgbpop and dunedin,
Booting with the floppy that I downloaded results in "can't load DOS" message, and, so far, I haven't been able to get to Dell Diagnostics. I probably need to take this machine to a computer shop. :(

One more thing before I try to decide to take it to the shop...when I shut down, I get a message "AZWin Frame Window Failed to initialize" . From browsing google, I see that this may be have something to do with Acrobatic Reader. If so, this may be my problem, because my problem started when I tried to download an update for Acrobatic Reader.

Go into Safe Mode, ADD/REMOVE and uninstall Acrobatic Reader.

I gave up on Acrobatic Reader and use Foxit Reader .
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Foxit does not take over your computer and slow it down.

I can't access settings, even in a safe mode. So...with the disk warning system saying that the EIDE is out of spec, along with not being able to access settings, outlook express, explorer, quicken, or anything but games and a few spreadsheets, I am thinking that I should just buy another computer. This one is Pentium III, operating at 500 mz.
But, in it's favor is Office Suite.

I guess that, going by your specs, the system is quite old.
If you are still using the original hard drive chances are it is dying.
There are tools that can be run from a bootable CD that can check the health of the hard drive, memory etc.
If you have an XP installation CD boot up with it and when you see the menu press the "R" key (for Recovery Console)
This will eventually take you to a DOS like prompt from where you can run various tools. chckdsk is one that will check your hard drive for errors.
You can also do a repair installation from the CD.
For using the recovery console and performing a repair installation do a google. There are loads of tutorials covering both.

Dell systems don't come with an XP CD FWIW.

When you made the floppy from the diagnostic software, did you indeed create the bootable floppy or just copy the downloaded file to a floppy. You need to double click the file you downloaded, and having a clean empty floppy in the floppy drive at the same time, the diagnostic software will create the files you need to test your drive.

Running chkdsk /r I doubt that you can run this option using your Dell recovery cd.

Thanks Whoozhe and Photolady,
Yes, the system is old. I received it second hand from business office and have been using it for about a year. I have no idea how long they used it. And, I don't have the cd.
I am using another computer for these inquiries and for downloading the floppies.
When I made the floppy, I just downloaded it.... So, thanks, I will follow Photoladies guidance on making it correctly.

OK, actually I found that I had downloaded the program to the hard drive. It is MaxBlaster4 floppy creator. I made another floppy this morning from the creator and booted up with it. Again, I get the error message "Cannot load DOS! any key to retry"
The floppy drive seems to be working ok, but since I never used it when the computer was working, I can't be sure. I am going to try the other Maxtor link now.

I got the exact same results using PowerMax 4.23
"Cannot load DOS! any key to retry"

Download this and burn it to a CDR - it has all those utilities on it, plus many other useful apps. It is a bootable CD, so you don't need to bother with a floppy.

Ultimate Boot CD

Forget about the floppy. That tool is for 16 bit DOS based systems and XP does not have DOS.
I guess the first thing I should have suggested is to go back to a restore point when all was ok.
You can still try that.
If you have problems booting up try booting into safe mode and under Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools choose System Restore.
Also when you see the boot menu that includes Safe Mode there is another option to boot into the last known good........
If you are finding yourself getting deeper in trouble you should consider backing up your data and starting afresh.

That floppy will work great no matter what is installed on the hdd.
If it is made right and you boot to it correctly, it will work.

By the way, there are lots of versions of DOS, some of which are not hampered by NTFS.

Finally signs of life. I haven't been able to go to settings and therefore to add/remove programs. Yesterday I booted up to the Windows screen, and I tried "Set Programs Access and Defaults". That screen had an add/remove option. I clicked it and it actually came up and worked. I removed Adobe Reader Update, Adobe Reader, all of the HP programs that I found, and Apple Application for quick time and itune. The one that I really wanted to remove was eAcceleration, a free virus protection program. When I tried to remove it, the .exe would load about 2500k then would stop responding, much as every thing else has been doing. Each time I would delete a couple of programs then shut down. On coming back up, a diskcheck was made, which was a strange thing to happen. But at least I know that the hard drive is spinning and reading. I am going to work on making the Max Blaster cd's correctly today, for I think that I didn't do it right, after reading the help in the website for the 'ultimate cd'. Oh, and now I get a message telling me that my Windows program may be counterfiet. I highly doubt that it is though.

One more thing, when I try to run a program, any program, the performance pegs out to 100%, then the program stops responding. Doesn't this sound like spyware/adware or virus?

ok, even the computer shop thinks that the hard drive is mechanically failing. I was just about to go buy one of those Gateways from Best Buy, until I saw a critical comment about Gateway on one of the forums. Is this the general feeling about Gateway?

A lot of us do not care for name brand computers that you buy in stores.

I build my own, or have them custom built at a so called mom and pop store I trust.

I am reading the "How To Build" section now. Hopefully I will be able to venture into the home brew also. At the very least, I will be able to make a better selection if I do go with a major brand or a mom & pop.

And after reading the "How to Build" you have questions, ask cause we're here to help you build that new one. Just after I joined VDR, guys like Train helped me build my first one.....and since then, I've built my own and some for others.

Thank you photolady; I should probably start a new thread, but before I do, I have a quick question. I have a large and roomy Optiplex box. Can I use it and also reuse the ce drive, burner and floppy? Then wouldn't I be able to just replace the cpu, mobo and hard drive?

Thanks photolady. I do have one quick question. Since I have a large Optiplex box, can I reuse the cd drive, burner and floppy drive, and just replace the cpu, mobo and hard drive? Or should I start over completely?

You can re-use your existing bits if you wish.

Did you have a CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW or any kind of DVD inserted into any drive at the time you received the "Cannot load DOS" message?

This indicates the system was trying to boot from a CD drive first as specified in the CMOS.

If so, I would try removing it, and attempt to boot from your floppy again.
You may also have to change the boot order in the CMOS setup to boot from the floppy.

As for your Optiplex, you will have to change the power supply most certainly. I doubt that power supply has enough power to run the new system. Plus it may not be the correct ATX connector for the new motherboard.

I had only the floppy inserted at the time. The other drives were empty. I had the floppy drive set as first priority. I think that I exhausted all possibilities before I gave up. Now, it is time for me to make a confession...I wasn't able to build the Ultimate Boot Cd, because I got to a point where I had to insert the XP CD into the cd drive, then copy it to the hard drive. This would have been the hard drive of my wife's computer, which I am presently using. I didn't proceed, due to fear of messing up her computer as well. It just didn't make sense to me...I mean...this computer has XP installed..so I have no idea what I would have been doing.
Also, thanks for the info on reusing that Optiplex box. It is very roomy, even though kinda ugly, and doesn't have front connectors. But for my first build, I want to be careful while gaining confidence.

The person in the link below claims he or she was able to avoid the "Cannot load DOS!" message by performing a cold boot of the computer.

Apparently the message is displayed when a cold boot is not performed or you perform a "warm reboot" using the Maxtor PowerMax diskette.

A cold boot refers to shutting down the computer and shutting off the computer's power switch and then turning the power switch back on.

http://www.d-a-l.com/help/showthread.php?t=23863

I would make sure that the CMOS settings have not been tampered with.

Thanks Robert M,
I tried the cold boot several times and got the same results each time...'cannot load dos! any key to retry'.

Check the BIOS settings on the computer.

Have you tried booting with the Maxtor diskette in another computer?

Does the diskette have an autoexec.bat file on it? What is its contents?

Are the BIOS setting those at F2? If so, I have checked them.
I haven't tried booting with the Maxtor diskette in another computer.

The diskette has:
ACTCD 23kb System file
Choice 8kb MS-DOS Application
Config 1kb system file
DM 1kb Ms-dos batch file
DM Zip 1,204kb application
Find RDSK 2kb application
IBMBIO 26kb MS-Dos application
IBMDOS 33kb MS-Dos application
LETTER 1kb MS-Dos batch file
NWCDEX 22kb application
splash 4kb application

plus:
vdisk 5kb system file
xman 5kb application

The hard drive is not failing.
You may have made a diskette for a different type of hardware than you have.
Do you have any other known good bootable floppy diskettes that you have made or received from Dell??

If you can view the two batch files in a different computer, it mayl give a clue as to what is causing the message.

Thanks Robert,
Sorry about the late response. My plan now is to use the latest advice on how to make an Ultimate Boot Disk, because I really feel that the ones that I made weren't done right.