My Computer Crashed Last Night

ScottyBoy · April 16, 2009

Last night, I went to turn on my computer and it keeps giving me this error message. It says the system encountered an error and asks if I would like to start normally or in safe mode. But then either way you try to start it, it keeps restting and going right back to that same screen. It does this over and over and over again until you shut it off. I'm on a puter at work this morning(obviously). So what do you guys think? Its been acting up a bit lately, running real slow and sometimes not wanting to turn off when I try to turn it off from the start menu. The computer tower/cpu is about 7 years old and the monitor,keyboard, cables etc. were all replaced in late 2005. Its a Sony VAIO and I originally bought it in late 2002.It has XP, an 80GB hd, 512mb ddr ram and 2.4ghz processor. So should I try to have this old thing looked at by a professional or just destroy it and buy a new one? I'm clueless when it comes to computers. Either way, I guess there goes the money I was about to spend on my Magnaflow duals......

tobias · April 16, 2009

Reinstall Windows and all should be well. If all goes well and it starts running again, I'd also recommend picking up another .5 - 1.5G RAM ($15-$40).

You should see some boost in performance and if all you do is browse the internet you should be fine with that machine until the hardware actually dies.

VMax2007 · April 16, 2009

I was having trouble with my computer not shutting down and had to "hardkill" it about 75% of the time. When I uninstalled my Norton Internet Security (Anti-Virus) software, the problem went away. I now have AVG anti-virus.

I have a Gateway computer about the same age as yours with the same specs.

PhilB · April 16, 2009

Try swapping out the power supply first, especially if it is 7 years old. See if you can borrow one from someone or from work. A friend had this same problem happen on her 2 yr old Dell. I did some searching and found out it was the power supply. She got a new one, swapped it out and it was all good.

After doing that, you might want to do as Daddy and VMax suggest, get more ram and get rid of Norton. Also run a couple of good anti-spyware programs, use CCleaner to clean up the HD, and defrag the HD. See if that will boost your performance

Good luck

omegafiler · April 16, 2009

Have you tried Lastknowngood config? I'm also guessing there were no other recent hardware or software changed. If you want to fix it, you need to see what the error is first. I'm guessing you are running XP. It will automatically reboot (by default) when a sys failure occurs (ie BSOD). Press F8 and select the option to Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.

You should get the BSOD error. Let us know what it says. This will give us a pretty good idea of what is failing or at least where to start troubleshooting.

ScottyBoy · April 16, 2009

Ok, but is all this stuff I can do myself? I'm sure if I knew a 1/10th about computer as I do know about vehicles, then I probably could. And I think I have all the original CD's/software, etc that came with my PC......somwhere. Is that what I need? Or should I go and buy Windows vista? or what? Plus I guess I should confess that that I haven't had antivirus software running for the past 5 years, after my initial subscription ended. I know, I know. Plus, this computer survived Katrina. Well, the main cpu did at least, it was sitting on top of my compter cabinet instead of down inside it and it did'nt get wet that high up. But like I said before, I had to replace everything else for it at that time. Also, is they ANY way to recover or keep the documents stored on my hard drive? I know, my dumbass never backed anything up and just stored evrything on the hard drive. So I have 6 years of photos, tax returns, and about 15-200 songs, and a few other documents on there. Not to mention a few digital pictures of my brother and I shortly before he died. Hopefully, this can all be fixed easily and not too expensively. If you guys think I can do this myself, then explain it to me like I'm a 10 year old and I should def be able to do it.

ScottyBoy · April 16, 2009

Have you tried Lastknowngood config? I'm also guessing there were no other recent hardware or software changed. If you want to fix it, you need to see what the error is first. I'm guessing you are running XP. It will automatically reboot (by default) when a sys failure occurs (ie BSOD). Press F8 and select the option to Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.

You should get the BSOD error. Let us know what it says. This will give us a pretty good idea of what is failing or at least where to start troubleshooting.

I did try last known good config as well. There were like 4 options I think, and tried every one about a dozen or so times each. No recent hardware, and last software I downloaded was a "free" antispyware program (can't recall the name) about 8-10 days ago. I figured that might help with the problems I was having(running slow, and not shutting off) but it didn't.

omegafiler · April 16, 2009

Have you tried Lastknowngood config? I'm also guessing there were no other recent hardware or software changed. If you want to fix it, you need to see what the error is first. I'm guessing you are running XP. It will automatically reboot (by default) when a sys failure occurs (ie BSOD). Press F8 and select the option to Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.

You should get the BSOD error. Let us know what it says. This will give us a pretty good idea of what is failing or at least where to start troubleshooting.

I did try last known good config as well. There were like 4 options I think, and tried every one about a dozen or so times each. No recent hardware, and last software I downloaded was a "free" antispyware program (can't recall the name) about 8-10 days ago. I figured that might help with the problems I was having(running slow, and not shutting off) but it didn't.

It's all about the BSOD error. As long as the failure isn't due to an HD failure, you're data should still be there. Do you recall which anti-spyware app you downloaded? Many of those are spyware in themselves. But it's very rare they'll mess things up enough to cause a BSOD (it's possible!).

If you were running XP with SP2 or or newer (hopefully you were), you'll have the Disable Automated Restart on sys failure option. But you need to invoke the F8 command during boot yourself. It won't be there otherwise. Once you hit F8 (before the OS loads) you'll get the full boot menu with quite a few more options.

Once you do that, wait for the shiny blue screen of death, and write down the error. Then post it here.

Example:

Unmountable_boot_volume

stop 0x000007b (0x000000c, 0x000005......0

ScottyBoy · April 16, 2009

Have you tried Lastknowngood config? I'm also guessing there were no other recent hardware or software changed. If you want to fix it, you need to see what the error is first. I'm guessing you are running XP. It will automatically reboot (by default) when a sys failure occurs (ie BSOD). Press F8 and select the option to Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.

You should get the BSOD error. Let us know what it says. This will give us a pretty good idea of what is failing or at least where to start troubleshooting.

I did try last known good config as well. There were like 4 options I think, and tried every one about a dozen or so times each. No recent hardware, and last software I downloaded was a "free" antispyware program (can't recall the name) about 8-10 days ago. I figured that might help with the problems I was having(running slow, and not shutting off) but it didn't.

It's all about the BSOD error. As long as the failure isn't due to an HD failure, you're data should still be there. Do you recall which anti-spyware app you downloaded? Many of those are spyware in themselves. But it's very rare they'll mess things up enough to cause a BSOD (it's possible!).

If you were running XP with SP2 or or newer (hopefully you were), you'll have the Disable Automated Restart on sys failure option. But you need to invoke the F8 command during boot yourself. It won't be there otherwise. Once you hit F8 (before the OS loads) you'll get the full boot menu with quite a few more options.

Once you do that, wait for the shiny blue screen of death, and write down the error. Then post it here.

Example:

Unmountable_boot_volume

stop 0x000007b (0x000000c, 0x000005......0

Ok, now I'm confused. First, what does BSOD mean? other than shit bein messed up? Second, I know I was running Windows XP, but what is SP2? My version of xp came installed on my computer in 2002 if that matters. Third, wtf is the "shiny blue screen of death"???

omegafiler · April 16, 2009

Have you tried Lastknowngood config? I'm also guessing there were no other recent hardware or software changed. If you want to fix it, you need to see what the error is first. I'm guessing you are running XP. It will automatically reboot (by default) when a sys failure occurs (ie BSOD). Press F8 and select the option to Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.

You should get the BSOD error. Let us know what it says. This will give us a pretty good idea of what is failing or at least where to start troubleshooting.

I did try last known good config as well. There were like 4 options I think, and tried every one about a dozen or so times each. No recent hardware, and last software I downloaded was a "free" antispyware program (can't recall the name) about 8-10 days ago. I figured that might help with the problems I was having(running slow, and not shutting off) but it didn't.

It's all about the BSOD error. As long as the failure isn't due to an HD failure, you're data should still be there. Do you recall which anti-spyware app you downloaded? Many of those are spyware in themselves. But it's very rare they'll mess things up enough to cause a BSOD (it's possible!).

If you were running XP with SP2 or or newer (hopefully you were), you'll have the Disable Automated Restart on sys failure option. But you need to invoke the F8 command during boot yourself. It won't be there otherwise. Once you hit F8 (before the OS loads) you'll get the full boot menu with quite a few more options.

Once you do that, wait for the shiny blue screen of death, and write down the error. Then post it here.

Example:

Unmountable_boot_volume

stop 0x000007b (0x000000c, 0x000005......0

Ok, now I'm confused. First, what does BSOD mean? other than shit bein messed up? Second, I know I was running Windows XP, but what is SP2? My version of xp came installed on my computer in 2002 if that matters. Third, wtf is the "shiny blue screen of death"???

Blue Screen of Death. It's a type of fairly serious error that can occur with Microsoft operating systems. This is most likely why your system is rebooting. You're getting a BSOD and then it reboots before you can see it. "SP2" is short for Service Pack 2. It's a compilation of security and OS related updates for your operating system. It's something that would be installed automatically a long time ago if you had Windows Updates turned on.

Just try the steps first... see what happens.

If it seems like a bit too much, which believe me, I know it can be when trying to fix a puter - it probably wouldn't hurt to call a local puter shop and see if they can take a look at it for ya or at least pull your data. Might be easier!

ScottyBoy · April 16, 2009

Have you tried Lastknowngood config? I'm also guessing there were no other recent hardware or software changed. If you want to fix it, you need to see what the error is first. I'm guessing you are running XP. It will automatically reboot (by default) when a sys failure occurs (ie BSOD). Press F8 and select the option to Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.

You should get the BSOD error. Let us know what it says. This will give us a pretty good idea of what is failing or at least where to start troubleshooting.

I did try last known good config as well. There were like 4 options I think, and tried every one about a dozen or so times each. No recent hardware, and last software I downloaded was a "free" antispyware program (can't recall the name) about 8-10 days ago. I figured that might help with the problems I was having(running slow, and not shutting off) but it didn't.

It's all about the BSOD error. As long as the failure isn't due to an HD failure, you're data should still be there. Do you recall which anti-spyware app you downloaded? Many of those are spyware in themselves. But it's very rare they'll mess things up enough to cause a BSOD (it's possible!).

If you were running XP with SP2 or or newer (hopefully you were), you'll have the Disable Automated Restart on sys failure option. But you need to invoke the F8 command during boot yourself. It won't be there otherwise. Once you hit F8 (before the OS loads) you'll get the full boot menu with quite a few more options.

Once you do that, wait for the shiny blue screen of death, and write down the error. Then post it here.

Example:

Unmountable_boot_volume

stop 0x000007b (0x000000c, 0x000005......0

Ok, now I'm confused. First, what does BSOD mean? other than shit bein messed up? Second, I know I was running Windows XP, but what is SP2? My version of xp came installed on my computer in 2002 if that matters. Third, wtf is the "shiny blue screen of death"???

Blue Screen of Death. It's a type of fairly serious error that can occur with Microsoft operating systems. This is most likely why your system is rebooting. You're getting a BSOD and then it reboots before you can see it. "SP2" is short for Service Pack 2. It's a compilation of security and OS related updates for your operating system. It's something that would be installed automatically a long time ago if you had Windows Updates turned on.

Just try the steps first... see what happens.

If it seems like a bit too much, which believe me, I know it can be when trying to fix a puter - it probably wouldn't hurt to call a local puter shop and see if they can take a look at it for ya or at least pull your data. Might be easier!

ok, then I should have that service pack I guess. I know I had it set for automatic updates and I know of several occassions when it downloaded updates. I'll try f8 and see what if any error codes I can find.

VMax2007 · April 16, 2009

Ok, but is all this stuff I can do myself? I'm sure if I knew a 1/10th about computer as I do know about vehicles, then I probably could. And I think I have all the original CD's/software, etc that came with my PC......somwhere. Is that what I need? Or should I go and buy Windows vista? or what? Plus I guess I should confess that that I haven't had antivirus software running for the past 5 years, after my initial subscription ended. I know, I know. Plus, this computer survived Katrina. Well, the main cpu did at least, it was sitting on top of my compter cabinet instead of down inside it and it did'nt get wet that high up. But like I said before, I had to replace everything else for it at that time. Also, is they ANY way to recover or keep the documents stored on my hard drive? I know, my dumbass never backed anything up and just stored evrything on the hard drive. So I have 6 years of photos, tax returns, and about 15-200 songs, and a few other documents on there. Not to mention a few digital pictures of my brother and I shortly before he died. Hopefully, this can all be fixed easily and not too expensively. If you guys think I can do this myself, then explain it to me like I'm a 10 year old and I should def be able to do it.

This is why I just went out and bought an external hard drive a month ago. I paid $89 for a 500GB Western Digital.

tobias · April 16, 2009

You need to either find a friend who is good with computers or call a shop. Best Buy and the Geek Squad is one you should avoid entirely however.

With your current skill set you'll simply be wasting your time and pissing yourself off trying to solve this, not to mention the fact that you may actually do more harm than good.

VMax2007 · April 16, 2009

You need to either find a friend who is good with computers or call a shop. Best Buy and the Geek Squad is one you should avoid entirely however.
With your current skill set you'll simply be wasting your time and pissing yourself off trying to solve this, not to mention the fact that you may actually do more harm than good.

Why? Too expensive or are they unqualified? or both? Never used them, but figured I would someday.

omegafiler · April 16, 2009

Yeah, avoid the big retailers. Unqualified, can't be trusted, over priced, etc. For that you might as well just find some highschool kid who "likes computers" and let them fix it for ya. It'd be cheaper too.

A good reputable and local puter shop is the way to go.