Anyone A Computer Whiz ?
 

I think my laptop has had it.

I tried to turn it on, and this strange black and white screen pops up that says Windows did not start successfully. Then, it tells me to pick Safe Mode, Start Windows Normally, Last Known Good Configuration or a few others. None work. The windows XP screen comes up, a strange bright blue screen with a bunch of gibberish on it flickers for a second, then it is back to the black and white screen.

So, I have all the System Recovery cds that came with the computer. The catch ? My cd rom croaked weeks ago and I haven't had time to get it fixed.

So, even if I go buy a peripheral cdrom to plug into the back to try and run these system restore things, the computer is not going to recognize the new hardware and I doubt I will be able to run them.

This all started last week when I removed this annoying Aurora adware that had gotten into my system. I ran adaware, ewido and all my other spyware removal things, and the computer has been slow and wacky ever since.

All right you computer geniuses....just how screwed am I ?

I'm not a computer genius but it seems like your computer may have gotten a virus and you need to reformat your hard drive.
When was the last time you did a scan disk and defrag?

I did all that stuff last week in an attempt to clean everything up. What a disaster. I am sure my computer guy is not available on Sunday of a July 4 weekend. Sheesh.

I have killed sooooo many laptops at work it's a joke. Last one was last week. Good luck.

- Jake

Sparky, I asked my boyfriend about it because he's a computer technician, and he typed this up:

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My suggestion is to replace the internal CD-Rom drive (very easy to do) and use the restore disks. Any replacement internal CD-Rom drive will work regardless of whether you're running Windows or not. The BIOS on the motherboard has "drivers" already installed on the chip so you can use a CD-Rom, CD-Rw, or DVD-Rom drive, as long as your computer can boot from it. And seeing as how you have Windows XP, I take it it's less than 5 years old, so it will boot from the CD.
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He also says that an external CD-Rom drive could work if the computer is less than 2 yrs. old and it's able to boot from a removable device. But if you're not sure about that, replacing the internal drive should do the trick.

Hope that helps!

The one thing I can think of that might work is taking the hard drive out of the laptop and hooking it up to a desktop system (may need an adapter for this because the number of pins is probably different and I have no idea what it's called :shrug: but I bet you could find one at a compusa or even office depot), and then using the backup CDs on it with the PC's working CD drive. I've seen this done before, never done it myself, but I know for a fact it is possible to hook the drive up to another computer and access it. The good news is it doesn't sound like a physical crash... unless the backup CDs don't work. :distress: Best of luck to you...

:blob1: Thanks !

:laugh:

The EXACT same thing happened to me three weeks ago! Sorry, but your computer is ****ed if what happened to me is any indication, my love. :laugh: I had to delete my hard drive completely (I got to backup a lot of it, though) and then reinstall every bloody program including Windows. It was a nightmare.

Oh GREAT. Did this happen to you while the computer was on ? Or when you tried to start it up ? I bet you were lucky enough to have a working cd-rom at the time. Seeing as it is a holiday, I doubt CompUsa or Fry's is even open so I can get a new cdrom. Nightmare. I don't know how to do any of this stuff. I may just call the computer guy and have him do it all. Drag. Lucky I have this lame old desktop.

It happened while it was on. I left it on when I had a doctors appointment, and when I came back, it said that Windows couldn't load because a certain necessary file was corrupt. I talked to some guy at Dell with the thickest Middle Eastern accent I had ever heard and once I finally was able to understand him, it became obvious that my comp was phucked and I had to reinstall everything. Plans for work, my CAD software, photos, emails, EVERYTHING had to be erased. I did have a working CD drive, though, so you have my sympathies on that one, love.

Uh-oh. That sounds like the dreaded "Blue Screen Of Death" -- known as the BSOD in the industry.