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some things like to test my patience.....
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Posted by: Whodie
recently I got a call from a friend who needed some help with his computer. unfortunately I'm stumped so I'm turning to you guys for some guidance before I pour kerosene on it and sacrifice it to the computer gods. The computer in question is an HP Pavilion 6545C: fireball 12g hd, 64mb ram, 500mhz Celeron, not sure on motherboard for reasons I'll explain later. Here's the problem, and it seems to be intermitent which compounds it, on startup it will go through most of the onscreen loading (although sometimes it doesn't seem to check the ram) and begin to load win 98, now here's where it gets interesting. sometimes it will fail to load 98 and bring up the lovely screen that says operating sytem not found. However sometimes it will manage to load win 98 all the way. When it does manage to load all the way it doesn't stay stable for long and right before it crashes I hear that wonderful sound that I can only describe as DJ trying to use my hardrive to scratch for his next remix (a very loud, scratching noise) once this happens I get a beautiful blue screen that says unable to read drive C:, data and files may be lost at which point the only thing I can do it shut it down. I've tried booting it up with a bootdisk(6.0 from bootdisk.com) to format the damn thing but when i boot up with the bootdisk and try to get to c:\ it says invalid drive, I've also tried using the windows 98 cd it came with and it fails scandisk saying the FAT is not recognized, no hardrive found. today it added another message to its bag of tricks, after windows crashed and I restarted I got the message KRNL386.EXE not found, file allocation table bad. i managed to get windows to load once long enough to run a anti-virus program and it found one but as soon as it did it crashed again. I have no qualms formating the thing so long as I can find a way to do it, any help on this is greatly appreciated, other wise my joy will come from watching the silicon puddle after I torch this damn thing.
Posted by: redwench
wear welders gloves.
all those are symptoms of a failing/failed hard drive. you can certainly give a format and reinstall a shot, but first youd have to get it recognized.....
given the overall age of the computer, failing components really shouldnt be a surprise.
Posted by: Whodie
i kinda had a feeling, that scratching noise is using a good sign a hard drive about to crap out. Thanks for you help, just wanted to get a second opinion before I made my buddy spend money.
Posted by: Bix VT
I wouldn't be surprised if the hard drive is just plain shot. Your friend might want to invest in a new 20gig or so.
Posted by: redwench
with that computer, unless hes really flat broke, he probably should just get a new system. other components are reasonably likely to fail soon, and that system really isnt up to the task of anything but word processing and light surfing.
dell has brand new systems, including monitor and OS, for around $500.
Posted by: Da Weef
Red... Do you for any chance sell computers????
It is not very likely that the computer will fall apart totally in the next year. Also if it turns out to be necessary to get a new HD, wouldn't that just be a part that is extreeeeeeemely easy to use again in a newer system???
But untill then... Give formatting a couple of new tries and when you really give up a last try could be leaving the HD on top of a big magnet for a day (stereo speakers contain big magnets so you can use that). This should erase everything on the drive, but isn't a very nice way to do it...
By the way I'm almost positive that your experiencing a head crash, so maybe you can use that to find some tips.
Good luck
Posted by: redwench
i dont think the contents of the drive are the problem, erasing wont help 
no, its not likely its going to fall apart in the next year. i just dont think its cost effective to upgrade/repair something that antiquated, relatively speaking. its 5 years old, and while its obvious its not being used by a high-end user, its really pushing the lower limits of even basic systems. kinda like replacing the tires on a rusted old pickup with max speed of 35 with brand new ones. if thats all you can afford, you have to do it, but its not going to be helpful over the long haul.
Posted by: Da Weef
You're right about the erasing part. It will probably not do the trick, but it's worth the try...
About replacing the computer... It really depends wether the user actually needs the extra power of a new system and if he's planning to buy preassembled in the future or not. If not it's easy to just buy a new HD now and use it for the new system later... Gives one the time to properly combine/select his new system, while still having a running computer at home.
Posted by: Bix VT
And actually, the new Dell system for $500 is horrible. I built a full system from NewEgg for $30 cheaper but with a Barton 2500+ and 512 3200ram.
Posted by: redwench
i was assuming he wouldnt want to build it himself.
now, just how did you manage to buy that cpu, ram,motherboard, case, various drives, monitor, and peripherals for under 500? new egg is cheap, but theyre generally not that cheap. who did you blackmail?
Posted by: Bix VT
I blackmailed nobody. I have only one 80gig hdd and one cdrw. And crappy video, I didn't throw in a good vid card, because the person I was building it for is a female friend of mine who happens to know squat about pcs, and won't be doing any gaming.
And yes, it does include a 17" monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers.
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