I am writing this on behalf of my sister who lives in Ohio ( I live in Texas ) I sold her the computer in july right before we moved here and it was working just fine then. It was bought at the end of 2005 so it is not that old. All the specifications of it are located here: Link She is getting a disk read error everytime she starts the computer. I had her try and reinstall windows xp but it is still doing it. I had her check the cables, wires and make sure there was nothing plugged in where it shouldn't be. I have tried just about everything and I am hoping this does not mean the system is going to crap. Can anyone please help. I am not a computer expert, but I usually know how to get out of these kinds of situations. But, like I said, nothing I have tried is working. Thanks in advance.

My guess is that the HD may be on it's way out by what you are saying. It could be caused by viruses, etc. OR, is she doing the install properly? Is the PC set up to boot from the CDrom or DVD rom? What you may also mention to her is that she should NOT click on anything when it says click here to boot from CD (this happens on reboot) The only time she has to do anything when it comes to the regions, user, etc. Hope that sheds some light Some HELP in posting on Computing.net plus free progs and instructions Cheers

I was thinking it might be viruses also. But she cannot do a scan because it won't boot up. She did reinstall windows xp right because I have done it before with her and it always turned out right. She does not use a CD to reinstall, she uses system recovery. The computer did not come with a CD.

With the little information supplied, I also would suspect a hard drive problem. If you know the manufacturer of the hard drive, you could point her to their website to download a diagnostic. You can find a list of the manufacturers at the following site: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm...

I provided a link with all the specifications of the computer what else do I have to put in here? Here is another site with more information about the computer....really can't tell you more about it.

SqwoozieQ, what I really meant was 'limited information about the error'. "She is getting a disk read error everytime she starts the computer." That would tend to indicate a hard drive failure. But the 'exact' error message and at what point in the boot process it appeared might have given more clues. Trying to fix a problem through a third party makes it 'very' difficult. There is almost always communication errors somewhere.

Because that is what she is getting over and over again, a disk read error. Although, she did get a ntldr error like 2 or 3 times. But all other times it has been the disk read error. She has a compaq and it appears right after the compaq logo goes off the screen. She does the ctrl+alt+del and same thing happens.