MEMORY AND STARTUP PASSED..SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT MEDIA TEST FAILOR CHECK CABLE AND ALSO NO FILENAME BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS ALSO WHEN I GO THROUGH THE BOOT ORDER THERE ARE ALOT OF USB BEFORE THE TOPIC LIKE USB FOPPY..OR USB CD ROM AND NOT WHAT THE INSTRUCTIONS SAYS SHOULD BE THERE EVEN IF I RESTORE DEFAULT SETTINGS..I'M A BEGINNER AND CONFUSED...SORRY FOR ASKING AND NOT HELPING
Yes, you should be able to use a flash drive. See this:
http://www.megaleecher.net/Seagate_...Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Possible hard drive failure. Confirm by testing it with a bootable CD containing the drive manufacturer's diagnostic software for DOS. The links are here: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm... When you've made the CD on a working computer, boot your faulty HP laptop from it.
If the drive has failed you will have to replace it with a new one.Next time you post, turn off your caps lock key. It's bad manners to type everything in capitals on a forum (we call it shouting), plus it makes the text more difficult to read.
A few full-stops and commas would be appreciated too.
message edited by phil22
So sorry about that Phil22. Thank you for teaching me this. i will try your suggestion and let you know how it turns out. i really appreciate you time and help.
I have spent almost all this time lost and i'm still not sure which thing to download because i looked for hp and it didn't see it..Got lost in something called seagate. i feel ridiculous wasting peoples time as i understand such a minimal amount. also when i've tried to down load things it says no disk when i put a new disk in. i think i have a flash drive something about um launch.oh brother i feel like stopping but i'm going to hang in there. May i ask which specific thing or name i'm suppose to down load? sorry about that. message edited by Robertbangay
No worries. That error indicates the bios is looking for an operating system to load up (Windows), but it cannot find one. A couple of possibilities. One is the computer is attempting to boot off a cd or usb device that has no operating system, however it usually will carry on to the hard drive and load windows. Which is why Phil and I tend to believe the hard drive may kaput. While it is best to use the manufacturers disk Seatools will also test the hard drive. If you are getting confused, I'll provide the link to Seatools for Dos, you download the iso file and created a bootable cd. On startup you want the computer to go to the cd first and Seatools should load. You run the short generic test, if it passes run the long generic test. http://www.seagate.com/support/down...
To err is human but to really screw things up, you need a computer!
I'm not doing it correctly and i'm soo confused i can't think so i'm going to grab a quick coffee, come back and try to focus. I apologize. i'm 52 years old, almost finished grade 8 in school and have had hiv for 30 years, plus adhd and don't even know how to use a cell phone. i'm going to return with a more positve attitude soon and give it another try. but i would like to express my appreciate your help and hate wasting your valuable time
i'm going to see if my friend is working and he will be off soon and maybe he can come and show me what you nice guys have trying to tell me..fingers crossed..
Try to jot down any error messages and make them as exact as possible - it can make a lot of difference to those helping. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Oh, ok...i turn it on black screen with white logo then goes to identification at top and f10 f12 at bottom blinking cursor then media test failure check cable..exiting px and then non-system disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready blinking curor. for a moment i got my dvd player going and wanting to write on the cd and it started to but stopped and said that it had tomstop because of some error do i want to try again skip cancel..thank you Derrik message edited by Robertbangay
I forgot to mention the dvd player is making a clicking sound 25% of the time
It sounds to me if the CD drive itself is past its prime - they shouldn't make clicking sounds. It's a bit more fiddling on a laptop than a PC and it goes without saying that it should be the same size. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
First of all thank you soo much fella for your time and attention....at this point i have the file downloaded to desktop in a new folder and waiting to be written to dvd but when i try the wizard say no disk in so i left it like that and took a flashdrive and learned and erased the flashdrive and downloaded the file on the flashdrive. now i'm teaching myself how to extract the file or something like that and hoping to he double hockey sticks that i can use a flashdrive....Is that even progress or close...sorry for such a long time without response but i've been here trying ...please tell me that i can use a flashdrive thanks again. ps..i promise in the future to give promt and frequent updates and not keep you waiting..sorry about that message edited by Robertbangay
so..i read about extration, didn't understand much..downloaded a pismo file mount package and think i mounted something but i definatly know it doesn't look like the diagram in the lesson....so 1 iso file in that state, and i iso file sitting on a flash drive doing nothing and still trying to figure out how to get dvd player working and deleted vcl player because it said it had error on it and wouldn't work and i kind of almost did something with windows media player but couldn't figure out how to get iso file to media area to drag it to burn...slow but eventually i'm to get there or use my laptop for frisbee..
Yes, you should be able to use a flash drive. See this:
http://www.megaleecher.net/Seagate_...Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Hey Derek and you guys are soo awesome and have help improve my confidence because you are prime examples of quality people who not on;ly help but follow through and i'm going to do my besat to listen and learn, follow through and never use all capitals anymore hee hee..will tell you soon how it goes,,thanks again
i've cleared and put in flash drive and down loaded you link and downloaded the kit and the window said that all files should be extracted so i clicked yes and then they said click and write and i'm lost at this point
Did you Save the download somewhere (best) or Run it online? Did you find a bunch of 11 files (one of which was named Win32DiskImager.exe)?
If so what exactly happened when you double clicked the file Win32DiskImager.exe?
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi Derek...before i had it on the flash drive ..extracted and moumnted and i found what yoy said..but i noticed i had about 5 different downloads of the same original one because i kept trying to send things to vcl..so i deleted every thing but i downoad in a folder in the desk top untouched when i extracted the first time , yes i found 11 files .win32diskimager and that was as far as i got..and when i double clicked i was looking for the word write because the text i read on goggle said find win32disk etc double click and write to winimage i think and then i stopped....thank you..
Sounds as if you have not unzipped it (the folder name still being "SeaTools_Bootable_USB_Kit.zip"). This will allow you to see the 11 files but if they are still compressed they will not produce the desired results. This is for Vista Unzip:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Zip-...If you are not already set to "Hide extensions for known file types" go to "Control Panel > Folder Options > View" and put the blob in that entry. You will then definitely see whether the zip file extension (compressed or zipped) is there or not which will help your understanding. It's a good idea to leave it set that way.
When you do the extract it will create a new folder named just "SeaTools_Bootable_USB_Kit" with the same contents but this time they will be unzipped (decompressed). Now when you double click this new Win32DiskImager.exe a box will pop up with a "Write" button and you go from there.
If this still backfires then just copy all the files out of the original zip download and put it in a spare folder somewhere. Might as well call this folder SeaTools_Bootable_USB_Kit (but I doubt it matters). You should then get the Write button when you double click this new Win32DiskImager.exe file. Best use the first method if possible though.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
HI..THE LAPTOP I'M USING AND WRITING ON RIGHT NOW IS AN INSPIRON 700 M WINDOWS XP
THE LAPTOP WITH THE PROBLEM IS MY HP COMPAQ 6715B AND I FOUND THIS ONE IN THE GARBAGE
That's OK, you can still produce the bootable flash drive on there. You then put the flash drive in the dud machine, power off then on again and it should start the check eventually. Anything with XP upwards should work in the same sort of way that I've described. If the Inspiron is XP then this will be better:
http://consumerdocs.installshield.c...Re-check my previous long post I've been editing it.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
See post above first. Should have said, if it won't boot to the flash drive then you need to set the boot order in BIOS so that the flash drive is ahead of the HD. See 4 of 4 here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Boo...I gather that to get into BIOS on a HP COMPAQ 6715B you tap F9 key as soon as it powers up. The menu uses arrow keys but I can't say too much more because they are all different.
Have to go now, well past midnight here in the UK. Will be out tomorrow so I'll be away for quite a while. Someone else might give you a hand in the meantime. Back later...
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
So i got confused and erased every thing and started over and now i can see the bootable file..i opened and now i can see the win32disk thingy
Good night Derek and thank you because i think i did it because i double clicked the win32disk like you said and extractedall and put it in f usb now i.m going to click on remove safely the flash drive and then on a turned off laptop stick the flassh drive in the hp asnd turn it on right now..THANK YOU SOO MUCH
Good morning..I'm proud to announce that Derrek has guided me to a point that i am soo close to the finish line that i can taste it. so, i've accomplished everything that the fine fellows have placed in front of me until just before the ending and i'm at the point where it is time to double click win32diskimager and then click write and when i did it beep and says it needs an image file but i don't know what that is. Any suggestions to just help me cross the finish line. experience has taught me when i doubt do nothing and that's what i'm going to do until i get the right answer.....thank you to all that has helped me and i hope i can return the favor some day...so, i'll wait until someone has time...
Take another look at the box called "win32 Disk Imager" (the one with the Write button). You should see a little blue folder icon over towards the right. When you click that once the file SeaTools.img should be showing. If so, select that file so that it appears in the white slot. Assuming the above works, put your empty flash drive into the USB socket. The next step is to select the Device letter used by the flash drive using the little drop-down arrow. If you then hit the Write button it should start happening. There should be 9 files on the flash drive when you have finished. This better link shows some of these files (at para 5) but there might be slight variations:
http://www.megaleecher.net/Seagate_...I don't think previous explanations and links made my para 2 above very clear and this is probably why you have troubles.
If you still have difficulty pop back and I'll write it up step-by-step. We'll use my own version of it this time, which I've just tested out as far as producing the correct files on the flash drive. I happen to be on Windows 8 but I think it will be much the same.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Good evening Derek..Well it went exactly like you said it would and i just put the flash drive and turn my laptop on,. will it take awhile for the process to take place....and thank you soo much for checking up on me..you are a real stand up guy and i'll let you know what happens...
I assume the actual test is now running (if not it should have started doing so within a few minutes). Difficult to say how long it will take to run through as it depends on the speed of the machine. I'd probably guess half an hour but am sure to be proved horribly wrong.
Let us know how you get on.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Hey ya Derek..A little over 2 hours..no change..so .i shut it off to see if any change..sorry to say no change.so only 2 possible answers because all your instuctions were clear, accurate and comprehendable..except to me because i read the paragraphy over and over and then when i try to follow your instuctions i sem to miss something..so, i hope it's ok if i can aska question about the last phase..i double click i got to menu with right click blue folder...name in white box save ,..look up it's in f.drive flashdrive. i peek and everything is in there so was wondering about i double clicke d win32diskimsger.and did proceedure however there was 8 other titles that i din't do that prosses...because i clicked extrat all are they covered...thank you Derek
If you plug the flash drive into any computer then peer into it from "My Computer" it should contain the files now listed in my #31 below. When you boot with the flash drive it should become obvious in just a short while whether the test is starting. There will be a rather old style looking menu, from which you select the short or long scan (see the link in #26). It sounds to me as if that didn't happen.
Empty the flash drive then nip through it all again. We'll do it another way this time:1. Make a folder on your desktop then name that folder HDTEST.
2. Find your download (SeaTools_Bootable_USB_Kit.zip) and double click it to open it.
3. You should now see 11 files but you are actually looking into a compressed file.
4. Copy and Paste all 11 files into the HDTEST folder on your desktop.
5. Open the HDTEST folder and double click the file "Win32DiskImager.exe".
6. A box should pop-up (the one with Write button).
7. Click the blue icon at the top, towards the right of middle.
8. A "Select a disk image box" should arrive which shows the file "SeaTools.img".
9. Click the SeaTools.img file then Save.
10. With the flash drive inserted select its drive letter from the dropdown.
11. Hit the Write button.
12. When it has finished look at the flash drive in "My Computer" to check that the right files are now present (see #31).
All the above is done on your working laptop. You then insert the flash drive in the faulty computer and power it up. If nothing happens after just a few minutes then we will need to investigate further.
Information etc about my item 4 above:
If you don't already know you can copy the 11 files over in one go. Just single left click any one, then hold the Ctrl+A keys down together. All the files will highlight and if you right click the highlighted block you can select Copy. You then open the HDTEST folder and select Paste. All 11 should arrive. At my number 5 you are no longer looking into a compressed file - they've unzipped into the HDTEST folder.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Yeah, the above looks a lot (use the scroll bar on the right). It's not difficult but just that this time I've spelt everything out in fine detail, plus a bit of explanation to help you understand it better.
Here are the 9 files you should see on the flash drive:
FDAUTO.BAT
FDCONFIG.SYS
FINDTDSK.EXE
HIMEM.EXE
KERNEL.SYS
NANSI.SYS
seatools.zip
TDSK.EXE
UNZIP.EXEAlways pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Good evening Derek..i spent most of the day helping my brother move and now i have to go to my volunteer job so first thing in the morning i will start the process that you so kindly took the time it reqiured for you to provide these detailed instuctions and wanted you to know that i'm not sitting here and not appreciating all the time it took for you to put all this information together but provide it in a speedy manner to help a perfect stranger. deserves immediate attention..so, i promise i'm not trying to waste your time and actually i think i'll get right on it soon as i get home tonight and i'll let you know what happened before evenings end.....thank you very much for putting up with all the personal time i'm taking away from you but i promise to listen and learn all you've taught me because when you first communicated with me i could type a bit ( always with caps on ) how to get oto fface book and "THAT'S IT" literally but in a short time you've present things and procedures in such staight forward way that i actually started to think that maybe i would be able to understand and use a computer which seems to be an essencial part of society which i told i was too old or not smart enough to learn it, but when you offered several different explantions to help me get it and not get mad because most people would of comprehended and successfully accomplished this task days ago , which my internet provider basically told me when i asked a couple of questions about this proccess when i phoned back to ask again because i didn't really get it that people don't really have the extra time to explain and reexplain the same issue over and over and i should take it to the computer store and ask him..but i've already had to pay well over $100..2 times because i didn't understand about importance of immediate antivirus pertection or how to operate a computer and i thought maybe i shouldn't use one because i had a feeling was going to be very expensive unless i learn at least the most important fundamental like back up..and diagostic tools etc and you've show me with being patient with me that i'm going to keep trying until the question i posted says solved and not just either avoid posting a question or asking trying 1 suggestion and then just give up..sorry for being so long winded but i was feeling guilty that i wasn't working on my assignment..Have a nice evening
Hi Derek..So, i followed step by step exactly to what you're instruction are and just finished putting the flashdriver in the hp laptop and turned the power on...oh, something just happened and instead of the non-system message it now says freedos with a blimking cursor under it...because i'm not sure what do now in not going to touch it and mess things up...so, i'm going to shoppers drugmart where my friend works and ask him if he knows what to do. If he doesn't know i will just wait to see if you have a little time to guide me to the home plate. I do want to epress how impressed i am with your ability to be patient and have the forsight to realize that some people like myself will need extra help or simpler instuctions. i had trouble right off the bat just before i emailed you this evening because i started to follow the instructions and you wanted me to make a seperate folder and name it hddtest so i easily find it.( thank you that really helped ) and i was comprehending until you mentioned that i would see 11 files ..ok got it...and then i realized after 3 days of trying different things and sending this one program boots all over the place and it was everywhere and i thought..oh brother but went to volunteeer job and thought since you mention erase flashdrive i should just erase everything that has to do with that program except all the emails about this and started over fresh and you made it so simple and straight forward i did it in 11 mins. Thank you....So, i waited 10 minutes and it still says freedos so i think it probably wants me to push enter but i'll go ask and tell you what happened..thank you...I'm soo happy
Hi, well my friend wasn't working so would it be ok to ask you what to do? It's the first time in my life that made and kept the decision not to push any buttons and wait..for your expertise.Sorry to ask..thank you and have a nice day
Happy to help - might go AWOL at times (various non-computer things going on). I was expecting you to see a menu (with short and long test options).
Can you confirm that the files on the flash drive (when looked at on your working computer) are as per my #31?
It might be because you have SATA drives - see this:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/SeaToo...Not sure whether you fancy trying to do what they suggest.
We might be between a rock and a hard place. I deliberately avoided the CD version of this test because there were suspicions that your
HDCD drive was faulty. It seems the flash drive version is giving us a problem.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
i TRIED AGAI IT READ FREEDOS..WENT AND DID DISHES FOR 10 MINS CAME BACK COMPUTER WAS SHUT OFF TOOK OUT FLASHDRIVE AND PEEK INTO F FILE AND THE DOCUMENT AND LAUCH SOMETHING PROGRAM WAS STILL THERE EVN THOUGH I DELETED THEM SO I DELETED AGAIN AND WILL TRY.IF THIS DOESN'T WORK I'M GOING TO FOLLOW ANY DIRECTION OR SUGGESTION YOU HAVE...WILL START PROCESS NOW
PS...STILL FREE DOS..DO YOU THINK DOCUMENT AND LAUNCHUM3 PROGRAMS ARE PERMANANT ON FLASHDRIVE? ALSO WHEN I WAS SENDING THINGS INSTEAD OF COPY AND PASTE I DID SEE THE DVD PLAYER WORKING AND DEVICE MANAGER SAID IT WAS WORKING PROPERLY SO I THINK I CAN MAKE A DVD IF YOU HELP ME FIND OUT HOW I SHUT I OFF AND TURN IT BACK ON AND THEN LEARN HOW TO BURN IT..I WILL READ YOUR LINK YOU SENT NOW THANKS
If you still get issues it might be best to format the flash drive in your good machine then create the test on the flash drive again. You just right click the flash drive in "My Computer" and select Format. That will ensure everything has gone (even any hidden files or folders). If you kept the HDTEST folder you can just start from there - should only take a couple of jiffs.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
I DID SAVE TEST FOLDER WILL DO NOW
Yep, give it one more go because what you are reporting sounds odd. Otherwise we can have a bash at the CD version (and hope the clicking CD drive doesn't matter). Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Ok i'm done and putting in flash drive now
well 6 mins passed and same freedos
I think it maybe safe to assume that 've damaged the flashdrive..putting it in and out of different computer improperly and adding nd erasing and sending it all over the place..wow..what a dumb dumb i am
So, i took a new dvd and put it in the dvd player and went to my computer and opened dvd and there is nothing there so it's blank
i read the link you sent me about sata and i think i'll give that a try in the meantime..let you know
I couldn't find the sata thingy or what he was saying...i'm going togo for lunch and then volunteer at the food bank for only 1 and a half hours..so, i'll be back before 2:30...but man being not that bright is giving me brain fog..but at least now i'm determend and commited to complete this task whether the outcome is positive or not. i have enjoyed all the things you've shared with me..i just wish icould of been a better student..chat soon
The good news is that I think you have now done everything correctly. Now we hit the bad news (plural LOL). You are not the only person to hit this "freedos" issue but the only fix I can find is the one I gave. Further, if you try the CD instead there seems to be every chance that you will end up in the same position. We can try but I thought I should warn you about that possibility.
I did find this, which is from Lenovo themselves but I know no more about it than you do:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_GB/dow...
We can kinda hold each others hands if you want to go down that route.Standing back from all this, mostly if you tap F8 while booting (without any flash drive inserted) you will get the startup menu from which you can select Safe Mode, Command Prompt, etc. Have you tried to do this? If you can get any option to work then there is a chance that we can dream up something useful as next step.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi ya...f8 was the first thing i tried..no luck...i'm going to read the link you sent no and will wite back soon
That link is for a usb and don't i want to try dvd.?..i'd like to give it a shot but when i try to read the links nothing goes in but i can follow your directions whatevers best for you but i'd like to try dvd at least once. What do you think about that Derek..thank you..
Hi,,well i thought about when i tried to do the dvd and i know now that my mistakes such as trying to vkeep sending the program instead of copy and paste also when i bought the blank dvd, i asked how does it go from just a cd to a writeable dvd and she said just put it in the computer and i will do it itself...which is bullpuckey and that's why i gave up on dvd because i'd get to the strage where it said i had files waiting to be written and i think it was because i never formated the disk therefore can't read or write it right? sorry so many question thank you
Gotta go now (would you believe 2.30 am here in the UK). In the meantime just let me know which way you prefer to go and I'll go through the links with you and help wherever I can.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Wow...didn't know there was six hour difference. you must be tuckered out. i'll keep the time difference in mind when i ask of your time as you must be a little tired to wake up to my messages of not much accomplished in an experienced person, but if i was to lose contact with you, i could walk away feeling not only that for me..i think i have absorbed alot of information for my age and no experience thanks to your teaching style and excellent instuctions it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks..So, if it's ok with you ive already erased evrything that pertains to what we did with usb and all the downloads but have all the emails and links you sent so soona si know which program you want me to downloadbecause it's different from the flash drive right. and a brand new and blank writable disk in the player...i still feel hopeful better than when i went to school to try to get my high school...I was over 1/2 an hour on 1 question. She tried to make me feel better by asking me what i was going to be when i finished school and i answered.." A SENIOR CITIZEN,,because 'm never geting out of here haha..have a good sleep and thanks for today
I'm renowned for being a "night owl" LOL. Go here and have a read of it:
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articl...Click where it says "bootable CD" in the writing a few lines down from the top.
Hit the "I Accept" button and see the further instructions. Then download the file (see button at step 4) and Save it.The important thing is that you don't just burn the download onto the CD. You have to use "burn an image (ISO)" feature which is available with most burning software. If you get stuck there are small free programs around to do this.
You can try a CD-RW if you like but rewriteables can be fussy and might not work for this sort of thing. A CD-R is much better but it wastes a disk if it doesn't work out.
See how you get on with the instructions - I'll be back later.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
OH MAN, DEREK OH SOO CLOSE.....Downloaded and accomplished all the tasks including downloading an iso burner and successfully follow every step i click and it started burning..big smile turned into a from when burn stop saying started to write iso file and failed to write iso file, error hardware 14850,,,,so, i'm not touching anything and leave exactly as is so maybe we can move on or maybe i've wasted too much of you time and you have to move on haha, i hope not but yethat steday i sold my gold ring to cash for gold..$133 just in case we can't ( ok you can't fix it haha) and we have to give up/...but i have a funny god wants us to be successful..sorry for my never ending issue...talk soon i hope, i;ll check back..thank you derek
By the looks of it your clicking CD drive is the most likely culprit - the reason we hoped to use a flash drive. If you used a CD-R you could try a CD-RW despite what I said earlier. That way you wouldn't waste a disk if it failed again because it could always be erased for further use. What ISO burner program did you use?
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Here's another thought. There is a fairly easy way to prove whether your burning is the issue or reading the disk in the dud computer. Set the BIOS on your working machine to see the HD first and boot it up on there. If you get exactly the same error there was a burning problem. If it works, the dud computer is not reading it properly. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
WOW..My bios on hp looks way different so i click on hdd and clicked run test..and only seconds later started beeping like crazy and it wasasking do i want to abort and alsostart dst test..results fail error..1000-0146...and another sentence something about errors but it was beeping and demanding for me to make a decision so i exited and here we are...you are so clever to think of that "GULP" it's almost childishly funny because my inner truth voice is whispering to me...Hey Robby why don't you just admit to yourself that some serios s..t is happening to the laptop that is way beyond my ability to ask you to keep helping because your time is so valuable and i should just take responsibily and fork over the cash but the selfish voice says..you don't know yet if we can find a solution and i really enjoy interating with you because every time i chat or read your email i learn a ton and even understand why things are the way they are but i will play devils advocate and leave the choice up to you. I'm going to pay my rent, utilities and bring a bunch of items i know i can sell to the pawn shop...because the $100 from the ring probably won't cover the hard drive and also if i do well enough do you think it's in my best interest to fix the babys or beginner laptop that i paid only $198..and tighten my belt a little and decide that if i want to learn not just how to use a computer properly but how to maintain it because to be honest only up until 2 months ago found out that i was suppose to run scans, back up info, and click install when updates are ready instead of ignoring them...i think my budget will be $400..is it even possible to get a half decent laptop or should i buy another duplicate of the super cheap one until i know i'm not going to youthanasia another computer because i only startes in jan last year and hp is # 3..sorry for talking so much..chat soon i hope i'll keep checking thank you Derek
All a bit confusing but it "seems" as if the disk burning was faulty. I guess you could try another disk and (if there's an option) burn at the slowest speed available. I think your budget would get you something reasonable enough. The next thing is whether you are you ready for Windows 8 because a lot of people dislike it. Not sure if you will still be able to find a laptop with Windows 7 on it but it's possible you would prefer it.
I'm on Win 8 and happy enough (PC, not touch screen) but I've set the desktop up to do quite a lot for me - not everyone would like that effort. There is a free download that brings back the old style start menu but I've managed to resist it.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Okie dokie Derek...so i got type of dvd that yiu suggested. I checked and it was burning on max so there were. only 2 choices, (ox 2kbs) and will try this again,fingers crossed
ZONK...Oh boy,i'm taking the rest of the night and will try again tommorow. thank you Derek
OK - See you later. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Hey Derek ...So it dawned on me that to keep trying to solve this issue with the laptop i have..no dvd and broken flash drive is just wasting your time and i don't want that to happen so i just finished writing all the important links and info i need down on paper and i have a brand new cd-rw...and dvd-r and i'm going to go to the internet cafe and use their computer to download all the sea gate..bootable tools...win32diskand download and with all the instuctions that you provided me and make a proper diagnostic and bootable dvd that will work because after i left last message my laptop was flashing error strike any key because the flashdrive is corrupt so i think we may have a chance at success because non of the disks or flashdrive things we tried were not valid...so i'll let you know what happened..have a nice evening
Hey ya Derek..well..i'mexcited like a little kid because i went to the internet cafe and now i'm back and in 2 seconds in putting in the dvd...fingers crossed my friend...ok go
looks like i didn't do it properly because nothing happened so i put the cd in my working laptop and opened it and it has 2 files..one that says unzip with files ready to write on cd...and the other says files currently on the cd...seatools bootable usb kit.....at least i'm on the right track and i bought 4 blank dvds and 3 hours of time...so,i still have 2.5 hours left. i'll wait till you can tell me what todo if that's ok with you...oh well i'm still excited and i need to crash now..night
Sorry, I'm not going to be able to help much right now (various other things going on at home). Somehow I doubt that getting the download was the issue, more like how you burnt to disk. The download itself should be "SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO" so best check to see if that's what you downloaded. This was from the link in #53.
I've peered inside the download (without going through the full process) and it seems that when you have burnt it to disk it is likely to have three folders and about 20 files - many of which are guides in different languages. I see two files Autoexec.inf and drivedetect.exe which are particularly important. Browse the disk you produced In Windows and see if you have anything like that. If not then I'm not sure what you produced.
What program did you use to burn the image (ISO) - sorry if you already said and I missed it - am rushing about LOL.
I'll be back but not too sure exactly when.
EDIT: BACK NOW SO POP BACK WHEN YOU WISH
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi Derek thought you might need some extra time. Basically I have on the cd as of now is, one file says title unzip...The other one says seatools bootable usb kit with 11 files in it. i thought the process that you showed me about unzipping and putting in extracting into other folder was for the flashdrive..So, is there anything i can do with the cd that i made now, to finish the process or should i start over on a fresh disk and what should i do.Oh brother ,,I'm sure asking alot from you as you already did this for me once but i went over all the emails but also the was other emails from other people at first and i wasn't sure which seagate link to go to mso i went to seagate/support/download...found the bootable usb kit and i wasn't quite sure how to burn so i asked the man working at the cafe and seemed annowed that iasked and went like lightning speed, so i'm not sure if he burn iso or not, and i guess i jumped the gun and basically produced nothing. i apologize. i'll wait to see what you say about it. In the mean time i'll read all the things that you sent me from before..I think i was suppos to make a seperate folder..after downloading the bootable kit , the files are still comressed so open it double click on win32 dis imge and it would change to another imge with 11 files and extract those files into the new folder to unzip them and then wrie click till menu drops down click on little blue folder to make sure where the download is burned and then click write. Am i even close? I feel bad for taking extra time but trying to get all the info seperated from regular disk and flash drive got me even more confused then i already was...Thank you Derek and have a nice day
Ps, i just read #53 about have burn an image iso feature..and that was my first mistake..so now i got that part and i,m writing that down on the new what to do list that i'm rewriing to take with me to the internet cafe..Is the sight i'm going to go to Seagate/support/down? Thank you
"Is the sight i'm going to go to Seagate/support/down?"
The link in #53 to the Seagate website is working for me, if that's what you mean.Follow the parts on there for making a CD, in particular any blue links that send you to another webpage for further information.
The only bit that might be unfamiliar to you is burning an image (ISO).
See this link if necessary:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tools...
If all else fails they suggest a free program to do it for you.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
No that wasn't the sight that #53 said..i got that link from when i first posted the qestion the first reply to the question from hopperrox sugessing to make a bootacle cd...so ijust read what you sent about iso burning and this is what i think i'm suppose to do..at the cafe type www.freeisoburner.exe...double click on iso burner file..insert disk..click open and window will appear asking to select what iso file i want to burn..click open to confirm selection..go back to iso burner main menu check that the option under drive is optical drive you put my empty disk to. When burning is down..disk will eject. delete iso burner and now i can use the disk for our task..Is that right..Now what? Thank you Derek
ps..I'm going to go to the link you suggested..in #53 http//knowledge.seagate.com/article..is that correct? when i'm at the cafe.
Oh, at pay attention to direction especially to blue ones that bring me to other website. Ok?message edited by Robertbangay
That's fine. The HopperRox link still ends up downloading the same file "SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO". Probably easy for us to continue with link at #53 now as I've looked at that more recently. Use the free program in #68 if you have any difficulty burning the image. Not so sure they will let you install programs in the café computer though.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
If you have difficulty burning an image at the café, then I would like to suggest an alternative program to do it on your own computer (the working one). I took another look at "Free ISO Burner" and they seemed to be saying you have to take care not to install some unwanted stuff. The one I have in mind does not do that and is very easy to use - you just click one icon. Let me know if you need the link and make sure you grab a copy of the download "SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO" on a flash drive so that we can use it.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
May i please have the link for the iso burner you mentioned and can i download it to a disk and put it on the cafe computer and then insert a fresh disk to do my download i'm suppose to because the flash drive i had and was using is corrupt according to the message that popped up and that's the only one i have..but i bought 4 blank cds and only used one so far..thank you Derek
ok, i see to go to link...http:// pcsupport.about.com/od/tools is that correct?
Yep go here and click Mirror7 (as its theirs):
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?ac...Install it and then click the desktop icon to run the program.
You will see how simple the screen is, all you have to do is click the icon "Write Image File to Disk" and follow what it tells you. Obviously at some stage you will have to point it to wherever you put the downloaded "SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO" file. If you see a speed option then go for the lowest.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Excellent Derek..I wrote all this down and will go and try in about 1 hour and will come back and tell you how it went..fingers crossed and thank you very much for the help
ps..after i'm finished that then go to the link you gave me http//knowledge.seagate.com.article to get the seatoolsDos223ALLISO file and then burn it to the cd?
Yep, get the download then burn it with the program at #75 - just follow what it tells you. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Hey Derek..Ok..home now with burnt iso dvd with the 20 files you said was suppose to be on it now i'm going to put it in the hp..will chat real soon
it's working..but it's says agreement but my cursor is frozen and i plug in my mouse and stll wont move
Best try it on both computers to confirm that the disk is OK. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
It seems top be working ok on this computer..I'm going to double check that i didn't disconnect anything when i took out the harddrive and the battery etc when i was trying diffwerent things. Does the battery need to be in and only ac current on or does it matter?
i forgot to ask..i changed the boot order the other day do you think that makes a difference
ok i changed the defaults back and see if that helps
That didn't make any difference..it seemed to do everything exactly on both computer until it came to the agreement part and then just stopped and cursor won't move. i did try to change a few things when i was trying to figure things out the last few weeks like enabling bit assisted and things like that could it be that all the settings are incorrect..when i pushed default settings does all the settings go back to original or just the boot order?..I think you might be busy right now and i have to go to work for 2 hours so, i won't touch anything and wait to see what you say....oh sooo close huh Derek.....
i think the internal battery might be dead will that make a difference? i'm going to get a new one while i'm out
Good evening Derek...I'm not sure if this will help but i thought i would go through the book orders,device configurations etc..and tell you what i have things set to because i'm pretty sure that's i've put things in the wrong places so under boot order....... optical drive-third....usb Cd-rom......second......usb floppy...first.....usb superdisk....fith......notebook hard drive....seventh.....network controller.....sixth...................................then under device configuratuion......swap fn/ctrl keys.....disabled......usb legacy support....enabled....parallel port mode.....ecp.....bios dma data transfers.....enabled.....fan always on....disabled.....lan power saving....enabled.....secondary battery fast charge....enabled.....hdd translation mode.....lan assisted.....usb hdd translation mode......bit shift....windows vista direct app launch...disabled...........built in device options.......embedded wlan device radio....enabled......network interface controller (lan).....enabled......lan/wlan switching....disabled......wake on lan.....enabled......optical disk drive....enabled......fingerprint device....enabled....................port options..............serial port....enabled......parallel port.....enabled......flash media reader....enabled......usb ports including express card slot.....enabled.....1394 port.....enabled......cardbus....enabled................................................I hope this helps instead of just more work for Derek....good night and thanks for today message edited by Robertbangay
The first thing I want to be "crystal clear" about is whether the disk you made is working on the good computer. In particular that you have put the CD before the HD in BIOS and that when you start the good computer with the CD already in the drive you get to the screen where you select the long or short HD test (with both the keyboard and mouse working). If that is the case then we can progress to the faulty computer knowing that we have a good disk. The boot order on the faulty computer should likewise be set with the CD as the first device, so that it is seen before attempting to boot Windows on the HD. If you have the CD booting after the HD then it will just ignore the disk and go down the list until it finds something to which it can boot.
Just for info, although it is generally OK to reset BIOS to defaults there can be odd cases where this is not a good idea. In some instances the manufacturer has chosen specific settings to suit the hardware and in the worst case I have known computers not even boot up after resetting to default. It those instances it can be tricky unless the original settings have been noted before resetting or can be obtained afterwards.
I'll have a look at the other information but first concentrate on para 1 above and we can pick it up from there.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Good morning Derek..When i read chrystal clear..i thought oh oh..i'm in big trouble haha...do i took the disk out of the hp and changed the bios to cd first and turned it off..then i changed the bios in the working laptop to cd first..and i put in the disk so i'm going to shut down and start it up and see what happens be right back..thank oyu
Well it worked perfectly on working laptop..found the short and long test and was able to move curors and everything..unfortunatly nothing changed with hp as far as cursor won't move..also i noticed when i turned on the hp and it started loading it said time and date not set so i went to it and it said jan 1st 1980..so i changed it to todays time and date and still the same results
also on hp i put cd first optical second does that maake a difference?
Does it matter if the battery is in the hp?message edited by Robertbangay
So my friend..Do you think it might be time to throw in the towel and take it to free geeks.. i found them on line and they are about 1 hour bus ride but only charge $30 for the same hard drive the computer store quoted at just under $100 after tax..but when i phoned free geeks and asked about hard drive cost he said he only had one type something about sata or not..but i don't know if my hard drive is sata or not. any idea how i can find out because i don't want to go all the way there and they don't have the type i need. Actually because i phoned 2-3 weeks ago i think i should phone them again after i take out my hard drive and write down the info from sticker and ask if they have that kind. What do you think...Personally i still want to try with you but i thought i should offer you an out because you have put in soo much time. i'll wait to see what you say thank you
OK Lets summarise what we know, which is probably still less than what we don't know. The original error message points to either HD failure or a BIOS setting, see this:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/...There are others who have run into mouse and keyboard issues with the HD test:
http://ma.juii.net/blog/fix-mouse-a...
(see also where it says "here" and "here" - links in the text).There is a question mark about the CD drive (the clicking).
====================================
So, there are just a few possible ways forward. You could take a chance and reset the HP BIOS to defaults then try once more to see if somehow you can get the test to run. If you still get the mouse and keyboard issues then maybe hitting Enter on the keyboard will clear the license screen - although I'm not hopeful.
The other way is to boot the HP to a Live Linux CD. If it works on that it would prove that the CD is reading fine - maybe the mouse and keyboard would work then too. The ritual for making a Linux CD is much like we have already done for the HD test CD (different websites and downloads). It does not install Linux at all - it just runs between the CD and RAM.
My guess is that it is HD trouble but short of trying it in another computer (there are enclosures to allow HD's to run from a USB) it could be tricky to prove without running the test. With this arrangement if you can read everything on the suspect HD it gives a fair degree of confidence that it is OK.
I don't mind what avenue you pursue but I would probably reset BIOS and try to get the HD test to run somehow. Otherwise go for the Linux disc but that will only help to put odd pieces of the jigsaw in place. If you prefer to submit the computer for a hands-on fix then I quite understand. Sometimes it is tricky to fix certain faults with help from afar.
If you want to continue on here then that is fine by me but whether we get a satisfactory outcome is uncertain. It might take some time because I will not always be available (as you have found). Nobody else seems to fancy joining this post so we are on our own.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Hey ya Derek..well i read and changed all the things that were suggsted with the same results until i read about when mouse freezing push.ctrl,alt, delete...and it changed and the new message says..Thank you for using seatools for dos. A list of test log files is error reading from drive a: DOS area: sector not found..(abort,igonre,retry.(fail?-
OH, HOLD THE PHONE..itried again and just kept the buttons down a lttle longer and now it went to ask me if i want to view user guide type readme..so i'm just starting welcome to seagates seatools for dos..i'll let you know what happens
'
so, it goes step by step what to do and what tests to run..(short one right?) running of diagnostics..test info and results.....seatools test code....set capacity.......erase drive......acoustic test.....view log......quit.....error codes.......ata drive self test..........off line data collection.......bad sector found...and a whole whack of other goodies...so..'ll wait until i hear from you because this is alot of reading, by the time we are finished i should be almost smart haha..looks like things are looking up...knock on wood..take care and thanks
I would normally ask you to do the long test if the short test ran through without a hitch. However, it sounds as if it has found problems already. List out some of the things it found wrong (errors, bad sectors etc). From what you've said so far it is looking like the HD has had it - but lets make sure.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
I couldn't find the info you asked for . I think because i haven't run any tests yet. i was waiting for you rto tell me which one. right now my message offers to view user guide file at the c prompt readme.....copy all log files to floppy and press ctrl, alt.delete to reboot and last sentence is (seagate boot)C:...and a blinking cursor
Oh, seems I misinterpreted your #96 and assumed it had found a bad sector. Run the short test for starters and see if it finds any errors. If it doesn't then run the long test. You don't want it to do anything else (certainly NOT erase drive), just run the tests.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
ok, as soonas i find out how because i don't see it yet or at least not the same as working computer..i'll look
Follow this:
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articl...You will see the short and long tests on the fourth big picture down (one with blue bar along the top). Best see what the short test finds and let me know. I notice that it might be able to repair if you do the long test. Could be worth a go but if the disk is really bad it will not be able to fix it. Even if it does it might have lost some vital information. Anyway, I'm jumping too far ahead so just do the tests.
Avoid anything but the tests because the program is capable of making changes or erasing the HD - not at all what we want.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
ok..seems i have to run the program but in boot order and what they say and what my words say are different so here isthey want 1. diskette drive..2.usb storage device...3.cd/dvd/cd-rw drive....4. internall hdd...and my choices say...optical disk drive...usb..cd rom....usb floppy....usb superdisk....notebook harddrive....usb harddrive....i'll wait for your answer sorry for the trouble
Are you talking about BIOS settings? If so then you want "cd/dvd/cd-rw" first, then "Internal hdd". The order of the rest don't matter but just for info diskette drive is your floppy and usb is for flash drives or anything else you have plugged into the USB. When you have the first two correct you power up with the disk in the drive to get to the Seatools screen. If you mean what the program on the disk is asking then you obviously want to test your main hard drive and you might need to select it somehow. This is a bit more detailed and might help:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/...As you can see, I'm not too sure where you are (BIOS or running the disk) but with luck the above will help in either instance.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
oh sorry yes i understand cd/dvd/cd-rw...but i dont have that on my boot order mine is the other list my chices are optical disk drive....usb cd-rom.....usb floppy...usb superdisk....notebook harddrive....usb hard drive
Is your CD drive built in? If so it is the "optical disk drive" and that needs to be ahead of the main Hard Disk. I gather you are still in BIOS then? Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
YES...BUT I DON'T KNOW IF CD DRIVE IS BUILT IN..I'M GOING TO GO TO HP WEBSITE AND ASK BE RIGHT BACK
SORRY I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND CLEAR ANSWER EVEN WHEN I GO TO HP AND ASK DOES A HP COMPAQ 6715B HAVE A BUILT IN CD DRIVE....i'LL KEEP TRYING
Hi so i have to go to my volunteer job but will be back at it by 1 pm..maybe i can straighten somethings in my mind and i will be of some use this aftwrnnon...
OK, it's 6.30 pm here in the UK. By "built in" I mean has the computer got a CD/DVD slot in the side or is it a separate CD/DVD drive that plugs into a USB socket.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
HI..YES IT IS BUILT IN..SO OPTICAL FIRST..HDD SECOND?
That's it - go ahead and after that boot with the disk and see if you can get the screen I mentioned which shows the short and long tests. If so run at least the short one for now. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
No change...Hey Derek i've read pretty much all of the seagate inmformation and i had this weird thought because at the very last of the information and they were taking about boot order and settings etc and they gave 2 examples of set up..boot menu and 1 was for the Dell optiplex and second is for Dell inspiron 1150 and i can't help wondering is this software for a dell computer because the laptop with the problem is an hp compaq 6715b.laptop and i'm using a dell to communicate with you. i thought that because again i put disk in the inspiron and wham bam everything you said would happen happened including window with short and long test..and when i use the disk on the hp when the cursor freezes if i push ctrl,and alt together and then delete it will change to a place that tells you all the info about the disk and process as long as you type readme...but if i want to look at log fle or put in a disk and copy files it wont responde to the worsds they said to type in ...just wondering
ps..to answer your question no short or long test option..infact doesn't offer oppurtunity to do any of the tasks just info until last sentence and that says (seagate boot) c: and blinking cursor.also my hp is windows business vista and i don't know if that's dos or not
Seatools is not especially for Dell - they just used Dell as an example.
How you actually change the boot order on the HP will be different of-course.You said:
"when the cursor freezes"
It shouldn't freeze. When you start the HP with the disk in the drive it should come up exactly like the Dell (or does that freeze too?).What is the first thing you see on the screen when you boot the HP with the disk in the drive? If you get something strange (even a freeze) then do this:
Leave the disk in the drive. Unplug the HP from the domestic power and remove the battery. Now hold the power off/on button in for about 30 seconds. Put the battery back, plug the power in again then start the machine. See if that helps.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi..when i put it in the dell turn it on it kicks in i think evn before the logo...starts showing a rapid printout of tons of stuff a few split seond stops and then stops at agreement..No problem for me to move the curser...click on test area menu drops down with choice of short or long etc and keeps going normally...when it comes to the hp exactly the same thing only when i stops at agreement.Cursor is in the middle i tried to move it fom the little center square and finger...nothing..push enter nothing.plugged in mouse no..keyboard no..then i used your suggestion about ctrl,alt delete..when pushed all at the same time didn't work but next time i pushed ctrl, alt first then delete and screen change to a short lis of things you can do such as type readme that place worked and had every bit of info and the procedures needed..also said that if i wantesd to make floo=ppy disk of log files to type something but i tried 3 times nothing and the other task nothing but no where on the page with all the info was a place, oppurtunity to start a process just info
Ps....i'm going to do that battery thing you wanted now
ok, so same thing kicks in right away looks the same as dell until agreement then cursor freezes..pushed ctrl,alt together then delete no i'm at a page that says..thank you for using seatools for dos. a list of test log filesis avaiable by typing DIR * log a the c: prompt. log files are named after the drives serial #. to view a particular log file at the c; prompt tyupe VIEW filename.LOG......the under neath 3 sentences..#1...to view the viewers guide file at the c: prompt type readme....#2..to copy all log files to a floppy diskette type COPY * .LOG B :...and #3...please remove your cd or floppy diskette and press CLTR ALT DELE TO rebootand under that just says (seagate boot) C:\. with a blinking cursor and that's it
So Mr.Derek.I just glanced at the clock...did the time difference and relized it's almost 15 oclock haha where you are so i just wanted to say good night and thank you for all the help today
I don't think your HP likes either of us. Can you check in BIOS once more and list the boot order please?
Also, was this computer working fine orginally and just suddenly produced this "Media test failure" error message?
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
ok bios boot order is optical disk drive...#2..usb cd-rom 3.usb floppy....4..-usb superdisk..5...notebook hard drive..6..usb hard disk 7th...network controller...I bought the labtop new from a computer store and it was working fine but my brother was visiting and i think he spilt beer on it because i felt alittle damp and he gave me some bs..other thanthat i can't recall doing anything out of the ordinarily.it actually always displayes non system disk error strike any key,,but when i as trying some things with f10 f-11 etc that just happened to notice that i said that at the end of when you try to get i to boot aid media message and also badfilename...i hope that helped
Was the "non system disk error" before or after the suspected spillage"? Can you shift the boot order so that the "notebook hard drive" is moved up to #2, straight after the optical disk drive (#1) please. I'm not too concerned about the rest. It probably won't make any difference but try it and see if the screen is exactly the same as before when you boot with the disk in the drive.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
ok i'll try that and get right back to you and it was after the spill
hey..exactly the same results
Despite our mutual efforts we've not conclusively proved anything, although right now I suspect you have more than one hardware issue - more later. If we could eliminate anything it would help. I have only one more idea that might help us know a bit more. That is to attempt to boot up with a Live Linux CD. That might sound awful but if you want to try it should now be easy-peasy because its just a matter of downloading an image (ISO) and using ImgBurn to create a CD. That runs just between the CD and the RAM and does not involve the HD in any way. Furthermore it does not install a thing on your computer.
If you fancy doing it you get the ISO here (Puppy Linux):
http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05720At the end of the first para (under the dog) you click "pup-431.iso". You then burn that onto a disk using ImgBurn - should all sound very familiar, link at #75. Boot your HP with the disk in the drive and you should get a Linux desktop. You can check out the disk on your Comaq first. Both computers have the CD ahead of the HD in BIOS so you don't need to do anything there. Maybe you can create the disk with your Compaq if you download ImgBurn there.
It's up to you. Otherwise I can suggest possible reasons for your HP issue but running Puppy Linux could well eliminate things from the equation which would improve the diagnosis.
Just for info I think your issues are down to hardware so no reloading or mouse clicking will cure it.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
I saw and clicked puppy 431 iso but i dont know what to click after that. i'm goingto have to go to work for a while and will start over when i get home ok..thank you for all the suggestions today Derek
OK, when you get back to it: Click on "pup-431.iso" and if you wait a few seconds you should get an option to Run or Save. It is "Save" that you want, so that the file ends up on your computer. You will need to somehow work out where it has put the file so watch the screen. Otherwise search for the file name afterwards (from the Start orb if you are using a Vista computer). The file then appears on the left and if you right click it and select Properties it will tell you where it has put it. I can help if you are not sure how to interpret the location.
After you've found the file, install ImgBurn (if it is not already installed) then if you run it you can direct it to the file's location and Burn the Image just like you did before. You should be an expert at this by now LOL.
Definitely boot with the burnt disk on the Compaq first, to test it. First time you get a lot of silly questions to answer about keyboard, display and mice. If in doubt go for whatever they suggest because we only want it to "work" - nothing fancy. If you get the Linux desktop then boot with it in the HP instead and repeat the process there.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi Deen it brought me to another pagerek..well i clicked the puppy 431 iso thingy you said and that brought me to puppy download page but i dont know what to click..ps..i downloaded the imgburner you recommended..thank you
That's odd - it works for me. When you go to the page there is a Puppy icon near the top towards the left. To the right of that there is a whole paragraph of text. At the bottom of the text it says (in blue) "Download" and to the immediate right of that "pup-431.iso". If you click on the pup-431.iso part it should start the download.
EDIT: Ignore the Distribution releases that follow it. Off to bed now.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Good morning Derek.. i've been up all night attempting thid puppy thing as every time i folow your instructions for example by puppies head found download...pup 431 iso...clicked pup 431 iso waited and waited nothing..kept trying nothing..clicked download next to it and it brought me to page with info on puppy and downloading etc...when i did manage to download files..started burning..i saw that it was burning and it stopped and message said had to stop error occured...so, i still have some time left over that i paid in advance at the internet cafe and will go sometime today and see if i can do it there as i had success last time and to be frank with you i'm soo tired of trying different things that propably with a properly working computer would of worked. I'm not surprised as i knew there would probably be some problems with the inspiron that i found in the garbage and for now on anything i have to do with donloading /cd/dvd..burning etc..i'll do it at the cafe...maybe it's because i'm tired but i'm finding it amusing how 1 very intellegent and 1 reasonably intellegent man not only after 130 emails don't even have 1 single answer to what or why the problem is let alone soving anything.. i'm hoping it's because of all the mistakes and lack of knowledge that has put us in this position and it's only a matter of time before i get something right haha..i feel dumber than a piece of wood but that's a heck of a lot smarter than the dumber than a bag of rocks i was when we first started. i've actually learned a serious amount of pertenent , helpful..and nessasary info that i will always have for the future thanks to you...
This link goes straight to it - the download should start immediately but you will have to copy/paste it into your browser address bar: ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/pup-431.iso
Here's another that you can click on (4th one up from the bottom of the list):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinu...Hope one of them works.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Good morning derek..Thank you very much for the links...So, i went through the process with the second link (forth from bottom) that you sent and everything seemed going fine and same thing..a couple mins into it, i hear a click at dvd..looked at screen says cannot complete etc..disk ejected...STRIKE 1...sO, NOW I'LL TRY THE OTHER ONE ALTHOUGH I'M CONSERNED HOW TO COPY AND PASTE TO MY BROSER BUT I'LL TRY..
OH CRAP STRIKE 2..IT STOPS AND EJECTS AT THE 4.35 MINUTE TIME..i HAVE TO GO TO WORK FOR AWHILE AND CLEAR MY HEAD,,OH BROTHER..i DIDN'T TRY THE FIRST LINK BECAUSE I'M UNSURE HOW TO COPY AND PASTE TO BROWSER...SORRY DEREK....HAVE A NICE DAY
I think either of the clickable links will do - the problems seem to be other things (not the links themselves). However, if you ever want to copy something, which is not clickable, into your Internet Explorer address bar then these keys are worth knowing about: Ctrl+C = Copy
Ctrl+V = Paste.
These are handy when there is no available Copy or Paste feature (such as passwords) and it's quite OK to use whichever you like, or both, as required. In this instance you would swipe this lot (on the forum #130) with the mouse:
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/pup-431.iso to highlight it.You then use either Edit > Copy or Ctrl+C to copy it. It actually goes onto what we called the clipbook which is often hidden from view. While it is on the clipbook you then highlight whatever is in your IE address line and either do Ctrl+V or Edit > Paste to copy it into it. Hit Enter key and it should take you to it.
It will stay on the clipboard until you either Copy something different in its place or you restart the computer (which empties it).
Trying not to confuse you with detail but you can also use highlight and Copy/Paste (keys or otherwise) to copy text from one place to the other - it's quite universal. All very simple to do - just takes a lot of words to explain it in detail (like most computer things).
If I've understood all that went before it sounds as if both your disk drives are in a poor shape - they shouldn't make clicking noises (or is it just the Compaq?). End of unsolicited lecture LOL.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi ya Derek...ok got it..I'm going to try it now and as far as unsolicited lecture..you have been far from that and nothing but patient and informative as these questions help both you and i know just what the heck i'm doing haha ok 2 strikes and batter up.....
DRAT...GOD D..N IT...My antivirus stopped me from continuing saying it quarintened from that sight...i gotta go to work..ooooooooo sooooooo close..hahaha
When you get a chance, just for my own interest, let me know which particular site your antivirus stopped you on. I tried all three of them but nothing was detected. Your computers seem to be fighting back with a vengeance. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Hi,I just got home. It seems like alot of people from my work have a mysterious 24 hour flu (more like 26oz flu) as i know they were sure well enough to go to the xmas party haha...anyway...so i tried again and i highlighted in blue, clicked ctrl c..clicked on browser and clicked ctrl v and it brought me to ask site or page i guess where it said download to install so i clicked it and got the result i mentioned..but when i just tried it again and rolled the page a bit it said what i put in browser didn't match the search..so once again computer whiz Robert strikes again haha..i'm going to try to type it in manually and see what happens and i'll tell you what ahppens..again sorry for slow response.
Well my friend..I have good news and bad news..Good news is that you were right and i wasn't at the right site..so i punched it in manually and "TA - DA " success...The download started immediatly just like you said..clicked save to burn..good...put in rewriteable dvd that i already erased and double checked to make sure it was clear...put it on the easy burner..good...hit burn..AHHH success...OH WAIT...3 minutes into it and this is what i meant about dvd click is when the dvd stops and is ejected it makes a click and then ejects the disk after only 3 mins which we both know that's not right..So, i don't know if it's my laptop..the disk or me and it doesn't really matter to me at this point because any of the 3 are preventing us from proceeding forward. So, Mr Derek, once again i'm off to the internet cafe and i already bought a couple of spare disks and have prepaid time and all the "correct info" written down and i swear to God if i don't come home with at least a properly working dvd...regardless if it helps or not that i'm going to fling myself off my building and considering my building is 21 stories high then the laptop willl no longer be a concern hahahaha...SO WITH HOPE IN MY HEART AND DETERMANATION IN MY SOULS..FINGERS,TOES AND EYES CROSSED..JUST IN CASE , hopefully in a short time i will have good news for us...Ps..Thank you very much for the copy,paste tips..it worked like a charm and especially for catching my boo boo about the antivirus thing because at least i know the address is good to use at the internet cafe..I'm pretty sure you're sleeping now at 4am your time..have a good snooze..chat soon
Well, i'm home now the internet cafe and i have good news and some unknown news..first the good news is the term " EASY PEAZY" that you used the other day is an understatement as my usual thing is when ever i go to the internet cafe i already have the mindset that it's going to be to complicated for me to understand so i say to the person on duty i would like to ask for their help to do a task and then hand them $10-$20 and ask if that is enough for them to help me..Ok, without saying i have their attention but "all" 3 times i did that..i came home with a dvd that either had unwanted files attached or download done incorrectly. So, i decided to bring my glasses so i can see properly,pen and paper incase i need to write something down, Take a deep breath and just pay attention to the directions given to me and follow the instrutions to the letter and voila i had the "completed disk" and was finished in 18 mins...the unknown news is i haven't done anything with the disk yet so in 2 secs i'm going to put it in my working computer to test it like you said to and then go from there...ready,,,go
Well, things seem to be going ok but now i arrived when the black screen" message says..xorg video wizard has completed.Type "xwin" to start x... Starting x, specs in/etc/x11/xorg.conf, startup aoos/root/.xinitrc.... Exited from x. Type "xwin (fvwm95jwm) to restart x ( mean optional). ( to shutdown pc type "poweroff", to reboot pc type "reboot" and the last sentence is highlighted in pink letters and says If x failed to start,type "xorgwizard" to setup x....So i typed in "xwin" and pushed enter..nothing...'xorgwizard'...nothing...reboot..nothing..poweroff..nothing...so as i sits..i left everything as is and it's just all the info i just wrote with a blinking cursor and i'm not going to touch anything and wait for you...but i have a feeling that this program was the right choice..so thank you for helping me today not to mention the other over 130 times hee hee..take care...coffee break and then to work for me...
If you are on the HP then try the disk in the Compaq just to double check that the CD is OK. Normally you just follow the recommendations when it starts up and eventually it boots to the Linux desktop. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
OK..I'll try that now
I don't know what's going on but i put disk in inspiron and i can't seem to find puppy and nothing happened when i put disk in
i found the files but what should i do to make them start?
OMG DEREK...It looks like "genius robert strikes again..(or strikes out again) and must have not done the burn properly maybe..but if that is the case how come when i put it in broken laptop it comes on, but mind you i'm not really sure that's it's doing what we want it to do. I tell you, i'm very greatful that you've been there for me, because i made a commitment to see this through and to back out or give up now would be such a waste of all the time and energy that you've put into and i just can't disrespect you in that or any other way but jesus...i want to throw my hands up in the air and say OK GOD I GIVE UP .I CAN'T HANDLE HOW MANY MISTAKES I'M MAKING BECAUSE THERE ARE 2 OF US THAT IT'S EFFECTING. Since i only went as far as grade 7 that the rule is that we learn from our mistakes as we weren't born with the ability operate these gosh darn fandango units called computers..but i've learned way too much to turn back now and sorry for this sudden purge but i kind of needed a pep talk and i thought i should have it with my teacher rather then vent to a friend that hasn't invested alot of time and tons of emails and probably would encourage me to just say f.k it and buy a new laptop, i have enough money but in my heart i just can't put the hp in closet and move on. it would drive me nuts..anyway..deep breath...ihave to go to work for 2-3 hours and will get right back at it..take care
Sorry, let's just make sure I have your computer names right. HP is the one that has the big problems.
The other one that is working (but has some downloading issues) is a Compaq Inspiron. Is that right? I think Compaq Inspiron also trades under the name of Dell Inspiron.
Whatever, the procedure on the good (or better) computer is just the same as when we did the memory test. Presumably you still have the CD drive ahead of the HD in BIOS, so the computer has to be started while the disk is in the drive - a restart will do this. That way it should boot to it and eventually show the Puppy Linux desktop - it takes a few minutes.
If you can find the options that make Linux work on the Inspiron then you all you have to do is repeat the same sort of process on the HP and it should work there too (unless it has an issue reading CD's). There is no need to look at the files in Windows at this stage. Just follow the general screen tips when loading Linux, either taking the closest options or opting for the defaults they suggest.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
I was typing my #146 when your #145 came in ahead of it. So you can either continue with my #146 or "throw the hat in", as you please. If you go for a replacement computer maybe I can give you some general thoughts about what to buy.
I'm happy to continue as long as you wish to but it bothers me that you are spending money for help at the internet café. Too much of that and it all starts sounding like "throwing good money after bad".
So far, most likely your HP has a bad CD drive and a bad HD. If you can run Puppy Linux on it then we might be able to be a bit more certain.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
I'm not throwing my hat it! i'm in it till the end
the broken computer is an hp compaq 6715b laptop with windows business vista...and the workig is a dell inspiron 700m laptop..ok now i will change boot order in dell and see if that works be right back thank you Derek
OK, got that - quite clear now and I'll make a note of it. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
hey Derek..i left a couple of messages for you from my managers computer but I see that they didn't get through to you/ i'm at the internet café and I've screwed the inspiron up because I locked myself out..tried to reinstall windows vista with installation disks I have and now i'm in the crapper...good news though is I gort the hp to load puppies and i'm on the main menu but don't know what to do now...what do you think about phoning me collect aand i'll pay for all the call or your time etc so I don't have to keep running back and forth to the café. if not i'll come back each day and check for messages..i'm such a goof message edited by Robertbangay
Just shooting off to bed as its very late. I only work on the forum (rather than phone or email). Best edit out that phone number because you never know what crank might call you by doing an internet search. I'll be back tomorrow but in the meantime confirm that you can no longer get to Windows (maybe its now worse for the reload), although you can reach the Puppy desktop.
Also, see if you can get that HD test CD running somehow. It would be great if you can manage it.
Have you anything important on the computer?
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Well,what do you know, i made it back on line by installing window vista professional and trying different ways until i figured it out. i aplogize for asking you to phone. i didnt think about keeping limits and boundries..so as i stands i can get to puppies menus on both computers now. I have the hp with the puppies menu on as i type but ièm having a challenge trying to get setup and or connected to the internet. When you say hd test cd..you mean seatool boot..because i got it going past the agreement freeze and now into some kind of test and it seems to do something and it list things itès doing..like looking for devices etc...but at the top where the name of the computer is it says idle...but at the bottom says searcing for controllers and devices...does this take quite a while and ièm looking at the idle and close the test too early because i think itès not doing anythingÉ.Also i seem to have installed vista in french haha any idea how to change it back to englishÉ and no i donèt have anything important on the computers..thatès one good thing about being a newbie but bad at the same time because i have never saved anything or backed anything up.. first though when i close this message is install macafee and then take a break and try the seatools on the hp...thank you very much for returning my message...ps..i donèt know how to edit my # off the last message message edited by Robertbangay
Things seem to have changed. Your original post and the media failure error lead us to the strong possibility of an HD failure - hence the need to run an HD test. For some reason this hasn't proved possible (either with a flash drive or CD) so we embarked on the next best option, although nowhere near as useful, of checking it out with Puppy Linux. Puppy runs from RAM and CD and does not use the HD. The fact that it works gives a fair degree of confidence that the rest of the hardware is OK but still leaving a question mark about the HD. Puppy would also have allowed us to look at what was stored on the HD so that we could get a vague clue that way about its condition - but this has now changed.
As you have now reloaded, for the time being it would be best to keep Puppy as a possible useful tool for the future and pursue the current situation. Unless for some reason you wish to use Linux then there was never a reason go online with it. The originally reported issue gave the impression that you couldn't even start Vista.
I am mystified as to why "Puppy CD" will run yet the "Seatools HD test" using a CD (link at #53) will not. Both use the CD drive and are created in the same way.
What is the current situation? You say you made it back online with Vista Pro, so are you saying the HP is now OK - apart from it being in French? Did you use a French copy of Vista? I'm not clear about what disks you used to get the computer back up again - were they HP restore disks or a copy of Windows Vista?
Please edit out that phone number from #151 before you get nuisance calls.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
I was talking about the dell inspiron that i load vista premium because somehow when i was trying to change passwords when i turn the laptop on it asked for a password that i didn't know and after 2 tries it shut the system down. i found the vista disks in a box by the garbage..brand new for dell and i thought maybe if i install it i could access my laptop and iit did and also cleared up alot of the problems.. i fixed the french, at the beginning of the installation it asked 3 questions and the closest answer i could find was canada french because the inspirion is from the states...so the hp is still the same as it was but i can get puppy to run..I'm still trying to figure out the hp..did i also mentioned it said badfile name also on hp...thanks Derek
OK, lets concentrate on the HP for now. Make sure there is no CD in the drive and start it up. Let us know the "exact" error message - it can sometimes make all the difference.
We might be able to deduce a little more by using Puppy but before that lets have one more look at the HD test on the CD. I gather it runs on the Inspiron (or at least shows the short and long tests) so it ought to be a matter of booting the HD with the CD and doing exactly the same thing. If I'm wrong and it won't run on either computer then let me know. You can stop it at any time so there is no need to run the whole of the short test on the Inspiron - I just want to be sure that the disk is working "somewhere".
Just for info, is the Inspiron also running Vista? - probably already given somewhere.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Good morning ok...the exact message on the hp that i took out the disk and black screen with white letters says Non system disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready and has a blinking curor about 1 inch below the paragraph by itself.e...cd-rom boot..enabled....floppy boot..enabled..internal network adapter enabled........the boot order is #1 optical disk drive...#2 notebook hard drive...#3 usb cd-rom....#4 usb floppy....#5 usb superdisk...#6usb hard disk.....#7.....network controller....so, i'll end message for a few minutes and put the seagatetools in the inspiron and let you know what happened
Ok..Now i get what i did wrong..when i put the disk in turned on inspiron..boot was to cd...asked to strike a key to start cd..good...seagate started..i did notice when all this info went speeding by..one of the sentences said...can't get drive perameters or something like that..anyway came to the agreement ...cursor moves..clicked agreement..test came up and that's where i thought it was runny a short test and that's why i was wondering why it read progress idle...then i clicked on the window with basic tests and a menu dropped down with short, long etc test...i clicked short test and yes sir away it went so' i'm going to try it with the hp and will get right back...ps...the inspiron is now running on windows vista premium..
Ok and as of now i put disk in hp turned on...it kicked into seagate...info went speeding by as normal, until agreement...cursor won't move..clicked ctrl,alt,delete...and instead of going to the test it went to the screen that says thank you for using seatools...and a list of log files etc...user guide type readme.....to copy all log files to floppy type DIR *.log.....please remove your cd or floppy diskette and press ctrl,alt,deleteand the last sentence is (seagate boot) c:\> and that's all i can get it to do although a few days ago i did get it to the test. i think it all depends on how fast or slow i press ctrl,alt,delete and that's about it for now..i'm off to work for a few hours and will check back...Thank you very much Derek
It's a real pity that after all the effort we still can't get that HD test to run on the HP somehow. The cursor failing to move seems to be the sticking point. It's even more odd that Puppy produces it's desktop oh HP using the same CD drive - that is right isn't it? The error message still puts HD failure at the top of the list.
I have found some other very interesting options but the links are too long to post on here. I'll see if there is some way to resolve it and put them in a new response if I do.
We could peer inside the HD using Puppy (which might or might not help) but I'd like to pursue some other options first if I can get the links to you.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
OK, I've found out how to shorten the links I mentioned. First of all you might actually have a built-in HP HD self test in BIOS. See this:
http://tinyurl.com/qzyz5vh
That would be worth a shot if you can make it work.It is possible that it is just dodgy HD connectors so it could be worth pulling them out and re-inserting them firmly. I'm not suggesting you remove or replace the HD but this website should help you find out how to get to the connectors (see video also). Make sure you have first unplugged from the domestic power and have removed the laptop battery if you try this. Clearly if the HD is "defective" it won't help.
http://tinyurl.com/obzr7bzmessage edited by Derek
Hey Derek thank you for the links and info..please don't be offended when i tell you that i find it amusing because #1 we passed all the tests but the funny thing is the first 4 words of the first sentence of the first paragraph of the very first email is memory and startup passed...now i'm going to read the other link and i'll be right back
question...What is a static dissipative bag? I did this test just before i posted my question to the forum but let's see what happens this time..back i min
Ok...removed and replaced the hard drive to the letter of the instuctions, give or take the static bag and still same results except at the end of the writing that comes up just before the non system message appears is it says badfilename...and the last sentence is dchp or dhcp with a dot and rotating line that adds another dot every few seconds until about the 5th or 6th dot and then goes to non system message...i hope that helps..and thank you for all the help today....
"removed and replaced the hard drive"
As per #161, I wasn't suggesting you physically removed or replaced the HD but just used that link to find out how to access the connectors. I assume you still have the self same HD in place, so unless it happened to fix the problem I wouldn't have expected any behaviour changes. Whatever, I assume the connectors were removed then firmly put back in place so we can forget that idea.By the way Memory and HD are quite different things. Memory is RAM (chips on a small board) - see the two green sticks near the top of this page:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/ram.htm
So the memory test only checks that.Hard disk is this (which you have presumably just seen):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...
It is high capacity storage for all your files and programs.If you can't get the Seagate HD test to run on the HP from a CD (#53) then see my first link in #161. Maybe you can find the self test and get that to run.
Otherwise we must hope Puppy will at least give us an idea whether your HD is readable, although it is no substitute for a proper test.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
OK..THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW THE DIFFERENCE..OK SO I'LL GO OVER THE LINKS YOU SENT AND SEE WHAT I CAN COME UP WITH AND BE RIGHT BACK
So, the hard disk isn't the hard drive. oh brother....i have a lot of reading and educating myself. you know when i opened the panel with those 2 rsmaller rectangle like thingys one of them was almost up right and come to think of it i think when i lift the keyboard to take out the little battery to deactivate the security passwork i think i saw one little plug thingy unplugged..I'm getting my flashlight and get back son
Yes the hard drive and the hard disk (in your situation) are just words that mean the same thing. On very modern systems it is no longer a spinning disk. It is your bulk storage for programs and data. We'll stick to calling it a hard drive which kinda applies to both types. The second link in my #165 shows roughly what it will look like. Memory and RAM are also words for the same thing (sticks with microchips on) but are "nothing to do with hard drives or disks". This is the space that the Central Processor Unit (CPU) uses temporarily in order to do its calculations. It is NOT the storage space for your own stuff or programs.
Very generally speaking the hard drive in a laptop is about 4 x 4 inches and half an inch thick. That is the component that I meant when I suggested you unplugged it's connectors and re-plugged them in again firmly. It's probably far too hopeful but it would be silly if it was just something as simple as that, rather than a hard drive failure which is high on the list of possibilities but so far unproven.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
That helps me alot because sometimes i think i know a term and then i hear somethig else but i guess it's the same as the english language you can have 2 terms mean the same..by the way that was what i took out took a really fine paint brush and just brush any dust and checked against the 4 other hard drives that were defective from hp but fortunatly or unfortunatly it wasn't..So, just for the heck of it i put in the windows installtion disk to see what happened and how it responded and you know Derek i bet if you were here to see i swear to god if the hp was a dell we would be communicating on the hp right now. i mean it was responding and passing tests left and right until it reached the drivers part and if i had of known which driver it needed it would of booted...the only thing is i read last night 80% of the material you gavee to me nd didn't i read somewhere where if the dvd player was making alot more sound then usual such as sounded a little more like a plane starting up rather then a small scooter...i wonder if all this stuff is because of the player because #1 it makes that sound.. it doesnt let the cursor move on agreement but also i read about either ctrl alt delete or backspace or enter and sometimes enter twice...So, maybe today i'll try to see if i can connect to the internet from puppy.if i do will that mean anything..Thanks again for all the info on hard drive, ram etc.. i seem to unerstand it alot better if i just tke a deep breath first dand take my time and follow directions exactly..
The error message points to the issue being the hard drive. However, if the CD is not reading correctly (quite possible) then anything you do with it could produce error messages that are not necessarily meaningful. What doesn't fit in with the CD being the only problem is that the computer won't start up normally (no CD in the drive) without an error message. If that error message suddenly came along, without reloading Windows, then it means there is something else other than the CD player which is causing problems. What is messing us up is that without the CD we can't run the Seatools HD test and prove whether or not our suspicions are correct. If we could do that we could then move on. To make things even more difficult we didn't manage to run the Seatools HD test from a flash drive either.
In this situation, once you have finished what you are doing, about our only hope is to peer at the HD using Puppy and see if we can read it with that. If so we should be able to see if the Windows files are there. We can't check every Windows folder and file (there are thousands) but at least it could give us a clue. I can run Puppy another computer here and talk you through it.
The internet is not really important yet. You need to be able to reach the desktop in Windows normally before we worry about that. Getting onto the Internet with Puppy won't prove anything more about your computer at this stage. If we can get to "Windows" desktop, chances are that the internet will work too.
EDIT:
Lets make sure I am right on this. Without a CD in the drive you cannot get to the MS Windows desktop - it's not just that you get an error message? If I'm adrift on this then we can tackle your problem a completely different way.One more thing. In your very first post you said "memory and startup passed".
Where did you get this information from and what were you doing at the time? I've assumed it appeared on the screen when booting up.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hi, i think we've mixed up issues that the laptop (s) have or had....so to make it simple Without a cd in the player the hp will only repeat non system error message to infinity regardless what boot order i give it. When you suggested to change the boot to cd on both laptops they both accepted cds perfectly with the exceptiom of seatools on the hp which works perfectly on the inspiron...so as it stands hp is in exactly same place it was. The inspiron will play and ativate dvds fine but i think download is iffy but i actually think it was my mistakes that was causing problems because i've reloaded vista premium, tries seatool, puppy etc and they all worked perfect so i think what may have happened is the seatools disk is the only disk i made on the inspiron and all the rest at the cafe...so, i still have 1 hour left of prepaid time at the cafe until dec 10 so sometime todat..tommorrow at the ...no today and bring a brand new disk and make a new boot cd...it's called seagates boot tool kit...i just went back through the emails and i believe i'm suppose to down load Seatools DOS 223all.iso...i hope...But i dont have to extract or that thing you taught me about win32diskimage..click twice thingy...don't woory i've written "every procedure you've suggested or offered and i've tried except mistakes of course haha..So, the inspiron is the only laptop that started up with or without cd..not the broken hp...so to simplify it in my mind and for you...the hp is and has always remained with non system message dispite any boot order without cd...with cd can run puppies, get to the agreement of boottooks and i can pass the cursor freez by ctrl alt delete but it doen't really do much but skip to the ending of the program and then restarts over forever if you let it. when trying to load windows vista on hp..it wanted to respond and tried but lack of drivers was the issue...and the inspiron has new windows vista..all error messages.register messages etc are all ok and things are going tickity boo. Holy crap, it just popped into my memory about the hps dvd player and it being noisy etc...i remember before we started chatting i was trying things and one i had to get rid of security password so they said to take out little battery from under the key board...so i took every screw out of the computer and when i did that the dvd player came sliding out. only on the table, it didn't fall or anything i wonder if i put it back in properly and also i never put all the screws back only about 50%..I'm going to put them back right now..i don't know if i forgot anything i will review when i come backfrom volunteer job in 3 hours
Oh, i don't know if this is important but hp didnt install vista because of drivers, it was because the installation disk was for a dell computer...if it was for hp i know it would.i've asked on facebook if anyone has disk i could trade use what ever but no one gives a crap..thank GOD for your kindness and help
"i think we've mixed up issues that the laptop (s) have or had"
No, what followed on below that is exactly how I see it. I was just making sure that's all, because nowhere had it actually been said that the HP won't boot up Windows, unless I missed it.Yep, if you can have one more go at the Seatools disk that's fine (link in #53) - it's definitely what we need to run. Strange that Puppy runs in HP but not Seatools. If you get a chance to burn both a CD-RW and a CD-R then that will give us two bites at the cherry (sometimes disk drives are fussy). If that fails again then we must admit defeat and move to Puppy and hope that can give us some clue. If it doesn't I'm afraid we are down to guesses.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Well, i just got back from the cafe and it's 1:15am and i spent a little over 2 hours attempting with the person that works there but keep encountering error problems and couldn't do the disk...i attempted a few minutes ago to do it on the inspiron and same results...also when i looked at the bottom of the page under comments and the first comment was 'this file is corrupt" so maybe that's the case because the man art the cafe really seemed to know what he was doing and even put me at 4 different computers and the same results..so..i don't know what to do about that but ialso noticed in the comments that there were other links to try and i'm too pooped to poop so, i'll give it a try tommorrow ..now bathtime..thanks for the help today Derek..goodnight
Good morning Derek...I was talking about the non system message on my laptop with a friend of mine and he seems to think the message means that the computer is searching for or can't find the serial # of the windows installation disk that installed windows...Do you think that may be the issue. just thought i would mention that to you..and back to more computer reading...ifnothing else comes out of this derek..I sure am learning a lot..will talk soon...
I really don't know what was causing the problem of not being able to create the disk at the café, especially as one already seems to have been produced which runs on the Inspiron. I doubt the file is corrupt but the only way to prove that is to find another download source. As for your friends idea, you originally had the error message on the HP when the HD was ahead of the CD in BIOS. The only reason it would have moved down the BIOS list to look for a CD is if couldn't find the HD. You could try Factory Restore I suppose but I think we should first use Puppy to see what is showing on the HD. What we do after that depends on what we find. Let me know when you are game to try it.
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Hey...I think the message that popped up when i tried to write or bure seagate sair eeror 8 occured looking for the volume or something like that, you know now that i think about it. i have a lot of new cd-r disks but only 1 cd-rw and that the disk i kept erasing and using, so is it possible using that disk is preventing progress? but you are totally right because i saw the boot tools go to agreement and no cursor problem to test site offers all test etc...but i'm not sure or i don't think i used the cd-rw on that copy of seagates.that's right and in fact i've had and continue to have the exact message with any configuration,.ok...teacher sir...you're the boss and i trust what you know so fire away and i'll follow whatever procdure you feel is appropiate..So, i'm game anytime you are and will check back soon. I knew he was full of crap..he's like that because before you started teaching me he knew i knew nothing and would "help" me once and a while and i'd give him $40 a shot and i think he started making up prognoses and offering to help because he knows he'll get more money but i've learned soo much frommyou that when i listen carefully to what he says about an issue now i think to myself..man this guy isn't even close.Whew..i feel very fortunate to have a proper, knowledgable and tenacious teacher..ok looking forward to it..thanks for your help
Ps..I almost forgot to refer you to email #13 at the bottom of the page is where the the file is corrupt comment is...and under that are quite a few alternative choices and links for similar boot stuf if that helpsf
Yes, there are alternatives if you want to pursue them. It's just that after 178 posts we've still not managed to test the HD so my confidence is waning. Boot up with Puppy in the drive, get to the Linux desktop and I'll tell you where to go from there. If you want to start then at the bottom left of the screen it shows your drives. One will be the CD (which will show the Puppy files) and there might be some USB flash drives showing too. You are looking for the system hard drive which is likely to be the biggest one.
Everything in Linux is single click (if you left click twice you get two identical Windows, although you can always close one). When you single click the main HD you should see a bunch of folders and files. One of the folders should be Windows. If they are even showing it will tell us something. Don't delete anything!
I can pop back later and run Puppy on our Vista. That way I can talk you through it in better detail.
Another darned lecture LOL:
These are not emails, they are posts or responses (on a forum). Email is what you send to each other using an email address, like "someone@server.net".Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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ok..so, i'm at the desktop and just browsing at the menu features
Oh,ok posts not emails right got it (sorry) thank you
Sometime, see if you can find your HD at the bottom, if so click on it to see if a stack of folders and files are showing - one should be named "Windows". Sounds like you are finding Linux interesting, although that really is a very basic version. In theory you can save changes onto the CD when you finish, although with your setup about anything could happen.
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hey..i've been looking for the hd and i'm not quite sure which category it's under like operating systems pci devices etc..sorry but there are hundreds and i don't mind keep looking but i haven't found anything with hd title thanks
i found something called ich hd audio
I have to get ready ands go to my volunteer job for 2.5 hours and i will be back about 3pm my time..It's12 noon right now ok? Thanks Derek
Looks like you are about 6 hours ahead of me so when you come back at 3pm it will be 9pm here. That means I'll be around for at least 3 hours (being a night owl). Perhaps I didn't explain it very well but your drives are just icons at the bottom left of the desktop (not in menus or categories) so you shouldn't need to look far. You might only have two or three showing. In this picture there are three drives along the bottom:
http://www.puppylinuxfaq.org/deskto...
From left to right is Floppy, HD, then CD - looks like the HD shown as sda1 has been clicked open (or "mounted" to be correct). They are not marked HD or C or anything like they are in Windows.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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Hey..i couldn't stop looking and i;m running a little behind but do you mean in the table of contents thingy with file sharing...selection and file groups etc..under the heading file? because i found that and it is quite comprehensive so i think i know what or here to look when i get back.haha i couldn't leave withut at least finding the section..talk soon mr night owl haha
No, just icons along the bottom - you don't have to click anything to see them. I've just amended my #186 with a much better picture. You shouldn't be able to miss them now. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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hi i'm almost home..i mean i am home but have tinrun too the store be back in15 -20 mins
ok back home now and will check back fromtime to time..
Hi, i don't have any of those icons on the bootom just the menu box and a small grey and black square.but that's it..
I've just fired up a Vista computer and have loaded Puppy, so we should be looking at pretty well the same thing. Is the desktop pale blue with rays coming out of a white cloud in the bottom right hand corner (like the picture in the link at #186)? If so we are looking at the same thing (it should be - the download was the same).
I have some sda icons, one of which is the main hard drive partition. There is also an sr0 which is the CD drive containing the files that are in use for running Puppy.If you can't even see the icon for the CD then I'm a bit mystified because it is what we are using.
EDIT:
Somewhere along the top you should see a "mount" button. Give that a single left click and let me know what it says against anything in the Drive tab starting with sda - assuming sda shows up.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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i have everything you described but no icons..i clicked mount and a small window opened in the middle of the page and say do not remove mounted media
Is there nothing at all listed in the Drive tab (in the white part of the small Window)? Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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i just pushed mount in the center of the window and i heard dvd player fire up and a big window with boot.ca..boot.msg...pup-432 sfs erc
Oh, I didn't mean you to do that yet. Just Close the Window. What if anything is showing in the Drive tab, as per my #194, if you click "mount" again?
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the middle of the box says optiarc cdrwdvd crx89oa and under that says sro iso9660 104m
oh and under that it says preferences..refresh and quit
i don't see any drive tab
above that window in another window the symbols look like sprokets and under them say boot,cat...boot msg....help msg...initrd.gz....isolinux...isolinux.cfgh...logo.i6...pup 432.sfs...vmlinuz
More than a bit confusing and no sign of a hard drive. Shut down Puppy, power on the computer again (with the disk still in the drive) then load Puppy up again. This time when it has settled, assuming no drive icons are showing at the bottom of the desktop, just left click the "mount" icon once. Don't click any buttons in the Window that arrives.
Make sure you are in the Drive tab (it normally goes straight there).
Now let me know again what is showing in the white part of the box. Make it a list on here rather than one line so that I can see exactly what you are seeing. Even if its the same still list it.
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Re #199 (I missed it earlier). There should be two tabs near the top of the small Window. One is Drive the other optical. These are directly under where it says DO NOT REMOVE MOUNTED MEDIA.
Is yours not like that? If not "list" everything in the white part below the bit in capitals above. That way I shall know exactly what you are seeing.
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ok sorry it's taking a bit
No problem. Also confirm that there are still no icons at the bottom of the Puppy desktop. Hope you are keeping up with the recent posts. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
no i have mount and optical but no drive
yes i'm keeping up sgt. haha
oh wait a sec when i moved the cursor by the little menu square at the bottom a small sign says free space in drives
Sorry, I just can't properly work out what you are seeing, so unless you can describe everything you see in the little Window we are a bit stuck. I would expect to see buttons towards the right - could be marked MOUNT and/or UNMNT. To the left of these are the words I'm after.
Directly underneath DO NOT REMOVE MOUNTED MEDIA there are usually two tabs but if one is missing it might just say "optical".
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Well, its 1.00am here so it's time to call a halt. If you can say any more re my #208 then fine, otherwise we can more or less dispense with Puppy. Well, there is just one unlikely possibility, that the Puppy Window is too large for the screen, so your drives could be out of view to the bottom left. Before shutting down Puppy, carefully compare what you are seeing with the picture in the link at #186. Make sure all the edge icons are visible and that there is a light blue band (ray) drooping downwards towards the left (the place where the drive icons should be).
One other thing - just to make sure the Puppy disk is OK, you could boot the Inspiron up with it and make sure that you have some drives showing on the desktop at the bottom. If so, single left click the sda and see if a Window opens which shows folders and files. Don't do anything in there - obviously we don't want any changes made, just make sure they are visible that's all.
I will await your response then try to make some intelligent guesses about what is wrong with your HP, although we have only had negatives from both the HD test and Puppy. Just the same they do say "something" but nothing near what I would have hoped for after all our activity.
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Hi Derek...Sorry had to stay late at work so many people phoning in sick. so to answer about under do not remove mount media, the only word to the left is optical and directly under that says optiarc CDRWDVD CRX89OA 11OMB 1 TRACKS, AND UNDER THAT...A LITTLE PICTURE OFA FILE CABINET AND sr0 iso9660...unmount and under that says preferences..refresh quit
ps...i compared the photo with what i have on the screen and they are exactly the same with the exception of the icons directly over the menu box in the left hand corner
I was just went to the link for puppies you sent me and it says that some of the versions have a bug and as a result some don't show the drives in the place they should be. i'm trying to download another version to see if that helps..I'll let you know what happens
Nothing listed in #210 is your hard drive and normally it should not be necessary to have to go to "mount" to see the CD - so something very odd is going on. Try Puppy in your Ispiron and see if any drives appear at the bottom left of the desktop. If so it proves that the disk you made looks good. If they still don't appear then the disk is wonky.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
hi..i put puppies in the inspiron and it shows the drives like you said and i click the sda and a window appeared and the windows file is thwere i didn't click on anything
Brilliant. Then your Puppy disk is fine. Although neither Seatools or Puppy gave us the diagnostic information we were looking for (despite your noble efforts), I'll try to summarize the most likely causes of your HP issues. This will be a new response because I want to go back through the thread first and do a bit of thinking.
Back later....
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Ok..Thank you Derek...sorry for hindering more than helping.When i took out puppies disk from hp and it started did i mention just before non system message comes up it has a DHCP with a rotating slash line with a dot and every few seconds another dot will add until about 6 dots and then non system message appears...i don't know if that's important but i thought i should tell you
Thanks. DHCP is to do with networking. It is what translates a series of numbers into an website address that is easier for humans to remember. This fits with what I have in mind because it means that having found no bootable disk then then tries to boot to a network which is not likely to be present.
I've knocked up my findings but want to run over them again and have a re-read to save editing them later. Back soon.
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Ok thank you..i'm trying to make a new bootable tool kit disk
Test it on your Inspiron first (just to ensure it is working), as we did with Seatools and Puppy. If you can get it working on the HP then it could give us the conclusive proof we've been chasing. From what has happened so far the chances are it won't run properly. What diagnostics is this?
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still every time i ask to write to the rewriable disk it says error occured trying to handle volume error 8 , the same as at the caf.I don't know what's going on with that because i'm following the instructions
oh right have to use iso burner oops will try again
Re #220 It's a long story, possibly related to Administrative rights (or lack of). Some folk have cured this by moving the image file to the root folder on C drive and burning it from there.
I'm assuming you are trying to burn an image like before.
See my edits to #219.
Summary report follows.
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Summary of findings - HP Laptop What we should bear in mind is that when you are running Puppy, Windows itself does not come into the equation at all. Puppy runs just between the CD and RAM. Although it is not a thorough test it still gives some general confidence that that Motherboard, RAM, Graphics Module, and even the Power Supply Unit (PSU) are in working condition. Also, Seatools should have taken you to the test screen, even if it found no disks present to test. Note also that a normal working a computer will run down the BIOS boot order list to find the first device that will boot.
Everything that has gone before points to both a Hard Disk and CD drive fault, or something common (not Windows) that affects both. I am partly (but not wholly) influenced by the fact that the CD drive clicks and the error message you were getting when trying to start Windows.
The only common factor, assuming there is one, is BIOS itself - which is effectively hardware with base level facilities for settings before Windows starts. The settings don't normally change in BIOS without human intervention. Assuming you have not been tinkering in there (apart from boot order), about the only thing you could try is setting the BIOS to defaults. As I said earlier there is a slight risk that HP might have some specific settings which would be lost if you do so. I'll leave it up to you but if you do try it, take note before you start about what is showing as Enabled or Disabled, particularly disk drives. There might be a lot to write down. By doing this, if necessary, you can manually change the odd setting back manually later.
It is about certain that you do not have a Windows software issue, so a factory restore or Windows reload is unlikely to help one bit, although I suppose there is nothing to lose by trying if you should want to.
Some CD drive faults can be cured by using a lens cleaning kit. They come with a special CD which has brushes on it. You put some cleaning compound onto the brushes and then run the disk. Clicking is not a good sign though and when you just have dirty lenses you do not normally get clicking sounds.
There's not much you can usually do with a faulty HD, although Seatools (if it had run) did have some fixing capability for minor corruptions.
In summary, the prime suspects are hardware, in particular a faulty HD (your main problem) and a faulty CD drive too. There is a rather vague possibility of a BIOS corruption - might cured by setting to Defaults. I have taken into account the comments from your friend but I can't see how they fit with the reported error message or anything else we have seen during this thread.
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Hi...i managed to burn a new bootable kit and run it on inspironand it worked perfectly and we passed the short test...also when i saud that the dvd clicked i meant just before it eject the dvd and as for puppies when i went to puppies on the inspiron and then clicked on sda a large window appeared with different choices and 1 was the windows folder i think you had said you were lookong for...the hp hass never reached a stage past the non system message except puppies but no drives shown and bootable kit and froze at agreement. I'm going to put the new bootable in hp and see what happens
OK. I'm off to bed now (remember, if you add about 6 hours to the time your end that is what time it is in the UK). I'll be a bit busy tomorrow but in the meantime if the new bootable happens to run on the HP then let me know what it is - a link would help. Otherwise I will have no idea what you are doing.
I'll check back again in due course.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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hi, the hp is reacting same way, it frezes cursor and even when i push ctrl alt delete it just starts the process over..Ps..my friend said it was looking for the number of the windows installatin serial # of the disk
he called it the product key and the sticker on the back of my hp says product key r9f2q-qc2qb-97kb8-24rgh-jtbc2message edited by Robertbangay
Hey Derek....well i did alot of reading tonight and then i thought i would google the mouse freeze situation and found a forum that talked about it and they concluded that version 1 solved this problem so i downloaded and burned version 1 and the cursor works so i clicked yes at the agreement and it scanned for controller,devices etc and scan complete says...no hard drives found. if you believe this to be incorrect,check cables,drive power connection and jumper settings,then try again and before non system message it says media failed check cables...are they the same cables they talked about?...I have no idea how to check cables or drive connections or jumper settings..hope that helps
Hey i was reading about the media test failed test and left version 1 on the hp well behold i got a result of the short test and it says...error on identify command--51:04....start shor test on 12/10/20:13 @1656.....starting short legacy test..press esc to abort.....lba0...error detected @lba 15406001......short test failed on 12/10/2013 16:56.....last line says enter max address with blinking cursory...There is a section that said set drive max but i think i didn't notice fast enough because the letter command didn't do anything. the media test failed giving exiting pxe message can be fron network enabled and turn it of it says so i did but no change..
i ran the seagate again and after no drive detected message..i just pushed randonm keys and it says lba 25344..99 errors.I remember when i was reading the info on eagate when test is done it says type readme and give tons of commands. i'm want to check it but i used the cd-rw to burn new test...hopefully i can find it or i'm going to see if seagate.com might
I couldn't find the info but when i was fiddling around with test a window came up and says drive has been overtemp--0...GULP! That means my harddrives fried right? That's enough for tonight as it's been 7 hours but i wanted to give it my best try to try to hold up my end of effort, and in a small way show that you've taught me a huge amount by being able to even this far because 2 weeks ago i would of laughed my head off thinking i could be taught all the valuable lessons you have provided. i feel bad about how much of your time i've taken, but am very impressed with your profeesionalizm.
Re your PS at #226. The errors given in your #8 were as follows:
"media test failure" and "non-system disk or disk error"."Media test failure" means the disk media failed when tested during booting. Media is the "disk platter", whether it is fixed within a Hard Disk or a removable CD disk.
"Non-system disk or disk error" means that the disk it was trying to read during booting was either not a system disk or there was a disk error. Clearly your HD is a system disk, holding Windows Vista.
There is no way you can read into these errors that it was looking for a product key and I have amended my summary at #223 to be more definite in this respect. Both errors fit neatly with my findings at #223, which are based on everything that has transpired during this whole posting.
Each time you attempt to boot your HP with bootable disk it fails, yet the same discs work fine on the Ispiron. This points to the CD drive on your HP not reading properly.
This just leaves the unlikely possibility of a BIOS corruption, BIOS being the only thing that is common to both the CD and the HD. Much more likely that the two drives themselves need replacing. You have already checked the connections to the hard disk, which could have been another possible reason for the HD issue.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Re #227
I thought you had already checked the HD connections as per my previous suggestion - I gave a link to what a HD looks like. If the jumper settings have not been disturbed then they should be fine. Puppy could find no hard drive either so it strikes me that either it has completely died or its cable connections have worked loose.Re #228 and #229
It's difficult to conclude much from a test that is not running properly but obviously if the drive has been running hot it is a bad sign and fits with my findings. HD failure seems to be screaming out at us, as it has from the outset.If you are going to burn Seagate again then you need to do something different otherwise you will just keep getting the same results. If the CD drive is fussy then you could try a different brand of CD or a different type (CD-R -v- CD-RW). As I said way back, CD-R are more likely to read than CD-RW, but if the CD drive is faulty then it's hard to say what might run (if anything at all).
If Seagate ever runs "properly" then let me know, otherwise I doubt there is much more I can offer.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Well, Derek...I think it's time to throw in the towel. i cannot express my appreciation enough. I will promise you this though is i will certainly try to learn as much as i can and help others in the same outstanding way that you have.So, i will say so long and i'm sure that you will be rewarded for your good deed. I wish you the best of luck and hope you have a excellent Christmas...Sincerly Robert
Glad to have tried - pity we never got it working but that's the way it goes sometimes. Usually when threads get this long on here it is a bad sign. Yes, I'm sure you must have learned a great deal from all this. Bear in mind though that burning bootable disks from an image is a relatively unusual thing to be doing and is only used for either diagnostics or running a Live Linux CD. By the way Puppy is very basic (although it is surprising what it can do). It's very useful for what we've been trying because it doesn't save anything to the HD (settings and so forth) like most other Live Linux CD's now do. It can save back to the CD though if everything is working properly.
You too have a great Christmas and no doubt I'll see you again on the forum.
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Thank you Derek...I think i just might try to use puppy on the hp and get someuse out of it. Take care
OK. You might find it a little daunting but why not have a go. If you need any help we have a Linux forum but make sure you say that you have no experience otherwise they will blind you with science.
It's fine to click around on the HD if you wish but don't change or delete anything there that is not something of your own otherwise you will screw up Windows Vista. You will find your documents and pictures on the HD although it might take a while to find them (no easy Pictures or Documents folder).
EDIT:
Ooops, I was thinking of the Inspiron in the struck out part. Obviously you won't see anything on the HP because of the HD issue. You might be able to get on line though, but it can be a bit fiddling to set up with Puppy.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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Thanks for the advice. i decided to get a little more experience before i tackle puppies. My head is spinning with all the info i've taken in soo i think i'll give myself a little time to digest as i've never spent that much time and effort on one task except my work. i think it would be better if i had a big smart brain like yours..haha trade you? bye for now
See my "strike through" in #236. For some unknown reason I was thinking about Puppy on the Inspiron - none of that applies to the HP so you can pretty well do what you like unless an HD icon suddenly arrives, which is unlikely. CU
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funny now puppy on the hp has an icon over the menu sro i'm assuming that's the dvd player because thats what the icon looks like. I'd laugh my head off if it was a drive saying sorry i was taking a nap haha...thanks for the revision
You are right, sr0 is the DVD drive. If you give it one left click you will probably see all the Puppy Linux files - not that there is anything you need to do with them. The missing hard drive is sda plus a figure.
Maybe the DVD is working intermittently because in the past it has often done "something" - just not enough. The HD has never appeared though.
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message edited by Derek
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM?
That drive could just be fussy about disk brand or disk type (CD-R or CD-RW). It's been known to happen many times. Some drives are a bit iffy about CD-RW made on another drive, which is why CD-R is best. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
I'm going to make a new bootable seatools with cd-r then
Here i am to bug you again about how do i changwe the cdr to accept iso download because it says no disk when i put in blank disk.boy oh boy ask ask ask
It should be just as before. Download the ISO file, save it somewhere then note where it has put it. Put a CD-R in the drive (don't restart), then open ImgBurn. Click the "Burn an image" button in ImgBurn and it should find the CD drive. You will probably have to tell ImgBurn where to find the ISO file. It usually prompts you to do things.
I've not opened the program to remind myself, so the exact wording might be a little different.
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Good morning Derek...I hope i'm not bothering you. I just wanted you to know that i'm sending this message from the hp using the puppies cd, and i just wanted to say thank you and ask if there was anything i should know about the basics or should i just play it by ear. I thought you would at least like to know that all the time and effort you put into helping me didn't go to waste and sometime in the near future i will get the hp fixed properly. I was wondering about the message i get that says about encrypted or unencrypted and how can i make everything encrypted or if that's just the way things are. Thanks again..Robert
Ps...Am i still protected with my antivirus?message edited by Robertbangay
First of all I'd better say I'm not a Linux expert - I only use it as a diagnostic aid. I can try, but if push comes to shove you'd be better asking about details on the Linux forum. When you are using Puppy you are not using any of the programs in Windows which are, or were, on the HD. If the HD was working you could access the HD and open your own pictures, documents, and so forth, that happened to be on there but the programs would just be files and totally inactive.
So you have no antivirus. I think it is possible to get one on Puppy (somehow) but because there are so many variants of Linux the bad guys tend to avoid it - also the market share of Linux is low so they are not very interested. While you are using it from a CD there is not too much they could do with it anyhow. They would have to use burning software to write onto your CD which would be far too much hassle. In any event you could just burn another disk if anything went wrong with it.
I really don't know about Puppy encryption but bearing in mind the above I wonder if it would just make life difficult for you without a lot of benefit.
I gather "Linux Mint" is the one that is most like Windows. The problem with that and most of the current Linux systems is that they use the HD to store your settings - even the Live Linux versions that run from a CD or DVD. It is one of the main reasons I use that old version of Puppy as a diagnostic aid, because it doesn't rely on the HD at all. It seems your HD is completely dead so the way I see it most modern Linux versions are out of the equation.
I see the CD drive is holding up so maybe it could do with a clean or its just a bit fussy about media. I've definitely had CD/DVD drives that won't run certain brands, although more modern drives seem a whole lot better. CD/DVD-R always do better than rewriteable disks on a fussy drive.
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Thanks soo much Derek...I always learn so much from you. Do you think it would be wiser to find a recovery disk or just get a new hard driver because then i'd have to pay for windows installation. It was just really nice to see the hp actually work but it's difficult to decide because i paid under $200 and i go back and forth in my mind whether it's worth fixing or better to replace. Well, i guess i'll fall off that bridge when i get to it. Thanks again.
Err... drivers are part of software. I think you mean hard drive - amazing the difference two little letters make.
Maybe I've not made things clear on this. The hard drive is a box with a spinning disk inside it. This is where the operating system is stored together with your personal files. To the best of my belief it is bust. If you only get a restore disk you will not have a working HD to restore it onto. You are managing with Puppy because it doesn't use the hard drive.Unless you replace the HD then you can only stay with CD/DVD driven Linux. Hard disks come empty so if you replace the HD and want Vista on it then you would also need the restore disk to put Vista back on.
Maybe it is time to ditch it and move forward but I can only leave you to check out the repair cost and weigh it up. There is always the danger that something else could go wrong even if you fix it now. There is also a strong suspicion that your CD drive is not all it should be.
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message edited by Derek
Oops sorry..Yes i shouldn't have added the r on drive. But thank you for explaining it further because i was under the impression that there was a built in recovery part to the hard drive but i probably misread. I think you're right and just keep it for emergencies and start off fresh as i"m certain you're correct and it could be tons of things wrong and now i know when it's dead Robert it's dead. I think i need to concentrate on learning how to backup files and things like that then flogging a dead horse. I'm going to take your advice and ditch it and hp stands for has passed away...Thank you Derek
"i was under the impression that there was a built in recovery part to the hard drive"
Yes, there might well be that too (depends on computer). That will have course also died with the HD.I think you might be right to forget it. Not sure if you will like Windows 8 - many users detest the mobile phone style blocks that is the current start menu. Windows 8.1 computers are in the shops right now (Windows 8 upgraded). There are freebies around to produce a Vista like start menu but there is a strong hint that MS might at last bring back the old Start Menu again as an option. If you are not in a rush, watch out on Google for Windows 8.2 and what comes with it - middle of next year possibly.
Windows 7 is much more like Vista but I doubt you will find that on a new computer. There might be second hand options but you have to be really sure what you are getting and that they are fully working and not password protected. The latter can be near impossible to circumvent with modern laptops.
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message edited by Derek
WOW! I guess it's just that i misunderstood, but it would of been nice if they included in the explanation about hard drives and recovery disks etc ( unless the hard drive is dead then it has to be replaced) and i really appreciate that you explained that to me and saved me alot of time and effort.So, from the information you provided, i think i'm going to stick with the inspiron for now until i get quite a bit more accurate knowledge and wait for a while to get a new computer. Also there's a place called free geeks that's a computer recycle place that not only sell quality reconditioned merchandise but they have a volunteer program that after volunteering 24 hours of time, they will provide you with a new computer, (or at least new to me ) and that way i could learn tons of things along the way, and they probably will have a very reasonably priced second hand computer for me to start over again, as i don't really understand enough to invest in a brand new one. I know i sound like a broken record when i tell you how grateful i am for all your expertise and excellent way of explainining things and i hope someone does something as valuable for you as you have shared with me because you sure deserve it.So, i will close with a silly joke..A girl walks up to the counter and says..May i have a big mac and a large fries please. Counter girl replies..I'm sorry miss, this isn't Macdonalds, it's the library. The girl leans over closer to the counter girl and whispers...Oh, I'm sorry..may i have a big mac and a large fries please.........
That second hand source sounds interesting - might be a good way forward and if Win 7 happens to come your way you'll be into it in no time. Glad to help - liked the joke, very funny.
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Good morning Derek...Well, you're not going to believe this...I retired from being a waiter almost 15 years ago but realized i still needed to stay active etc..so i started collecting..cans,furniture,clothes etc and after we spoke i asked GOD if he (she) thinks i should keep the hp, or donate it to the recycle place as now i have 3 non working laptops in my closet and since i was planning on going to free geeks and i still have the inspiron working maybe i should take all the laptops with me and donate..so i'd leave it up to him and maybe he could show me a sign...well, not even 45 minutes later when i was making my rounds..get ready..found THIS BEAUTIFUL IN PERFECT SHAPE HP PAVILLION ENTERTAINMENT LAPTOP WITH WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE WITH ALL THE BELLS AND WHISTLES YOU COULD THINK OF! I took it home plugged it in and it works perfectly is or was password protected..I went on ytube and learned how to reset the password and now with the help of my internet provider installed shaw secure and am installing updates as we speak. However i remember that you mentioned when i get a new computer that perhaps you could assist in getting me started properly as i didn't touch anything else but this laptop has everything...skype,builtin webcam..windows messager etc and i thought i would just leave it as is until i heard from you because i know that you would know what to do, but i've already asked so much of your time that perhaps you would perfer that i ask someone else..but i don't want to and will use the inspiron until i hear either way. Sorry to be a pest but i think you've brought me such good vibrations of wanting to learn correctly that i'm going to practice delayed gratification even if it kills me. I hope you're not reading this message saying oh brother i'm never going to get rid of this guy..and if so i promise to move on and leave you at peace....thank you Derek message edited by Robertbangay
Good find. My guess is that it just had a Windows password on it - it is BIOS or hard disk passwords that are near impossible to circumvent (particularly on newer laptops). Well, if it's working OK it seems to me there is not much need to do anything to it, as per "if it aint broke don't fix it syndrome". Should the need arise because it has a problem, or there is something specific you want a hand with, then by all means post. However, as this thread is now near record length it would probably be better to start a new one in the Windows 7 forum this time. That would bring it to the attention of more helpers and if I see it, which is almost a certainty, I would of-course be happy to join in.
When I say "record" I recall that many years ago (I've been around here since mid 1999) one got up to around 300 posts. In the old Windows 95/98 days there seemed a lot more need to dig deeply. The analogy to early cars fits - they needed constant attention.
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OKAY GOT YA..ALL I REALLY WANTED TO KNOW IS SHOULD I DO A FACTORY RESTORE TO GET RID OF TONS AND TONS OF INFO OR JUST DELETE AS I GO AND SEE YOU AROUND I GOT THE MESSAGE
As it appears to be working at this stage I would be inclined to pick things off as you go but avoid system areas. For programs always use the proper methods to uninstall them, such as a provided uninstall or from "Control Panel > Programs and features". Don't just delete program files or you are likely to create issues because there are associated registry entries that the proper methods will uninstall at the same time. Google will often tell you what things are if you have doubts but beware of the fact that there are many scams or semi-scams that report just about everything as either a virus or something that has to be fixed using their magic registry cleaner or other tool - avoid them. Ask on this or some other reliable forum if you are in any doubt.
Good luck with it and I hope all goes well - probably meet up again on Win 7 forum sometime.
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message edited by Derek
thanks Derek..i will do exactly like you say and i appreciate the advice because, well you know i would of started just deleting things..whew..Saved me again. I think i will check out the windows 7 forum...
Just to add that clearing HD space itself does not affect performance, unless you are almost out of space - it just makes more room. I should also have said that removing your own personal files is fine of-course if you don't want them. What can affect performance is if you have a lot of unnecessary things starting up and running in the background. Just don't uninstall anything unless you know what it is or what it's for and you'll be OK.
Good luck.
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message edited by Derek
Once again..Great advice...how do i know what's running in the background? I think it's funny that you mentioned about me installing anything as this person literally has everything a person could imagine. I'm not really clued in about the memory thing gb but this computer has a huge amount of memory compared to anything else i've used before. The only thing that i wish was better is that the webcam isn't compatible with this windows because it has skype and i wanted to talk to my father at least once before he passed away as he's in the final stage of cancer but that's ok because his wife relays messages back and forth.I looked in the programs he has and man he has over 110...I've looked at a few but i feel funny looking at other peoples things and try to respect their privacy even though he would have no idea i was but it's how you behave when people aren't looking that counts, i think. I'm just going to leave everything as it is because you never know when i may need it. I still need to educate myself about back up stuff because there is a message on the bottom right hand corner of the page that says solve pc issue set up back up. According to the dates on the start of the new updates being installed no one has used the laptop for almost 2 years. I'm not sure how old the computer is but it sure looks new or at least really well kept and i put some thing under the back edge of the bottom of the laptop to elevate it so it doesn't over heat because i don't want a repeat of the last hp. I noticed that when i was looking at the setting in the other hp the fan was shut off at default. no idea why.....So...thanks again "teach" you'de make a great instuctor. I even go back and correct mistakes i make before sending messages, and try to use the right, commas etc, where as when i first spoke to you only typed capitals hahaha..You really helped me grow and have inspired me to want to learn and i've actually never had that before, and it beats the heck out of being friends with judge Judy and watching tv all day...take care
Sorry but when i went to go to facebook before i clicked there was a little window that said internet explorer on top and message said page is accessing information that might poss a secuity risk do you want to continue and i clicked no but i'm not sure what that means? Oh boy..Tons more reading i guess..Maybe i should just stay using firefox....
"this computer has a huge amount of memory
Aha - but maybe you mean hard disk space?I'll tell you where to find both:
Memory is another name for RAM - chips that the central processor temporarily uses, NOT your main storage space. To find what you have, go to the Start orb then right click Computer (on list to the right). Under the "System" heading it will give a heap of info including "Installed Memory (RAM)". 2GB is typical, much smaller than hard disk space.
For hard disk space, via the start orb again, you single left click Computer and it will show all your drives. Right click the System drive (usually C) and then select Properties. This will show all the info about your hard disk space, which is bulk storage. This can be any old size but a lot larger (250GB maybe - wild guess). It also shows how much you have already used and how much is still free.
As for what is running in the background then Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) will tell you a lot but you might have trouble interpreting it. To find out what starts with the system you bring up the Run box (Windows key and R will do it) then type msconfig and hit Enter key. Go to the Startup tab and see what is listed. Again interpretation could be tricky but good old Google will probably give you plenty of clues about both.
I hope I got the above right because I'm on Windows 8 now so am relying on what I remember. If it isn't spot on then it will be close enough to find your way to the information.
I'm clueless about Facebook (my children are much better at that) which is why posting these general questions on the forum is worth doing at some stage. That way those who know about whatever you are asking will respond. We all tend to answer what we feel most confident with and avoid certain questions like the plague. I guess my strong point is the basics, although I flit about on various forum sections.
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message edited by Derek
I know what you mean about facebook...I only use it to keep in touch with my father, his wife and a few cousins..since i live at mile #1 on the transcanada highway and they also live at mile #1 on the transcanada highway only the total oppisite side of Canada...As far as asking questions on a forum is like comparing going swimming at a restaurant ...just left a hungry ball of sweat trying to desifer something that the facebookers offer for computer advice and in the back of your mind you just know that they don't have an idea at all what they are talking about , let alone advice someone on. Like my friend and hard drive looking for windows installation disk #...and he even asked me twice afterwards that he was correct with his answer, i said i'm not sure yet,,on the second time i just said..Derek that has really been helping me has offically pronounced the death of hp hard drive and it's irrelavent what the issue is because it's dead. Only my opinion though Derek...2 words come to mind in regards to your comment on the type of help you provide and they are humble and modest because MY GOD MAN you taught me tons of valuable and usable techniques, procedures follow through, double check and verifacation...that kind of teaching is i'm sure amongst the forum royalty if there is such a thing ( and we both know it does ) part of the upper crust and you even superseed that because you stuck with and for me for 261 friggen posts and you know darn well " no other forum person would of gone the extra mile and would of probably scolded, corrected, and instucted to come back when i have a real problem and not just a simple burnt hard drive. You recognized and i hate to say this that in this case i really did need the super extra help because well i'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer and you went out of your way to help someone that you know if you didn't probably would destroy probably a good 30 labtops before i started to get a clue..and finally the most important thing i learned from you is factual, procedure and pay attention are the 3 steps to actually obsorbing, and practical application equals results even if the aren't successful because as long as you get the answer you can confirm and move on, rather than keep trying different random things like i was and really doing alot of damage that i didn't know until you told me not to start deleting and removing like i would of...Anyway i even have up the drive g...i didn't even know it went that high.....thanks again
No problem. If getting the basics sorted is the only outcome of this post it is sure to be of value the future. We have things on here called "How-to's" - helpers put them together to help others in a variety of ways. I produced this some time back:
http://www.computing.net/howtos/sho...
It's rather philosophical but it is still my general thinking. Of-course "you can't win em all". Some problems just don't lend themselves to folk fixing them with help from afar and hands-on help is required. We do our best....EDIT:
One little tip. Microsoft's default settings are to hide certain thing from us which, to my mind are not only crucial to fixing things but can help you recognise file types, viruses and so forth. If you go to "Control Panel > Folder Options > View" you will see the following two items:"Hide extensions for known file types" is definitely best unticked. It will then show all file extensions (three letters after a file name, such as mp3 for music files, jpg for pictures, etc). With practice this will tell you what the files do.
I also prefer to put the blob in "Show hidden files, folders and drives". This will allow you to see some areas which can at times prove very useful, provided you don't go around deleting things.
However, I don't advocate unticking "Hide protected operating system files". You rarely need to go there and if you untick that all sorts of system files will appear on the desktop which are definitely best not touched or even made visible. I only ever temporarily use this and only on very rare occasions.
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message edited by Derek
Good morning Derek..Ok, i'll bite what's a super prefetch? So reading the extra page you added to the forum confirmed exactly what i was saying about you in my last long message. The fact about how important it is to find someone not only that you feel is suited to you but knows what the hell they are talking bout and just stating " it's the hard drive and case closed without finding out what , when when etc. I really like how you are able to communicate useful information clearly and straight forward without a holier than thou attitude and managed to teach someone like me tons of things i can use for the rest of my life, And the extra down at the bottom to believe or not believe you if they wish as long as they seek the truth, That's one valuable page derek,, Thank you and ps,,i changed the settings you suggested and removed my email adress from facebook and tons of other places and i can't believe how much spam has been cut out of my inbox....You are an excellent teacher with =out the attitude or ego...have a nice day..
A couple of things from your last post: Prefetch is where your computer notes down the settings and locations when you start a program for the first time. This means that when you next open that program it will load faster. There is a myth about that it puts every program into RAM each time you boot up so it's a great idea to remove all the prefetch files. It is NOT. It only looks at a prefetch file when that particular program is opened. Remove the files and it slows you down. MS automatically clear out old prefetch items when they reach 132 anyhow and sets them back to the 32 last used. Let's just avoid getting heady and say that SuperFetch is a better and newer form of prefetch - plenty about it in Google if you want to delve further.
Unfortunately when you remove your email address from Facebook etc it is possible that the damage is already done. The criminals harvest email addresses then sell them to each other, so spam then grows like wildfire. Try searching for your email address in Google - if it can find it then so can the spammers search engines. In that situation changing your email address is the only real answer, then never put it in open text on the internet. There are ways of disguising it so that humans recognise but not computers, such as myemailDELETE THIS@server.net. A human will see that DELETE THIS should be removed to see the true email address. Computers won't because there are a whole stack of disguises possible.
On the subject of myths, folk often hanker after as much free RAM as possible. True if your RAM is stuffed with unnecessary activities. However, RAM is there to be used and Windows will release the low priority info in RAM when a more important activity is started. Although this link was written for XP, quite a bit of it is still largely true for later systems:
http://home.comcast.net/~supportcd/...
However, beware tweaks for old operating systems. They often do nothing whatsoever on later ones. For example, applying Windows 98 tweaks for Vista could be pointless or even cause issues. Just the same they often get repeated - urban myths.One last thing. Avoid all magic fixes and registry cleaners on the net unless vetted or suggested by a reliable computer forum. At the best they are pointless, at the worst they cause more troubles than they fix. As I said before, it would also be very easy to assume all files were viruses if you google them. Delete nothing unless you know for certain what it does and what it is for. If in doubt ask.
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message edited by Derek
good evening Derek...Sorry to bother you but i started to get a message saying that my windows is not genuine and is trying to get me to order a new instalation vista disk, may i ask you if you have any idea why and what i should do..something weirds hsppening and ps..i noticed a tab says my search sweetpacks and i know that's not good from my other laptop but i couldn't find it to get rid of it.If you're busy i understand but i won't touch anything until i find out what to do...thank you
Sound very much like a virus or some malware, so don't click on it any more.
It is probably trying to trick you into buying a Vista disk.In any event you need to get shot of "my search sweetpacks". There are some instructions here:
http://forums.anvisoft.com/viewtopi...
Start by looking in Control Panel > Programs and Features (Step 1 on the link).
If it is listed, uninstall it. Then, if necessary move to Step 2.As this is a brand new topic I think it should be put on the forum, probably under Security or Vista. I don't think we should really keep going 1 to 1 on here because it is not really the way the forum works, also I've a feeling you might have more than one virus issue to sort out.
Just for info you usually get this sort of thing from downloads. Always look out for unwanted goodies that need unticking. Sadly these days they can still foist things on you.
I'll watch out for your new post.
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message edited by Derek
" I don't think we should really keep going 1 to 1 on here because it is not really the way the forum works, also I've a feeling you might have more than one virus issue to sort out" Derek is right. do a new post in Security & I will sort out the issues for you.
message edited by Johnw
thank you john that's very kind of you..will do...
Robertbangay Re the link I gave you in #268. Although I said do Steps 1 and 2 (manual) I should have emphasised not to download their magic fix or anything else on there.
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message edited by Derek
OOPS...i uninstalled them...I have to go to work for a few hours and going to run a mcafee full scan in safe mode hopefully that works because it stopped in the middle the last time...thank you Derek
"OOPS...i uninstalled them"
Ok, once you have run Junkware Removal Tool, we will be well on the way to removing the nasties it added, including those added by CNET.WARNING: CNET Download.com downloads now come bundled with opt-out crapware and toolbars ( Same applies to Softonic )
http://dottech.org/23420/cnet-crapw..." going to run a mcafee full scan in safe mode hopefully that works because it stopped in the middle the last time."
Once you have run Junkware Removal Tool, to confirm we are getting close to clean, run a mcafee Quick scan in Normal mode.
It should run.
i have adwcleaner installed and malwarebytes...are they appropriate?
Hi john..actually i remembered that you left me a link so i just download and give her a go,
i ran a scan with sparktrust and it said no maleware but 1119 other problems,,when i clicked fix it it has a charge and i can't afford it right now any free ones?
As I've said before, stay clear of stuff you find online unless recommended by a reliable forum. Sparktrust is a KNOWN SCAM and almost certainly none of the reported problems exist. By clicking online fixes you are seriously risking putting a stack of malware on your computer, or wrecking it - stay with Johnw, he'll get you clear if you are not already. You don't need to pay anyone - we almost always use free programs on here but good ones which are specially selected from experience and other checks. EDIT:
Just put Sparktrust in Google (something always worth doing). Read "Other Answers" on this post:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
i didn't download sparktrust on a whim..it was with the link that john sent me it's i wasn't paying enough attention and clicked the wrong download..so i went back to the link and am now running a scan..sorry to annoy you..
No Robert, I'm not one bit annoyed - just trying to look after your interests. I understand now that it was an accident but it does underline the general point. Did you see the link I just added in #277? There sure is a lot of scary junk out there. Keep pegging away, you are doing fine.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
message edited by Derek
Hey Derek..Thanks for that..and i know you are and i really appreciate the fact that you have had my interest in more ways and effective lessons than any of my so called friends that i've spent countless hours trying to help guide or sometimes even steer them in the right direction only for them to hand me the most lame and cockamamie inaccurate computer information that actually put me farther behind because i gave them the benefit of the doubt instead of what you taught me.."when in doubt do nothing"...but i promise in the future to follow your rules of "take my time..read carefully and if i don't know..don't guess ask a credible person like yourself or john...he's pretty brainie like you too..i feel very fortunate but regret being such a pain in the a.. for john and yourself...i'm going to check the scan results now
It's still going to be 10 - 15 minutes...
"but i promise in the future to follow your rules of "take my time..read carefully"
That is the whole trick, I will cover that fully later, once I have the Junkware Removal Tool log.message edited by Johnw
sO JOHN..SCAN IS STILL AT 80% AND I HAVE TO GO TO THE SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER FOR VOLUNTEER FOR 2 HOURS BUT WILLL UPDATE SOON AS I GET BACK...THANKS FOR ALL YOU HELP TODAY
Got your message thanks. I think this monkey is now feeling strangled, or at least it is nicely dazed LOL. To keep things simple it is probably best to stay on the new thread from now on, which will keep it all in one place. See you on there.
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ROGER..OVER AND OUT AND THANKS A MILLION DEREK
SO, I promise this is the last message i'll leave on this page but i'm off to Victoria this morning and i just wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR ALL THE HELP..TAKE CARE
Merry Xmas to you as well Robert. Have done all my jobs, the family get here in about 16 hours
Today I've been bodging fences back up, ready for the next onslaught - seems Christmas day will be OK storm wise. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to both of you.
message edited by Derek
Opp's. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to as well Derek.
Yeah, that was a very big storm you guys had.
Our invasion starts in about 6 hours.
Having a pool & being summer, it always works out very well.
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