Freezing up

[Laurelyn]

My pc is freezing up...period. I might get as far as the desktop but not further. It does this even in safe mode and minimal boot. When it first froze i was in a game site and was chatting on icq..from then on it hasn't even get to a log on. It is an eMax Duron, 800mz, 256 megs memory(one 133, other a 100, has been there for a while now). Running Norton Systemworks also. The scandisk thing will come on (improper shutdown) but it freezes there too. I took the can of air to it, but made no difference. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for reading....L. :)

[Theoran]

Laurelyn,

Boot your computer using your WinME bootdisk. Once you get to the A prompt type C: and then hit enter. Now that you are at the C prompt type in scandisk. It should look like this C:\scandisk, and then hit enter. When ScanDisk is finished, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot. If scandisk locks up while running it in DOS then it is very likely that your hard drive is going bad. :(

[Laurelyn]

Thanks for the help..I'll try it & let ya know what happened. ..Laurelyn

[Laurelyn]

Well, I tried that and a couple other things but it was a no-go. There is a difference on my bootdisk as to how the letters look, such as: A:\>, same for the C, that little arrow is there. Anyway, all I got was "bad command or file name". :(

[Dodge]

Laurelyn, That arrow is supposed to be there. Theoran just didn't put it in his post.

You could try going to www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com) and download a New bootdisk and give it a try. Just to make sure your Bootdisk isn't bad.

When you get it booted with the bootdisk. At the A:\> prompt type fdisk then choose number 4 for viewing partitions. When it there make sure that it has the correct amount of Hard drive space. i.e. if you have a 1gig hard drive it should have just over 1000 mb's listed in there.

Also make sure it says Fat32.

If all looks good then hit the ESC key to get you back to the A: Prompt again. Type C: at the C:/> Prompt type dir Does it bring up a list....

If NEITHER bootdisk works. My guess would go on the Hard drive itself is going out and you will need to buy new one...

[Laurelyn]

ok, I have tried that and some of the previous stuff with the new WIN ME startup disk. It seems the problem is in the scandisk...it got to 90% and quit...then there is a humm-humm-humm noise when everything stops. I think the disk allocatiuons were ok, also had fat32. I also forgot to say that Norton did isolate a BadtransB a few weeks previous to the freezing, but I have no idea if that caused some of the problem. It seems I just cannot get anywhere with the startup disk.
I do have a warranty on the thing, but do I call the hardware or the software support? As I am no techie, this whole thing is going way beyond me :confused: . Thanks for all the information & help :) ..laurelyn

[Laurelyn]

ok, I have tried that and some of the previous stuff with the new WIN ME startup disk. It seems the problem is in the scandisk...it got to 90% and quit...then there is a humm-humm-humm noise when everything stops. I think the disk allocatiuons were ok, also had fat32. I also forgot to say that Norton did isolate a BadtransB a few weeks previous to the freezing, but I have no idea if that caused some of the problem. It seems I just cannot get anywhere with the startup disk.
I do have a warranty on the thing, but do I call the hardware or the software support? As I am no techie, this whole thing is going way beyond me :confused: . Thanks for all the information & help :) ..laurelyn

[Theoran]

Sounds like your hard drive has some problems. Call support and explain that ScanDisk is locking up in DOS mode and that most likely your hard drive is going bad. They should send you a new one for free as long as you send back the old one. They may ask for the Model and Serial Number on the hard drive also.