How can this computer be resuscitated?
A friend of mine is having a few problems with their computer. Basically it is Windows XP and they were having a few problems with things crashing and hanging and their computer completely shutting down. They also get the chkdsk alert popping up quite a lot.
They have carried out a defrag, used CC cleaner, run the chkdsk several times and this morning carried out a system restore as they were unable to do pretty much. Since then they cannot connect to Yahoo Messenger, Skype has lost its sound, and even playing things on Youtube has ground to a halt with Flash not working. Finally, McAfee has just installed itself for no reason.
So I guess what I am asking is…what do they do to fix this? (system restore wont work as it stops and says something about cant read the memory)
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4 Answers
Sounds like the first signs of a hard drive collapse to me. I would get a new (compatible) hard drive and install a fresh version of windows.
As @digitalimpression suggests it could be hard drive collapse or it could be RAM/memory issues, OR connection issues to either one of those. I always recommend checking connections first because it’s easy and costs nothing to check and can wreak havoc if they’re the problem.
Open the box. Touch your hand to the case to dissipate any static electricity on your body. Find the RAM modules and one at a time remove each and put it back in – this scrubs the connectors a bit and can fix bad connections to RAM. Make sure you seat each module snugly back where it came from.
Find the hard drive, carefully unseat the data connector from it and put it back on. Go to the other end of the data cable on the motherboard and pull that connector off and put it back on.
It’s easy to do and might fix the problem. If it does you’ll be glad you tried. If it doesn’t then nothing lost.
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It is possible that the system is infecred with malware. If there’s too much malware is running in the background, system can hang, get overheated and shutdown…. Try to install Hitmam pro, available from download.com. Also make sure that the system is secured with updated AntiVirus software.
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