Fujitsu Siemens Problem

BoltonMinx

Hi

I "inherited" a Fujitsu Siemens - 2002-ish model from a mate. It has Windows 98 and was running really slow, so I reformatted it and re-installed Windows 98. Not quite 2 days later, its back to the same errors.

I know they had a slew of problems with Hard Drives dying on em at one time, not sure if this is the case. The PC is also very very noisy (think aeroplane take off!) so I'm thinking it may be the fan.

Is there any way of running a diagnostic program on it as Im loathe to buy a new HD and go through the hassle of a reinstall to find out later, it's say, the motherboard. I'm happy enough taking it to bits, so even a list of symptoms would be great if anyone can help ?

Cheers

irnbru_2

BoltonMinx wrote:

I know they had a slew of problems with Hard Drives dying on em at one time, not sure if this is the case. The PC is also very very noisy (think aeroplane take off!) so I'm thinking it may be the fan.

Did you give the PC a clean after you got it? You might find it's acquired a lot dust from the previous owner's house

BoltonMinx wrote:

Is there any way of running a diagnostic program on it as Im loathe to buy a new HD and go through the hassle of a reinstall to find out later, it's say, the motherboard.

Do you know the hard disk manufacturer? Might be worth running a surface scan on the drive to check for errors.

BoltonMinx

I'll give the scandisk program a go ta Not sure what I need to clean the insides with though

irnbru_2

BoltonMinx wrote:

I'll give the scandisk program a go ta Not sure what I need to clean the insides with though

For scanning the HD, I meant something like a drive fitness test. have a look at the hard drive diagnosis section here.

For cleaning, this moves dust from computer to everywhere else

If the fan is the problem there are a few threads on here on where to acquire quieter ones.

Ditto

BoltonMinx wrote:

Hi

I "inherited" a Fujitsu Siemens - 2002-ish model from a mate. It has Windows 98 and was running really slow, so I reformatted it and re-installed Windows 98. Not quite 2 days later, its back to the same errors.

I know they had a slew of problems with Hard Drives dying on em at one time, not sure if this is the case. The PC is also very very noisy (think aeroplane take off!) so I'm thinking it may be the fan.

Is there any way of running a diagnostic program on it as Im loathe to buy a new HD and go through the hassle of a reinstall to find out later, it's say, the motherboard. I'm happy enough taking it to bits, so even a list of symptoms would be great if anyone can help ?

Cheers

What are the errors - hardware/software?
Have you got all the latest drives for the hardware/software on this pc - do a Microsoft Update.
Do a google search for "free hardware diagnostics" and give them a try.

BoltonMinx

James's_Dad wrote:

What are the errors - hardware/software?
Have you got all the latest drives for the hardware/software on this pc - do a Microsoft Update.
Do a google search for "free hardware diagnostics" and give them a try.

Hi,

There are no errors AFAIK, just really dog slow. I've dowloaded all the latest stuff from Microsoft when I reinstalled and also installed zonealarm and avg antivirus to no avail. Im wondering if that's part of the cause but it was running fine for months with those programs on Ive got it in front of me now, just going to plough through to try and get it sorted today

albertross_2

How much ram did you inherit? Does it run slow in safe mode?

This may help diagnosis:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

BoltonMinx

Hi it's got 512MB, will try safe mode tonight. I've still got scandisk running from yesterday
Cheers

albertross_2

That's plenty of ram, so the pc should fly with a fresh 98 installation. There are some other tips on safemode/defragmenting in this thread...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=167579

avg and zonealarm read/write from/to the HD, which causes defrag to continually restart.

other utils from sysinternals e.g. filemon/regmon/autoruns, will give you a clue as to what is going on under the hood, and slowing it down.

PS run https://www.windowsupdate.com while you can, 98 support is being dropped soon.

Are you using any antispyware software?

BoltonMinx

I think Ive got spyware search and destroy on there as well, Im sure Ive run it at least once. Thanks for these, Im ploughing through the diagnostics