Dead PC ??

robmar0se

If your Dad was using Outlook rather than Outlook Express then it is included within the Outlook PST file, which you could search for *.pst. However this won't be much use as I am unaware of any economical way of extracting this data without actually opening it in Outlook. If he intends to use Outlook on his new PC, then just save the whole of the current PST file.

Incidentally if it was OE, then just search for *.wab.

Notmyrealname

21Twinkle wrote: »

It can't be heat related - since the fans are running
It can't be memory related - the PC boots up OK

What else is there - that could cause a PC to die - after booting up and apparently being fine - but after 10 secs - stopping ?

If the heatsink is blocked, the fan can run flat out and it'll make no difference.

Many chips exhibit failure once they start to warm up. One thing I used to do as a bench engineer is start something up, wait til it fails then feel around for the hot chip and spray it with freeze spray to see if cooling it brings it back.

50Twuncle

My Dad was using Office 2000 on XP - he now has Outlook 2007 on Win 7
I found "6" PST files - I have tried to load them - in to Office 2007 - but it doesn't want to know
I take it that MS have not made Office backwards compatible with earlier versions
All we want is the address list - not the actual emails
Any suggestions ?

50Twuncle

Notmyrealname wrote: »

If the heatsink is blocked, the fan can run flat out and it'll make no difference.

Many chips exhibit failure once they start to warm up. One thing I used to do as a bench engineer is start something up, wait til it fails then feel around for the hot chip and spray it with freeze spray to see if cooling it brings it back.

Thanks - but I don't think that this can be an overheating problem - it dies after 10 secs - power stays on - but PC "reboots" and repeats - ad-infernitum.......
Anyway - I brushed and cleaned out any dust/gunk - no difference.....

50Twuncle

CoolHotCold wrote: »

Could be a faulty Graphics card.
Could be a faulty Power Supply
Could be a Faulty Motherboard

Or a short circuit (such as USB pin's touching or MoBo short)


In short, hard to diagnose properly with the info you've supplied.


Does the system stay on in BIOS (usually F2 or Del as soon as you power on the system)

Yes - BIOS stays up once loaded !!

And it won't let the PC boot up in SAFE MODE - It keeps on "looping"
This has me totally confused
I think that I need to try booting on an XP CD and trying a recovery installation ?

GunJack

21Twinkle wrote: »

I think that I need to try booting on an XP CD and trying a recovery installation ?

This would be the most sensible suggestion...sounds like a corrupted installation...

50Twuncle

Thanks
I have recovered the email addresses using a Stellar Phoenix PST repair program - that costs £big to buy - but worked well enough to read the addresses
Are there any freeware alternatives to recover the emails as well ?