Is an xp recovery repair or clean reinstall ok to do by me?

clairibel

I'll start from where i think is the beginning. Acer Desktop is not well and it constantly screams like its in 2nd in a 40mph zone, it never used to.

I have Avira free and cannot do a clean uninstall it it keeps telling me an illegal error encountered and i have to ignore or cancel. It does actually disappear from program list though.

Then when i try to put any other anti virus on it won't let me and says set up failed and tells me an illegal error encountered and i have to ignore or cancel. So i have to reinstall avira and the screaming is worse. Not saying its linked but seems funny.

I constantly have error reports and google chrome constantly hangs and crashes. I'm using IE at the mo. I used to use Firefox but it stopped opening and said it was already running every time so i uninstalled it.

I do regular scans with avira and malwarebytes.

Not sure what to do so thought maybe a clean install or repair would help but can a novice ish do this as funds are low to get it done professionally? Cheers.

TakeThis

The main caveat to a clean install is that you need to back up all of your important data, otherwise you may lose it.
Full model number of ACER?

davetrousers

IMO when doing a fresh install, simply buy a new hard drive and install it on that.

Do the fans need cleaning if it's making a lot of noise?

TakeThis

davetrousers wrote: »

IMO when doing a fresh install, simply buy a new hard drive and install it on that.

Do the fans need cleaning if it's making a lot of noise?

New hard drive?

....as funds are low....

clairibel

Acer aspire SA90-LB7H.

I have hoovered the fan area not sure if theres another way?

I've been backing up pics already to MS skydrive and need to do videos and music plus important files which are not that much.

When i check the microsoft error reports it has some registry issues but fails to auto update a lot too.

Mondez

The full system restore would sort out any errors you have in windows as it basically resets the computer to how it was when you first turned it on. They are normally quite straight forward once you know how to start them, but how they are started varies between models and manufacturers, hopefully someone will know the procedure for this model. Normally it either involves pressing one of the F keys along the top of the keyboard as the system starts up (F10, F11, F8 and such) or starting the system from a restore disk that came with the system or it asked you to make.

However the "screaming" noise you describe is probably a failing cooling fan which the restore won't fix. You would need to open up the system and try manually obstructing each fan in the system (not with your finger) to see if stopping the fans stops the noise and which fan is causing it. There are other things that can cause odd noises, but a fan is normally the culprit.

TakeThis

That machine appears to have been supplied with Vista Home Premium, not XP. Is this correct?

Have you opened the casing?

Notmyrealname

clairibel wrote: »

I'll start from where i think is the beginning. Acer Desktop is not well and it constantly screams like its in 2nd in a 40mph zone, it never used to.

So it needs the CPU heatsink and fan cleaning. I suspect that once its not cooking to death, most of the rest of your problems will disappear.

Computers should ideally have their insides cleaned out once a year. If you smoke it needs to be more often for the fans and heatsinks.

clairibel

Takethis it was Vista but the pc shop where i bought the desktop put xp home on for me as i was used to that os.

I'm going to have a go at the bleeping computer, i did a malware scan yesterday and it did find 2 pup issues in the system volume files. But kept scanning forever normally takes about and 1 hour but this time it was still going 2.5 hours later?

The same thing happened when i did a avira full scan and it said it was at 100% scanned yet the scanning continued on the system restore files. I eventually stopped it.

My pc also chkdsk a lot on start up of its own accord. Saying some files need to be repaired. Forgot about this until it did it yesterday.

TakeThis

clairibel wrote: »

Takethis it was Vista but the pc shop where i bought the desktop put xp home on for me as i was used to that os.

I'm going to have a go at the bleeping computer, i did a malware scan yesterday and it did find 2 pup issues in the system volume files. But kept scanning forever normally takes about and 1 hour but this time it was still going 2.5 hours later?

The same thing happened when i did a avira full scan and it said it was at 100% scanned yet the scanning continued on the system restore files. I eventually stopped it.

My pc also chkdsk a lot on start up of its own accord. Saying some files need to be repaired. Forgot about this until it did it yesterday.

So, do you want to install XP or Vista, as you have a licence for both.
I'm guessing that you don't have the ACER XP disc. Will send it to you.