How can I get windows working again

TakeThis

closed wrote: »

depends what new os reload means, a new os ie Windows 7 purchase, or xp (which is already on and can be done without upgrading hardware)

He has the updated Packard Bell XP SP3 disc and Drivers. So a cheap HDD and 1GB of RAM will be fine for oldies.

Pentium 4 I think, supplied with perhaps 192MB RAM.

So the upgrade to 640MB or 1GB will really make a difference , together with the clean install. £40 (or less) well spent.

closed

Waste of money if the problem turns out to be hardware (other than HD which seatools thinks is ok), all attempts to repair failed - doesn't that include a windows reinstall - don't know, but a backup and reinstall to existing hardware would be my starting point - assuming they have somewhere to backup to

TakeThis

If the original problem still exists, look here

Ainsley1

Hi Guys, your continued input is very welcome and will also, no doubt be useful to others who may read this thread.
To comment on some of the issues raised:

Reinstall from XP disk; this is the simple solution for me - though perhaps not the most efficient or technically advanced, I'm not really into playing about with the Registry etc.

As TakeThis shows hardware upgrade can be done cheaply. The machine owners decided to spend that bit more and get more RAM and a bigger drive so it was more expensive - but their choice. Still a lot less than a new machine. My time is free (for them).

I did a backup before starting any other work (externally) so no problems there.

I have done a test install of XP to a spare disk I had and all is fine so no hardware issues.

Failures to 'repair' XP are probably down to me and the order in which fixes were tried that seemingly leave no option to go down other routes once files are reset/overwritten/boot options lost (with my level of expertise anyway). No doubt an expert could have done it much better but the hardware is here not with them!

'The oldies;' :-), as they have been described, (hopefully) will get a working machine back, much faster, lots more storage space for their future pictures/videos etc. (and whatever else they decide to do - age is not a barrier to doing things that need memory, even if we forget !!!), their old data back and all for within a £40 to £80 range. That cannot be bad, can it compared to buying a new machine with lots they will not really make use of? [albeit with motherboard, PSU, case, DVD, keyboard, mouse, monitor that is not as old]. Certainly it would not have made sense to replace the majority of bits to make a 'new' machine.

Must admit my personal choice would have been the cheaper option listed above by TakeThis but I respect their decision ( for max 2GB RAM + a bigger drive) and believe it's better than £300+ spend, which they probably did not have available, for a new machine!

So, new memory installed OK, XP works OK, just waiting for the new disk, 'customer' expectations to be met and exceeded. All of you ( and perhaps me a little bit) should take a pat on the back!

Ainsley1

Oh and I should add existing disk was getting rapidly full and had exhibited some errors in the past so was probably wise to replace....

TakeThis

Everyone is happy. Not everyone needs an i5 processor. The RAM and the HDD were inevitable upgrades anyway.

I'm still on a single core Celeron.

Ainsley1

Well install has gone pretty well and have loaded all drivers (I think) and software etc.

Any ideas on the one problem I have located in that Windows Player will not play DVDs and it tells me there is a missing codec. I have upgraded to version 11 an also downloaded/installed DirectX 9 ?

Again thanks in anticipation.........

TakeThis

Windows Media Player fo XP does not play DVD Video by Default.

So you can use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema to play most anything. It is light on resources, so appropriate for older systems.

Alternatively, you can install a CoDec Pack.