hbograd

Thanks for sticking with me on this! Since I last wrote, we've bought a new computer and focused our energy on getting all needed programs and data installed on that. I've also replaced the CMOS battery on Compaq Presario SR5510F and have purchased two 2GB memory modules from crucial.com to replace the two 1 GB memory modules I've been working with. It may be some time before I get back to working with this, since our nonprofit office now has working computers for each worker. If I got the Compaq Presario SR5510F working again, it would be a stronger computer than one of the others we're now using. But we still may not get to it for some time. Harriet When we do try again, I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks for reminding me about the CMOS battery. I'd seen a suggestion about this on another thread, and then the other day I got a warning for the first time that the time was wrong on my computer. But then I forgot to follow through. I've just pulled out the CMOS battery and the PCI modem card, and I'll replace the CMOS battery tomorrow (I don't need the modem). I've just also scanned each of the 3 recovery CD's - I did the scan using a Windows 7 computer with up-to-date AVG antivirus. I had made the recovery CD's in the past week, not when the computer was new. In the meantime, I've ordered a newer, more powerful computer for my colleague who was using this Compaq - we couldn't wait to solve this. If I get the Compaq working again, I can replace an even older computer for someone else to use. Thanks for the tip about turning off automatic restart in Safe Mode! Most of the freezes are at startup, and I see a black screen with two lines of text - one about the processor, one saying "Memory testing:" and then saying the memory size and that it's OK. But sometimes I do get a blue screen at some point after the computer boots, and some of those times it reboots so fast I can't read the message. Thanks! Harriet

I do have a factory reset drive, and I used that in the past few days to create a set of recovery CD's, and then I ran the factory restore from the CD drive. I suppose I could now put those CD's in my own working computer and let AVG Antivirus test them. Harriet

Thanks for your thoughts. As I understand it, PC Doctor is a diagnostic tool, and Microsoft Security Essentials is an antivirus program. I'm using AVG Antivirus Free, and I have the impression that is just as good. More important, I've had these problems for about a month, and perhaps a week ago I completely reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system and restored the computer to its factory settings (and then I've been updating from there). The problems I'm having after the system recovery seem similar to the problems I had before. Is it possible for a virus to survive the complete recovery process, including formatting the hard drive? Finally, I learned about memtest86, a memory test, and created a bootable disk with memtest86 on it. I ran it overnight, it ran the standard test 6 times, and it didn't find any problems with the memory. I ran it when both 1 GB memory modules were inserted in my computer. Thanks. Harriet

How can I subscribe to this thread? I only found the options and opted to automatically subscribe to my own posts after I started this thread. Can I subscribe to this thread now? Thanks. Harriet

I'm baffled. I'm trying to troubleshoot a Compaq Presario SR5510F computer that has been freezing on startup more often than not (but not always) and also has been freezing at other times, also intermittently. The OS is Vista Home Premium 32 bit. I've already wiped the hard drive and returned the computer to the factory condition, but then I installed Firefox 5 and AVG Antivirus 2011, and I also installed Windows Updates. The computer has two identical Samsung 1 GB memory modules. I read on one of your great threads (about a Vista computer that froze on startup) that I should try using just one ram module at a time. When I remove EITHER memory module, the computer boots OK most or all of the time (I'm not sure if it froze once). But when I put back BOTH memory modules, then it freezes most but not all of the time. By now I've changed the boot settings in msconfig so I'm booting with basic video, I've switched back to a PS/2 mouse. The only PCI card in the computer is a modem. I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense to purchase new memory (I'd like to buy 2 modules of 2 GB each) to see if that improves things. But I'd prefer not to spend the money if this is unlikely to solve the problem. More background: I've run the hardware diagnostics tool powered by PC Doctor that came with the computer, both from CD and from the hard drive, and it reports that everything passed. (But I just found a newer version on the HP web site, and I'm getting ready to install and run that). It appears that I have the same problems with freezing on startup whether I boot from a CD (either the system recovery CD, or the hardware diagnostic CD that runs in DR-DOS), or when I boot from the hard drive. I've changed the boot order so it checks for a CD/DVD first, before booting from the hard drive. Thanks. Harriet