Plastic Nev

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. If all is working in safe mode, first try a system restore from safe mode, to a date when it was working OK. If that doesn't work let us know. Nev.

No, not me, my car. The last few days I had been able to hear a noise at the front of the car that could only be a blow from the exhaust. Having looked under while parked on the street, I was thinking it would be the braided metal flexible joint again, as I replaced that part about three years ago. It is only about a foot or so away from the engine and is a common fault on the Ford Ka for it to break there. So I couldn't do much in the pouring rain yesterday and left it to look at today. After setting up the ramps and driving the car up them, I looked underneath now I had room to see properly, and here is the flexible joint. http://i82.servimg.com/u/f82/14/68/69/96/exhaus10.jpg Although it looks a little worn on closer inspection, it is still OK, so where was the blow coming from? I then moved the whole pipe and saw there was movement where there shouldn't be, right at the two bolted clamp joint, where the pipe joins the drop down from the catalytic converter. The whole flange had cracked away from the drop down tube. http://i82.servimg.com/u/f82/14/68/69/96/exhaus11.jpg So out came the welder and with the pipe propped up at the other end by a small jack, I welded as much round the crack as I can reach. The photo is after I welded it as the crack itself wouldn't have shown up well in a photo. However, due to a mounting bracket that at the moment I cannot get undone, as someone else before me has gone and welded over the bolt, that means some small part of the original crack still needs welding. The catalytic converter is to the right, and goes up to the exhaust manifold on the front of the engine. Next weekend when I have more time, I can either grind or burn off some of that other persons weld, to be able to remove the bracket and finish the welding where it is needed. Here are some more shots of the welding I have managed to do, along with the bracket that is in the way for getting round over the top of the bracket. http://i82.servimg.com/u/f82/14/68/69/96/exhaus12.jpg http://i82.servimg.com/u/f82/14/68/69/96/axhaus10.jpg Although there is still a small amount of the crack unwelded and a small amount of exhaust blows from it, it will at least now carry me through till weekend which being four days as it is a bank holiday, will give me time to finish the whole job completely. I also realise I must have a slight oil leak from something higher up on the engine, so that can have more attention later too.

Hi Mikey, Indeed you can do exactly that and though I don't know imgburn, I assume it can be set to burn disks as ISO images as you said you burned the Windows disk. Just set it the same way. As for which drivers to download, you will possibly need to know which bit of hardware is installed in your machine as I see from that list there is a choice of Broadcom or Atheros for the wireless LAN, sometimes it doesn't matter as the correct driver installs and the incorrect one is rejected. Also do you know if you installed Windows 7 64bit or windows 7 32bit as some drivers are 64bit only. Ken may have better information though as to which drivers to download for install, though I notice there is a driver for the touch pad, you will need that and hopefully that one will sort the pad out. Nev.

Hi thanks for letting us know and can you please tell us how, so others may benefit thanks. Nev.

Hi, if I may add a bit here, Though I don't know much about the virtual box as mentioned, Windows 7 Professional can run a free virtual environment supplied by Microsoft, you just open the thing and install any pre Windows 7 software into it, it is supposed to be able to handle software created for Windows XP, and earlier. The only downside of that is that you would have to upgrade the Windows 7 home you have to the professional version, however the upgrade is not too expensive.

Hi Steve, which fan is it, the CPU or if fitted the case fan? After a look round I found this UK supplier, might be of help. A lot of other replacement fans were unfortunately in the USA. http://genuinedellfans.ecrater.co.uk/p/7618945/genuine-dell-replacment-fan-dimension-2300 Nev.

Many thanks from me too for the donation. If after a further clean up and you still get problems, let us know as there may be something else acting up now and then. Even perhaps some odd fault on the graphics card, but too early to say yet. Nev.

Hi Bazman, sorry to hear that when we thought we had won one. OK what were you doing at the time it went, and also did you notice any kind of slow down, odd things on screen or other unregularities leading up to the crash, it may not have been a spike of heat and could have been building up slowly, you wouldn't have known as you didn't open Speccy till after it recovered. Hence why Armageddon's good suggestion of a more powerful fan may help. If you were playing an intensive game at the time then a slow build up of heat could be the reason rather than a sudden surge. Nev.

Hi, considering the Computer is only a month old it will still be covered under warranty, if it is definitely a hard drive error as that fault code does as Armageddon said, suggest a hard drive fault, being hardware and not software it will be covered by the warranty. By all means follow any suggestions and advice from Armageddon to be sure, but do be aware if the checks do show a definite hard drive fault, it is best to take or send it back. That is what the warranty is for. Nev.

Just as asked by KenB my particular like is Firefox and find it a much easier to use browser than the recent things they have done with Internet explorer. Also you can add on various plug ins or add ons to help your use of Firefox, and I will advocate installing AdBlock Plus. That stops all of the annoying adverts you find on some websites. I will add here that SRWare Iron has its own built in advert blocker, however I have not yet tried that browser, so can't say how it performs in comparison to the Firefox add on. Google Chrome or Safari may be OK for some, but Googles Chrome isn't too hot in the privacy department. Safari, I just couldn't get on with it myself. Nev.

Although some things appear to turn on, but not all, I suspect a possible power supply problem as being the first to check. If no spare available to try, you can check the supply with a multimeter set to volts. If no meter available, the other way is remove the power supply and connect to another computer and see if it works. If you have a meter, let us know as we can give you a link for which connections should provide what in voltage. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. If you remove the hard drive from the old computer and connect it to a working computer you will quickly find out if it is possible to retrieve the data or not. I assume that being that old there is a good chance the hard drive will be the older standard of IDE, easy to tell as the data cable is a very broad flat one. There are still plenty of complete enclosures or minimal adapters around to be able to connect to the USB port of a working computer. This is just an adapter for USB data, you would need to supply power to the drive as extra, but just as an example of what is available, maybe cheaper as well elsewhere. http://www.maplin.co.uk/usb-2.0-to-ide-adaptor-35057 Nev.

Hi, only guessing as graphics isn't my strong point, but is the TV set correctly for input to the VGA or HDMI ports? Nev.

Hi Bazman, glad to hear things seem OK now, see how it goes for a little longer though. As far as a donation goes, entirely up to you. We offer this forum and service entirely for free, so any donation is only to help pay for the server and domain, you don't have to donate anything if in any financial difficulty or cash flow shortage. As for the other computer, if that can't be resurrected as easily, please start another thread rather than returning to this one as it will be a possibly different set of problems. Nev.

Lets hope that was the answer, let us know, but I won't be back on line till late tomorrow evening here. Nev.

Hi, that graphics problem may be a good place to look next then, is it a separate graphics card in one of the PCIe slots on the motherboard? I ask as the only information I can find is for mobile graphics which is usually a chip fitted to laptop motherboards. However if it is a separate card, turn off the computer and power, remove the lid and ease the card out of its slot, have a look at the contacts and clean off any dirty looking marks then replace it, just in case it is nothing more than a faulty connection. Nev.

Hi, OK on the sfc /scannow check, at least we know it isn't Windows itself at fault, I have done a bit more research into the main hal.dll errors this seems to be related to hard ware, and as it happens a different site I looked at pointed to OCZ hard drives as one possible cause along with hundreds more, unfortunately these blue screen errors can be caused by many different things. However, considering your hard drive is an OCZ one as the Speccy report showed, next thing is a disk check. Easiest to follow the instructions here:- http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/guide-to-using-check-disk-in-windows-vista/ Saves me a lot of writing.:D If you want to see where some of my information came from, do have a look at this Microsoft page, but beware it is long with lots of different suggestions. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/blue-screen-due-to-haldll-code-0x00000124/69e857cb-449b-4276-898e-18d471290de9 Nev.

Thanks for that link Armageddon. HI, as for cleaning, it depends on the environment, and what an inspection shows up. If in a room where pets are and a high chance of pet hair, then obviously it may need cleaning at a more regular interval, however as an indicator, I have a cat which moves around the room, sometimes playing others asleep, yet I haven't needed to clean my computer yet as there is no real visible sign of heavy dust or fluff in the heat sink fins, and I have had this Windows 7 machine for over two years now. So lets get back to these crash reports, they are all operating system problems by the look of it, have you used any form of registry cleaner? Next is considering it was a built for you machine, do you have the original Windows 7 install disk? (Doesn't matter too much if you haven't, but handy if you have.) I think next would be a full system file check. First click the start orb, then in the search box write CMD At the top of the box will be a black square and CMD, you must right click on that and then select Runs as administrator. Once the DOS like box opens, type or copy and paste this- sfc /scannow then press enter. It may ask for a restart, please do so. After it has completed it should open a report of any files fixed or cannot be fixed. Nev.

Until we see the full error reports I can't actually say what to look for at the moment Bazman, so if it is already staying on the blue screen it may already be set to do so, just post the next report or two please. Nev.

Hi considering it hasn't gone above the 50C over a longer period, it no longer looks like a heat issue, no need at this point to look at the thermal paste as once applied and done properly which no doubt it was, it should last out the life of the computer if not disturbed. Next thing we need to do is try and see what messages come up when it does blue screen. Shut down the computer and then re-start it and start tapping the F8 key, that should then get you into the Advanced Boot Options page, using up and down keys move the highlight down to "Disable automatic restart on system failure" and click the enter key. Next time it goes to a blue screen it should stay there and give a fault report, write that down and post here please. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I am afraid I have no knowledge of Backtrack, the only Linux distro I have used are Ubuntu and Mint, so at a slight disadvantage. I can only ask does that operating system have the equivalent of Windows Disk management? If so can you have a look at and let us know what is shown on all partitions, and if possible to access each partition and what is on it. Nev.

Hi Kep, If at all possible it would be best if your friend were to register and join us, that way our security advisor's can work directly with the affected computer. If not can you bring it and work can be done from your address. In the mean time get him to follow this, its at the top of this malware forum any way:- http://extremetechsupport.com/threads/10689-Before-posting-for-Malware-Removal-help. Nev.

Hi, thanks for that. The CPU running at 50C already from start up may show higher fairly quickly, keep a good eye on that and let us know. I will ask you don't use a vacuum for cleaning out though as they can sometimes create static strong enough to do damage. Much better to use a real haired, not nylon, paint brush and blow the dust out. Compressed air cans from most PC outlets are best for that, use in short bursts as liquid can be ejected on long ones. If the fins of the heat sink are not clogged with dust and we see high temperatures, it may need the heat sink removing, any old thermal paste cleaned off and fresh paste applied. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Bazman. One of the more common reasons for this especially as it is increasing in regularity is overheating due to dust and fluff building up. Is this computer a desktop or laptop? Can you also give us some details please, make and model of computer if a bought one, may help later in researching for specifics that may be needed. In the mean time, please download and install Speccy from Piriform, download it from this link:- http://www.piriform.com/speccy Once installed and open, let the computer run keeping Speccy open and keep an eye on temperatures until it goes blue screen, If possible copy and paste into your reply the readings and other information from the main index screen, that will let us know if it is an overheating problem. Nev.

Hi, first thing to come to mind is the cable, have you tried changing that? Nev.