robgood

Thanks for your help. With my old hard drive installed, I started the pc and got the following message: Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt. windows root/system32/hal.dll I looked this up on the internet and tried everything suggested without any luck and also did all that was suggested by yourselves, so I have now removed this hard drive and replaced with new one. Upon startup, I deleted the partition, (as I had used it previously) created a new one and installed a fresh version of windows. After updating windows from windows update, I will load just a couple of programmes that I use regularly for work and see how it goes. If situation arises again, I will post on here. Thanks Rob

Hi Over the last few months I have had the ocassional problem booting into windows. Example: Use pc of an evening, shut down as normal. Next day, switch pc on and the screen is just black. I can hear a noise when the hard drive starts and then stops. It keeps doing this. I replaced the hard drive 3 weeks ago thinking it was at fault, but the new one has done similar. Any suggestions much appreciated. Rob Windows xp home Intel core 2 quad processor Nvidia p5n-mx motherboard 2gig ram

I have a spare hard drive and not being an expert would like to know what would be the best way to use it. Just keep it as a spare? Install 2 hard drives? Your expert advice would be welcome. Rob

I think I can live with losing what's on the pc. I have 2 pc's which are networked so all important data is on this one and not the sick one. I'll just re-format and start again. Many thanks for your help..much appreciated. Rob

The pc won't boot into any mode. I do have the operating disc (windows xp incl. service pack 3)

I went into safe mode to run MBAM and after a few minutes, it shut itself down and rebooted into normal mode. I then tried to restart the pc in safe mode but for the last half hour, it does the following. The pc boots to the screen where the small blue squares scroll across. Then after a minute or two it then goes to a screen with various options to start the pc. Clicking on any option makes no difference. It just starts over and returns to the same screen. Hope this makes sense. Rob

Thanks Starbuck. Can I run these programmes in safe mode? Otherwise it will be a long time b4 I get back to you. Rob

Thanks for the response. The website that I visited was a forum, that I hadn't been to before. Anyway, since my original post, I have started the pc in safe mode, deleted all temp, internet files and cookies. I am now running spybot, but no results so far. The pc runs fine in safe mode but still almost at a standstill in normal mode. Rob

Hi Yesterday, my pc started to run slow and today it is almost at a standstill. I have 2mb ram and over half of the space on hard drive is free. I also run AML registry cleaner on a regular basis and defrag once a week. The problem seems to have started after I came off the internet and maybe it is down to malware? I have spybot and Norton Antivirus but unable to run them cos pc is so slow. How slow?.. As an example, it has just taken 4/5mins to open Adobe Reader. I am using another pc to post for obvious reasons. Any help much appreciated Rob

It restarts without completing. Having said that, I left it to do its own thing today and after several restarts, it completed a disk check. Everything seems fine at the moment. Rob

Thanks for the advice. I will check tomorrow for dust etc. Rob

My pc has recently been shutting down and restarting as and when it feels like. During start up, it always wants to check the hard drive for errors which I skip cos it never completes. I decided to format the hard drive, reload windows and start afresh. Unfortunately, this has not resolved the issue. Any advice most welcome. My pc is running XP Home Edition. Thanks Rob