bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 22, 2005 06:46:28 PM new
I bought and downloaded some software from ebay. I bought a sealed box. Anyway, I downloaded the program and it worked fine. While my daughter was playing online, my computer froze up. I tried to reboot, but my computer will not boot up. I tried using the startup disk, but it still will not boot into Windows. I also tried reinstalling Windows, but I kept getting error messages. I thought it was completely installed though, but I still cannot boot into Windows. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get me out of this mess? I'm using my boyfriend's computer right now. Please please please help if you can!
Diane
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jackswebb
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posted on March 22, 2005 07:54:29 PM new
Unplug it? re start it? I dunno,,sometimes these crazy ideas work.....like starting from scratch.
Good Luck!
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sparkz
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posted on March 22, 2005 08:33:17 PM new
Bizzy...Find out from your daughter what sites she visited while online and what files she may have downloaded or attachments she may have opened. Hopefully it's just a virus that wiped everything out and screwed up your partition table. That's simple to fix. Worst case, and this is what worries me when you say you can't boot with a floppy, is that you may have had a power surge that zapped something on the motherboard. Try booting again from the hard drive, write down the error that you receive. Then try booting from the floppy and write down the error message you receive from that. Bring those error messages over hear so we can have a collective look at them.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
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neglus
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posted on March 22, 2005 08:34:30 PM new
Sorry Dianne - don't know how to help. I had a similar thing happen and in my impatience to get it running again I reformatted - wiped it CLEAN!! All our pix were lost...so be patient..don't panic...yet. You might want to post your operating system and maybe what software screwed it up so the techies here will have some place to start.
**********************************
Just making sure the "SMILIE" thread doesn't die (we all could use SMILIES every now and again!
http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=187440&id=187440
http://stores.ebay.com/Moody-Mommys-Marvelous-Postcards
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 03:32:37 AM new
I don't have a clue but this sounds awfully familiar. Didn't this same thing happen to you about a year or so ago?
Time for a new computer Biz!
If you ever get the old one up and running your daughter can have a dedicated machine for herself and her games!
Bite the bullet and buy a new one - Dell small business has some great deals. I saw the 3000 for $399 with a flat panel monitor last week.
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 05:38:29 AM new
glassgrl -- Yes, this same thing happened to me last year. It was from downloading and installing a corrupted program. I think the same thing again. I purchased Picture It on ebay. I thought the box was totally sealed, but on closer inspection, I see that it was opened. I have a feeling the guy sold me a corrupted program.
Sparkz -- My daughter didn't download anything. I put her into nickjr.com to play some games. That's all she knows how to do. She's only 6. She just plays the games online.
When I start my computer, it tries to boot but only gets a part of the way and then stops. I checked the files loaded and there are only 4 running. It just can't boot up into windows. Now I have a blank screen with an A:\ and that's it.
I think it's time I purchased a new computer. I'm going to Best Buy today to talk with them. I can't be without a computer for long. I will lose my pictures that are stored, but I'm going to save the hard drive in the hopes that some day I can afford to hire someone to retrieve them. I know they are there.
Thanks everybody.
Diane
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amber
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posted on March 23, 2005 05:52:24 AM new
Diane, sorry, I can be of no computer help. Something that may help in the future. I also sell craft books and have a lot of pictures, and every couple of months I burn them onto a disc, plus all my descriptions, then if anything happens to my computer, I have most of them saved.
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cta
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posted on March 23, 2005 05:56:53 AM new
When I start my computer, it tries to boot but only gets a part of the way and then stops. I checked the files loaded and there are only 4 running. It just can't boot up into windows. Now I have a blank screen with an A:\ and that's it.
Diane, It sounds like you have a disk in Drive A and it's trying to boot from that disk. Pull the disk out of A and turn off the computer and try starting it again.
[ edited by cta on Mar 23, 2005 06:01 AM ]
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sciclone2000
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posted on March 23, 2005 06:02:50 AM new
I think your best bet for a new pc would be Dell, anything good at Bestbuy will be expensive. The cheapest pc I would get from Bestbuy is a Sony for $899, $799 if you get the rebate. You can get a good pc from Dell for half the money.
Tony.
In a world without walls or fences who needs Windows and Gates?
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 06:07:35 AM new
CTA -- No, unfortunately, that's not it. Yes, I did have a disk in because I was trying to run a diagnostics test.
Amber -- It's not the pictures of my scans. These are pictures that I took with my digital camera of birthday parties, vacations, etc. Unfortunately, I bought my computer back in January '99 and it didn't come with a CD burner. This time, I will purchase one with a CD burner and burn all of the pictures onto a CD so that if this ever happens again, I don't lose anything. 
Diane
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 06:15:11 AM new
at the A:\ prompt type in C:\
Type in chkdsk/f and Y then it will check your disk next time you restart
if that doesn't work - then try r for repair
Type in chkdsk/r then the Y (for yes) and shut down again - see what happens.
AND don't do Dell Home - do Dell Small Business. Much better machines.
[ edited by glassgrl on Mar 23, 2005 06:19 AM ]
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 06:29:23 AM new
What To Do When Windows Won't Boot
By Otis F Cooper
When Windows fails to boot it is normally caused by you installing a program or device and it has caused a conflict with one or more other programs.
This will no doubt give you plenty of heartaches if you're not certain which program caused Windows to not boot up.
If you recently installed a program or application and know where it was installed,you may be in much better shape as for as correcting the error.
Here are common ways to correct the problem of your computer not completely booting up or not booting up at all.
If your computer will not boot-up at all,hopefully you have made a good emergency boot disk. You can always make a windows startup disk by creating one from another computer running Windows 98 or Me.Perform the following if your computer won't Boot-Up At All.
FIRST......Put your boot floppy disk in the floppy drive and turn on the PC.On some computers, you may have to access the bios and select the Boot priority to your A: drive.
Save any changes and select "Start Computer without CDROM support" and press Enter.Once you are at the A prompt,type dir c: and press enter.
If your programs and other files are present,try restoring your system Registry by following the steps below.This may repair Windows,the Config. Sys and autoexec.bat files to where the PC may boot up normally.When the files are present,its a good indication of a good hard drive.
SECOND......To correct the problem of your computer not booting up,type in "fdisk /mbr" and press Enter to restore your master boot record.Type "Scandisk C:" to check the hard drive for errors that have occurred. You can also type "Sys C:" to hopefully restore files needed to boot up your computer.
THIRD......If the above procedures fail to repair your computer,you can repeat the first part of step one above and select "Start Computer With CDROM Support" re-install Windows.
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 06:50:16 AM new
Thanks so much, Glassgrl! I'm working on it right now. Hopefully, this will correct the problem! I'll let you know. 
Diane
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CBlev65252
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posted on March 23, 2005 07:04:02 AM new
Back up your pictures onto CDs on a regular basis! In fact, back up your My Documents folder. I do it once a week. If you get it running, download Tune-Up Utilities (http://www.tune-up.com). You get a free 30 day trial and then it's $40 for the program. Best $40 I've spent. It will catch the errors and will also repair your registry among other useful things.
Your information may still me on your computer. A computer professional will be able to tell you. Even when you delete something in the Recycle Bin, it's still on your computer. Tune-Up has a cool option to undelete things you've removed from the recycle bin or to shred the items in it. You'd be surprised how much space is being taken up by things you deleted.
As you know, your daughter doesn't have to leave Nick, Jr for a virus to find its way onto your machine! Smart buggers they are.
Cheryl
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 07:59:46 AM new
glassgrl -- I ran scandisk and then the deeper scandisk and there are no bad sections in my hard drive. I'm now trying to reinstalling windows, because my computer will not boot up into windows. I'll let you know what happens.
Diane
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 08:25:35 AM new
glassgrl -- Here is what is happening:
I almost completely installed Windows 98, but came across an error message when it was setting up my hardware and plug and play devices. The error message reads:
The file WMWAVE.CAT on Windows 98 cannot be found. Setup could not find a file on the specified path.
Here is the source file: c:\windows\catroot\wmwave.cat
The destination file is:
c:\windows\inf\catalog\mwmave.cat=precopy/cab
What does this mean and how do I correct it?
Diane
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 10:23:27 AM new
try ignoring it and see if you can finish loading windows.
weird - there's not hardly anything out there on it...just some automatic downloads that I'm not sure about.
here's a copy? of the file - it just wants to download it so I didn't.
http://wa5bxo.shacknet.nu/computer_downloads/3COM%20ALL/2978/
[ edited by glassgrl on Mar 23, 2005 11:00 AM ]
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 10:33:15 AM new
"wmwave is dockapp for window maker to display statistical information about a current wireless ethernet connection."
so you have AOL I'd ignore the file for the moment.
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 11:04:31 AM new
I did that glassgrl, but when it finished and tried to reboot, I received two error messages about problems with .dll files. And I still can't reboot in windows.
Diane
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stopwhining
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posted on March 23, 2005 11:14:01 AM new
are you using the factory version of window 98??
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 11:23:07 AM new
I make house calls - all I need is travel expenses both ways and 2 bottles of two buck chuck.
Just kidding.
I don't have a clue.
Maybe try downloading a fresh boot disk? Everything else I said was a long shot too.
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 11:23:32 AM new
Stop -- Yes, it came with the factory CD when I bought the computer.
Diane
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Libra63
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posted on March 23, 2005 11:34:59 AM new
Maybe there is something wrong with your Windows Disc. Go to Microsofts web site and try downloading Windows 98 from there. Give it a try it just might be better...
_________________
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 11:53:37 AM new
uhhh....Libra? You can't go to Microsoft and download W98.
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 12:21:10 PM new
Bizzy? I can burn you a legitimate copy of W98 if you want me to. I think you still have my email addy.
Meanwhile - Best Buy is still open
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stopwhining
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posted on March 23, 2005 12:56:06 PM new
you dont have to download file to pick up virus and trojan horse.I have to restore my window 98 second edition recently as my operating system was impaired due to my surfing here and there /
Is your pc under warranty.
you can still call their technical support team and pay them for help,in my case it is HP India,for 42 dollars,good for 14 days.they will stay on the phone with you as long as it takes to get it resolved.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 01:06:10 PM new
Well, I gave up. I tried EVERYTHING! Took a trip to Best Buy and bought a new tower. Boy ... Those flat monitors sure did look sweet! That's my next purchase. Maybe I can save my eyes a little bit with a flat monitor.
Thanks everyone for your help. I don't know what messed it up, but it sure did a good job.
Diane
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 04:32:09 PM new
well now that you've got XP - make sure you do all your updates too.
go ahead and order the CDRom or download that XP SP2 update.
Let me know about the 98 disk. I'm not using it anymore - that's for sure. I do feel bad about all your pictures on your old computer.
I won't even ask how much you spent on a Tower!
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bizzycrocheting
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posted on March 23, 2005 05:01:21 PM new
glassgrl -- My new computer is up and running. I bought an almost top of the line and this baby moves fassssssssssttttttttt! Yep, spent bookoo bucks. My boyfriend is going to see if he can get my old tower fixed. I'm not sure, but perhaps with more time, it can be fixed. Who knows? I do know that the hard drive is AOK!
Thanks for your help, glassgrl!
Diane
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glassgrl
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posted on March 23, 2005 05:06:23 PM new
coulda shoulda woulda
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/outrageous_desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
DimensionTM 4700 Desktop
Free 17" Flat Panel Monitor & CD Burner!
$499
Not too late to take your tower back....
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