Freeze-ups like this, especially if they can happen randomly, are sometimes associated with hardware problems. Do you know how to look for blown capacitors on yoiur mother-board, for example?
Ask your Computer-guru-friend to open up the box and take a look. If Safe Mode works consistently, this could be a clue (Regular Mode may be trying to use hardware that Safe Mode doesn’t use).
Another possibility, hardware-wise, is a bad memory caard, or even just a poorly inserted one. First try removing and re-inserting all of them. If you have more than one memory card (say 2x128M, e.g.) try first removing and reinserting them, and if that doesn’t help, try removing one at a time (you’ll take a bad performance hit, of course, but you should be able to see if the freezes stop).
Etc… not guaranteeing it isn’t a O.S./software thing after all, but take a look at the hardware, especially if the computer started acting up one day out of the blue with no new S/W installed.
Thanks! That very well could be the case. It just started happening Monday this week. The computer guru here suggested I take it down to the local Toshiba service center (they have a cute name in “Koreanized English”: Toshiba Lifestyle Creation). I’ll do that after calling up the PX’s service center as I bought the thing at the BX before coming to Korea. There are some extra service bennies for getting them to work on it under authorization from Toshiba than taking it directly to the “Lifestyle Creation Center.”
Thanks.
I have a PC (Windows 98 Plus!) at home, and a laptop (Windows 2000). I have tried doing sound recording on both; bothy computers make sounds.
But when I access the Sound Recording dialog box (via the pop-up Programs menu), I follow the instructions: Plug a microphone in the jack; click on File to get the drop-down menu, then click New; then push the red Record button. There’s a green line on a black background that’s supposed to indicate sound passing through. But when I push the Record button and speak into the mike, nothing happens on the screen, nor do I get any sounds when I play it back. (Music CDs, which I insert to play, sound through the speakers just fine.)
What, if anything, am I leaving out?
Hi. I did read the main OP post and follow steps mentioned, but there’s still an issue. Here goes (from the begining)
I tried to play a video file on my PC, but it didn’t play and indicated that my windows player needed a new ‘codec’ to play that file. Stupidly, I clicked the link to download the new codec. :smack:
Instantantly, all hell broke loose on my PC. Suddenly I’m getting critical alert warnings from some website called ‘virusburst’ (no link provided because I don’t want your PC to get infected too). My homepage (no matter what I set it to) always re-routes to this (and two other similar) website(s). The ‘critical alerts’ are bogus, as some words are misspelled. And there is a program on my harddrive now called ‘PCODEC’.
So far, I have deleted ‘PCODEC’ from the control panel ininstaller, I downloaded the new version of ‘Spybot’ and the program ‘Adaware’ (lavasoft?) and ran both, yanking a whole bunch of baddies off my harddrive. I downloaded Macafee firewall and virus scanner (but it found nothing). I have the 3 offending websites (at work now, don’t remember the other two off hand) trying to sell me antivirusware (Ha!) blocked through Comcast.
But…
With all that done, I have yet to regain control of my Homepage. (whatever I set it to is still being redirected by some program unknown. As I have the offending webpages it tries to redirect my PC to blocked, I just get a screen that says ‘you’ve tried to access a page on your personal blacklist’).
I have a workaround of setting my homepage to ‘Lycos’ (I never use Lycos) and putting the page I normally use as my homepage on my toolbar, but that doesn’t get the offending program (which keeps reinstalling itself) off my machine and out of my lower right-hand corner toolbar as a ‘Critical Update’.
I fear my PC (Compaq 4000, Windows 98 Plus!) has given up the ghost.
The other night I’d just gone online and the screen went black. I hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete; I got a message about “Disk Connection Error” or some such thing. Now when I switch the computer on, it doesn’t boot up; instead I get a DOS prompt about “Non-system disk or disk error; replace [disk] and hit any key when ready.” I fear the hard drive has somehow come unconnected…:eek: :mad:
Check to be sure there is not a disk in the floppy drive. If there is, remove it and reboot. If not, open the tower and make sure both the data cable and power cable on the hard drive are tight.
I don’t have a tower; it’s a box, similar in shape to a pizza box but thicker (1995 Compaq 4000, customized by my brother to accept Windows 98 Plus!) In fact I have opened the top but have no idea where the hard drive is.
I’ll go out on a limb and guess you have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 series, in which case there are 24 different model variations. There should be an additional model number (ie, PC 5100) located somewhere on your pizza box. If you can find that, I can point you to the proper manual. It will be up to you to decide if fiddling with the innards of your computer is within your skill level.
Thanks; I’ll check it when I can.
I got the same message on my Dell Laptop when I had the external floppy drive attached–with the hold-in bolts on the plug. With them unscrewed it works just fine.
On the underside of the box is a large white decal; nothing says “Model,” but the number “Series 3541N5” appears. Inside the lid is a date in July 1997.
:Sigh:
I found a rectangular stamp under the lid, reading:
15051
JUL 3 1997
268056-001
And a circular one reading:
HH
JUL 3 1997
QC07
Then there was a bar-code sticker stuck to the underside oif the unit with two lines of figures:
2479546-002
CT:805880CSJEYOCU
Download a free copy of Belarc Advisor. Run the program, which will analyze your computer and create a page with all the specifications. Look at the section at the top of the column on the right, labeled “System Model”. It may identify which Deskpro 4000 model number you have.
Thanks. I’ve done so–but on my Dell Laptop, since I can’t get the Compaq PC to boot up. Will it still give me data about the PC rather than the laptop?
