It seems like this is the end : Number of SW & HW problems

[Cool G5]

Hello people,

I am facing some weird problems & due to this I am unable to do anything productive on my computer. I would request you to read this big post carefully & give your responses on it.

I just reinstalled Windows XP last night & now it has become painfully slow. I haven't installed any extra software besides the essential like AV,Image viewers, codec pack etc.

Also, it give me a error on boot sometimes. It's like "Failed to initiate hardware. BIOS does not be installed. Press 'g' to continue"

I could not get even a little bit of this error.

As of posting, my pc has become far too slow, inspite of having a decent specs like p4 2.0 ghz with 768 MB ram.

Some Symptoms in Windows XP :

# Windows XP boots painfully slow. It takes a great amount of time(around 5 min +) to make it to the desktop. It seems like I am running a P3 system with measly ram.

# When you click on the program minimized in the taskbar, they fail to show up. I have to use ALT+TAB to remedy this. Sometimes it works well.

# System tray icons behave weirdly. Inspite of logging in to Yahoo messenger, it shows the icon greyed out indicating, I am not logged in. I fired up Nokia Pc suite, but it does not shows up it's icon in the system tray. Avast antivirus icon does not revolves as it scans when opening files.


Another Error (Open Source):

I went to install Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on my system. It gave me a weird error. Please help me to install it. Here is the screenshot. The lines keep on scrolling.




My Conclusions:

I recently bought a new SATA HDD. Could it be the root of the problem?

Also my current system specs are:
P4 2.0 GHZ
768 MB ram
Zebronics 7300GT 512 MB

Should I upgrade this 5 yrs+ old system & get a new core2duo or core2quad based rig?? I need the system for some gaming(not hardcore) and for designing Symbian Themes along with the regular entertainment.


P.S : I apologise if this thread is in wrong section. I was confused as were it should be posted due to weird nature.

Please pour in your replies, I cannot remain without PC for long

[rhitwick]

Most of the symptoms resembles to RAM problem.
U've 768MB RAM.
Try one RAM at a time; change the slots and again try.
Do this for both the RAMs.

And I think ur windows was not installed properly, did u anyhow encountered any "Can not copy file" error while installing XP??

[thewisecrab]

Your RAM is measly, see if you can upgrade to at least 1 GB, if not 2GB
RAM modules are dirt cheap today.....

[lywyre]

^^ Dude, he is trying Win XP, not Vista. 256 MB RAM is more than enough for XP to run smoothly. 512 is more than enough for Nokia PC Suite or any other application.

[thewisecrab]

Originally Posted by lywyre

^^ Dude, he is trying Win XP, not Vista. 256 MB RAM is more than enough for XP to run smoothly. 512 is more than enough for Nokia PC Suite or any other application.

But he did mention whether he wants to upgrade.

[Hitboxx]

A definite SATA error going by the pic, check for loose connectors, faulty cables, especially power ones and if you are using that PSU to SATA converter cable. I had this type of problem and finally traced it to the damn power cable.

[Cool G5]

@hitboxx - You are spot on buddy.
The pc works normally, when the SATA drive is disconnected. On connecting, it becomes painfully slow.

Yes, I too use the molex to SATA converter. Does it needs to be changed?
Will get another one tomorrow.

@thewisecrab - Only DDR2 ram is dirt cheap, but I have the ancient DDR ram, which cost twice of DDR 2 & isn't available easily.

[deepakvrao]

Originally Posted by lywyre

^^ Dude, he is trying Win XP, not Vista. 256 MB RAM is more than enough for XP to run smoothly. 512 is more than enough for Nokia PC Suite or any other application.

You're kidding right? 256 for xp?

[thewisecrab]

Originally Posted by deepakvrao

You're kidding right? 256 for xp?

No man. It's true
I ran XP on my really old celeron with 256 MB RAM with 20 GB HDD
it ran like makhan after removing useless startup processes, switching off system restore, periodic usage of TU 2008 and regular Ccleaning

[sharma_atul85]

absolutely dear 256MB is enough to run XP.am also using this much of RAM and its running fine for d last 4 years and still counting.

[Cool G5]

Originally Posted by Hitboxx

A definite SATA error going by the pic, check for loose connectors, faulty cables, especially power ones and if you are using that PSU to SATA converter cable. I had this type of problem and finally traced it to the damn power cable.

I checked using various power cables and data cables, but the problem still persists.

Sorry for the really late reply.