Blue "screen of death" on my computer, please help!

[seashoreCM]

My experience has been that once a hard drive gets a few bad sectors, it gets more and more in short order even after you fixed the bad sectors it got so far.

If a critical system file is affected by a bad sector your computer could start to work erratically or could die on the spot.

 

[bonoriffic]

With that said, while you are shopping for a new computer, you should also consider spending the extra $50-$100 for an external hard drive -- that way, should anything go wrong, your digital memories remain intact (plus, an external is a much better way to store "data-hungry" files such as your digital photos/music/movies, as these things will seriously slow-down your computer's performance).

How are photos and music files slowing down your computers performance? I guarantee the external hard drive is significantly slower than an internal hard drive.

Backing up your data to an external drive is a good idea. But having large data files on your computer (assuming it is NTFS and with more than 10% free) won't "seriously slow down your computer's performance".

 

[torinsmom]

My experience has been that once a hard drive gets a few bad sectors, it gets more and more in short order even after you fixed the bad sectors it got so far.

If a critical system file is affected by a bad sector your computer could start to work erratically or could die on the spot.

Yeah, that's what I said. The first time we were able to "save" it. There was a lot of data on that drive, and to be able to hook it to another computer, we had to remove the bad sectors. Otherwise, the computer was not reading it. We got a few more weeks out of it before we had to buy a new one, because it died and there was no saving it.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I feel your pain. I lost our WDW photos from last month with a computer crash. At least I shared some photos on FB so I have those, plus I have Photopass CD which is better than nothing at all. It stinks to lose photos!

I'd probably take the computer to a repair place if possible. Good luck!

 

[turnlisa]

I recommend the Linux CD and Ubuntu as well. We had a hard drive crash 2 years ago and were able to get all our stuff with the Ubuntu CD. Last month my work laptop had major problems and my main concern was my files. Ubuntu to the rescue again. The great thing is that it doesn't install - it runs from the drive only so you don't have to worry about installing anything and you can grab things to an external drive.

Good luck!

 

[moopdog]

Thanks all. I was able to restore back to original, but of course lost all of my data. I am okay with that, since there's nothing to be done at this point anyway. But now....it won't allow me to connect to my internet. The wireless is working and is hardwired to the desktop so that confuses me a little bit. It says it can't find the network hardware and when I called my ISP they walked me through enough to figure out I don't have a "linK" (can't remember the official term) and that I'd have to call Dell for that repair. Any ideas on this new problem?

Thanks. BTW my computer is 8 years old

 

[momof3ds]

It sounds like you need the driver but not sure how you can download it without internet access.

 

[furb & dez]

BTW my computer is 8 years old

You're on borrowed time; your CMOS battery could go at any point. Thankfully, that just means your motherboard would be dead, but the harddrive would be still be useable (on another machine).

 

[jms920]

Thanks all. I was able to restore back to original, but of course lost all of my data. I am okay with that, since there's nothing to be done at this point anyway. But now....it won't allow me to connect to my internet. The wireless is working and is hardwired to the desktop so that confuses me a little bit. It says it can't find the network hardware and when I called my ISP they walked me through enough to figure out I don't have a "linK" (can't remember the official term) and that I'd have to call Dell for that repair. Any ideas on this new problem?

Thanks. BTW my computer is 8 years old

I have this exact same problem. I haven't called Dell yet. Let me know if you do and what they say, please.

My Desktop is 3 1/2 years old.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Thanks all. I was able to restore back to original, but of course lost all of my data. I am okay with that, since there's nothing to be done at this point anyway. But now....it won't allow me to connect to my internet. The wireless is working and is hardwired to the desktop so that confuses me a little bit. It says it can't find the network hardware and when I called my ISP they walked me through enough to figure out I don't have a "linK" (can't remember the official term) and that I'd have to call Dell for that repair. Any ideas on this new problem?

Thanks. BTW my computer is 8 years old

Sounds like you need to load the device driver (software that tell Windows how to use the hardware) for the network card.

Did you get any of your pictures? My face cringed a little when I read your post.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

You're on borrowed time; your CMOS battery could go at any point. Thankfully, that just means your motherboard would be dead, but the harddrive would be still be useable (on another machine).

A Cmos Battery will only clear out temporary information and BIOS passwords, the motherboard will not suffer. Also, the battery is usually very much like a large watch battery usually and can be replaced. Ebay usually has them for less than a dollar. In the VERY rare circumstances (older Gateway and Comp USA refurb's) they were either hot glued or cold soldered but a simple solder iron will free it up. Some laptops had a battery that looked like a tiny version of a battery you might find in a cordless phone. Those were the expensive ones at around $3 Usually they had a plug with a black/red wire that popped right out.

Believe it or not, I have a desktop in the basement that is about 13 yrs old and it still runs fine......well, fine for a 13 yr old computer anyway

 

[jsmith]

OP-others are correct-you need drivers for your Network Interface card. There should have been a disk with your recovery disk set that had drivers on it. If not they can sometimes be downloaded off the internet-but for an 8 year old computer that may be a challenge. if you have interent access at work just google drivers for what ever NIC you have-you can find this in device manager, Network Interface devices, on windows. Its also possible that you just need to activate your NIC-go into network connections and take a look to see if its active-if its not just activate it.
CMOS battery is a pretty easy fix-definately does not require mother board replacement.

 

[moopdog]

OP-others are correct-you need drivers for your Network Interface card. There should have been a disk with your recovery disk set that had drivers on it. If not they can sometimes be downloaded off the internet-but for an 8 year old computer that may be a challenge. if you have interent access at work just google drivers for what ever NIC you have-you can find this in device manager, Network Interface devices, on windows. Its also possible that you just need to activate your NIC-go into network connections and take a look to see if its active-if its not just activate it.
CMOS battery is a pretty easy fix-definately does not require mother board replacement.

Okay - I think I can figure it out. But one question remains: how can I download the driver from the internet if I don't have access to the internet? I am sure I'm missing something here. I am not a techy! But wish I was. Thanks!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Okay - I think I can figure it out. But one question remains: how can I download the driver from the internet if I don't have access to the internet? I am sure I'm missing something here. I am not a techy! But wish I was. Thanks!

I'm sorry, but you HAVE to see the irony here....you posted that on an internet forum

Seriously though, there should be a CD with the drivers on it somewhere. If not, can you use another computer to download it and burn it to a CD? Usually it's a single executable or zip file.