[Ham-Computers] Computer Gets Stuck on Bootup

[Selene]

Jeff and Aaron, thank you for your replies and help.  Here's a little more information about the computer:

Hardware:  Computer is a Micron ClientPro Cn
Pentium III 933 MHz processor; 256 MB RAM; 40GB hard drive
10/100 network interface card, 3Com 56 Kbps fax/modem, 250 MB Zip drive, DVD/CD-ROM drive, CD-RW drive, and 
1.44 MB floppy drive.
Monitor is Micron 21" high-resolution monitor.
Printer is HP 840C Color DeskJet

Running Windows XP Professional version 2002

System came with Windows 2000 Professional, not sure when it was changed to Windows XP.  Also, I can't find 
the disk for Windows XP, which leads to a bunch more questions...  I found a bunch of disks that came with the 
computer, but they all related to the original software, Windows 2000.

There is no scandisk, not in system tools or anywhere else.  Ran chkdsk, but no useful information.  It opens 
a small window with a DOS screen, takes about a minute to run, and the window closes automatically before I 
can read everything.

Ran disk cleanup and defrag.  Disk has about 77% available space.

Is there any way to check this disk for problems, since scandisk isn't available?

Carole


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jeff" <jeffv at op.net>
To: "Selene" <ccselene7 at earthlink.net>; "Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications, or 
experimenting" <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Computer Gets Stuck on Bootup


as the computer attempts to boot, see if you can find an option for SAFE
MODE.  If you can get into safe mode, do so.

However you get it booted, look for the event viewer (it's in different
places, depending on operating system).  If you hit F1 for help, it will
tell you where to look.  Or go START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM(?)
and check around there.  Look for any obvious errors.  Things like hard
drive errors or boot errors.  They'll be red or yellow.

Under system tools, run scandisk.  This should give you an idea of the
health of the hard drive.  If you get a lot of errors, it probably means
the hard drive is on its way.  If there are few or no errors, that could
be good news for the hard drive.  Also run a defragment on the drive
(can take a while).

If the drive is going and there's any important data, be prepared to
copy it off to something... depending on size you can use a flash usb
drive or an external cd burner if you have access to one or there is one
in the machine.

Has any maintenance been done since you got it?  Has anyone done any
updates?  Is it connected to the internet?  Is there virus protection?

Let me know how you make out.