[Ham-Computers] to XP or not-XP: that is the question

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Doug,

If I were in your boat, I would first try to reinstall XP.  

It won't help now but at least with XP (I'm not sure whether there is an 
equivalent with 7), one way to try to determine whether the machine is truly 
locked up and avoid killing the computer or a hard drive while it is doing 
something critical is to call up Task Manager and see what it says about CPU 
utilization (performance tab) and about supposedly running applications.  If 
utilization remains stuck at 100% for several minutes it may be locked up.  
If TM reports that an application is Not Responding, that application may be 
hung up (there are a few exceptions).  When in doubt, do not cold boot it 
until tomorrow.  Impatience can be hazardous to your health.

In a message dated 1/17/2014 3:44:46 PM Central Standard Time, 
dfischer at usol.com writes: 
> Hi Doug,
> 
> I wish you well -
> 
> If you find an answer to your problem, please post it to this list! Then 
> it 
> will be stored in the archieves and others in need can do a search in the 
> archieves for help and find it. Thanks so much Doug.
> 
> One suggestion: Never assume what the computer is doing! Some of the time 
> I 
> am not sure it knows itself what is going on! Be certain that the computer 
> 
> is truly hung up next time. Sometimes turning it off is a better move then 
> 
> hitting the reset button.
> 
> You did not say which version of XP you were running. XP HE or XP Pro?
> 
> Personally I copy peculiar files to a drive other then the internal, or 
> external, hard drives. Such as a 3.5 inch 1.44 or 172 drive, 100+ zip 
> drive 
> ora USB plug in memory drive etc. Better to error on the side of caution!
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Doug Hensley" <w5jv at hotmail.com>
> To: <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 12:20 PM
> Subject: [Ham-Computers] to XP or not-XP: that is the question
> 
> 
> >Speaking of Windows, I have two questions:
> >(1) Does anyone have a source for a least expensive home edition of 
> >Windows 7?
> >(2) I thought my XP unit had hung while moving a file.  I had used 
> >Defragmentation toAnalyze a disk (check its fragmentation) and seeing one 
> 
> >file was spread, I did a cut andpaste of it to move it from C: drive 
> >another drive called D:.  30 minutes later I glanced at the screen and 
> saw 
> >it was still  "copying".  Well, I thought this was a hung system soI hit 
> >the reset button.
> >Since then the machine won't boot up.  I made the standard recovery CD 
> and 
> >ran these:
> >chkdsk /rchkdsk /p /r
> >And they took a long time but did not report back anything other than 
> they 
> >had found aproblem.  Gave up, went to sleep.
> >This AM I turned the box on and a blue CHKDSK screen appeared announcing 
> >it was looking at a problem on drive D:.  After it finished, it said it 
> >found a corrected a problemdrive index.  Then it sat there.  So I hit 
> >reset again.  It is now back to the state of notbooting up.  The C: drive 
> 
> >is 7 years old and has had modest use, maybe 20% of those daysit got 
> >turned on at most.  My thought is to pull it, put a new hard drive in and 
> 
> >biting thebullet, go to Windows 7.  The caveats are: some of my software 
> >such as Office 2000 andthe like will no longer be useable (as told to me 
> >by a W7 compatibility check) and I willhave to spend another week of my 
> >last days trying to get the machine to behave normally.
> >If anyone has "been there, done that" and can suggest or offer 
> >suggestions, please getin touch.
> >73, Doug W5JV/NNN0BXX
> >
> >

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480