Can Someone Please Help Me ?

[thegenius1]

Today 2 of my computers ended up showing the screen below when booted up

It occured on the first computer when i cut it on this morning and showed the screen below
The laptop worked fine for several hours untill it froze up and when restarted it showed this screen as well

If anybody can tell me what to do so i can get things back to normal it would be greatly appreciated

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

Today 2 of my computers ended up showing the screen below when booted up

It occured on the first computer when i cut it on this morning and showed the screen below
The laptop worked fine for several hours untill it froze up and when restarted it showed this screen as well

If anybody can tell me what to do so i can get things back to normal it would be greatly appreciated

We're sorry, this page is not available. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please go to pictures.sprintpcs.com in case you are using an old bookmark, which is no longer valid.

[thegenius1]

I just added the picture above

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

I just added the picture above

Happened to me last week on my other PC.

You have dead hard drive or a file is likely corupt.
Most likely your HD is dead or boot.ini file is corrupt.

Typing the Unmountable message in google will give you some tidbits.

[gammascalper]

Was there a power outage?

This is a useful link with some possible solutions involving booting from the Win XP CD: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/w...um/134376.html

[thegenius1]

Originally Posted by gammascalper

Was there a power outage?

This is a useful link with some possible solutions involving booting from the Win XP CD: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/w...um/134376.html

Thanks for the link im looking over it now, Not really a power outage but the PC was not shutdown properly last night , and the laptop froze and i cut the power off

[bwhhisc]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

Thanks for the link im looking over it now, Not really a power outage but the PC was not shutdown properly last night , and the laptop froze and i cut the power off

Do you think computers should be shut down at night? We have probably 24 computers at our businesses and never shut any down 24-7 unless major lightning storm. They all have APC surge protection, etc. but we have had much less problems leaving the systems running. Interested if anyone thinks it is better to shut down. Genius, I will give your screen to our IT guy tomorrow for maybe an idea.

[thegenius1]

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

Genius, I will give your screen to our IT guy tomorrow for maybe an idea.

Thanks alot Bill thats greatly appreciated , As far as shuting them down im really not sure wich one is better , i think i just shut my down out of habit.

[Drewbert]

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

Do you think computers should be shut down at night? We have probably 24 computers at our businesses and never shut any down 24-7 unless major lightning storm. They all have APC surge protection, etc. but we have had much less problems leaving the systems running. Interested if anyone thinks it is better to shut down. Genius, I will give your screen to our IT guy tomorrow for maybe an idea.

I tend to leave them up 24/7 on UPS's.

The theory being that if you swutch them off at night, the temperature inside the machine drops (and depending on where you are, REALLY drops!) and then you switch it back on and it has to come back up to temp again. All thise continual heating and cooling stresses the componentry and circuit boards a lot more than if it's kept at around the same temp continuously.

One downside to this is if you have a fan failure during the night - it's smoke time, and no one is there to pull the plug.

[bwhhisc]

Originally Posted by Drewbert

. One downside to this is if you have a fan failure during the night - it's smoke time, and no one is there to pull the plug.

Fan failure creating harddrive meltdown. I know the pain of that. Worth investing in a second fan if you have a nice computer. Or replace the fan annually.

And might mention that even if you have automatic backup to a server or harddrive on all your word documents etc. most systems will NOT automatically backup and save emails, you have to manually save them to the harddrive.

Another hard lesson learned: On e-mail storage, (guessing at numbers here) but once you have above 1000 emails (particularly with lots of pictures), start thinking about purging your emails or save to server or hard drive. At 2000-3000 and up emails in your box you are in danger of your whole email inbox/deleted turning to toast (just your files, not your computer!) but you still might need someone pretty knowledgeable to get it back on line.

[mulligan]

When I've had problems in the past I went here:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/

These guys REALLY know what they're talking about and if its fixable they will guide you through the process.
Sign up for an account and post in the relevant forum.
You might not get an answer within 5 minutes but they will deal with your probs...

Good luck

[alpha]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

Today 2 of my computers ended up showing the screen below when booted up

It occured on the first computer when i cut it on this morning and showed the screen below
The laptop worked fine for several hours untill it froze up and when restarted it showed this screen as well

If anybody can tell me what to do so i can get things back to normal it would be greatly appreciated

Arrrr, the olde BSOD (blue screen of death) - MSN me and I'll talk you through it if you like. One of the benefits of working in IT

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

Do you think computers should be shut down at night? We have probably 24 computers at our businesses and never shut any down 24-7 unless major lightning storm. They all have APC surge protection, etc. but we have had much less problems leaving the systems running. Interested if anyone thinks it is better to shut down. Genius, I will give your screen to our IT guy tomorrow for maybe an idea.

I never shut mine down, but that is probably just laziness.

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

Fan failure creating harddrive meltdown. I know the pain of that. Worth investing in a second fan if you have a nice computer. Or replace the fan annually.

And might mention that even if you have automatic backup to a server or harddrive on all your word documents etc. most systems will NOT automatically backup and save emails, you have to manually save them to the harddrive.

Another hard lesson learned: On e-mail storage, (guessing at numbers here) but once you have above 1000 emails (particularly with lots of pictures), start thinking about purging your emails or save to server or hard drive. At 2000-3000 and up emails in your box you are in danger of your whole email inbox/deleted turning to toast (just your files, not your computer!) but you still might need someone pretty knowledgeable to get it back on line.

Get yourself a Raid Driver and run parallel mirrored hard drives. Won't help much with corrupt software, but will certainly stop you having a problem if your Hard Drive fails. I find average life of most drives is about 2 years so most people hit this problem. Raid just tells you one of your drive is spent and to replace it urgently.

[alpha]

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

I never shut mine down, but that is probably just laziness.



Get yourself a Raid Driver and run parallel mirrored hard drives. Won't help much with corrupt software, but will certainly stop you having a problem if your Hard Drive fails. I find average life of most drives is about 2 years so most people hit this problem. Raid just tells you one of your drive is spent and to replace it urgently.

It is unlikely to be a hard-drive failure. A power outage usually just screws up the software. Booting with the option "last known good configuration" usually sorts it.

and yes, leaving the pc on will extend it's life - the heat up/cool down is what kills the hardware.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by Alphamale

It is unlikely to be a hard-drive failure. A power outage usually just screws up the software. Booting with the option "last known good configuration" usually sorts it.

and yes, leaving the pc on will extend it's life - the heat up/cool down is what kills the hardware.

Yes, I agree, it probably software.

The Raid solution though cost buttons these days and all mission critical systems should be doing this. I just have two ordinary 200Meg Drive running, and the the controller cost about $50.

[bwhhisc]

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

Get yourself a Raid Driver and run parallel mirrored hard drives. Won't help much with corrupt software, but will certainly stop you having a problem if your Hard Drive fails. Raid just tells you one of your drive is spent and to replace it urgently.

This is a good idea, thanks for that information RD.

[bramiozo]

I have never experienced this ever and I have been through quite a few power-outs, thunder storms and forced shut-downs, to me it seems extremely unlikely that both systems would experience this problem at the same time.

Is there any chance you use very specific boot or partition related software for both the laptop and the desktop ?

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

This is a good idea, thanks for that information RD.

Yes, just be aware that you need to run two identical hard drives.

Don't go for obscure or soon to be obscelete options.

Of course you can have the info cloned across onto a different type of drive from the one remaining good drive, but in normal conditions you just replace the dud and the good drive mirrors across on to the new one. You should then repeat with the surviving drive as this will be pretty much time expired.

[alpha]

Originally Posted by bramiozo

I have never experienced this ever and I have been through quite a few power-outs, thunder storms and forced shut-downs, to me it seems extremely unlikely that both systems would experience this problem at the same time.

Is there any chance you use very specific boot or partition related software for both the laptop and the desktop ?

I have experienced this sort of BSOD after a power outage, but not after every power outage obviously, this is exceptional.

but I agree it is extremely unlikely that you'll get that probem on two systems at the same time.

it points to a software or driver change that perhaps you applied to both.

again, the boot with last known config option should clear it up.

as a last resort you can use the install cd to repair it

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by Alphamale

I have experienced this sort of BSOD after a power outage, but not after every power outage obviously, this is exceptional.

but I agree it is extremely unlikely that you'll get that probem on two systems at the same time.

it points to a software or driver change that perhaps you applied to both.

again, the boot with last known config option should clear it up.

as a last resort you can use the install cd to repair it

Is it possible both have been corrupted by a virus?

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

This is a good idea, thanks for that information RD.

Yes, I should be called Gemeni really.

System is 5 years old now, but I have twinned everything: screens, Xeon Processors and Drives. Bet is works a lot better than some of the new crap at PC World!