The New Computer Problems Thread

[Angel]

Sometimes, if my little brother and I are logged on at the same time, and one of us tries to log off, the screen goes black and won't respond anymore. This only seems to happen to me and my brother, and it's been happening less and less because we've been careful, but I've always wondered what causes it. Any idea why this might happen?

[DarkAudit]

Sometimes, if my little brother and I are logged on at the same time, and one of us tries to log off, the screen goes black and won't respond anymore. This only seems to happen to me and my brother, and it's been happening less and less because we've been careful, but I've always wondered what causes it. Any idea why this might happen?

Logged on to what? A game? A site? A single PC?

Help us help you.

[Angel]

Just the PC. We haven't tested other variables, seeing as we just wanted the thing to work. I finally realized that this thread might help us, so, here I am.

[Eibborn]

Huh. I typed up a thank-you for you guys, but I must not have posted it or something. I dunno. But hey, thanks for the advice! It's great to hear that it won't take too much to fix, if it is the PSU.

[Ryudo Lee]

Just the PC. We haven't tested other variables, seeing as we just wanted the thing to work. I finally realized that this thread might help us, so, here I am.

Are you using Fast User Switching in Windows XP?

[Tapewolf]

Is the PC attached to a network domain?

[Angel]

Are you using Fast User Switching in Windows XP?

Is the PC attached to a network domain?

Yes, and I'm not sure. It's hooked up to a wireless router.

[Ryudo Lee]

Does this describe your problem? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/872789/en-us

[Angel]

  Yes! I just sent the link to my dad, so hopefully this problem will be fixed in a little while. Danke schön!

[Ryudo Lee]

Sometimes the MSKB can actually be useful.  Glad to help.

[Goatmon]

Well I finally got my hands on a copy of XP so I can downgrade (if you could call it that) from Vista.  Only it's blocking my attempts becasue I'm trying to install an older version, and I don't know how to enable it to install.  Any suggestions? 

[DarkAudit]

Well I finally got my hands on a copy of XP so I can downgrade (if you could call it that) from Vista.  Only it's blocking my attempts becasue I'm trying to install an older version, and I don't know how to enable it to install.  Any suggestions? 

You'll probably have to boot from the CD and do a fresh install. You'll lose all your installed applications if you do.

Probably your documents, too. I don't know if it works in reverse, but the WINDOWS.OLD directory Vista created when I did a fresh install had all my documents, music, etc. stashed away there. I just had to move them to their new homes.

So your case will probably need to back up all your documents, and install as a fresh install instead of an upgrade.

[Goatmon]

I've already got everything backed up.  I need to create a boot disc so I can have it reformat the hard drive and allow me to install XP, becuase it won't install it otherwise since it's technically a downgrade.

However, I don't have a floppy drive, and it's not allowing me to format a CD or DVD into a MS-Dos boot disc either.  Frankly, I'm sick of dealing with it for tonight, and I'll find out what I have to do tomorrow.  This shit is exhausting. 

[Tapewolf]

I've already got everything backed up.  I need to create a boot disc so I can have it reformat the hard drive and allow me to install XP, becuase it won't install it otherwise since it's technically a downgrade.
However, I don't have a floppy drive, and it's not allowing me to format a CD or DVD into a MS-Dos boot disc either.

I don't suppose it would.  That's a very convoluted process, since floppies and CDs are fundamentally different in the way the data is stored.  Even if you could, the only way to install XP is to boot from the XP CD itself, AFAIK - in short, you're barking up the wrong tree 

With Windows 2000 and prior, the CD came with a set of disk images to boot from floppy.  I think XP finally abandoned that since as a rule, if your machine can't boot from a CD, it's probably too old to run XP anyway.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

What you -could- do is find a linux boot cd, boot off that, and run a shell.

In that, run "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1024 count=1024" - which will wipe the first Mb of the disk with zeros.

Once that's done, it'll look like an unused disk to the Windows install cd. Of course, that's not going to let you save anything, either...

[Tapewolf]

What you -could- do is find a linux boot cd, boot off that, and run a shell.

Ah, I missed that he was trying to use the boot cd to clear the existing system.  Does that mean the install disk just shuts down before it allows you to get to the disk partitioner?

[Goatmon]

The last two posts of this thread make little to no sense to me.  Could you translate that into retarded for me? 

[Tapewolf]

The last two posts of this thread make little to no sense to me.  Could you translate that into retarded for me? 

The linux one, no.

As for mine, I thought that the XP installer would bring up a list of disk partitions and offer to let you erase them prior to installing XP.  Are you saying that if you do this on a machine which previously had Vista on it, the installer will abort before it even gets to that point?

[Goatmon]

That's exactly what it does.  This isn't a case of having to simply go through a few options and menus to reassure the computer that I know what I'm doing, that's not it at all.  Microsoft has long since abandoned the notion of convenience, and made it blatantly obvious that they care more about having control over your PC than they do about bringing you a product that works. 

Without a separate boot disc to erase Vista without a trace, my XP disc is nothing more than an expensive coaster. 

(I should also mention that my PC doesn't have a floppy drive so, as of now, I don't even have the option of creating a floppy boot disc.)

[Tapewolf]

Without a separate boot disc to erase Vista without a trace, my XP disc is nothing more than an expensive coaster. 

That's remarkable because it would have made their life a misery too during testing.  It would prevent you from being able to dual-boot and all...

Okay.  Can you boot from the Vista install CD, get to the point where you can delete the existing partition, delete it and then turn it off so you can boot from the XP disk?

The only other thing I can think of is to use a Linux boot disk.  Llearch suggested doing it from the command line, which is what I'd do personally but is probably not the answer for thee.  However, you should be able to do more-or-less what I suggested with the Vista CD... pretend you're going to install Linux, and use the point-and-click disk manager to blow Vista away, then reboot he machine and install XP.

[Goatmon]

I don't have a Vista CD.  This computer didn't include one when I bought it.  In fact, none of the last few PCs I've bought actually came with the OS disc. 

The XP disc I have now is the first copy of windows I've ever purchased. 

[Tapewolf]

I don't have a Vista CD.  This computer didn't include one when I bought it.  In fact, none of the last few PCs I've bought actually came with the OS disc. 

I thought that might be the case.  In that case you'll probably have to download Ubuntu or something, since you probably can't get vista itself to nuke the partition while it's still running.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

[Goatmon]

Eh?  You mean install a new OS over Vista, and use XP from there? 

[Ryudo Lee]

What you can do is make a DOS boot CD and then format the drive there.
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/Boot_Disks_and_Boot_CDs.htm
Just scroll down to the section that says "Boot CD – DOS 6.22 boot CD with internal CD-ROM support (USA)".  They come in ISO format so all you do is use your favorite CD burning software.  Then you just boot from the CD and start playing with FDisk and Format.

[Tapewolf]

Eh?  You mean install a new OS over Vista, and use XP from there? 

Pretty much, except you don't need to finish installing it, just get as far as where you've removed Vista, and then use XP from there.

What you can do is make a DOS boot CD and then format the drive there.
.....
Just scroll down to the section that says "Boot CD – DOS 6.22 boot CD with internal CD-ROM support (USA)".  They come in ISO format so all you do is use your favorite CD burning software.  Then you just boot from the CD and start playing with FDisk and Format.

I'll have to check the site, but I'm not sure that's legal.
That's not legal 

[superluser]

I'll have to check the site, but I'm not sure that's legal.
That's not legal 

Legally, you can do the same thing with a Linux boot disk.  I think that there are a few distros actually designed for this sort of thing.

[Google google]

Knoppix is the famous one, but the GParted LiveCD looks promising, as well.

[DarkAudit]

Many computers now do not come with physical recovery media. They have gone to the option of having the user burn their own set. check your applications folders and menus (usually in a "Maintenance" or "Support" category.

I had to burn my own CDs on the laptop and desktop PCs I bought recently.

[Tapewolf]

What you can do is make a DOS boot CD and then format the drive there.
Just scroll down to the section that says "Boot CD – DOS 6.22 boot CD with internal CD-ROM support (USA)".  They come in ISO format so all you do is use your favorite CD burning software.  Then you just boot from the CD and start playing with FDisk and Format.

Another problem with this is that MSDOS 6 isn't going to support LBA, which the Vista machine will almost certainly need.  It might garble the partition table enough to throw XP off the scent, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I think the GPARTED disk is probably the best for what you (Goatmon) are trying to do.  Either that, or make some Vista recovery disks.

[Ryudo Lee]

That's not legal 

How do you figure that?  

From my POV, seeing what their legal disclaimers say, the software on the site is their copies and they're allowing them to be used under certain restrictions.

On section 6 of their Terms and Conditions of use found here it says:
"The material used on AnswersThatWork website, including without limitation, text, logo, software, graphics, illustration, is the property of AnswersThatWork and is protected by Copyright, Trademarks, and other laws. You may use this material for personal and commercial purpose subject to the conditions expressed in clauses 6 and 7, and subject to any non-AnswersThatWork copyrights acknowledged within specific documents. You do not have the right to copy, transform, modify, re-publish, any of the content of this site without the written permission of AnswersThatWork."

So long as he's not modifying the ISO and only using it for it's primary function, then there's no legality issue here.

[Tapewolf]

From my POV, seeing what their legal disclaimers say, the software on the site is their copies and they're allowing them to be used under certain restrictions.
So long as he's not modifying the ISO and only using it for it's primary function, then there's no legality issue here.

Well, from what I can see, they seem to be distributing Microsoft's copyrighted code without permission.  While it's dead useful, I'd be very surprised if it's legal to do so (notwithstanding some US-specific exemption clause which I am unaware of).

It's been a while but I'm fairly sure that the terms of use of MSDOS and Windows 3.11 prohibit it being redistributed, and even if it does under some kind of resale provision, it's a transfer of ownership which means they must remove their copy.
From the looks of it, what they seem to be doing here is sub-licensing it which I'm 99% sure is an absolute no-no...