She finally went kaput

[foothead]

Well i had about 10 gigs left on an 80 (76.something) gig hd.

then thats fine. Run a memtest and if that doesn't work, I'd try to replace that file that fails to load in safe mode.

 

[dudelewis1]

How do I run a memtest?

 

[foothead]

http://www.memtest86.com/

you know how to burn an ISO right?

 

[dudelewis1]

Of course. Thanks.

One pass finished with no errors...

 

[dude_56013]

Did you let it run for a while? Usually, I leave mine on overnight just to be safe. However, whenever I find that RAM has failed, it's usually evident by flagging errors within about 5-10 minutes.

If you're RAM test passes, then we are stuck with the hard drive.

One thing, and this is a biggie depending on your setup. I once worked with a computer a few weeks ago in which I needed to clear the BIOS. What happened was the HDD reverted back to a different setting (I can't recall what it was), but I had to turn it back to IDE/SATA (maybe the setting got set to SCSI on CMOS clearing...I'm just brain farting now, I'm sorry I can't recall what this was). Anyways, because it was set wrong, as soon as windows started loading, it would pop a BSOD.

 

[dudelewis1]

Alrighty I'll wangle around in the BIOS and check. It's a Dell though so most of the crap is locked...

 

[lhuser]

Dells normaly have that option.

I'd check out the hard drive. Download Ultimate Boot CD

That is a CD with a lot of diagnostics to test hard drives, RAM, partitions, and more. It's a necessity for all IT techies, I say.

Burn to disc and give it a try.

 

[dudelewis1]

Alright I'm dling the boot cd, any specific tests I should run?

 

[lhuser]

Look for HDD Diagnostics, under Hard drives or something. Can't remember the exact text.

 

[Remeniz]

When you boot go into the BIOS, then your hardware monitor and check your CPU temps.