Computer troubles-Help required!

[f1.redbaron]

Dave,

I thought about that idea, but I don't think that it would work. During power-up, I would have to order it to read the files off of that USB port, but I don't think that it would let me...I think that I can only order it to go through CD or the floppy. Do you know for a fact that that would work? I don't want to do something that risky without being certain. I've read some horror stories about people making mistakes while doing BIOS updates.

Manchild,

if you don't mind can you tell me how to do that?

Thanks

[joseff]

If you have a pretty recent computer, you can almost surely boot off USB or a TFTP server.

[Ciro Pabón]

Or from a net drive... can you hook your PC to some net? Even a cable could be used, if you don't have a switch.

Also, you could use SUBST (in DOS) to create a "fake drive" D:. You go to DOS and write:

SUBST D: C:\Temp

Now your drive D: is your C:\Temp directory. Give it a try...

If you write:

SUBST D: /D

you delete the "fake drive" you just created with the first statement.

[f1.redbaron]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I will give them a try, and see how it goes.

Thanks, again!

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, if nothing works, please, I beg you, don't go to extremes like this one:

[f1.redbaron]

Ciro, you've misjudged me.

I have a different way of taking out my frustration when it comes to computer related problems. My way is much simpler...and less painful. It involves placing the computer in front of me, raising my hockey stick (yes, I'm aware that the baseball bat would be a better choice, but I was never able to find any form of love for that sport, so I never bought one). Then I lower the stick in a swift, yet accurate downward motion. I repeat those steps until the desired number of pieces or the desired shape had been achieved.

[Ciro Pabón]

[manchild]

Manchild,

if you don't mind can you tell me how to do that?

Thanks

Sorry, I missed your reply at first.

Well, (if it is still in one piece) restart it and before system boot starts keep pressing Delete key (like maniac) till blue bios screen appears. That is not same thing as BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). Since they are not identical I can't tell you where to go but under one of menus you'll find how discs are set (slave, master, primary slave, primary master etc. as well as other settings).

You can also try loading Fail safe defaults (if I'm not mistaken about the name). That's like safe mode but for computer itself, not for OS. Perhaps that will allow you to access CD and flash bios.

No matter how new PC is I'd always suggest having a floppy drive on it. If you had floppy with bootable disc you could flash bios from it easily.

[vyselegend]

Just a quick update to say finally Fred's problem have been solved by buying a brand new PC with a 1400€ budget (a nice machine honestly)and by running the lastest Linux Fedora version, which ROCKS as much as an OS can!

But I fear I have further problems to submit to your helpfull brains...

Nothing to do with my cousin this time, I'm stuck with a stupid problem at work. In one of the informatic rooms (or Cyber room, I'm not sure how to traduct), where 15 PCs are running under the same workgroup (let's call it Workgroup1), I have one of them unable to see the network (let's call this computer "P8"). Here is the whole context:

-The network is using internal IP adresses like 192.168.1.**
-The Pcs and Servers I'm going to talk about are all under the same workgroup.
-All those PCs are factory-mounted Dell Optiplex fitted with P4 and standard configuration, running with XP pro, with the exeption of the pedagogic server (let's call him PEDA) which is working with Windows 2000 server.
-All PCs have all connection clients installed and activated (netBios, TCP/IP protocol etc..)
-All machines have been checked, no IP conflict, no errors in IP adress, gateway, subnet mask or DNS. Everything is clear.

Now for the trouble:

-the PC (P8 ) is unable to see the network, be it by trying the "show all computers on the workgroup" link, trying browse through the local network, or creating a "network drive" (~traduction)linking to a shared drive, like "\\server\intranet" for instance.
-P8 is able to connect to the net, it can ping the router, and curiously it can also ping on the printer available on this network.
BUT, it failed to ping on everything else! Although everything else can ping on it successfully!
-The problem occurs on every acounts, even administrator. After I stopped every restriction softwares (like TweakUI, Win-protector...) it persisted.

This is what I don't understand. What can make a PC become "blind", while everything still can see it?

I know I'm shamefull not being able to resolve my work alone, but I've never had anything similar happen to me and I'm in a rush (the room must be operational tomorow morning).

Many thanks for trying to help.

[joseff]

Seeing you have the whole shebang installed correctly (NetBIOS over TCP/IP, NetBEUI, etc), I'd suspect a hardware problem.

- Have you tried another cable? Sometimes you can ping around etc on a broken cable, but can't transfer data.
- If another cable makes no difference, try swapping terminals on the switch/hub. Sometimes one port may be defective.
- Finally, try swapping network interface (ethernet) cards. Maybe P8 has a broken network card.
- If all of the above does not work, maybe it's a problem with Windows (broken driver/network stack/whatever) so try booting another OS, like your cousin's Fedora LiveCD, or puppy (http://www.puppylinux.com) or DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org) and if it works, well, it could be time for a WinXP repair/reinstall

[vyselegend]

Joseff, thank you very much for the advices.

-Nothing changed with other cables, and other port of the switch.
-I tried another network card (which was painfull as hell, because as usual Dell did everything to ensure you can't fit standard sized card in their PC...) and loaded corresponding drivers, but I hadn't more success.

I guess you're right about Windows being (once again) the culprit. Would it only depend of me, all the systems here would boot linux, but unforunately this choice ain't mine, as people don't like to change their habits, and we have lots of Windows-exclusive licensed softwares.

So I think I must re-install XP, and then load again all the sessions, programs and configs. With a bit of luck I should be back at home for midnight...

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, if swapping the card does not work, it's software. Just in case,

0. I assume you have tried to search in Explorer a PC by name, which you do not mention in your diagnostic: sometimes that "unstucks" a Windows name controller, don't know why. Also you must have tried different IP adresses, I suppose.

Can tracert and nslookup "see" anything outside the PC? Can you see anything on the "net view" command or can you map a drive using "net use"?

Have you tried to reset the IP stack? Of course, it must have been resetted merely by swapping cards, but... Have you tried to flush dns with ipconfig /flushdns and reboot?

1. It could be something is messing with the MTU (packet size) as ping's short packets are passing but long ones, like net searching don't

You could try this, which instructs ping to send different length packets:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article04-107

2. See if hkey_local_machine\system\current control set\control\lsa -> restrictanonymous key is 1. Try to change it to 0.

3. If you have a proxy on your network, it could be blocking UDP ports on a specific machine.

4. Do you use the same protocol for File and Printing sharing? It sounds like you have two different. You could try this: http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sha ... tocols.htm To use IPX/SPX instead of TCP/IP for file sharing, un-bind TCP/IP from both File and Printer Sharing and Client for Microsoft Networks.

[joseff]

Both DSL and Puppy Linux are live CD's so you don't install anything. It's just a little 50MB download so you can boot & test stuff.

Sorry to hear nothing works for you... I had an episode where the whole "network places" just disappeared off a Win2k machine. We had no idea what happened, so we reinstalled (argh!) and everything worked fine.

Lesson learned, now we virtualize (with VMWare) windows to run just the critical few pieces of windows software we need. Where a *nix alternative software is available, we run Linux.