my computer

The guy that is working on my computer called and I can pick it up tomorrow. When I talked to him yesterday he did not think there was a hardware problem -but he found it today. After he had it on a while he got the black screen. The fan on the video card was not working and it was overheating. Glad he found that .

Fay

Your symptoms indicated a hardware problem to me, but not being up on hardware I didn't know what. You might ask him how he got your recovery disks to work when you couldn't. Find out if he found any file errors or boot sector errors on your hard drive before he used the recovery disks. That is what I thought your problem could be when you couldn't restore the image or use the recovery disks to restore your computer to factory presets.

I do not know what happened - but right now just want to try to get things restored.

I installed some things including Macrium Reflect -and ran the image created. I then went and ran it to look at the partitions in the image it created. The System image showed as empty- does that sound right?

THe Boot directroy is in the C partition.

Fay

More trouble, now the screen is full of blue and pink lines -can not hardly read the screen. He replaced my card with a used one he pretty much gave me , but either is is bad or I have another problem. Have a call into him. Hope he will return my call -otherwise not sure what to do.
What a mess.

Fay

blue and pink lines on your display is most likely the video card. By default, Windows 7 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch (as opposed to upgraded from a previous version of Windows) on an unpartitioned hard drive. This partition is 100MB or 199MB in size. When you turn on your computer, it uses information stored on the system partition to start up. The boot partition is a partition that contains Windows operating system files. Sounds like this guy did not configure your system to the factory setup using your recovery disks and may have used a Slipstream Windows 7 CD to reinstall Windows. You should ask him what he did to get Windows 7 installed when you take it back to get that video card replaced - and get a new one, not a used one. BTW, this is a desk top, isn't it?

I figured it was probably the video card . I don't think this guy has any parts. Probably made a mistake taking it to him but we just really do not have a lot of choice here. I am not sure how to order a card that will be the right thing. From the best I can tell by looking at the specs it a PCI express 2.0 but not sure - also don't know if a 2.1 or 3.0 would work. Don't know if it matters if it is low profile or not. I know it has to have the VGA on it. I would hate to orderthe wrong thing.

I am pretty sure he told me he used the recover disks.

And I am really confused now. I looked at t he backup from this computer (the old computer) and it did show files in the System partition. I am really really confused. Of course it is a different version of Macrium Reflect so maybe is shows stuff differently I can not go back and look on the new computer again right now because the display is messed up.

He has not called back yet, but he has called after 11 before - I told him I am up late. Can not get hold of him, just have to leave a message to call. If he does not call back- not sure what I will do.

What a mess this is.

Fay

Fay, check with the manufacturer - they can tell you exactly which video card is in your computer from its model and serial number, and probably send you one within a couple of days if you can't get it resolved with this guy. Sorry you are having so much trouble.

Repa,

I turned the computer off for a while, then turned in back on. Screen is ok right not, but it might be that it is another overheating problem. Trying to get hold of the guy -kind of hard since he has another job during day. If I can not get hold of him, I'll decide tomorrow what I am going to do.

Thanks for your input.


Fay

I'm assuming your computer is a desktop? Have you opened it to see that all fans are working properly? Did you chedk to see that the video card is properly seated? The VGA chip on some dell computers is known to have a problem - don't know what yours is, or if computers other than dell have that problem. If it's a desktop, leave the access door/cover off and see if the problem occurs. If it doesn't, it's a good bet that the video card or the VGA chip on the card is having an intermittent problem that is related to overheating.

Got my computer back and have started the job of setting things back up.
He said it was definitely the video card - and installed a new one. He said there did not appear to be any other hardware problems.

Hope it will work for a few more years.

Fay

 

I think I finally have most things restored. Some things, will probably just not get restored ,but I think I have the important stuff. What an ordeal. Note to myself: follow the advice you give others and make sure to do your backups!!!! LOL

Fay