my computer has gone insane

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Wife also liked to use her notebook in bed, said you cannot do that, soft comforter blocks the cooling fan stupidly mounted underneath, that will burn up your computer in short order. Has to be on a hard surface, even added sticky feet to it to raise it another 1/4" for better air flow, and have to vacuum out the fan outlet that gets blocked with dust and debris. Have to do that with all of my computers as PC also stands for Poor Cooling.

very true i've got a pair of 2x2's that i use at work for my work laptop. when nessa got her laptop i gave her a quick class on that too, as most people don't realize laptops get their air from the bottom of the machine instead of the back/front arrangement like desktops.

[Amby 490]

well...I dropped my computer off for fixing and the guy said he had 40 computers dropped off this morning with the exact same problem I believed him too since there was just a big pile of computers on the floor

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Solution below:

[Amby 490]

the hammer is the last resort since I have a lot of papers and stuff I wrote for uni on there

[NickD 203]

the hammer is the last resort since I have a lot of papers and stuff I wrote for uni on there

Doesn't take a hammer to do damage, if you were to see the extremely small wire used in a hard drive stator motor, just one of those multiphase wires breaking, can cause the motor not to run, plus the latest generation of chips has been reduced to 0.3 microns, this is the width of the deposited metalization used to connect internal components within the integrated circuit. If that metalization isn't printed and baked at the width, chip will work when new, but migration can carry away just of that metalization to prevent that entire chip from working, and if that chip is in your HD, you will never recover your data. Well some labs do this, but be prepared to pay a huge price.

Rule is, if it is important enough to save, important enough to backup. And to follow this rule the easy way, good to partition your HD to a data only partition, and also to have a backup partition on a 2nd drive, just copy one over to the other. Windows does not make this easy as they love just using drive C, OS, programs, and all your data. Billy loves his MY computer, MY Pictures, MY documents, all on the worse drive, the root drive. And this constant writing and deleting of files can even screw up the OS, some very sloppy housekeeping here.

Most programs that save data can be setup to write to your data partition, better ones, not only to that partition, but also to a second drive of your choice, and even over a LAN to a second and third computer. Another alternative is to burn a CD or even a floppy. I have as many as four HD's in some computers, when my wife wanted a notebook, don't know why, but soon got her a docking station with a real keyboard, did find one with dual drives in it, and set hers up for data backup. Also on my LAN so I can backup her files on a spare computer, ha, when she can't find a file, I can find it for her.

Let's hope your tech doesn't delete all of your data, that also happens, had to send in a computer for warranty, no choice, but took off all of the data first, a lot of that was personal.

Would be dead with just one computer, need another at least to repair the first, probably why I have at least ten.

[MrsCat 6]

Wife also liked to use her notebook in bed, said you cannot do that, soft comforter blocks the cooling fan stupidly mounted underneath, that will burn up your computer in short order. Has to be on a hard surface, even added sticky feet to it to raise it another 1/4" for better air flow, and have to vacuum out the fan outlet that gets blocked with dust and debris. Have to do that with all of my computers as PC also stands for Poor Cooling.

very true i've got a pair of 2x2's that i use at work for my work laptop. when nessa got her laptop i gave her a quick class on that too, as most people don't realize laptops get their air from the bottom of the machine instead of the back/front arrangement like desktops.

I dust it out with my cat's tail each morning. for some reason there's always hair stuck in there.

[mawilson 2,133]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

7th Major release I guess...

3. Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11

4. Windows 95 (98, ME, also 2000 - but that was an upgrade of NT).

5. Windows XP

6. Windows Vista

7. Windows 7

[mawilson 2,133]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

7th Major release I guess...

3. Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11

4. Windows 95 (98, ME, also 2000 - but that was an upgrade of NT).

5. Windows XP

6. Windows Vista

7. Windows 7

What about NT?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

7th Major release I guess...

3. Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11

4. Windows 95 (98, ME, also 2000 - but that was an upgrade of NT).

5. Windows XP

6. Windows Vista

7. Windows 7

What about NT?

NT was a business platform. The others were home market up until XP, which included differently configured versions).

[mawilson 2,133]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

7th Major release I guess...

3. Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11

4. Windows 95 (98, ME, also 2000 - but that was an upgrade of NT).

5. Windows XP

6. Windows Vista

7. Windows 7

What about NT?

NT was a business platform. The others were home market up until XP, which included differently configured versions).

Well, 2000 was a home platform, no?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

7th Major release I guess...

3. Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11

4. Windows 95 (98, ME, also 2000 - but that was an upgrade of NT).

5. Windows XP

6. Windows Vista

7. Windows 7

What about NT?

NT was a business platform. The others were home market up until XP, which included differently configured versions).

Well, 2000 was a home platform, no?

No - that was a business platform too.

[DeadPoolX 9]

The next MS OS - "Windows 7" won't be out for a year or two.

Why "7"?

7th Major release I guess...

3. Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11

4. Windows 95 (98, ME, also 2000 - but that was an upgrade of NT).

5. Windows XP

6. Windows Vista

7. Windows 7

What about NT?

NT was a business platform. The others were home market up until XP, which included differently configured versions).

Well, 2000 was a home platform, no?

Technically, yes. It was meant for work originally and then got moved into the home.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Oro?

Hmm....

Windows XP uses the same kernal as Windows 2000. Meaning they were both the same. Well, there was a service that is built-in Windows 2000 that XP didn't have.

Anyway, NICKD regards to having the laptop on the comforter it is a bad idea, I know. However, I always have it on my comforter. Even if the heats build up, I know that my laptop has the ability to slow down processing to reduce heat. When this happens, I just lift the laptop for a few minutes and just put it back down.

I have three partitions. One for OS, one for files, and one for applications. This way my computer will work fast with minimal defrag.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Have to say - I have been using Vista Ultimate on a Dell M1710 since it came out, haven't had any problems with it.

I've upgraded my hard drive, memory, and dvd writer, no issues.

I run tons of programs (mainly system software)

*shrug* -

To the original poster -

Here are some steps to try:

Hit F8 to enter the boot/repair screen, then select "Use Last Known Good Configuration" -

if that doesn't work - try the next step:

You could try to boot from your Vista disc, then under the repair options select a system restore point and restore to a day before you had the problem.

This will only work if you had "system restore" on.

Most systems I have worked on displaying this problem ended up having a corrupt registry or a bad hardware driver.

Did you install anything prior to this issue? Software or Hardware?