Oh god, woe is me.

[Murgos]

It seems that half the people I know are below average intelligence.

[Engels]

Initially, perhaps.  After that, when issues arise I can either fix a Windows machine or fix a Linux machine, so there's that to consider.  Besides, my point is that lots of people really can't handle Windows but rather bumble through it until their mistakes accrete into a critical mass of computer-stoppage.  I'd rather KISS and leave Linux out of the equation.

See, the whole point of bringing up a Linux Live CD was precisely that every concievable problem short of spilling coffee on the computer is solved by simply rebooting. If there was a such an animal as a Windows or Mac Live CD, I'd suggest that too. For people who do not do office work, and only use the internetz to do web based email, any Live CD will do. It boots, they click on Firefox icon, they go to Yahoo.com, they enter their credentials, and presto, they have 90% of their needs taken care of. They can even read USA Today Online if they so desire.

I can tell you it works because I've done a Live CD solution for a homeless shelter for families; short of physical damage, the thing was intact after months of heavy use by people who's ability to handle any form of technology was all but non-existent. But you should have heard the howls of protest if the machine was down for hardware repair for any amount of time.

[Yegolev]

You might have just started making sense.  There's a good bit of Linux hate to dig through with me, but you have a good point.

[Azazel]

We just took a couple of weeks and bought a new super-basic thing for AU$350 (remember, that's like US$200 in terms of what you can actually buy on your side of the pacific).

Whered you grab this from Az?  I have a few family members in a similar situation, and I dunno whether to point em towards Dell, or Harvey Norman, or try to put a PC together myself (which eats up a big chunk of my time).

http://www.cpl.net.au/
Their shitty PDF, then whatever the cheapest system they have in the top left.

It's just for the box. She already had M&KB, and we gave her one of our old 19" CRTs. Bearing in mind, this is for my 68-yo mum, so it doesn't have any bells or whistles whatsoever.
HN will gouge though. Stay away.

[Xerapis]

So my second computer is being a bitch.

It locks up on that Windows loading screen when the little blue bar is supposed to be zipping across merrily.  The rest of the screen is fine, but the graphics for the bar are all fucked up.  Then it locks up.  Every time.

So I tried to repair it.  This is what it looks like.



How the hell does that happen?  The splash screen for the mobo and the windows screen are fine except for the loading bar.  But now the installation gets all wonky.  Im so confuzzled.

[schild]

YOU'RE IN WINDOWS JAIL! Oh no!

[Xerapis]

HUR HUR.

Anyone have anything USEFUL to contribute?

[Trippy]

Try booting into Safe Mode? But really it looks like you are fucked. Not sure if it's a hardware or software problem ATM.

[Xerapis]

Tried safe mode.  It went to the user selection screen but it was all graphically fucked like the screen I showed.

I tried just rebooting.  I checked all the connections and THEN rebooted.  I restored to last known settings.  I tried all the safe mode variants.

I tried booting through the CD to repair the installation and got the fucked up screen just trying to do that.

I was just hoping to know what I should be replacing.  As opposed to the whole damn thing.  Might try a new hard drive after work. (I'm having to teach.  On Saturday.  And it's raining outside.  But all of my fucking students keep showing up.  IT'S FUCKING RAINING ON  A SATURDAY, KOREA!  TODAY IS NOT ENGLISH LEARNING DAY!!

[Engels]

My guess is a fried video card.

[Xerapis]

That was my initial thought.

But the fucked-upedness is selective.  MOBO splash screen is fine.  Windows loading is fine except for floaty-bar.

And the whole blue screen where you select repairing windows is just fine too.

It's just when it tries to do anything windows-complex it goes wacky.  And I'm not sure that a bad vidcard would cause windows to just lock up at the loading screen, really.

And the boyfriend is being a complete bitch because it's his computer. ~sigh~  Home now.  Hate Korean weather today.

[Trippy]

Some possibilities:

1. Bad memory
2. Bad video card
3. Seriously corrupt Windows install

Burn a Memtest86+ disc and check your memory. If you have another video card try that.

[Amaron]

Did you try the safemode option where it doesn't even load up networking drivers and what not?

It looks like possibly 1 of the following:

1) Corrupt video driver.
2) Video card going bonkers when it overheats.
3) CPU going bonkers from overheating.
4) CRT trying to display a resolution/refresh it can't support.

Is it overclocked?  Make sure all the fans are working even if it isn't.

[Xerapis]

No second video card, sadly.

All fans are functional, no overclocking.  It's my "nothing special" computer :P

How many passes should the memtest run for?

[Trippy]

Overnight if possible.

[Xerapis]

Oh geez.  I'll be dead by then.

[Engels]

Well, run Memtest for an initial pass, and if it passes, chances are you're in the clear. I save the longer testing for the total head scratchers.

The reason I have my bets on the vid card is because I've encountered similar problems before; although the hardware that runs the dumbed down mode for BIOS and Windows Repair is fine, the more advanced hardware; particular transistors, higher functioning ram spaces, etc, might be fried and you only get that when you enter the real graphical Windows environment, if that makes any sense.

I've been wrong plenty of times, but I sort of want it to be the vid card, cuz otherwise its likely the CPU/Mobo and those are a total waste to replace if its an older computer.

[Xerapis]

Let it run for 25 passes.  No errors.

Re-installed Windows.  It actually worked, unlike the repair installation attempt.  No graphics issues.  Then I installed the nvidia drivers for the motherboard.  Rebooted.  BAM!  Almost identical problem.  Although, this time it let me actually get past the loading screen.  I could select account, login, all that.  Just the graphics are totally hosed.

Did a full wipe.  Reinstalled.  Only installed drivers for nvidia ethernet.  Now it seems to be working just fine.  I'm updating Windows as we speak.

It just bothers me that I don't know for sure what caused it, or if it could recur.

[cmlancas]

Besides, WUA's parents probably play UO together.

It's a well-kept secret that WUA's mom is Peaches from Stratics.

Oh boy. A your momma joke on f13. What is today coming to?

[Engels]

Let it run for 25 passes.  No errors.

Re-installed Windows.  It actually worked, unlike the repair installation attempt.  No graphics issues.  Then I installed the nvidia drivers for the motherboard.  Rebooted.  BAM!  Almost identical problem.  Although, this time it let me actually get past the loading screen.  I could select account, login, all that.  Just the graphics are totally hosed.

Did a full wipe.  Reinstalled.  Only installed drivers for nvidia ethernet.  Now it seems to be working just fine.  I'm updating Windows as we speak.

Did you install nTune? What motherboard do you have, and what nvidia chipset? I ask because some Asus motherboards, the A8N-32SLI in particular, barf at some of the new nTune drivers.

[Krakrok]

How the hell does that happen?  The splash screen for the mobo and the windows screen are fine except for the loading bar.  But now the installation gets all wonky.  Im so confuzzled.

Looks like bad video card ram to me. Or the video card is overheating. I've seen that before.

[Amaron]

Let it run for 25 passes.  No errors.

Re-installed Windows.  It actually worked, unlike the repair installation attempt.  No graphics issues.

So the graphics were working fine till you installed the Nvidia motherboard drivers?  Does it use an onboard video chip or some such?