ARRGGHHH *censored* PC

[tom3131]

Right, I have a Dell Dimension 4700, which is a few years old. It used to be my main PC therefore nicely looked after and no virus's etc. But I got a new laptop and gave the old PC to my sister, who has run it into the ground.

BTW Dell Dimension had 1024MB RAM, 150GB Hard Drive, Runs on XP Home SP2. With a Pentuim 4 processor.

I attempt to turn it on, and the screen doesnt acknowledge the PC is connected, and the PC bleeps constantly, and if I persist, the fan gets really loud.

Occassionally it will loud up and let me log into my account, but not long enough for me to enter MSCONFIG and try to disable all non essential programs, to see if its a program infected with a virus.

Do any of you have any idea's  :question

Tom.

[soybean]

Format the hard drive and reinstall Windows.

[tom3131]

Format the hard drive and reinstall Windows.

And me being as dumb as I am, I do that by..................................... ..............  ?

[soybean]

Did that computer come with CDs for Windows and other software originally installed on it?  If so, put the Windows CD (may be labeled Recovery ...) in the CD drive and restart the computer.  It should boot from the CD and display a screen with options to format the hard drive, create paritions on the hard drive, install Windows, etc.  

Formatting erases everthing from the hard drive.  The objective here is to restore the system to state it was in when new; however, some extra software that was originally installed may not need to be reinstalled.  For example, if the computer originally had a shortcut on the desktop to install AOL or an trial version of an anti-virus program, those things do not need to be reinstalled.

If you do not have the original CDs, then this approach is not an option.  Then, you're stuck with trying to cleanup the mess she created.  If you have the CDs, I believe a fresh installation of Windows is going to be, by far, the cleanest solution here.

[tom3131]

LOL, I'm sure I did, but I'm not 100% sure that I still have them.

So its a big search of the house for me..

Are there any other options.....? That at least start the PC up for me to do a Virus Scan.....? Even in Safe Mode...?

Tom.

[soybean]

Yes, if you can start in Safe Mode and scan for viruses and adware/spyware, that could be quite helpful.

[tom3131]

Right, no I cant get anywhere near Safe Mode, and ive insered the disc but the PC wont do anything with it.

What now?

[soybean]

You may need to access your BIOS and change the setting for first boot device.  In other words, the computer seems to be looking at the hard drive as the first device from which to bootup and, since that's not working, it just stops.  By accessing the BIOS, you should be able to set the CD drive as the first boot device.  Here's a guide on how to Access/Enter Motherboard BIOS.

[GX1_Man]

That would be F2 on a Dell.

There may well be hardware issues, but a Windows CD is surely going to be needed at some point as well.