Need PC help - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

12/11/2011 04:37:00 PM · #1

My computer crashed on me. I was playing a PC game while updating my avast and real player software when the lights at my house went out. Now every time I open it all I get is my background picture and nothing else comes up. No icons, no start menu, nothing! I can boot up in safemode but need some help.

Can I somehow restore my PC? After pressing F5 and getting to the safemode screen I tryed the "boot from last know working point" and that didnt work either. What else can I do?

cowboy221977

Canon EOS-60D

12/11/2011 05:00:11 PM · #2

I have had to reinstall my operating system before because of what you are talking about. I will do some searching for you and see if I can come up with anything

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

12/11/2011 05:01:31 PM · #3

It COULD be a blown memory chip.

Check your BIOS setting to make sure you are doing a memory check. Let it go through, if it comes back you have a memory problem then you can further troubleshoot.

Hopefully, if you have more than one stick in there, you can remove one and then the other and check which is the bad.

I had a similar problem and it was the memory. If it is, I would suggest buying new from Crucial, they guarantee 100%. I had a 5 year old stick go, they replaced it for free.

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/11/2011 05:03:57 PM · #4

That never works.

Best (simplest) bet is to reinstall Windows on top of the current install, that should sort any Windows file problems.

Other things you might want to try, startup in safe mode and try the following:

Remove Real Player for good, it's rubbish and will only cause problems anyway, use VLC for media files
Remove and reinstall avast, just because that's what was was updating at the time of the crash

If that doesn't work, when you get the background and nothing else, hit ctrl-alt-delete, see if you get the dialogue box up, if so select the file menu (I think) and then run and then type explorer.exe, this will see if it can kick it into life, perhaps it just isn't getting as far as launching the explorer. If it does you can do some more useful diagnostics from there like check the device manager for bad drivers etc.

Good luck!

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

12/11/2011 05:04:18 PM · #5

Oh sorry....I read your post a little more, you can boot in safemode? Hmmm...its not the memory then.

12/11/2011 05:18:12 PM · #6

Covert I will try that out. Thanks.

I did try CTR ALT DELETE and that didnt work. All try it from the safemode screen though and uninstall avast and realplayer.

BTW the only reason I do have realplayer right now is to download vivo videos from Yoututbe, I use VLC myself

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/11/2011 05:28:36 PM · #7

Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:

Thank You Thank You Thank You!! That worked perfectly! Just have to go download Avast again.

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

12/11/2011 05:35:50 PM · #8

Originally posted by SEG:

Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:
That never works.

Best (simplest) bet is to reinstall Windows on top of the current install, that should sort any Windows file problems.

Other things you might want to try, startup in safe mode and try the following:

Remove Real Player for good, it's rubbish and will only cause problems anyway, use VLC for media files
Remove and reinstall avast, just because that's what was was updating at the time of the crash

If that doesn't work, when you get the background and nothing else, hit ctrl-alt-delete, see if you get the dialogue box up, if so select the file menu (I think) and then run and then type explorer.exe, this will see if it can kick it into life, perhaps it just isn't getting as far as launching the explorer. If it does you can do some more useful diagnostics from there like check the device manager for bad drivers etc.

Good luck!

Thank You Thank You Thank You!! That worked perfectly! Just have to go download Avast again.

Glad to hear it, always nice when the simple solution works :)

lawrysimm

Sony SLT-A57

Sony SAL-1855 DT 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

12/11/2011 05:42:20 PM · #9

Originally posted by SEG:

BTW the only reason I do have realplayer right now is to download vivo videos from Yoututbe, I use VLC myself

I use firefox browser with a plugin called videodownloader.. lets you rip from youtube straight to mp4 files which will pretty much play in anything these days. Very easy to use too.

NikonJeb

Nikon D850

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

12/11/2011 06:26:31 PM · #10

I have used the function where you can restore from a previous point with fairly good success....