Down to the bare metal

[tw]

Originally Posted by BigV

I'm only back online long enough to confirm that the first 20 dingdang restarts and failed reinstalls aren't because I hosed something. Just getting the stupid thing to boot from cd is a challenge.

I suspect that laptop has been nuked before this warning will be read. Responsible manufacturers provide comprehensive diagnostics with their machines. Diagnostics (BTW) that should be loaded on the hard drive BEFORE formatting and installing the XP partition.

Unfortunately, the shotgun method is being used. Everything performed only to fix the problem. Very wrong procedure. First collect facts. First establish WHY the problems exist. Do not change anything until first the facts have been collected.

So many sources. For example, what did those comprehensive diagnostics report? What does the system (event) log report - valuable information destroyed by the 'nuke and pave' option. What is ongoing in Task Manager?

A system that takes minutes to boot will either be contaminated by promiscuous users (ie worms) or have hardware problems. What makes the problem even harder to solve? The human who tries to fix a hardware problem by reloading Windows

Shotgunning is why some problems are not solved. Its a well proven concept that applies to everything - not just computers. Break the problem down into parts. Then solve those parts one step at a time. In this case, we can draw a big line right down between hardware and software. One does not fix software when hardware integrity is unknown. At least does not IF one wants to fix it the first time.

Dell provided comprehensive diagnostics AND a program to load those comprehensive diagnostics on a new drive. The event logs could have long ago been warning of the failing hard drive - providing one with plenty of opportunity to transfer to a new drive without data failure and without wild speculation. Just another example of why problems are solved first by breaking down a problem into parts.