crashing

[Guest]

I don't know if this is where I should post this but I need help. My computer keeps freezing and ctrl+alt+delete won't free it. I have to shut down and restart. Sometimes I get an error message on the blue screen that says that it is unable to write to drive c, other times it just freezes. I'm running W98 2nd edition on an emachime 533i with 160m of ram. Can anyone steer me in the right direction for a fix? thanks Rick

 

[blah]

the bestest "fix" would be to reinstall windows... sigh

it's my life, don't tell me what to do with it...

 

[Guest]

Thanks blah. I already tried that but since my computer came with 98 already installed all I have is the reboot disc and the machine froze up while I was using it. Guess I'll have to find or buy an original copy unless microsoft has a website that I can download from. double sigh.

 

[blah]

oh, I've thought those things come with the restore CD, thats tough... sigh

it's my life, don't tell me what to do with it...

 

[James35]

try this. goto ur run window and type in MSCONFIG then start shutting down apps reboot the machine and see if u dont freeze up , sounds like u havea program with a memory leak thats is bleeding off ur ram

 

[hammerhead]

Hit ctrl-alt-del and post a list of the processes running.

The 'unable to write to drive c:' error suggests a pretty serious conflict to me, or a hardware problem.

 

[jasen]

Yes, that's hardware, not a software conflict. Reinstalling the OS won't fix that. First off, boot into "safe mode command prompt only" and run "scandisk /autofix /surface". If you have bad clusters it'll find them, attempt to recover data, and mark them as bad so the OS will stop using them. Just keep in mind, if it does find some bad clusters, they will eventually multiply. Time for a new drive.
If it does not find any bad spots, then you're drive is probably having a mechanical failure. Can you hear any strange sounds come out of it at times? Any rythmic ka-chunks, or scratches, or pings? The sounds of a dying drive...