Reformating Hard Drive - Help.

[Master Thrasher]

My dad has an old Sony VAIO PCV-RX550 that he want to use for basic things. I boot it up and the CPU is running at 100% on a constant basis. I figure there is spyware or something on it. (This computer has had these problems in the past.) So I get the Windows XP CD and I boot it up and the Windows Installer comes up and the install crashes. I get an error message, which when I Google it says I probably have faulty RAM. I download Memtest and burn it on a CD and the computer won't boot with it. The computer I'm currently using can boot with it.

Is the CD drive faulty?

It feels good to vent.

 

[Vitamin X]

Yeah, I would try to get new RAM and installing it to see if that does the trick. Worst case scenario, you can return the memory. There's also a good chance that the cooling element on the processor isn't attached well or that the computer's overheating in general.

I think memtest has a way to boot from a usb drive, if there is, I would try to boot from the usb drive and see if that works. It could be possible that both the CD drive and RAM have issues. CD drives on older notebooks tend to not work well after sometime, especially if it's one where the opening is constantly exposed.

 

[Master Thrasher]

It's a desktop by the way.
It's a really old computer that uses SDRAM and I haven't even looked up if NewEgg still sells that type. I'm going to try hooking up an old CD drive and see if reads Memtest CD correctly.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

My dad has an old Sony VAIO PCV-RX550 that he want to use for basic things. I boot it up and the CPU is running at 100% on a constant basis. I figure there is spyware or something on it. (This computer has had these problems in the past.) So I get the Windows XP CD and I boot it up and the Windows Installer comes up and the install crashes. I get an error message, which when I Google it says I probably have faulty RAM. I download Memtest and burn it on a CD and the computer won't boot with it. The computer I'm currently using can boot with it.

Is the CD drive faulty?

It feels good to vent.

I have a Sony Vaio VGC-RB40 and I'm having to work on it now. I know that it can't boot from USB and that it will only boot from a hard drive and a cd drive. I even went into the BIOS to try to change the boot settings but it only had those 2 options.

If it won't boot from the memtest CD, burn a live disc of Linux and see if that will run. I'm pretty sure they have memory tests in that. If not, you can always listen for the beeps and look for lights when it runs it's POST (Power On Self Test). That should give you some answers.

 

[Master Thrasher]

The optical drive is bad. I used a 4x CD drive and Memtest showed no errors. I'm reformatting the hard drive now and it's stuck at 70%. I think it's a Maxtor drive so I shouldn't be surprised it stopped working after awhile. I've never had luck with them.

 

[NoCalMike]

Does he have a bunch of important stuff on there? New computers for what he needs you can find for like $250-$350

 

[Master Thrasher]

There is nothing important on the hard drive. Plus, I turned off the computer when it was formatting at 70%. I'm sure I screwed it up. I pointed out a place for him online to get a new hard drive and DVD drive.

 

[Ripper]

you can go to a place like microcenter and grab a refurbished dell for like 99.00-149.00 that will do all he needs it to do if you have been using that computer just fine until it went to crap.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0358701

or

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0358632

A new hardrive and dvd drive is going to cost at the very least 60 bucks. He can get a computer for 99.

 

[Master Thrasher]

I figure if I get new parts, a couple years down the line, I can put them in a new rig.

 

[Ripper]

Yeah, but the thing about getting new parts it he mystery.

What if you buy the drive and the hardrive and it ends up being the ram. So then you need to buy ram. But then what if its the processor? Then you have to buy one of those.

Now don't get me wrong, if you really know how to build a rig, you can get a old P4 board and you can buy a P4 processor for like 10 bucks (again, Microcenter is awesome) and build one there.

But looking at what you MIGHT need, it could be the ram, the harddrive, or the processor. All that is going to come close to 99 bucks ANYWAY.

 

[Master Thrasher]

I tested the RAM it worked. The Optical Drives that were on the computer failed and we have a Maxtor hard drive, which I've never had luck with. Anyway, he can get refurbished Dells at work too.

 

[Ripper]

And you can always go to goodwill. i am not sure about other places, but I have gotten a few for 15-20 dollars there that only needed like ram or a harddrive or a processor(never all three).