Need Help Computer Problems!!!

[THE M]

Well, first off, I have this DELL inspiron 1521, VISTA HOME EDITION 32bit, bios revision A04, 160gb WD08 HDD (SATA), 2gb of ram 1.93 ghz amd processor etc, a few days ago A-lot of problems started, EXTREMELY SLOW start up and shutdown, and a expample of this is The internet explorer took about 6 minutes plus just to open upon clicking, then another 5 to load GOOGLE!!, the trend micro security that was on it, I removed because of a bug it got or something, it would ask to update everytime I started it up, then I'd click on it and it would restart, then it would ask me again and again of endless updating and restarting, so I got on and uninstalled that, only thing that fixed was the constant please download updates crap that would load everytime I would start the computer. Then I downloaded Norton 360, and removed like a crap load of virus's, that boosted the performance just a bit. Then like 3 days later I booted it up, and right before it started loading windows, looked like 5-20 command prompts opened up but extremely fast, I just only got a glimpse of it. vista finished booting 10 minutes later, Then after I went over all the logical problems it would have like virus's and all that checked it out, found nothing... but this laptop is my cousins and she use's it for FACEBOOK and MySpace, and if anything says click here! or install now, she'll and anyone else that uses it will click on it. So, I said SCREW THIS!!, and backed up all the pictures and sensitive documents on there desktop, that was about 2 hours, uploading, and 3-4hours of work on the laptop, So, I found the nearest copy of windows xp, which happened to be home edition, and I started from disc, formatted the only partition available, and continued through the install, got to the final stage, said restarting in 10 seconds or w/e to finish installing etc, then it restarted, and EPIC FAILED, loaded the screen where it says
bios revision A04
DELL

https://WWW.dell.com

loading bar - here it would get about 4/5ths the way done instantly and take, about 5 minutes to load the rest of the way

so I was thinking in my head OH CRAP, did I just CRAP up my cousins laptop, then the screen went black,
in the left top hand corner there was an underscore for like .5 seconds, and then a little message came up for like another second but so fast you can't make it out, and then the computer restarts.

So I tried reinstalling xp home again no luck,

so I grabbed my XP PRO and tried that DID THE SAME!!! THING!!!

grabbed the vista re-install that came with the computer, tried that, and I'll get everything loaded it will go to the "INSTALL NOW", ill click that click on custom then it will come up with where to put the vista, my hdd dosen't show up, then it says to get some drivers to load a mass storage device, but under the bios says my 160gb is there and working fine, i did the thing in windows install where you can use cmd, so i did the check disk thing and it said, some type of data has a un something problem.

so I contacted dell, about this after 3 hours of explaining, no luck, told me theyd call me the next day at 11:30, which they didnt, ended up going back on dell and trying to explain it AGAIN!, which took numerous more hours, then they said I should call the software people because the guy said, theres data corrupted on my HDD, so I called the software people and there like asking me questions and crap, said yeah probably due to trying to install a diff operating system ( which I have done on many computers with GREAT SUCCESS), and he's like we could fix it if you get our warrenty for 1 fix 150$, I was like hell no, hung up, then talked to dell person again to get a new ac adapter because that failed. Guess there gonna ship that to my cousins house...

so anyone know what i should do,

i have
an
xp home, pro( pro has sp2) and a vista install disc all with genuine keys.
multiple flash drives, blank cds, and dvds, and 4 desktops and another laptop, at my whim, I am totally lost on this and I REALLY NEED TO FIX THIS laptop, and at the end I would really hope to have xp pro on it since, vista fails now. :(

If you can help me and it works I WILL FOREVER PRAISE YOU!!!!

and if I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO get a new hdd I probally will. but 80$ seems to much when maybe it can be fixed a different way.

sorry i have very improper grammar and don't really make paragraphs. but i mean were online...soo...

Thanks,
The M

[Brocman]

Well the first problem was caused by a ton of viruses on the computer. That was caused by whoever was using it was not very smart when it comes to clicking on certain things.

When viruses get on a computer they do more than just attack regular files. They also mess with system files and if they stay on the computer long enough they will cause a myriad of issues that affect hardware, sometimes permanently.

I am by no means the computer expert in this clan and there are a few people here who know WAY more about this kkind of thing then me. But if formatting the HDD didn't even work then I would suggest getting a new one. There might even be problems with other hardware aswell. And there might even be viruses on the back up cds/thumb drives you used.

If there is nothing you can do to save the computer I would suggest Linux in the future or a mac since both of these by there own nature are less susceptible to viruses.

[RaTix]

If it's asking for Storage Device drivers, it's possible that Vista doesn't have the drivers for your SATA controller. So yes it can show up in the bios all fine, but windows (XP and Vista) just might not be able to detect it properly.

Your best bet is to check the Dell support page for SATA drivers. You may need to download and copy them to a CD and when the Windows install asks to load third party drivers, click F6 and load the SATA drivers form the CD.

In regards to the XP restart loop. You can always do F8 for the advanced option menu, then select "Turn off Automatic restart on errors". This will stop the restarting and give you the Blue Screen Of Death where you can get the actual error message and code to look up exactly what is going wrong. The string you need is the 0x00000(0x00000, etc... line.

[keyser28146]

All true via Ratix,

Would like to add that if the HDD is showing up on BIOS, the drive and MB both are prob ok. I would recommend going to www.ubuntu.com or some other flavor of linux that supplies a good live run disc and then you can load that OS using just the CD without the need to run the HDD at ALL. If it works, and you are able to mount the HDD as a volume, then you know for sure it is the drivers for the SATA, from there you can either shut the machine down and go hunt for drivers, or if you like the linux operations style, click and POOF you have Linux running.

Be aware that if her internet habits are myspace and facebook that this will not be an isolated issue. If she is just using the computer for these purposes, I'd certainly suggest going with Linux PERIOD... it will do everything she needs PLUS some right out of the box and has a lot fewer vulnerabilities to the types of viruses and malware associated with social networking sites. If she is married to windows, then that's fine too, but you may want to burn an extra copy or two of the drivers and software you ultimately have to find and tweak and put them in a location where you can get to them easily.

A Third course of action may be to install linux on a smaller partition of the HDD (10GB or so) and just go ahead and create a dual boot scenario. This may be too confusing to her, but thats your discretion... if you aren't familiar, everytime the computer would boot, you would get a menu similar to the F8 windows menus, but it would offer you the choice of Ubuntu Linux OR Windows XP. There are quite a few advantages: 1) You can boot to ubuntu and use THAT computer to find, copy, and burn drivers for the windows OS, 2) If the windows craps out in the future, you can boot into ubuntu and copy files from the dead/corrupted windows OS drive onto whatever backup medium you have, 3) if you run into further windows issues, you can be sure any component that is working in linux (like a cd burner) is working fine, and it IS a driver issue.

In any scenario, go get a live run Ubuntu (or other linux distro) disc and burn one. They come in handy all the time, even if you never install it.