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Author Topic: Windows re-installation help?  (Read 6468 times)
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Kajet
 

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« on: 2009-09-27, 10:39 »

Yep... it's about time for me to spork with my comp again, this time cause it'll occasionally restart itself after booting... (Don't ask how I accomplished THAT cause I dunno...)

Anyway last time I did this I had to manually install drivers from a CD I burned after using the reinstallation CD. The drivers are listed by modified date as follows:

Audio
Chipset
Modemdriver
Input
Network
Wireless
Video

Do I install them in that order or what?

This is for WinXP on a POS dell inspiron 9300 if that makes a lot of difference.
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Phoenix
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« Reply #1 on: 2009-09-27, 16:49 »

I rarely if ever have to reinstall and operating system once I get it on a computer, so let me give a few tips that might avoid some headaches or an unnecessary OS reinstall.  If any of this sounds a little overly obvious, bear with me.  Sometimes a very simple problem can be the cause and I like to try to cover every possibility, and I don't know everyone's level of technical expertise.

First, don't rule out a hardware problem.  Software can cause rebooting, true, but usually unintended reboots are a sign that the motherboard or power supply may have a fault.  Other peripherals can cause stability issues as well.  If you have a floppy drive try booting to a floppy or else boot from a CD or USB, and leave the computer at a command window.  Remove the CD or floppy, etc, and let the PC run on its own.  If it reboots itself then it's definitely a hardware issue.

If the system still reboots itself without going into Windows, then the best thing to do is to strip the system down to the bare essentials - mainboard, cpu, ram, video, boot off something other than the hard drive, and see if the problem stops.  If you have more than one memory module, try removing one, testing, and if it still occurs, remove that one and replace the other.  If the problem persists, odds are either the CPU, video, motherboard, or PSU is faulty.  Unfortunately most of the time it's the motherboard.  Also, don't forget to check on the PSU's fan.  If it's not turning you'll definitely have problems.  Also, it's a good idea to open the case, dust it out, and observe if all the fans start when booting the system.  One malfunctioning fan can cause overheats on components and that will definitely cause problems, up to and including component damage.

If the system behaves normally except when booting into Windows, you might try using the repair function on the Windows CD.  I've found that sometimes a full reinstall can be avoided by booting from the CD, running the repair tool, and then reconfiguring as needed.  Also, don't overlook SAFE mode!  If your computer boots fine into SAFE mode, then you can pin it down to a piece of software and avoid a full reinstall.  You can also use the msconfig tool for selective booting, disabling and enabling one piece of software at a time.  If the computer runs fine in SAFE mode but reboots when going into windows normally, use msconfig to disable all your startup stuff and re-enable in blocks.  Once you hit the problem, isolate it to the single piece of software in question and you've found the culprit.  Virus scanning in SAFE mode also works better as a lot of malware relies on normal boot processes to load and a lot of times the common but poorly written stuff can be ejected from the system just by booting into SAFE mode and running a virus scan from there instead of a normal boot.  If you're not familiar with the msconfig utility, just go to Start->Run and type "msconfig" in the window.  It's a very useful debugging tool, and you can set it in SAFE mode and boot into Windows normally with all the stuff disabled, then start hunting for the problem.

If you do decide to reinstall Windows for whatever reason, typically I install drivers in this order:

1)  Chipset, unless the install screen is unreadable without the video driver, then Video first.
2)  Video
3)  Network
4)  Audio
5)  Anything else

The chipset drivers are the most important, so I always try to get those on first thing.
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Woodsman
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« Reply #2 on: 2009-09-27, 18:54 »

as a shamed owner of a Inspiron shitbox 9300 let me just say your looking at many a fine hardware problems in the future. Dell seems to intentionally make their products defective to justify paying 300 dollars every few years for their "award winning service and support".
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Phoenix
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« Reply #3 on: 2009-09-27, 21:46 »

Dude... you got a Dell. Sobbing
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Kajet
 

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« Reply #4 on: 2009-09-28, 02:52 »

Dude... you got a Dell. Sobbing

Yep... that's about how I feel about my laptop sometimes...

I sent it into dell cause there was an issue with the motherboard and screen lines so there shouldn't be any hardware issues...

Anyways... I reinstalled windows and tried to install the chipset and it asked for a file called usbehci.sys

Should I download a different file or run windows update to get that file?
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ReBoOt
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« Reply #5 on: 2009-09-28, 08:51 »

We call Dell "Hell" on my work, mainly cuz of the computers we get for repairs are Dell computers..that explains all? Slipgate - Tongue

Anyways reboots is usually cuz of overheating or faulty harddrive. You dont get a BSOD?
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Kajet
 

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I have no clue what to put here...

« Reply #6 on: 2009-09-28, 11:18 »

Nope, reinstalled Windows and drivers, seems to be back to normal and stable.
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Phoenix
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« Reply #7 on: 2009-09-28, 16:41 »

We call Dell "Hell" on my work, mainly cuz of the computers we get for repairs are Dell computers..

They must be using these processors then:  Slipgate - Laugh

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ReBoOt
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« Reply #8 on: 2009-09-28, 17:34 »

We call Dell "Hell" on my work, mainly cuz of the computers we get for repairs are Dell computers..

They must be using these processors then:  Slipgate - Laugh



Haha I knew it! suspected it was something like that! Slipgate - Wink

anyways glad your computer is up and running Kajet
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