[SpartaSparta]

I have a Dimension 3100 with a 80gb hard drive. The PC crashed with the following message displayed. "A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.etc....."
I then started on the boot menu and tried each of the start options i.e. safe mode, normal, last good configuration etc and i get the same message "A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down........"

I then tried to boot from the CD rom using a boot disk. This wne through the process of loading files and then prompted me to continue (pressing enter). This then resulted in the following mesage being displayed:
"Examining 76294 mb disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi....." following which it froze.

I've now ran a Hard Drive diagnostic check (pressing control ALt d at start-up) and after some minutes received the following message;

Hard Drive Diagnostics runnning, please wait...
Drive 0: WDC WD800-75MSA1 - Pass

Does "Pass" mean that the hard drive is OK. What should I be doing?

Any advice much appreciated as the PC is two weeks out of warranty!

 

[schusterjo]

A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.etc....."

That could be many things. 2 years back a major worm was causing that exact same message.
(note there is anew worm going around called "new years")

Is it a continuous problem or has it just done it the one time?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ad-Aware SE Personal
I run this daily

SpywareBlaster 3.5.1
I update once a week (keeps bad pages with known malware that cold cause damage from being displayed.)

Spybot - Search & Destroy
Daily or every other day

CwShredder
This is one I only use once a week or month lol but good to have

AVG Anti-Spyware
In order to get full use of this one you have to buy it but has a free trial. Good program to have and run before you run Hijackthis. (just another tool to remove spyware that the other two may miss) Only download if you are having a serious issue unless you want to pay and have it.

Download and update (update is very important before you scan) boot into safe mode (You do not need to boot into safe mode every time to run programs. Some malware cannot be fully removed or detected unless you are in Safemode, This is why I recommend running it the first time in safe mode then perhaps once a month in safe mode)

With some computers if you press and hold a key as the computer is booting you will get a stuck key message. If this occurs, instead of pressing and holding the "F8 key", tap the "F8 key" continuously until you get the startup menu.

Scan the computer,

Boot backup into Normal mode, download
CodeStuff Starter manage your startup programs

Disable all startup programs that you "do not" need running at startup.

A guide to hep keep a smooth system.
Maintain your system with Windows XP

Diskeeper
The best program to use for defragging