[Guyzer]

Originally Posted by ekim68

I agree, her system is old. So, I will donate $20.00 for another system for her...Anyone else?
And, how can we do this?

I'm in for 20. Considering Mike's ( TSG ) address is public maybe he wouldn't mind handling the cash.... or maybe even Valley. All we would need is someone with a computer, including a legit copy of an OS ( XP wink, wink ), to determine a reasonable price. Then one person here to keep track of the amounts committed and it's done ( via PM of course ). Marlene doesn't need a monitor, mouse or keyboard so it should be relatively inexpensive and once the goal is met stop accepting dough. I wouldn't want it to turn into a money making endeavor but I would like to see her get something more up to date.

[valley]

Gonna call Mar shortly...sorry it took so long (kids..you know how it is!) I love the idea of chipping in for a new one (I'll chip in 25). I doubt we can raise enough to buy a new one...but we can either give her the money to go towards a new tower to help offset her costs or maybe we can find someone with an old tower sitting around and we could give them the money to cover the shipping to get it to her?

But before we get ahead of ourselves...let me call her and try to get her up and running again. Be back in a bit awhile after we go through all of the steps given here.

[valley]

I've tried to call her twice in the last half hour and it keeps going to her voicemail box. I'm thinking Will is on the phone. Last night when i called, it went to voicemail and then she called back 10 minutes later. I havent heard from her yet. I have to go away in a little bit but should only be gone for 2 hours or so. If I dont get ahold of her before I leave, i'll start trying as soon as I get back.

[valley]

got her on the phone right now. Tried Ben's suggestion and after typing in:

CD C:\windows\options\install

she gets a message saying "too many parameters"

we are still fiddling with it...keep you posted.

[valley]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

It's C:\Windows\Options\Install\setup.exe

ok, she typed this in and gets a "bad command" message

[valley]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

Is she using an ME boot floppy? Isn't scanreg on that floppy? If so, you might try it from A: instead of C:.

she just tried this and it says "bad command"

[aarhus2004]

Originally Posted by valley

got her on the phone right now. Tried Ben's suggestion and after typing in:

CD C:\windows\options\install

she gets a message saying "too many parameters"

we are still fiddling with it...keep you posted.

Hello valley

The prompt for the final entry - (type setuo) is this

C:\windows\options\install\> then type setup

If that still yields 'Too many parameters'

use windows\options after the c:\>

giving this c:\windows\options then Press Enter

which should result in this prompt

C:\Windows\options\> type setup Press Enter

Ben

[valley]

Originally Posted by aarhus2004

giving this c:\windows\options then Press Enter

which should result in this prompt

C:\Windows\options\> type setup Press Enter

Ben

ok, she did all of this and gets this new message that says "this program cannot be run in DOS mode"

[Elvandil]

What did she end up booting from?

[valley]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

What did she end up booting from?

Hi JOHN!!!!...sorry I called you Ben for a minute there. She booted up from her backup startup floppy that she made in 2001 after she got her computer. Its the only one that she has.

She also has a WinMe recovery/restore CD which is not being recognized at all by her computer.

[valley]

and I dont know if this had anything to do with it...but the monitor she is using is not the original monitor that came with her PC. That stopped working quite some time ago and her brother gave her an old monitor that he had, which made the colors off a bit. Also..sometimes the page she was viewing, as well as her desktop or any other full screen program, would have a black border all the way around it....almost like it did not fit the monitor (it sounded to me like a graphic card issue but she says that it is the monitor...i reminded her to crack the case and get the dust bunnies out just incase the fan was being overworked. ).

anyhow....she was getting by ok with it the way it was. When the pictures on the screen got small, she would have to power down and reboot to fix the problem. If i'm remembering right.....her system froze up while she was rebooting to restore the picture quality. It tried to restart and that was the end of it....I dunno what else to think. I'm not very savvy when it comes to computers.

[TechGuy]

Just to reiterate what I posted in the other thread:

It's up to you guys if you want to start a donation, etc, but I have to ask that you do it privately. We've had some problems in the past with less than genuine people asking for money, and I don't want to open the floodgates to those who might be looking to con others. If we allow one, we then have to decide who is and isn't genuine, and I'm not willing to do that. By that I don't mean to say that I don't think that this is a good, genuine cause -- just that we need to be consistent in enforcing that rule. Thanks for your understanding, and PM if I was unclear.

Good luck in helping her! Although, with it being an Me machine, I'd have to vote for replacing it, too.

[valley]

Originally Posted by TechGuy

Good luck in helping her! Although, with it being an Me machine, I'd have to vote for replacing it, too.

well, it would be nice if she could get the computer she has now up and running....but you can only do so much.

[TechGuy]

FYI, just edited my previous quote to be a little more clear. I hope it helps.

I just scanned through this thread, and was wondering -- have we checked to make sure she's not out of disk space? I had a customer with a corrupt registry once and couldn't repair it until I realized I had no disk space.

Try running a dir at that command prompt -- at the bottom, it should show free space. Also, have we tried running scandisk?

[aarhus2004]

Originally Posted by TechGuy

FYI, just edited my previous quote to be a little more clear. I hope it helps.

I just scanned through this thread, and was wondering -- have we checked to make sure she's not out of disk space? I had a customer with a corrupt registry once and couldn't repair it until I realized I had no disk space.

Try running a dir at that command prompt -- at the bottom, it should show free space. Also, have we tried running scandisk?

Hello valley,

BootUp with the StartUp disk.
Choose Minimal
At the A:\> type C:
At the C:\> type dir

That works for me - just tried it and it shows the free space on the C: drive.

Its all as Mike suggests (I'm a detail freak obviously).

Will try a scandisk command.

Ben.