Computer 101

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:20 am Post subject: Computer 101

Hi all - I have a basic question.

A friend's Dell has the blue screen of death showing. She asked me to have a look - no laughing, please - LOL. She says that the comp is out of memory - I don't know how she came to this conclusion. I'd like to, at the very least, hook up my external drive and save their stuff. Then perhaps look for a problem.

Can anyone suggest a few basic steps that will allow a noob like me to 1. backup their stuff to the external drive and 2. look for a problem as to why they get the blue screen.

How would I check if they are out of memory? What about if I booted it in safe mode? Would that allow me to check a few things out?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated - thanks.

Pitt
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Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:20 am Post subject:

Safe mode then try to start in last good config would be the first thing that I would try .
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Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:43 pm Post subject:

Ren - she said the error on the blue screen was from memory management and said it was running out of memory. It dumped the physical memory vs. crashing. Confused

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:59 pm Post subject:

WOW, there is no where to really start!

Is it bluescreening on startup? Is it bluescreening when running a particular program?

What version of Windows, System Specs?
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{uZa}Innocent Man with a Smoking Pistol

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:07 pm Post subject:

She's running XP and has 1 GB of memory. I don't know anything else Innocent - LOL.

I did a disc cleanup and that had a ton of stuff in it and then defragged.
It seems to be working...
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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:12 pm Post subject:

A defrag could have possibly fixed the problem especially if it was running out of virtual memory and was trying to make the virtual size bigger etc.etc...

So this could have been the issue if a simple defrag and disc cleanup did teh trick!
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{uZa}Innocent Man with a Smoking Pistol

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject:

Next Project, add another GIG of Ram Razz

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{uZa}Innocent Man with a Smoking Pistol

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:17 pm Post subject:

And to send me £1 for suggesting doing a disc clean up and defrag in my post that seems to conveniently be missing Mr. Green

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http://tinyurl.com/yobjfs

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:09 pm Post subject:

LOL - thanks guys.
_________________

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 12:26 am Post subject:

i get that all the time when running to many programs it gives me the blue screen because of memory so i just restart and wait till the next time it does it
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:00 am Post subject:

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:23 am Post subject:

Check's in the mail Bro. Wink

_________________

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:52 pm Post subject:

oh yes try hitting her computer and crushing a can on ur head and then swearing up a storm
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