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General discussion

Computer is broken (Details Inside)

Oct 7, 2015 10:22AM PDT

As of today my computers been out of action for about a month and I've been putting it off getting repaired. I personally have absolutely very little idea what is wrong aside from some error prompts it gave me before dying. Currently if I press the power button all the fans boot up, without any visual reference (Light doesn't turn on). Nothing displays when plugged into a monitor (No launch at all). I then can not stop the fans from running unless I pull the plug, but if I plug it back in it will turn back on again unless I hold down the power button prior to plugging it in.
Here's the series of events that led to my computer breaking:
- Bought the PC from HP website June 2013, only under warranty for 1 year.
- Ran fine for 14 months until it caught a web browser ad virus which would not get off the damn thing and as the hard-drive was clogged with crap anyway i restored it and starteed a fresh.
- By December 2014 I noticed the performance was starting to drop, games (my primary usage for my pc) were crashing and taking a long time to load. I kept with it until February 2015 when I logged in one day to a black screen (nothing but an empty taskbar) and despite trying again and again the same kept happening. So I had to reset it yet again.
-I used this temporary fix (by resetting/refreshing) a few more times until August my computer decided that part of the hard drive was corrupt and couldnt refresh. All this time I was getting the error code WDR_VIOLATION (Im 75% sure this was the error code I got first however this may have been the most recent) and I would load a program, run really slowly and my PC screen would just go black so I had to force shut off the system. I couldnt' run any of the hard drive tests in the diagnostic by this point as the hardrive was 'corrrupt'.
- So by the end of the month I'd had enough and went to a last resort by installing Win 10, thinking it could help. By the end I could hardly load 1 program in 20 mins and it would crash anyway. The last timee my computer worked it was actually stuck in an error loop. WDR_VIOLATION (100% sure on this now) and something to do the the bios would not load. After an hour or so I came back after leaving it in frustration and it was in the state it currently is today except the light would work for 60 seconds or so.

I know I'm going to have to get it fixed and the nearest repair shop is not far away but I would like to just clarify there are not any cheaper solutions I could look to. I can provide pictures if this helps.

Discussion is locked

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Can it boot to a DVD?
Oct 7, 2015 10:30AM PDT

Such as a Linux LIVE DVD, or a windows install and repair DVD? Do you see any readout allowing entry to BIOS? Or is it dead from the moment you power it up other than fans?

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RE: Can it boot to a DVD
Oct 7, 2015 10:43AM PDT

Dead from the moment it powers up unfortunately. Also, I don't have a Windows repair DVD.

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make or order one
Oct 7, 2015 10:54AM PDT
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Re Make or Order one
Oct 7, 2015 11:47AM PDT

Just as a tester will a free version of linux suffice?

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Re: free version of Linux
Oct 7, 2015 12:01PM PDT

Luckily, all versions of Linux are free. There are no paid ones, although companies can pay for support.

Kees

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Of course
Oct 7, 2015 12:02PM PDT

Just because you boot to it from optical drive doesn't mean it takes over your computer, so long as you don't clk on install. Otherwise you can use it to remove files or maybe fix your system, or discover it won't boot either and you have a serious problem like burnt CPU, PSU, dead RAM, or if you can view BIOS maybe only a dead hard drive. If you can't get into BIOS at all, then subtract hard drive from problem and concentrate on the the other 3 mentioned.

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Thanks
Oct 7, 2015 12:07PM PDT

Thank you, one last thing does the disc need to have the raw .iso file on it? if not what extension.

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an ISO file is an "image" of the disc
Oct 7, 2015 12:14PM PDT

It's like a zip file for CD's and DVD's. You have to unzip and burn it to the disc. This is done by disc burning software. If you just copy the ISO file to the disc, you will have a single file that is not able to boot a computer.

You burn the "image" to the disc.

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What about El Torito?
Oct 7, 2015 12:32PM PDT

If we unzip an ISO and burn the files to the CD/DVD, well, that won't boot.

I've run into folk that unpack an ISO and nothing works. I'd not tell people about the ZIP angle. Just create the CD/DVD from ISO and we are done.

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A good program to burn an image.
Oct 7, 2015 12:17PM PDT
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Linux is free.
Oct 7, 2015 12:04PM PDT

Just pick one you like and boot off dvd/usb to try it out. If you like then can install it.
Dafydd.

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Nod to that DVD boot.
Oct 7, 2015 10:33AM PDT

Just last month a watch dog violation traced back to a bum HDD.

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Your choice on action.
Oct 7, 2015 11:54AM PDT

But if you look at the HDD and it's a Seagate let's call it. Pop in a new HDD and do your disaster recovery plan. Just by luck I fixed a WDR a few weeks ago. Luckily the HDD didn't lose their files. Just the OS.

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RE Your choice on action
Oct 7, 2015 11:58AM PDT

Its a Seagate SDD/HDD hybrid, is this the most likely source of the problem

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Here's why the last one was so memorable.
Oct 7, 2015 12:05PM PDT

The HDD passed the maker's diagnostics. So I was left with this.
1. The old HDD WDRs.
2. The clone of the drive does not WDR.

Thankfully the client has faith as I've worked with them for years. It's only a 55 buck new HDD so we can run up the bill or get it done.