Failed computer

In 2005/2006, my brother built me a PC. Now, it is an ooolllldddd computer. Every time I turn it on, I receive error messages, such as "file could not be found" or "rundll.exe not found", and so on. Today, I have spent 3 hours simply trying to turn the computer on. I can get it to boot up, my background will show up...but my Skype won't even show up, let alone my internet connect, or my Spyware Doctor. After turning it on and waiting for about an hour (closing various popups along the way), I managed to get it somewhat working, with things showing up...but error messages would pop up, without an X button, and my task manager wouldn't open to close them, until I had 6 or 7 error messages covering my screen. This is the worst it's ever been and I'm at a loss as to what to do. I'm typing this message on my laptop (a mac), in the hopes that I'll be able to fix my PC. Any ideas?

 

Not too much to go on here, but your PC may be infected. Has it been protected with an up-to-date antivirus program?

 

Do you have an installation disk for the OS? Sounds like a repair install is in order.

 

Wendi - I have Spyware Doctor, though it seems to be kind of useless most of the time.
Tarq - I'm not even sure what OS it's using x.x I was planning on doing a super wipe, get rid of EVERYTHING, and then use a new OS. The one I have is called...Black-XP. A friend gave it to me, to replace the crud I have right now. But, I'm a bit hesitant to wipe it clean. I'd have to spend days getting everything redownloaded.. The best educated guess I can make is Windows XP of some sort? I'm not very good with computers in case that wasn't obvious already..

 

1/ If you value your data on this machine, you should boot for a BartCD containing some kind of imaging software, like drive snapshot, and build an image of your HDD system partition, also of data partitions.

2/ Using HDTune, you should check the HDD surface for errors, it may just be a H/W problem

3/ Check also with a bootable CD containing a recent A/V, like Avira, Kaspersky GData

If nothing shows up, it might be another component that fails : try opening the case, see if there is a lot of dust on the components, and use a vacuum cleaner wity great care to remove the dust.

Hope that works.

 

Sounds like I might have an idea of what to do now =] Is it possible to dust out my computer while it's still running? I finally got it to boot up, so I'm a little worried it'll take hours to boot it up again =\ And, I think I'll wipe it and put a newer OS on there this weekend. Thanks for all the help =]

 

Run an antivirus livecd as it sounds like it is pretty much unusable then recover the files you need. Install a legit OS and keep backups.

 

Spyware Doctor is not an AV (antivirus) and unless you have the paid-for version and it is up to date, it will not be protecting you in realtime, either.

The chances of this machine having malware are very high.

I'd definitely be looking at some of the suggestions above. You would need a clean computer to download and burn a BART CD.
Here is a link to the Avira one.

I've never heard of "Black XP", which sounds a bit iffy. If it is a pirate OS, you should really be ready to loose it, which means any data on the hard drive that you want or need, you will have to try to back up to an external media, such as CDs or a flash drive.

 

Best not to. There are plenty of live power supplies in a turned -on computer, so it's fairly dangerous.
That you have to ask the question suggests that you don't know enough to do this safely.
If there is quite a bit of dust in it - especially around the small fan - best turn it off, disconnect it, then clean it.
But I think physical cleaning is not the only thing it needs, just one of several things, that have also been suggested above.

 

Hello midnightrose37,
it seems to me that the version of xp your friend has is illegal...
make sure you get a legit version of windows to install.

the advice above is good.
it does sound like an infection tbh.

if you cant get rid of the malware i reccomend booting to safe mode and backing up any personal data and then do a fresh install.

 

Hello midnightrose37;

"Black XP" or "XP Black Version" is a pirated pseudo-version of Windows XP and leaves you wide open for malware attacks as it is not updated/patched for security.

You should avoid it like the proverbial plague !

If you need an operating system to get you by for a short period of time until you can purchase a legitimate copy of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7, try one of the free Linux distros, or you can legally download and use for 90 days a fully functional Windows 7 Enterprise trial.
It is said to be the finished product, exactly as what you would get if you bought Windows 7.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Windows-7.shtml

 

May as well give the microsoft link

 

BlackXP could certainly be described as "iffy",it features prominently on the warez sites and as Lodore says it's a heavily modded,cracked version of XP,very dodgy from a security perspective.

As for the OP I agree with the comments here suggesting hardware checks and checking fans for dust.Personally I'd go for a clean install of a genuine OS,it may be time consuming but at least you'll have a clean slate to work with.Once you've got it all updated and configured to your liking create an image with Macrium Reflect to avoid having to repeat the process in future.

 

I would even go further : you have to
1/ shutdown your PC
2/ disconnect mains (power) cable
3/ try to power it on, to empty all capacitors within

Then you may open it.