Hi

Had a computer malfunction this week in that it refused to boot up properly. It would only get as far as the point where the Welcome Screen should appear and then it stuck

My Son in Law managed to come round for a couple of hours last night - right before he was driving off for his holiday - and at least got it running well enough for me to use, even if not perfectly yet.

However, I found today that neither of the two external drives I use now show in Windows Explorer.
I've tried plugging them into different slots but it hasn't made any difference.

Also, when I hit the Turn Off icon from the Start Menu, although Windows closes down the machine itself doesn't switch off.
I get a message on screen telling me I can now safely turn it off !!

Can anyone offer any (simple) advice, please ??

WinXP Home SP3
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ MMX 3DNow ~ 2.0GHz
ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 3650 AGP
SB Live! 24-bit
2048MB RAM
DirectX 9.c

Cheers.

Mad

If you haven't done a chkdsk, do one now. If your hard drive is starting to fail, it's better to know sooner rather than later so you have time to back up your files. So do a chkdsk scan that includes a surface scan.

I found ***this tweak***. It didn't work for the person who posted, but it might work for you.

Also scroll down ***this page*** to the section on "POWERDOWN ISSUES" for some other ideas.

For the external drives, make sure your USB drives are working. Check in Device Manager to make sure there are no conflicts.

Under Device Manager are there any indications that your USB ports are having issues?

You can also look under My Computer (Right click it and select Manage) - Do the drives have a letter assigned?

Peruse this link as well - it may help. External hard drive no longer shows up in My Computer

Perhaps this is a sign that you need to play Witcher 2!

Dunn

I ran chkdsk and there were no adverse reports.
[It said it was a "read only" affair. Is that right ??]

I still can't find signs of the two external drives anywhere, though.
So I took them both out and plugged a brand new one in but that didn't show up either !!

I haven't had time to try anything else yet but thanks - Jenny100 and InlandAZ

As for playing Witcher 2, Draclvr, I'd LOVE to.
I just need someone to "magic" me the money for the new machine I'll need

By any change did your son-in-law reinstall your operating system?
I recently had to blank and reinstall Vista and left my external hard drive plugged in. When I checked 'my computer' the drive did not show up, so I blanked and reinstalled again this time unplugging the hard drive first.
I plugged it back in and windows found it and installed the driver-all was okay.

Hi Upsydaisy

I wasn't in the room the whole time so I'm not totally sure what my Son in Law attempted.

But I've decided not to meddle with anything further myself and to wait until he comes back from holiday and can find the time to visit me again - as at least I can use the machine again till then, even if not fully

I'm nervous of losing it again

But I'll tell him what you've said. Thanks !!

Cheers.

Mad

Did you check Device Manager to see if there were any yellow exclamation marks there?

Yes, Jenny100, I did, thanks.
The only drives that show are the "permanent" internal ones and they are given "healthy" comments. No yellow exclamation marks anywhere.

I also used InlandAZ's link and followed the procedures listed there but nothing has made any difference

So, I'm not madly happy at the moment

If the yellow exclamation marks had shown up in Device Manager next to the USB listings, you'd know that was where your problem was.

I didn't mean for you to look at your built in hard drives, which are either IDE or SATA. But if something is wrong with your USB drivers, or you have a conflict with them, then fixing the USB problem might allow your external drives to work again. But if you see no yellow exclamation marks for anything in Device Manager, that's not the problem.

Mad, how are your external drives connected to the computer? Directly into the computer or by use of a USB hub?

No, I didn't see any yellow exclamation marks anywhere, Jenny100.
But I couldn't find any "USB Listings".

I have some small-ish flash drives that just plug directly into the back of the computer. [No cables.]

And I have two much larger ones that each have a cable - and the cables plug directly into the back of the computer.

Is that what you are asking, Homer6 ??

Look at Figure A in the following link -

Troubleshoot USB problems in Windows XP

If you don't see any errors in Device Manager (or the USB Controller itself), you should check the BIOS settings - it may be disabled there.

Looking at the list showing on that Figure A, my list doesn't include the following :

Processors
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
Universal Serial Bus controllers

But I am very technically "limited", InlandAZ, and certainly not upto delving in any BIOS stuff

I think I'll just have to cope "as is" until my Son in Law gets back from holiday

When he get's back - have him enter the BIOS setup and look for any USB settings that may have been disabled.

Hmmm... That could be your problem if no Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controllers are listed. Hopefully your son-in-law can check to see if they are disabled in the BIOS.

Thank you ALL !!!!

A little late in my reply, Mad, but yes. That's what I was asking.

But because your drives are plugged directly into the computer checking the USB hub is a moot point.

Homer6

And what type of cable would that be? Firewire?

I've no idea, InlandAZ

The end of the cable that goes into the computer looks just the same as the one on the end of a "stick" type flash drive.

And the one on the other end, that plugs into the drive itself, looks like a similar but miniaure version.

That's USB then.
Firewire (aka IEEE 1394) looks like the pictures here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire

Thanks, Jenny100

My Son in Law is back, has already been round to see me, and has now sorted out everything that was wrong with my XP machine !!

How kind is that ??

He also fixed my old Win98 machine whilst he was here, too !!
[He replaced a failed CD Drive ]

So, now I feel like running around (if only I could) and shouting out loud to housetops everywhere that "All Is Wonderful in my Personal Computer World"