Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Computer Usage and Setup Help => Topic started by: ruler501 on April 25, 2011, 06:42:36 pm
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I have a problems with my Windows XP install on my computer. When I start it up about 1 minute after my desktop appears my computer almost completely locks up. I can not open new programs and all that I opened accept for Task Manager do not work. I can work with my computer in safe mode though. I want to install linux on this computer but my parents say I can't because I need Microsoft office to work(We have windows version) and they want all he other programs they have to work.
Any help you can give me would be appreciated. If you need more info to help me just ask.
If this is not something I can fix myself and am going to have to pay to get it fixed I need to know about how much that would be. because if it is enough I might be able to convince my parents it would be better to just replace it with linux
EDIT: when I try to start a program it never appears but it says It is started in the processes of the task manager. They freeze up at certain memory usage. Control panel will start but If I try to go into any of the categories then it freezes up
EDIT2:Please don't suggest for me to install a form of linux. I would love to but My parents have told me I can't.
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Can't you just use google docs, koffice, or one of the many different types of openoffice instead of Microsoft office?
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My parents want other things like TurboTax to work also.
They are kind of scared of Linux on our good computers
anyways they're my parents and get the final say reasoning doesn't work usually
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Hmm, you should check to see how well TurboTax works under Wine because then they might not have to worry about that.
I don't know what would be causing the issues on your computer though unfortunately.
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Well, to start off (if possible), why don't you open task manager and go to processes, write down a quick list of the processes that are taking up the most CPU and memory, then post them here and I'll take a look. Or if you want to be adventurous you could just right click and hit end process but if you kill something important you will have to restart the computer, on the other hand you don't have much to lose if it locks up anyways...
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When it locks up I have to manually restart the computer anyway.
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What anti-virus software are you using? Any extra background services (like web servers etc)? What are the stats on this computer (like ram and cpu)? How long ago did this start happening?
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3 gb RAM 2.67 ussable
2.66ghz dual core processor
No background stuff on this computer
It started about 2 weeks ago but I have not had times to try and fix it until recently.
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I've never had much success removing crapware from a windoze install, the only thing I can suggest is to format and start fresh. That said, the latest version of Ubuntu works really well... and MS Office (2007 and older) works great under wine.
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I would love to just go over and install linux but my parents say I can't.
i would also be fine formatting it but my parents decided I need to save the information as much as I can.
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I would love to just go over and install linux but my parents say I can't.
i would also be fine formatting it but my parents decided I need to save the information as much as I can.
How much free space is on the hard drive?
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Can you just attach the hard drive to another computer backup all the data then do the format?
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Can you just attach the hard drive to another computer backup all the data then do the format?
If he has a few free gigabytes, he can either dual-boot ubuntu or just use wubi. He'd have access to all the files on the windoze install from linux, and be able to boot into WinXP if he ever needed to.
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I have lots of free space on my computer just its all in the C:\ partition with my XP install.
I only have 11mb unallocated
I have tried getting the dual boot setup but I can't without shrinking the C:\partition and making a new one for Linux
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hmm, perhaps you could do a dual boot, search through the harddrive for any bad/useless/corrupted/etc files, boot into windows, thus requiring no change in OS? it should be easy enough to make a USB boot with a 2 gig USB memory stick and a copy of ubuntu :D
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I only have 11mb unallocated
That's normal.
I have tried getting the dual boot setup but I can't without shrinking the C:\partition and making a new one for Linux
Is there a problem doing that? As long as you don't kill the PC when the linux installer is re-sizing the partition it should work fine.
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I currently using a LiveCD. that is the only way for me to use this computer currently.
how exactly would I do that qazz42?
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I currently using a LiveCD. that is the only way for me to use this computer currently.
how exactly would I do that qazz42?
By opening your file browser, mounting the C partition, and "searching through the harddrive for any bad/useless/corrupted/etc files" :P
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I currently using a LiveCD. that is the only way for me to use this computer currently.
how exactly would I do that qazz42?
if you wanna install on a USB use, http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
I think
OH, NO, it is http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ I do beleive that booting from the flash drive means you do not have to bother with partitions and such
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I currently using a LiveCD. that is the only way for me to use this computer currently.
how exactly would I do that qazz42?
By opening your file browser, mounting the C partition, and "searching through the harddrive for any bad/useless/corrupted/etc files" :P
what? I not very computer savvy on some topics. all I can do is code. How do I mount the partition?
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Once you save the files what you could do is virtualize windows on linux using virtual box which will you to allow windows 'in' linux and thus all windows apps
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just get an empty memory stick, use the live USB creator to load the ubuntu iso (or whatever linux os you want :D) to it (make sure said usb stick is 2GB or more and is empty) and after, bott into it from the boot options of your computer :D
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Once you save the files what you could do is virtualize windows on linux using virtual box which will you to allow windows 'in' linux and thus all windows apps
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As someone who did exactly what you suggest when I started using linux, I can say that native apps/wine is far better then virtualbox.
As far as booting from USB/LiveCD goes, non-destructive dual-boot or wubi is much faster than USB/CD. Wubi is like booting a livecd off of your hard drive, dual-boot is the real deal except you can go back to windoze whenever you wish with all your data intact.
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ruler501, when you install (for example) Ubuntu, you can choose to install it next to Windows.
The installer will then automatically resize the windows partition and add the Linux one.
Then you will be able to choose what OS you want when you startup.
Edit:
What I mean is that you don't have to do it by hand.
And don't worry, I did many partition re-sizings, and never had a problem.
Also, you might want to defragment (this is not harmfull, just cleans up your disk) your harddrive before you install Ubuntu, because then there is even less chance that something goes wrong.
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I'm trying to install Linux Mint and I don't see the install alongside option.
I'll run the defragmenter while I'm at school today
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Hmm, strange, it should be there. What version of mint are you using?
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I've installed mint recently, and if I remember correctly it was a tiny bit more convoluted. Try googling for a tutorial, I think there are a few out there. I would find a link for you but I don't have the time ATM.