Computer snag - help please

Posted by: GML on 04 July 2004

If anyone can help me with this problem I would be obliged.

Scandisk fails to complete and after 10 attempts it tells me that Windows or another program is writing to the drive even after disabling the usual programs, anti virus, firewall etc.

So what on earth is now running in the background that wasn't before?

Defrag is also now unable to complete also, it fails to pass the 1% mark.

How can I see just what is running in the background to bin it?

My O/S is Windows M.E. (you know the one with blue screens and fatal exception errors) and a full virus scan was negative.

Regards...George.

Posted on: 04 July 2004 by dave simpson

Hi George,

Reboot into "Safe Mode" by striking the "F5" key before Windows loads. It may take considerably longer than normal to load your desktop (in Safe Mode). The computer is now running with a minimal amount of processes which allows scandisk and disk defrag to complete their tasks. Note your desktop will take on a funny, grainy appearance as the video drivers aren't loaded (normal and expected). Upon completion of these utilities, simply reboot normally.

hope this helps,

dave

Posted on: 04 July 2004 by GML

Thanks Dave

Both tasks sucessfully completed in 'Safe Mode'.

Has anyone any ideas on what or why something should start running in the background, I haven't installed anything new. Lastly, how do I view these background programs?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Regards...George.

Posted on: 04 July 2004 by andy c

If you click on 'start, then 'run', then type in 'msconfig', this will then take you to several options. One of those is applications running. Click on that and you will see what applications have loaded from the start.

The last time I had this problem I saved what I needed to and re-formatted!

After that I was very careful about what programs I installed.

No doubt someone will correct me but i haven't needed to re-format in quite a while etc etc

andy c

Posted on: 04 July 2004 by Hawk

Try hitting ctrl alt and delete keys together just once, this should give you a task list which is in effect the programs that are running... The other thing that you might want to check is your start up folder, everything in it will be run everytime you switch on..

rgds

Neil

Posted on: 04 July 2004 by dave simpson

Just be careful what processes you stop with Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del). System instability (and data loss) can be the result.

regards,

dave

Posted on: 05 July 2004 by GML

Thanks everyone,

In the end I decided to bin everthing and start all over again. What a headache but at least things appear to be OK now.

I suppose Windows XP is the answer to these niggles.

Regards...George.