[colug-432] Recommission Older Computer

[Rick Hornsby]

On May 28, 2017 at 09:37:57, Stephen P. Molnar (s.molnar at sbcglobal.net)
wrote:
...

Up to a point, that is. I got the first part of the login, that is the
computer spooling up and checking the RAM (which passed the test) and I
got the XP selection window where I selected the normal startup, and
then a white strip across the bottom of the monitor screen and . . .
nothing.

Obviously, even from my limited hardware experience, I suspect there is
a problem with the OS. I still have the installation disk, but I was
thinking of upgrading the OS to Windows 7 (I'm writing on my production
tower which is running Debian v-8.8).

I'd appreciate some comments as to what I might try to get the older
computer running again.

Can you boot successfully in safe mode? If so, then you might (might) have
a resolvable driver issue or startup application issue. You should be able
to use 'msconfig' to turn off applications that are launching on boot. One
of them may be the source of your trouble. Easiest approach is to disable
them all, and see if you can boot normally. If that works, enable them one
at a time - rebooting after each one. Eventually you find the culprit.

Otherwise, you're probably going to need to format and reinstall. Windows,
at least older versions, has a tendency to corrupt itself over time, and
there's not much use fighting the OS, or trying to fix it after a certain
point. You'll just end up beating your head on the wall and accomplish
nothing of value.
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