I need help fixing my moms pc.

[BroKenFingers]

Better that you install a fresh copy of vista on your place drive..then just transfer the files that she cannot replace..ie photos, docs and such. Do the same when you get the permanent drive as well.It is a lot of work,but makes the system cleaner.  

If that is not an option..than FIRST clear the HD of all the bloat.I use Bleach bit and Glarys utilities to remove the clutter. Take your time and research what you want to remove.  

http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/

http://www.glarysoft.com/

 

I have not cloned a HDD in a very long time..so I do not feel comfortable recommending  disk cloning software. Ask in the Software section and I am sure you will get an answer shortly.. :)  

[trainergames]

Better that you install a fresh copy of vista on your place drive..then just transfer the files that she cannot replace..ie photos, docs and such. Do the same when you get the permanent drive as well.It is a lot of work,but makes the system cleaner.  

If that is not an option..than FIRST clear the HD of all the bloat.I use Bleach bit and Glarys utilities to remove the clutter. Take your time and research what you want to remove.  

http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/

http://www.glarysoft.com/

 

I have not cloned a HDD in a very long time..so I do not feel comfortable recommending  disk cloning software. Ask in the Software section and I am sure you will get an answer shortly.. :)  

Well i don't have a copy of vista lying around,and when she bought it,it did not come with the disks,could i legally DL a copy of vista and just use her key? also if i can,does it have to be also 32bit,or could i install 64 bit and her key work?(i looked at her COA sticker say the bit on it like i know some of the old XP ones did.)

[BroKenFingers]

I would not think so..you could contact Microsoft. I have had some good results talking with them.

[trainergames]

I would not think so..you could contact Microsoft. I have had some good results talking with them.

I might call them,but i mainly was going to just upgrade he to 4gb of ram(i have some extra ram).

 

Also i know that once my brother in law called hp for the OS disks for an older hp that was bought from a rent a center(a long time ago,he current one was her upgrade lol)that refused to give us the disks,and HP charged us for them.

 

So i am a little worried what microsoft might say.

 

EDIT:I was going to start backing it up this morning,and found it saying "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" so i think the drive has died.

[trainergames]

Well, i installed a temp drive(which i am 99% sure it was good) and it also said at first it would only say"A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" when we were trying to boot from usb,but while i wast running somewhere my brother in law messed with the bios and rebooted it a few times it got it to work,then we got vista reinstalled for her,i installed the drivers for her usb wi-fi card(was there before the problems started) and was in the middle of setting it up,i also had windows explorer open,and WMP to make sure the sound was working.

Then it BSOD and said "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" agian, i restarted it agian and agian and nothing,i left for work and my brother in law got it to boot again,i just asked him and he told me he got it to run agian by unplugging a usb hard drive that was hooked up,but he doesn't think it is causing the problem,cause even after leaving it unplugged,it has been running slow,and feels like it is bogged down,despite the fact that it is a fresh install,plus to do the install we ended up downloading the exact same verison of vista that she had,and installed it using her key,so it does not have all the HP bloatware to bog it down.

What could be casuing the problem? My brother in law(works for a server hosting company)thinks it might be the sata controller might be going out,or mabye just the sata port that it is plugged into.

What do you guys think? 

[BroKenFingers]

Well a fresh install of any OS should have some snap to it..and with the errors on how you got to this stage..it is not beyond thinking that there is a controller issue

Download this program..so if do get a BSOD ..we at least could read where it comes from.. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

 

Can you strip the system down to just a HDD, GPU and no other devices/drivers loaded..?

Have a look at the BIOS and recheck what is enabled..disable the NIC port, and disable all the serial ports ,COM  ports and firewire (1394) ports, disable the Sound card..ALL you want is the SATA ports running.

Do not use the USB WiFi

Have a look at at how the SATA ports are set (IDE or ACHI)..IDE may be a safer bet.

Plug the USB drive into the rear of the computer..choose a new port.

[trainergames]

Ok, i was testing around with her pc at first in windows,and the way it was lagging for me was i would have to most of the time,double or triple click(sometimes more)just to do any thing,i was thinking since the gpu drivers were not installed and WEI scored the gpu at 1.0 because of it,and vista was trying to run aero,i decided to try and install the driver and half way trough the install i had little to no lag from the driver install program,but other programs were still lagging,also i noticed that with resource monitor open,it took it 30-45 seconds to close out something i had up.

 

The i shut down,and i decided to check the bios,and i noticed the SATA ports were set to RAID,so i thought mabye that is the problem,so i change to AHCI,and it starts to boot and asks if i want to start windows normally,or in safe mode,and if i pick either it will reboot and do the same thing, i then tried IDE mode,and it did the same thing,it will only boot if set to RAID.

 

If it helps the drive i let her till i can get her another is a 2TB Hitachi drive,and crystal disk info says it is good.

[trainergames]

Well i found out something new,with the still fresh install(sans a USB wifi car driver,and a gpu driver)it runs great after a re-boot,but after only an hour of running doing NOTHING it has slowed down to a crawl...