Computer freak out

Spent some time in maintenance. I did a de-frag, but less than 3% was fragmented. I ran ad-aware again - no issues there. Then I spent a couple hours checking out new computer prices. If I have to go that route... maybe y'all can make some suggestions for good cheap laptops and good cheap desktops. Thanks.....

Littlek, have you enabled boot logging? If you did, what is the file ntbootlog.txt saying about any problems loading drivers? If you didn't, could you try it the next time you boot?

http://www.watchingthenet.com/how-to-enable-boot-logging-for-fixing-startup-problems-in-windows.html

As boring as it may sound, I have generally been satisfied with the value-to-price ratio of my bourgeois Dell laptops. For more specific advice, can you tell us what you usually use your computer for? A basic machine for typing letters and surfing the web can be pretty cheap. If you watch a lot of movies on Hulu, you may want to invest some more money into a graphic card.

Another thought: Have you run chkdsk on your hard drive(s)? If so, what problems did it report, if any?

I printed the article from your link. I ran chkdsk (whatever it was) and I watched it run, but it produced no log. No errors. It deleted two files.

RE: computers, I don't know what I want. Actually, I want what I can't afford. The options that I can afford seems to sort of suck.

I would not rule out a desktop, but the prices for them don't seem to be that drastically different from laptops (when did that happen?). I guess I need to be able to get online, watch videos (can't do that with this computer), and store huge quantities of photos. I think I'd prefer Windows 7 over Vista. I'd love to have a gaming computer, but I can't afford one. Looking to spend less than 400 dollars (preferably around 300).

I recently ran chkdsk, and like you, I got no log and no report of errors. A big "however"; it runs better.

Interesting.....

That's good. It suggests there's no physical problem with your hard disk for chkdsk to log. It was the boot logging option I was expecting a log from. Did you get around to activating it yet?

$300-400? I suppose you basically can choose between three product categories: Netbooks, the trailing edge of current notebooks, and refurbished notebooks. Personally, I dislike the small screens of netbooks, though it may not be an issue if you can hook it up to your current monitor. (Oh, speak of the devil: Have we ruled out yet that your monitor is the culprit for those psychedelic patterns? I don't see where yet. Can you connect your computer with some other monitor in the house, or your monitor to a different computer?)

I also dislike the risk factors of buying used and refurbished laptops. You never know what hidden defects they may have. On top of that, a Munich friend of mine got burned because his "pre-owned" laptop turned out to have been stolen from its pre-owner. Not a typical case, but possible. But your risk preference may differ; if it does, I saw some decent-looking options by searching Amazon.com for "laptop" and selecting a $200-$400 price range.

Personally, I would go with new, low-end laptops. The ones that looked best to me so far were the ones I found at bestbuy.com.

I suspect all this basically restates what you figured out by yourself anyway. But that's how far I got.

This suggests that you are probably running in vga mode at 640x480
Go to device manager and see if the video card is listed.
Then check to see if it is enabled.

If it is enabled then try changing your screen resolution.

If it isn't enabled, then try updating the driver for it before you try enabling it.

At this point, it still points to a corrupted driver or a bad video card.

This might not be for you k,

but last week I went on Craig's List to look for a starter computer for my brother.
I just looked in my immediate neighborhood and found a 3 year old HP tower for $45. (It had a 60 gig hard drive which I consider sufficient and XP home edition)

When I went to pick it up the guy said he'd been using it as a back-up and it was pretty fresh. I agreed.
I noticed he had a flat screen monitor and I bought that for $100. He threw in a keyboard and mouse and voila. A decent computer set up for $145. I love that thing and can't seem to get it to my brother's

Two possibilities occur to me.

1. The video card is having hardware issues. If that's the case, then you are probably out of luck.
2. More likely, the problem is with your video driver. If you'll provide the model number of your laptop, I can show you how to find the latest driver that matches your system.

I tried the bootlog. I set it up as Thomas' link said (I think), and I booted up. It started in normal boot. I went to look for the bootlog and found nada.

However, I paid more attention to the windows error logs. I wrote them down and then went to look for them - no luck.

I disabled the thing on purpose. Card or driver? I have no idea anymore.

DD - is this what you're looking for?: acer-586e497f47

I feel like you all are doing to much work.

I suppose that this is what parados is now asking you to find out. You have disabled the driver in Device manager. Now your graphic card drives your monitor in 480x640 VGA mode.

Now the next question is, will things work at some resolution between 480x640 and whatever resolution you were using before? To find that out, you could re-enable your graphics card's driver and gradually ramp up the resolution. Start with 480x640. If that doesn't work, it means your driver is corrupt, because we already know your card and your monitor can do that. If it succeeds at 480x640, 600x800, and 768x1024 pixels, but fails at 1024x1280, we still don't know if it's the card, the driver, or the monitor -- but at least you could work with a bigger picture than what you now have.


But the work is fun! Think of us as four Dr. Houses trying to figure out what's wrong with your patient. Now, if only we could worsen our bedside manner so as to make you cry in the process ....

No, it should be something like "Acer Aspire 3630", or something like that.

You can go to the Acer website, select "Service and Support", drill down to your model, and then download the video driver.

Acer Aspire 5000

You do realize you're speaking to computer geeks. This is not work, this is fun.

Great minds ....