PC crash

[doylebob]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a little guidance please. My PC locked up over the weekend - frozen solid (Thank you Mr Gates). I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP3 on a CompaqX 09, running FS9.

When it froze, I shut it down by holding the power button down for a few seconds. When I tried to restart the PC, it would not complete the start up process. I freaked a little because I hadn't done a backup in about 5 months! I felt sure all was lost and I'd have to do a full restore. It was late at night so I had to leave it till later and went to bed. The next day, I inserted my recovery CD, blessed myself and pressed start. I got a message almost immediately "Overclocking failed" It gave me two options (F1=Setup or F2=Default Settings). Not really understanding where I stood, I chose the F2 option. The PC started up normally.

I thanked God a million times as I began to backup everything. After several hours, I did a Windows update, restarted the PC, and everything seems to be performing OK since. My question is what does the overclocking message mean and should I do a full restore or just leave it be.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Bob

[pung]

Some experts say that this message can refer to any number of possibilities. If you've done no changes to your BIOS, it could just be overheating. Make sure your fan(s) are working, and you should open your case and blow out accumulated dust and dirt. Believe me, no matter how clean you think is is, there will be dirt and dust. Actually all computers should be cleaned every six months to prevent problems. I use a portable hard drive for my sim back-up.. Back up up your
PC, if you don't get a problem within a week, you probably will be O. K. My VISTA system did that about four months ago, and after minor tweaking I've had no problems.

[ashaman]

Another source of problems is the power adapter and even the power line's cleanliness. If where you live you have the luck, like I do, that the power line is unclean and rich of continuous problems (because nearby there are factories that have huge hunger for power and their continuous on/off to save some expenses on the power bill is creating transients and continuous fluctuations, bringing you every moment nearer to seriously consider bombing the site and make them stop for good to ruin your life, like in my case ), you better buy a good UPS for every PC you have.

Once done this ask yourself if the power adapter of the PC is safely sized. If you have a powerful PC, but a small, little and cheap power adapter, that's asking for problems.

Rest assured that I do understand you have a Compaq, but I do not know the reliability of this brand's hardware.