I have a Compaq Presario 5WV294. It is about 5 yrs. old with no problems until sometime last year. (The antivirus Never worked though). It started freezing up on different occasions and at random and the system restore quit working.
I upgraded the RAM to 384 MB and installed an Nvidia MX 4000 video card. The freezing still continued to get worse. I took the computer to a repair shop and asked them to check it out, reformat the hard drive (in case of a virus) and load windows xp pro on it (it came factory with windows ME). The next day the system froze again, so I called and the guy told me to run the SpyBot to check for spyware. I did that and scanned for virus' (which I think it had few). The computer worked fine for about 3 weeks, played the sims 2 and everything. Then the freezes started again and got worse each time, with it finally not even loading xp. It would go to the blue windows screen and freeze. I ordered the windows xp pro software and loaded it to the repair screen. Finally got it to where it will start and load, but it usually won't run longer than 10 min. sometimes it will still freeze as soon as windows loads.
I read on TigerDirect about the power supply, so I was thinking I may need to upgrade the 250 watt to at least a 400 watt. I also thought about upgrading the hard drive to 160 GB. I finally got the BeLarc advisor installed and it shows the hard drive has a healthy status. I had thought it may have bad files or a virus.... would that show up on BeLarc?
Also when I reloaded xp it messed up my antivirus, so now I think it said the driver was missing. When I browsed the xp cd I didn't find any way of reloading the norton antivirus.
Sorry that I intruded on someone elses thread, but I need help fast. I got to have my computer before next semester starts in a few weeks!
Thank you so much for your interest in helping!
TC

First off Norton has nothing to do with XP per se. It would be on it's own disk.
Also there are free Anti-Viruses that are better & less intrusive to XP.

You can get a diagnostic for your hard drive depending on the manufacturer. Belarc will list that under drives.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

I would suggest upgrading your BIOS as seen here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...name=c00007682

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...&product=93935

If you have a full version XP CD I would also suggest doing a Repair Install as seen here:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

What antivirus would you recommend for xp and where do I find it?

BeLarc does not list a name for my hard drive, only a series of letters & numbers: ST340823A (Hard drive) (40.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 7EF0YY9P, rev 3.05, SMART Status: Healthy

I have made the copy of the updated BIOS to a floppy and installed per instructions, but when I check the BIOS it still shows the old numbers, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong there.

I have done the xp repair before, that may be what happened to Norton, but I can try it again.
So, do you think the problem is with the files and not the hard drive or power supply?

Thanks so much for helping! P.S. I have the OEM version of xp pro
I also have a list of the Error Log I printed out the other day:
9 From the Source DCOM: 7 of those were: The server (A1F4E726-8CF1-11D1-BF92-00600 81ED811) did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.
2 errors said: DCOM got error "%1058" attempting to start the service SENS with arguments ""in order to run the server: (D3938AB0-5B9D-11D1-8 DD2-00AA004ABD5E)

12 errors from Source - Service Control Manager: 10 of those were: The Dpt78xktmwv service failed to start due to the following error: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
1 error was: Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service to connect.
Last error read: The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control

ST is Seagate. Here is the diagnostic:

http://www.seagate.com/support/seato...toold_reg.html

I suggest the floppy diskette creator.

AVG AntiVirus here:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1/lng/us/tpl/v5

How did you try to install the BIOS?
What steps did you take? Did it indicate success? Did you do a boot flash?

An OEM repair usually recreates factory settings so would remove all added programs & data.

Can you clarify the nature of the XP CD you have? You say it's OEM & yet you said you upgraded from ME? Where did you get this CD & who is the manufacturer? Compaq?

I used the link from the Compaq site "Updating the BIOS" and I followed the steps there. I copied the update to a floppy and then booted from it. I completed all the installation steps, but I don't remember it saying success. I'm not sure what a boot flash is. My computer came from the factory with ME on it, but I took it to a repair shop and had them install xp pro. When I asked them if they could reload it, they said it would cost $100. so I looked on ebay and bought a brand new OEM full version microsoft windows xp pro with sp2 for the same price.
And another thing.... after I did the repair installation... most programs are still on my computer (I'm not sure if they still work), but everything in my documents were deleted.

I just tried doing the Seagate floppy diskette creator, but my diskette is too small and that's all I have. I am having to use my son's old computer and it doesn't have a cd-rw. If I can get my computer to run long enough to copy it to a cd, will that work?
And then do I boot my computer from that cd?
I just tried the ROMpaq disk again and a message popped up saying that the selection is not newer than the current ROM and then the computer froze again. Anyway, I guess I did manage to update the BIOS.
Before I do the xp repair again... if my stuff isn't already erased in The Sims 2, is there any way I can copy or save it to a cd?
Thanks!

When the Seagate download popsup choose RUN

It will then open a creator program.

I just loaded it on one 1.44MB diskette.
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Was the BIOS you downloaded a newer date than is being shown now?

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The OEM issue is confusing ... A Compaq PC usually would require a Compaq CD.

Don't know how this might be affecting the machine.

An OEM repair will usually remove all data with the exception of the Operating System.

To awnser the Sims or data recovery question you can try booting into safe mode.

As a worst case scenerio you can move the drive to another computer to extract data.

Okay, I just checked the BIOS and it is the newer date that I installed. When I clicked F10 to get out of there my screen went black & froze. I still hear it running, but the screen is froze.
On the Seagate disk, I did click on run and then chose to save it to a disk, but I got a message saying the file was too large. I don't know what size disk this is but it is supposed to be a high density diskette. I kept clicking on retry, but it wouldn't do it. I'll try again in a few.
I thought operating systems could be put on any computer. I didn't know I had to buy it from compaq. Oh Lord! Please don't tell me I wasted my money!

Do not save the Seagate download. Choose Run & then Run again. A program will startup on your computer that will instruct you to create the disk.

You probably didn't waste your money but you have added complications.

We will try to work them out.

If you had purchased a full version of XP then you could pretty much run it on any computer. OEM's are customised by the individual manufacturers.

Having the new BIOS is a start.