Techy Geeky help needed

[Soupdragon]

Morning Ladies and Gents. Help needed from the non computer biffs amongst you please. i thought i was pretty able with PC's until this one came along, its stumped me.

just to start you off, the pc itself is an Advent 3306 running XP Home edition (SP2)

The problem started the other evening when clicking on a desktop icon resulted in every icon between the one i clicked on and the top of the screen being highlighted. (oh and the caps lock on the keyboard has no effect, all i can do is type in upper case).

In the end i thought it best to try a system restore... only of course i found out that the mouse will not work in that section and keyboard commands will not let you select a date to restore to... ho hum..

OK, time to bite the bullet and do a System Recovery (thats a reinstall Windows for you non Advent users). only problem is..... neither of the DVD or CD-RW drives are working... System manager says they are both there and reports no problems with them, however, put a disc in either of them and nothing happens, the lights flash on as if its searching and then it says... 'Insert a disc'

Any ideas, (useful) comments etc much appreciated before i throw the heap of junk out into the garden

 

[Soon To Leave]

Did this machine have access to the internet?

 

[MontyPlumbs]

Morning Ladies and Gents. Help needed from the non computer biffs amongst you please. i thought i was pretty able with PC's until this one came along, its stumped me.

just to start you off, the pc itself is an Advent 3306 running XP Home edition (SP2)

The problem started the other evening when clicking on a desktop icon resulted in every icon between the one i clicked on and the top of the screen being highlighted. (oh and the caps lock on the keyboard has no effect, all i can do is type in upper case).

In the end i thought it best to try a system restore... only of course i found out that the mouse will not work in that section and keyboard commands will not let you select a date to restore to... ho hum..

OK, time to bite the bullet and do a System Recovery (thats a reinstall Windows for you non Advent users). only problem is..... neither of the DVD or CD-RW drives are working... System manager says they are both there and reports no problems with them, however, put a disc in either of them and nothing happens, the lights flash on as if its searching and then it says... 'Insert a disc'

Any ideas, (useful) comments etc much appreciated before i throw the heap of junk out into the garden

Soup, quick questions for you:

1) Does the hard drive sound like it is working? (Busy light, noise of spinning etc)

2) Have you recently changed anything in the BIOS?

3) Are there any other hardware failures such as your webcam, display etc

Im getting the feeling it could be a system board failure. How au fais are you with taking the cover off and having a look?

 

[pie sandwich]

Have you tried to boot up the comp in safe mode?

If you have fitted any on board sound cards extra USB cards etc etc into a PCI slot then remove them (don't forget power off first).

While you have your cover off, get a new paint brush and give inside all the fans and heatsinks a good clean, you would be surprised just how much cr4p gets in there.

Then reboot in safe mode, and see if there is any improvment, if so then reboot in normal mode if fixed then great if not go back to safe mode and do a system restore to a previous date, if that still fails but you can still get access to all your files then you might want to get an external HDD to copy your files onto before you format the HDD and reinstall windows. Which is what I had to do a while back when a USB card took down my old comp.

 

[Soupdragon]

did the machine have access to the internet? yes, altho it hasn't now

hard drive is working ok by the sound of it, lights are on and flashing away as usual, sounds ok as well.

No changes to BIOS made ever i think... certainly none done recently

no hardware failures noticed, i dont have webcam on it, display is working just fine

 

[denthemen]

Shift Key?

Shift Key?

Soup, it sounds, from your first statement that one of the SHift keys has stuck down on your keyboard, this can then cause loads of problems as keyboard entries ain't what you think they are.

Only a guess like.........

 

[mad_collie]

Soup, it sounds, from your first statement that one of the SHift keys has stuck down on your keyboard, this can then cause loads of problems as keyboard entries ain't what you think they are.

Only a guess like.........

Agreed. Try another keyboard.

Maybe all the coffee sprayed across the keyboard and screen from the witty banter on here has finally taken it's toll.

 

[pie sandwich]

Agreed. Try another keyboard.

Maybe all the coffee sprayed across the keyboard and screen from the witty banter on here has finally taken it's toll.

DT_Xtremez_30: What witty banter ?? DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[Soon To Leave]

You have confirmed that you uses the machine on the internet. In which case it may be possible that you have been attacked by a virus that may have infected the hard drive, possibly including the boot sector.

Try the easy things first that have been suggested by others. I have witnessed similar symptoms from a faulty keyboard myself. DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[PVRisthefuture]

Agreed. Try another keyboard.

Maybe all the coffee sprayed across the keyboard and screen from the witty banter on here has finally taken it's toll.

I concur. Another keyboard first before trying an axe.

 

[Scaley brat]

Agreed. Try another keyboard.

Maybe all the coffee sprayed across the keyboard and screen from the witty banter on here has finally taken it's toll.

Do I detect the slightest hint of sarcasm in that remark ? DT_Xtremez_26: DT_Xtremez_30:

did the machine have access to the internet? yes, altho it hasn't now

No changes to BIOS made ever i think... certainly none done recently

no hardware failures noticed, i dont have webcam on it, display is working just fine

You said your connected to the internet. Have you glued a key down ? DT_Xtremez_34:

It happens with some of the sites I frequent DT_Xtremez_42:
Welcome to the perils of one handed net surfing.









Before you get the wrong idea, I meant eating a bacon butty while on the net...... you dirty minded barstewards ! :: DT_Xtremez_29:

 

[R_Squared]

Is this http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/pc/3306.htm your system?

Are the Keyboard and Mouse combo USB or PS2? Try swapping them out.

As to the Drive problem, you will have to pop the side off your system.

Firstly, check all the cable connections (Power and IDE) are firmly seated.

Check the configuration of the drives, You most likely have your hard disc as Master to your Primary IDE channel, and the 2 optical drives set as master and slave to your secondary IDE channel

I would suggest connecting only 1 optical drive at a time to the secondary channel. (be careful of the jumper settings)

If still no joy, swap the IDE cables about too with a spare if possible.

As a last resort hook 1 optical drive up as a slave to your Hard drive.

If none of this is working it suggests a further problem, but let us know how you get on with this for a start.

 

[Soupdragon]

It happens with some of the sites I frequent DT_Xtremez_42:
Welcome to the perils of one handed net surfing.

Strangely, im not surprised by that at allDT_Xtremez_35:

well, can i just say, many many thanks to all who contributed to solving this problem... it was indeed, the keyboard, im now running on an old wireless one im glad i didn't throw away.

Scaley, care to recommend any of your meat eating sites?

 

[pie sandwich]

The types of sites SB goes to would make an old sea dog like you blush or give you a heart attack.

From the site he showed me I still think doing things like that with a tesco's shopping trolly and a copy of anglers mail are illegal DT_Xtremez_42:

 

[monobrow]

Problem solved, thread closed (before it gets too off topic)