Fixed a Computer by Removing Software

On several occasions, I have fixed something by taking out parts. This can work with hardware sometimes, and in many cases, I have fixed computers by deleting software.

Two days ago I received a non-functioning computer that a friend asked me to fix. This particular computer has been prone to occasional file corruption anyway, but recently it stopped booting up and got hung partway through the XP start up process.

Since I usually have photos with my blog, here is a boring photo of the computer.


First, I used the free "Avira AntiVir Rescue System" bootable CD to check for viruses and it found some which it then renamed to deactivate them. (http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html)

Since the master boot record was trashed, I used an XP install disk in rescue mode to fix the master boot record. Both the fixmbr & fixboot commands were needed in this case. Still in rescue mode, I repaired problem sectors on the disk using the "chkdsk /r" command.

Now it was boot-able but not really fixed since it had crash problems when defragging the hard drive. It turns out that it has some accelerator drivers from Intel that are not really compatible with Windows XP and this was causing read/write issues on the hard drive. Why these were there I don't know.

Solution: Use Add/Remove programs in the control panel to remove the bad software! Now if works great and my friend is happy. I like happy friends.