I know this isn't what people usually talk about in this forum, but do any of you guys know what I could possibly do in this situation:

A few days ago my dad's computer, aka the one I do all my schoolwork/save important stuff on, had a little problem. The monitor wouldn't work. It just kept flickering. So we took it off, then put it on the other computer, and it worked. So we put it back on the original computer and it worked again. Then two days ago the internet stops working. We spend a day getting it back up. Now today the internet still works, but the computer monitor was doing the flickering thing again. So we replaced the monitor with the other computer's monitor and turned the computer back on.

Then we get a blue screen saying that there's some error with installing something. We tried restarting the computer again and going into Safe Mode, but when we do that the computer goes back to the blue screen. So Safe Mode doesn't work.

Anyone have ANY idea what to do?

Get someone to burn you a CD copy of a CD bootable Lunix OS. Knoppix is a good one.

With this you can at least check the harddrive. If Windows won't run, it's either something wrong with the install, or the harddrive has suffered some damaged.

Knowing exactly what the blue screen says can help place the problem.

Do you have a spare video card to try out in case the current one is causing the damage? The monitor not working leads me to think it might be the video card.

killersteak
Do you have a spare video card to try out in case the current one is causing the damage? The monitor not working leads me to think it might be the video card.

I was thinking the same. It looks like a grafics related error.

So replace the video card with a spare or buy a new one.

Thanks for the input guys, but a really computer-savy guy with a bunch of diagnostic equipment came today to check out the problem. Seems that computer hard drives these days are only designed to last a year at the rate that most people run them. Apparently something gave out in the computer, destroying the hard-drive. We might be able to recover the data, but it may be corrupted beyond repair.

:( Oh well. Time to move on and not be materialistic. This is definitly gonna teach me to make backups of my work for school every weekend. (Arrg…I have so much work to do now…)

next time buy an extenal hardrive. i've got 2 and I burn my old stuff so that i will always have back up

Yeah, it does sound like someone wants you to buy a new hard drive.

I'm not saying he's necessarily wrong, but it is a rather shaky diagnosis given the information you've related. Video drivers will cause they symptoms you're having, as well as many of the viruses you can get online. Have you tried running a Hard Drive diagnostic like GWSCAN on your hard drive, or one of the free ones you can get online? Perhaps a scan from the manufacturer? Unless your hard drive is rattling, clicking, or grinding loudly I would take that ‘replace the hard drive’ schpiel with a grain of salt.

Have you tried going to Safe Mode Command Prompt? And what version of Windows are you running? Have you tried a System Restore? Does that option even come up?

Give more info, please…

ccs1989
Seems that computer hard drives these days are only designed to last a year at the rate that most people run them.

Sounds fishy to me.
I've had my two computers for several years and never had any harddrive problems. Hell, the win98 im using now is over 10 years old and is working perfectly.

A Hard-drive's average lifespan is really indeterminate from one PC to another because of too many varibles that are not revealed to us. Things like processor speed, RAM, and cache memory come into play. The less you have, the harder the PC needs to work to keep up. Not to mention the applications you run (like gaming and art) that gobble up A LOT of resources and grind away at the HD.

Hard drives are moving pieces of equipment, and they do wear, just like any other piece of machinery. And that guy is probably right that they do work harder these days. But I agree the one year thing seems fishy. Unless the thing that gave out was a cooling fan.

As a side note, Hewlett Packard claims that thier HD's last 3-5 years. That's usually when I go and get a new comp, anyway.

I would also recommend an external HD, or at the very least a flash drive (thumb drive).

subcultured
next time buy an extenal hardrive. i've got 2 and I burn my old stuff so that i will always have back up

Or an internal hardrive with an external case. That always works well financially if you plan on getting more.

It actually makes sense that the hard-drive gave out, after all that I've heard about the things, because this was a family computer. That means it was usually on from 8 AM in the morning to 10 PM at night, because we use it for everything from paying bills to doing endless amounts of homework. But yeah, I'm definitly backing up my stuff now.