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abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:36 AM Mar 2021

Update concerning my ongoing experience with my WIN 7 computer...

I do this as a thank-you to all the help I've gotten from computer people here and also
hope that someone might be able to benefit from my experience. This is a little long
but it is original writing...

So I keep my WIN 7 machine in my bedroom where I also run a laptop running Vista
as backups. I regularly fire them both up to make sure things are working. I noticed
that the WIN7 unit had begun showing the Blue Screen of Catastrophic Failure
whenever I used it to access the internet, with text that said I had a disk failure. I tried to get into the 'set-up' or 'safe' modes and that wasn't working. I also noticed that I saw the words 'Keyboard Failure' a few times.

It only took me about 5 minutes to locate a new keyboard and swap that in and lo, soon
I was In Safe Mode With Command Prompt. After reviewing information on my WIN 10
machine I entered the command prompt "chkdsk C: /F /X /R" (Without the quotation marks and yes, there's a space before each / and a space before the C.) This command prompt was supposed to result in the analysis of the failure and repair of my disk. It took quite a while to run and when it was done I did a restart by entering "shutdown /r" (with a space before the /) and it restarted.

When I brought the machine back up and online what did I see but the Blue Screen Of Catastrophic Shutdown. But this time there was no disk warning. What I had instead was a suggestion to check the BIOS with a few settings that were recommended to check. So I got into the BIOS and never did find the recommended settings but did find one setting that was disabled and since the accompanying text said it should be enabled I did just that. So I got out and did another restart.

I went through start-up again and got online. I got one screen flicker and a little
box notice that said "Windows has recovered from an unexpected problem" and that
went away and I was up and running with no Blue Screen.

This happened several weeks ago and every week I fire up the WIN 7 unit and it just keeps chugging along. This makes me very happy, as you can imagine.

I keep getting update notices every time I turn on this unit. Remember that Microsoft was going to end support for WIN 7 over a year ago but that hasn't happened yet. I'm
not complaining but I do wonder why.

They all lived happily ever after. The End

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

CaliforniaPeggy

(149,296 posts)
1. Thanks for this great post! I think it's wonderful that you're a competent IT person.
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:43 AM
Mar 2021

You know just what to do and that's amazing. When I have problems, I call my IT guy and he fixes whatever is wrong.



abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
3. Thanks. I don't really consider myself an IT guy but I did train to be an Electronics Technician
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:52 AM
Mar 2021

and had lots of experience doing that. What that means is that I can read and follow instructions and having more than one computer with at least one of them working really
helps!

I just got done setting all my clocks ahead!

Lucinda

(31,170 posts)
2. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:47 AM
Mar 2021

So glad you were able to get it to a functional state again! Have you posted your question and the solution at any of the message boards for tech help? It could be useful for people to see what worked for you!

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
4. From what I've seen the tech boards can be really slow but here in GD they'll see it
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:56 AM
Mar 2021

sooner. Then of course they can save it if they want.

Lucinda

(31,170 posts)
5. I meant other websites that are tech support for people to ask questions - not DU. :)
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 02:51 AM
Mar 2021

❤️ ~✿~❧~🌿~❧~✿~ ❤️

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
9. I got the information for the terms I used in the Safe Mode Command Prompt from
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 07:29 AM
Mar 2021

an existing website after an internet search so that info is already out there.

canetoad

(17,088 posts)
6. Please put both machines
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 03:49 AM
Mar 2021

On Windows 10 now.

You will find that bit by bit, internet stuff will just not work; browsers etc will only be supported on Win 10.

When Microsoft ends support of an operating system [OS], you may still use that OS until it no longer serves you well.

However, when ending support, MS stops all work on further security updates for the operating system. Your comouter is probably stuck in a loop of update notifications.

I kept WinXP on a desktop computer for ten or fifteen years after XP support ended. Ultimately I had very little internet functionality on XP as most browsers don't support it. Same with YouTube etc.

Operating systems don't keep 'just chugging along'. They become slow, vulnerable, unsecure....."

 

DanieRains

(4,619 posts)
7. Yes Get 10
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 04:30 AM
Mar 2021

And back up your computer immediately.

Your computer is probably losing the hard drive.

Put in a new ssd and load 10 after backing up.

And yes I am a computer expert.

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
10. Thanks, but I already have a WIN 10 unit and use it daily. But WIN 7 remains my first
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 07:35 AM
Mar 2021

and true love. There are some things that speed just doesn't make up for. And right at
this time I still have a working XP unit that I bought originally in 2005 and a working
laptop that runs Vista. Here where I live whoever dies with the most computers wins!

I run the Firefox browser on all my machines. Older units run older versions of Firefox and
that's fine with me. My favorite version of Firefox happened about 7 or 8 years ago.

As far as my "chugging along" comment, I claim poetic license. In my op I get to choose
the language I use!

Jamastiene

(38,187 posts)
8. I hope you can keep it going as long as you want.
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 05:15 AM
Mar 2021

I hate that they force us to move to another OS we don't like when for so many of us, that last OS was our favorite. I resent being forced to conform or be told there is something wrong with us for knowing what product we really liked.

I wish I could get someone to at least make Chrome look like Netscape Gold or teach me how to do it myself. I know I cannot use Netscape Gold nowadays, without zillions of errors, but if it could at least look like it, I'd appreciate the theme pack.

I also have one machine that runs on Windows 7 and want to keep that one that way.

The latest Windows 10 update caused nothing but repeated blue screens of death on my current computer. I had to roll it back and tell it to quit automatically updating, it got so bad. I don't know how it got reset to automatically install updates. I had it set to download updates, but ask me which ones to install and when. Now, I don't want it to update at all, because it tried to force the update that caused the issue and did not give me an option to uninstall that update. It was a forced update.

That ruined my whole day. It was a day when I finally got a return phone call for business I needed to take care of. I had waited a long while to get that return phone call. I needed my computer up and running, not blue screening all day.

aka-chmeee

(1,129 posts)
12. I work at school
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 09:10 AM
Mar 2021

as the technical support for IT department. I like Windows 10...a lot. But as a Amateur Radio Operator, I think that any computer that still operates properly can be useful no matter what OS is running on it. My shack computer is an XP machine which runs an Access program which I wrote to manage and record radio net operations. Most of us don't really need a kick-ass super computer to cover our computer needs.

hunter

(38,263 posts)
13. My patience with any version of Windows has completely evaporated.
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:07 PM
Mar 2021

I have a Windows 10 laptop but I haven't used it for much of anything since the covid lockdowns began.

My go-to computer is an inexpensive Chromebook. This is my second Chromebook. Our overly enthusiastic dog broke the first. I would have felt worse about this if it was a more expensive machine.

My desktop computer runs Debian, which is a flavor of Linux. My new Chromebook can run Linux apps as well, but google is still calling it an experimental feature.

I'm seriously thinking about upgrading the hard drive on my Windows laptop and installing Linux Mint just to see how it goes. If I ever need a Windows machine again I'll simply reinstall the old hard drive or buy a new machine. But I'd only do that if someone was paying me.

These are not my only computers. My current favorite is a Raspberry Pi 4. That's a good machine for learning about Linux and computers in general for anyone who doesn't want to mess with their primary computer. It's not just for kids.

I'm not a computer gamer and I'm not required to run Microsoft dependent software in my daily life (Photoshop, Word, Cortana, etc...) so this works for me.

An older machine that has become sluggish with Windows 7, or impossible to use with Windows 10, will usually run fine with Linux and one of the lighter desktop environments such as LXDE. LXDE is similar to the Windows XP desktop.

Personally I'd be wary of any machine that is throwing up unusual errors. I regularly backup everything I create to multiple external drives. I've got files going back to the 'seventies along with emulations of the machines those files were created on. I'm a bit OCD about it.

Linux evangelists are the worst...

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
14. Wow. Great op! I ran one of the versions of Linux for awhile but never got to like it. For
Sun Mar 14, 2021, 12:48 PM
Mar 2021

maximum benefit to others I encourage you to start your own original op with your post here.

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