Dimension 3000 Problems

Question

I am posting this on behalf of my father in law who has been experiencing numerous problems with his Dimension 3000. Background info is as follows: Dimesion 3000, 1GB Ram, Windows XP, Pentium 4 3.0 ghz Circa one month ago the computer refused to start (presumably he means 'boot'). He contacted Dell and they advised him that it was probably a virus related problem (he did have bullguard installed so would have hoped that this would have detected any viruses) and to do a system resore. He has done this (I am not sure how but presumably he was talked through steps by Dell - presumably via dell partition on disk or via disks they provide. Having done this (and lost all his data in the process) he is still experiencing problems. sometimes the computer starts, sometimes it doesnt etc. No clear pattern apparently.   I called in today to actually see for myself what he was experiencing. Before attempting to start the pc I checked that all leads were duly connected and that his cordless mouse had a new set of batteries in it and that router was connected to telephone line. When I switched the machine on the main screen came on but froze rather than starting windows. I pressed F12 and pc then started loading windowes and eventually got to desktop. all diagnostic lights at back of pc solid green. Once on the desktop I double clicked internet explorer and hourglass started (Internet explorer never came up though). Clicked on start to look at programs but nothing happended. Whenever I clicked on something nothing seemed to happen. Thinking it could be mouse I clicked its connect button but still nothing. I had to switch off pc as could not exit by clicking start etc.   I then started pc again and this time did not have to press F12 - got to desktop ok but still same problems when clicking. Eventually after several minutes the start box did open but internet explorer never opened. It seems that there is a very long delay between clicking on something and the action being executed. Ended up giving up and switching off again.   What I did notice was that his desktop now had mcafee as well as bullguard (by doing restore presumably original progs supplied with pc had been restored, including Mcafee). Couls Mcafee/Bulldog be causing conflict? If so, the problem he then has is how to actually uninstall mcafee say giving the problems he has geeting anything dione when clicking something with his mouse.   Any suggestions/potential tips that i could relay to him would be greatly appreciated.   His pc is still covered by dell at home service extended warranty.   Many thanks Haffy

tomron · Answer

Have more than one AV enabled can certainly cause a conflict.   If you choose to remove McAfee check these links.   http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallmcafee.shtml   http://service.mcafee.com/   You can have more than one AV just as long as only one is active,but I personnaly don't see any sense of having more than one AV installed since this would use up your resources.   As a test disable one AV to see if issue persists.   Tom

tomron · Answer

Try safe mode.

haffy · Answer

thanks for links. Problem know is how to actually get machine to respond to clicks to enable him to actually uninstall mcafee. Any suggestions on how to achieve this would be appreciated.   Haffy

JTerk438 · Answer

Try safe mode as tomron stated. If you don't know how to do this, after the Dell Splash screen, repeatedly press the F8 key til you get a list to start in Safe mode, Safe mode with Networking, ect... Choose Safe Mode, and try to uninstall McAfee from there. If you still experience problems, try reinserting the memory on the motherboard. That could possibly cause the major system lag you're father-in-law is experiencing. If that doesn't work, have him send in to Dell. Since it is still covered, it's worth it.

Windows General

Was this post helpful?