Thanks very much for your quick reply, i'm doing this as i type. I tried other message boards but they have been worse than useless!

How do i do some of the colour tests? Some of these things are almost like an iq test! I'm on the RGB Colour Combination test now and not sure what to do.

Choose 7 and run an extended test on the memory and hard drive. Note:  run EXTENDED tests - NOT just quick ones.

If the drive and RAM pass, then go into Safe Mode and remove the last driver you installed.  Then reboot and see if you can get the system started normally.

I'm on the keyboard test now, but there are a couple of keys that aren't on my keyboard, what do i do?

I've finished the test what do i do now?

I've finished the diagnostics test and most of the fails say:

Test Results : Fail

Error Code 0F00:021B

Msg: Block 442022: Flaw in medium or an error in the recorded data. If this is a removable media, try different media

Test Results : Fail

Error Code 0F00:021D

Msg: Block 442023: Illegal request - possible use of incorrect media

Any help is gratefully received.

Getting worried guys, as on another forum somebody told me to ask Dell for a new Hard Disk Drive! I'm assuming this would mean i would lose all my photo's etc? Is he right, is there nothing i can do to get my pc back to it's state of about a week ago?

summerskev

Don’t think you mentioned the desktop computer model, anyhow

Looks like your HDD may be toast?

You may still be able to recover personal data, depends on extent of damage

If personal data recovery is really important you should consider buying an external USB connected HDD enclosure, like one of these click here

After that, there’s not much more you can do without a valid licensed Windows CD/DVD, options are:

1.If the registered owner of computer – then Contact Dell

If in the US request backup discs, click here otherwise contact your local region Dell Support

E.g. if in UK click here to correspond by e-mail with Tech Support &/or Customer Services

2. Borrow a Dell OEM XP CD/DVD – needs be same as preinstalled XP OS (see COA sticker)

I.e. if XP Pro was preinstalled OS you need a Dell OEM XP Pro CD/DVD (preferably a SP2 version)

3. Buy a Full Retail (boxed) XP CD/DVD licensed version

Once you obtain correct XP CD/DVD you can boot from CD-ROM & see if HDD is repairable using Recovery Console or doing an XP Repair Install

If not then you may want to try an XP Clean Install (but would lose all data)

If above doesn’t work then you will need to buy a new HDD & do an XP Clean Install

Those errors refer to the CD/DVD, not the hard drive.  If the hard drive has passed the diagnostics (sounds like it has), make a backup of your data (use Safe Mode - F8 - if it'll start in safe mode, or purchase  a 2.5" EIDE USB 2.0 notebook drive enclosure, mount the drive in it, and attach to a working system to make a backup), and then reload everything (CTRL-F11 once at the Dell screen will do this automatically - do all Windows critical updates thereafter).

Thanks for your help fellas. It’s a Dell Dimension 3000. I’ve tried contacting Dell, but they ask for my debit card details as soon as they answer! Shouldn’t Dell send me an XP free of charge seeing as I didn’t get one when I bought my pc?

I've downloaded Hitachi's DFT and done an advanced test, my pc had a 0x00 success code. This apparently means that it's not the disk drive that has the problem, so where do i go from here?