Good Evening, I have an old PC that I'm still trying to hold on to because of finances. I forgot to turn my PC off one day and returned home to a PC that would not come out of what I thought was sleep mode. I had to hard shut down and upon reboot received the message "Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer................" which I'm sure you've seen before. After researching, the results were that it may be a dying or dead hard drive. Could that be the problem or some sort of virus? Thank you in advance for any feedback.
if you only have 1 hard drive & windows posted that error message then it is not your hard drive because if the hard drive was dead then windows would not be able to post that message. see if can boot into safemode using f8 & do a system restore to before this problem showed up.
Hello, thanks for responding. It would not allow me to boot in safe mode. I was able to press "esc" for start up menu, but other than that, i could do nothing else. This happened on abt may 10. 5 wks later, i removed hard drive, reinstalled it and received a different message. Restarted it again and then received the same message. A cpl days later, I powered it up and windows started. I immediately copied my users folder to an external drive because windows would not allow me to clone or image to an external drive. I tried using Kaspersky rescue cd to clone the drive, but it wouldn't allow me also. I tried using Sea Tools and received a message "Now is a good time to make sure you have a current backup of your important data. Unfortunately, your Seagate product has failed an important diagnostic test, possibly caused by problem sectors which are difficult to read. Seagate recommends that you run SeaTools for DOS, which has the ability to repair most problem sectors. SeaTools for DOS may be able to save you from the inconvenience and down time of exchanging the drive." I then scanned my drive for virus and malware using different software -- no results. This is why I'm wondering if it may be my hard drive going south. Thanks again, in advance.
if seatools says there is issues with the drive then get a new drive. make & model# of the computer & windows version to see what type of drive interface it has?
HP Pavilion HPE, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 16.0GB, Windows 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, SP1, AMD Radeon HD 6450 Thx again!
The problem can also be caused by your computer having difficulty communicating with a USB device such as thumb drive or external hard drive, try removing them and booting. If you have USB keyboard and mouse, check to see if they're connected properly, and try booting again and see if it works.
Would be quick to determine if it was the hdd by attaching it to another pc then run seatools on it,assuming the computer can get to it.If the pc hangs or you can't access it (hdd) assume hdd is dead..If you have no recovery disc just grab an untouched version of win 7 (you kbow where from) the run daz loader on it or get win 10 or both & run win 7 & 10 side by side If you weren't sure it was the hdd you could run a linux live cd of say linux lite. If all runs ok you can pretty much assume it's the hdd Other scenario is to remove all including,ram,graphic card etc.Attach monitor,Disconnect dvd drive & hdd.Leave mouse & keyboard off & boot up. Error beeps will sound.Shutdown add 1 stick of ram & kb & mouse reboot..Beeps change etc.Shutdown connect hdd reboot.You get the idea by adding a bit more each time all the while going into bios then into the OS & see what happens,if there's an issue shutdown change ram slot if it don't work use another stick & remove the other while trying all ram slots etc,etc
If the HDD was completely bad, he wouldn't be getting the message "Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer (keyword being Windows)," because that means Windows is being read, and pointing to a device issue. That most commonly means but not exclusively, that a non main HDD device is causing the issue such as a USB Device. He could run a live copy of Linux from a USB or Disc, but that would require having computer access and knowing how to make them and use them, and it still wouldn't analyze the issue, because if Linux is booting from a USB or Disc, then it can't read a faulty USB device at the same time. What he should do, is disconnect everything USB from his system, remove all discs from drive or drives, then enter into bios, select his hard disk as his only boot device and then give that a try. If that doesn't work then the question is, does he have his original Windows install disc? If so then he should work on recovery from there. Because he has a store bought computer chances are it came with a recovery disc that he can attempt to use, but it would probably erase anything on the disk he's saving, but if the disk is bad, he has nothing to lose anyway.
don't count on there being a separate recovery disk as that is usually in a recovery partition on the hd which means you have to make your recovery disk & most people don't. baddassd, system uses sata interface hard drives so good to go.
I'm not counting on there being a separate disc but to suggest it is an obvious first step. But even if his system didn't include a recovery disc, it did include a Windows Product Key sticker on the back of the case. This means that he can use any OEM copy of Windows 7 Home Premium with his Windows key to attempt reinstall or recovery. How is that any different than what he would have to do if he's forced to replace the HDD, because either way he still needs a Windows disc? To get the Windows disc he can use another computer whether laptop, desktop, or a friends to download it from the net and burn a copy, and it's not pirating as long as he uses his own legitimate Windows Key. @the OP: Were you poking around inside of your case at about the same time you began to receive this error?
