somethin must be really wrong with my comp..

[shackrock]

so in the past 4 days...

firt, my 2nd harddrive stops showing up under my my computier list. I try restarting a couple times, safe mode, etc. , no luck.

i opened up the comp and unplugged the drive, then plugged it right back in, and then it showed up on the list again. but, it was running really slow, so i restarted. this time before windows loaded it said "primary slave drive 2 has failed". i always hit continue anyway, and the drive still shows up, but just runs very slow. So I copied what i wanted to save off the drive, took like 17 hours, and then reformatted it. seems to go back to normal after that.


now in like the past 2 days, the computer has just been acting really wierd.

it will freeze randomly, just completely, can't seem to find any connections between why it freezes though.

Seomtimes the monitor will click off - like it is in sleep mode or something. I can't get it to "wake up" or restart with control/alt/delete, etc. Gotta manually turn it off then back on again.

also sometimes when I login, the desktop won't load. In the control alt delete panel, explorer is using most/all the CPU, but it never snaps out of it and I just have to restart it again with control alt delete.

event log has no errors for the crashes.

anybody got any ideas of what's wrong or what i should do? specs:

-ASUS A7V333 KT333 MB W/ ATA133, USB 2.0, 5.1 AUDIO
-AMD Athlon® XP-2000+ Processor AS22
-60GB 7200 RPM UDMA 133 HD
-140GB 7200 RPM Samsung HD (this is the messed up one)
-1gig PC2700 333MHZ DDR MEMORY
-Microsoft Windows XP Pro
-NVIDIA TNT2 64
-AMD Certified ATX Medium Tower Case - 350 Watt
cd rw drive
dvd rw drive

 

[thajeremy]

I would do all the normal maintance "stuff"...defrag, disk clean ups...then run your anti-virus....try going to www.trendmicro.com and run HOUSECALL...here is the direct link to the housecall page... http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ . Its a free online virus scanner. Its really cool becasue since its online, you are always running the latest version. It has worked for me when norton or mccafee did not. It may not do you a bit of good...and you may have already done this stuff..but if not...it cant hurt.

 

[shackrock]

newest developement (after housecall, defrags, etc.):

started the computer up, it crashed before windows fully loaded - just froze. So, i restart it by hitting the little button on the front. Then, it comes up and says i installed new hardware (my video card, or so it thinks). screen res is 800x600, and it looks for a driver. can't find one, so i go download the newest off the nvidia website (i got a TNT2 from 3-4 years ago). then the installer says i dont have that card on my system...great.

after a restart, everything is back to normal.


does anyone think i can fix all this crap with a clean install of windows? or is this all likely hardware problems?

 

[altiris]

sounds like your hard drive is failing and will eventually stop for good. Best thing is to backup and replace it.

 

[altitude909]

Also look at your PSU. A flakey power supply would cause all those problems

 

[altiris]

and also check your memory. switch the memory to another slot if you they're all full. the slot may not be working right. Iv'e seen a PC do strange things because the slot was bad. If they are all full pull one out then another and so on. If it turns out its the slot then you need a new mother board or live with a bad slot.

 

[Rick Shepherd]

Reinstall the OS first to see if that will fix the problem, the check the memory. If that doesn't work, get a new hard drive. If the problem persists, at least you will have a second hard drive you can use. The power supply is a possibility. This probably isn't the problem, but it is a good idea to put in a new battery on the motherboard. Hope that helps!

 

[steveanthony]

When something like that happens to me (note that I say 'when', not if), here's the order that I do things:

1) Scan for viruses
2) Make sure the cpu fan is clean and running up to speed. Remove the memory sticks then put them back (this is a way to reset contact points) and do the same for the hard drives (pull the plugs then put them back in).
3) Swap out memory sticks (this was mentioned earlier) to make sure the sticks are working.
4) Swap out the power supply

At this point, I prepare for the worst - meaning, if I can, I back up all critical files including my email address book, browser favorites, and passwords/user ids I use on internet sites (like this one).

5) Check for updates to the motherboard BIOS. Install if needed.
6) Replace the hard drive that contains the OS and reinstall the operating system on the new drive.

If these steps don't work, I start pricing out new motherboard/cpu combos. It could be the motherboard, it could be the cpu. I figure that I could now spend a lot of downtime trying to pinpoint that point of failure.

 

[altiris]

you mentioned your video card. does your motherboard have an on board video card? If so you can enable it in the bios and take out the video card and use the onboard card. See if it still freezes on you. your video card can also go bad. If you dont have an onboard card try to borrow one. The thing is to try to find the problem before you spend any money.

 

[seismetr0n]

definately back up everyting of importance.. immediately..(dvd burners are nice) ...

i usually try all the software fixes as mentioned... and if they dont work then reformat your drives and start from scratch.. if that doesnt help, then move to hardware swapping..

do you have a hardware monitoring program? if you do it can tell you fan speed, power supply voltages, etc... i dont know if you can get one seperately, or if it is unique to your system?

gl

 

[shackrock]

tite, you guys rule. haha.

about a year ago, i found out my 2nd RAM slot was "bad." every stick I put in there, within a week the stick would fry. I found out the hard way (lots of BSOD's, me not knowing the reason...). eventually I ran memory tester every time i got a BSOD....anyway the culprit every time is whatever was in slot 2. If I ever put a stick in slot 2, it fried it in due time. haha. so now i have 512MB in slots 1 and 3, for 1 gig total.

I also had my old video card fried, don't ask me how. my screen was black no matter what i did, but the monitor still had a signal from the comp. anyway, put back in the TNT2 and it was back up, a little burn spot on my ATI radeon. wierd huh, haha.

this hard drive i'm gonna take out when I do my reformat.

no virus', scanned with lots of prorgams now, although looks like housecall was the best, thanks for that one.


The power supply is only 350w, and it came with the case from cyberpowerpc.com , just a cheapo case i'm assuming - nothing special at least. I tend to not think it's the supply though cuz over the past 3 years with my Delta44 and Q10, I never seemed to have problems like this.

i'm gonna run that memory tester overnight tonight i think, and see if both those sticks are good.


i'll keep you updated...haha

thanks again