Computer Hope
Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: spikedfox on September 19, 2010, 11:51:17 PM
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I've recently started experiencing very odd bugs on a computer, and I have very good reasons to believe that they're caused by either a Windows corruption, or a hard drive failure.
I'd like to know if there is a good and sure way to test and know if a drive is about to die or not, since it hasn't yet shown any of the typical death noises ::)
Thank you for your time!
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Run drive diagnostics from the manufacturer's website.
See this post. (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,10888.0.html)
Good luck
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I've recently started experiencing very odd bugs on a computer, and I have very good reasons to believe that they're caused by either a Windows corruption, or a hard drive failure.
Why don't you start by telling us what the "bugs" are?
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Why don't you start by telling us what the "bugs" are?
Windows hangs randombly(stops being responsive), especially when booting/logging onto a session.
i.e. will freeze in its actual state, the computer itself is still responsive (can move mouse around, click on things, keyboard working, etc), but I cannot hear the drive running anymore and if I try to make any change whatsoever (like opening a file, starting a program/process, etc) nothing happens and it eventually leads to a crash.
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That could be any number of things, including malware. Start by doing a clean boot and let's make sure it isn't a process loading with the system that is causing the problem. Open msconfig and choose "selective startup" (disable everything from loading) and reboot. Does the problem still occur on the reboot?
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That could be any number of things, including malware. Start by doing a clean boot and let's make sure it isn't a process loading with the system that is causing the problem. Open msconfig and choose "selective startup" (disable everything from loading) and reboot. Does the problem still occur on the reboot?
I already did all that, and yes it does still occur, otherwise I wouldn't have posted here. I've also ran chkdsk /F, malwarebytes, and tried booting in safe mode, but it still happens.
Besides, it is a veeeery old drive.
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Ah, forgot to add some important symptoms:
- Some Icons, especially files, on the desktop disappear at random, and come back at random.
- chkdsk did find and fix some filesystem corruption, which solved all problems temporarily. I was able to test run the computer for a complete day without any issues. However at next startup, all corruption and problems had come back as if no change had been made at all.
- The last day it had worked fine, when shutting off the system, all processes failed instead of closing properly.
- A few days before all the logical failures, I connected a backup drive to stock some data on. Right after that, the said backup drive stopped working. Cause: logical failure caused by a LOT of corrupted data on the drive.
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Run drive diagnostics from the manufacturer's website.
See this post. (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,10888.0.html)
Good luck
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Seagate's tests were successfully passed.
Ran Malwarebyte again, no threats found.
Now I have no clue of what's going on with my system.
If anyone can help it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Other than Malwarebytes, what anti-virus software are you using?
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Other than Malwarebytes, what anti-virus software are you using?
Panda Titanium Antivirus+Firewall 2008
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Ouch.
Now sometimes the computer won't boot up at all. (i.e. when powered on, the fans start spinning... but that's about it. Nothing ever shows on screen, and it gives no sign of normal startup whatsoever....)
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Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there for 24 hours.....any change ?
PS. Was this machine moved recently ? ?
If so remove the side panel/case and remove/reseat all components including the RAM.
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Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there for 24 hours.....any change ?
PS. Was this machine moved recently ? ?
If so remove the side panel/case and remove/reseat all components including the RAM.
hmmm... I did reseat all components, and it would "solve" the boot up problem... temporarily. It didn't solve the freezing though and the no-boot problem would come back after a few restart.
I really don't know where I can find a spare psu for testing purposes, the only spare one I have has much lower wattage and is quite old, even though it was barely used. I did try unplugging everything and leaving only the basic components (i.e. mobo, cpu & fan, graphic card and HD. Unplugged: 2 DVD burners, floppy drive, soundcard, network card, multi card reader bay.) in case the psu wouldn't be able to power everything, but that didn't change anything. I do not know if it is a worthy test though.
I'm still gonna see if someone has a spare psu I can borrow for testing purposes.
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Borrow 1...
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Sorry for taking so long. After looking and asking around, I couldn't find a spare power supply to swap with mine for testing purposes.
What I will do is wait until I have the money to build myself a brand new computer and test with the newly bought PSU before building the thing.
In case the PSU turns out not being the problem, I'd like to know if there are other thing I should look for that could be causing these issues. This will save me a lot of troubleshooting time if I know in advance what to look for next. :P
If the motherboard or cpu turn out to be defective (which I doubt, as they seem to be working properly according to a few tests and visual inspection), well I guess it's gonna be trashed. It's pretty useless to look around for a P4 board nowdays. I'm pretty sure it's the PSU anyway, I noticed its fan never spinning whatsoever, although PSU temperatures are at a decent level, and the power button wont work powering off the machine after a crash, and will require a certain delay to power on.