Hi, All! Not even sure if I'm in the correct forum....for all I know ths could be a hardware problem.
I have a brand new computer....only a few weeks old. It's a Gateway - Windows XP
Media Center Edition, Service Pack 2.......GT4016 AMD Athlon 64 processor, 3700+ 2.21 GHz, 896 MB Ram.
Now.....here's the scene, sigh....
Yesterday when I booted up first thing in the morning.....the tower started to make a clicking noise.....and instead of windows loading....it took me to an "advanced" boot up area.....had things listed like "start in safe mode"...."start windows normally"...."start up from last configuration".....and so on. I just hit the "start windows normally" and when it was fully loaded.....wherever I went online.....from email to IE etc....it was like the screen was blinking?? And in email....it would keep going round and round checking all my email accounts for new mail and wouldn't stop, lol??!
Now here's where it gets even stranger. I decided to run a virus scan. The computer came with 3 free months of McAfee....which is a first for me.....had always used the AVG in the past. At any rate....AFTER the virus scan......which came back NO VIRUSES....it fixed itself!!?? And the computer ran just fine until until I shut it down many hours later. Mattafact.....I had even forgotten about the strange behavior when I went to boot up this morning.
However.....there it was again....same damned thing. And again....the ONLY way I could get rid of it.....was to run a virus scan of the computer. Again it came back NO VIRUSES....and again it fixed the computer.
Does anyone have a clue what this could be??? Like I said....the computer is only a few weeks old.....so if it's the hard drive going bad or something like that....it should be covered. But I can't imagine a hard drive acting like this? It almost feels more like a virus??
I have a non-profit organization for people with substance abuse problems and they depend on the website and forums....so my computer is way important. Unfortunately, I have lost 2 computers already this summer.....one a theft and the other crashed. This computer is my last chance and I am freaking out!
Thanks in advance! smooooooooch........Carol
