Computer problems...

[Kurgon]

:?

Computer locks up everytime I try to reboot. Just to get it to boot completely I HAVE to use Go Back to revert my hard drive to a "stable state". /sigh I was trying to put this off but now the computer is locking up when I try to load FFXI and that is just unacceptable. :evil: Looks like I may have to format the hard drive and do a fresh install. So re-installing FFXI and then getting all the update files will take up all of my friday night probably. OMG I will loose all my anime too!!!! My poor Naruto.

If you guys have any ideas let me know. I can't find anything through virus scans, ad-aware, spybot s&d, hard drive scans, ect. I am at a loss. I have my Hijackthis log posted on another website for examination.

Oh well...

 

[Pascal]

:?

Computer locks up everytime I try to reboot. Just to get it to boot completely I HAVE to use Go Back to revert my hard drive to a "stable state". /sigh I was trying to put this off but now the computer is locking up when I try to load FFXI and that is just unacceptable. :evil: Looks like I may have to format the hard drive and do a fresh install. So re-installing FFXI and then getting all the update files will take up all of my friday night probably. OMG I will loose all my anime too!!!! My poor Naruto.

If you guys have any ideas let me know. I can't find anything through virus scans, ad-aware, spybot s&d, hard drive scans, ect. I am at a loss. I have my Hijackthis log posted on another website for examination.

Oh well...

If you have access to another computer running Windows 2000 or XP, hook your hard drive up as a slave drive and copy off the data you want to save.

As for the lockup, it could be a number of different things. OS Problem, Memory Problem, Over Heating, Hard Drive Problem, Other Hardware Problem)

http://www.memtest.org/ is a free memory tester and a good place to start.

Make sure all fans are running.

If you are able to hook the drive up as a slave or get it to boot into XP. Go to a command prompt (START > RUN > Type CMD > Enter) and type in CHKDSK C: /F /R (If its hooked up as a slave drive on another computer change C: to D: )

Reload the OS

Those are the simple things to troubleshoot, but lock ups can be caused by just about anything.

 

[Sanoske]

:?

Computer locks up everytime I try to reboot. Just to get it to boot completely I HAVE to use Go Back to revert my hard drive to a "stable state". /sigh I was trying to put this off but now the computer is locking up when I try to load FFXI and that is just unacceptable. :evil: Looks like I may have to format the hard drive and do a fresh install. So re-installing FFXI and then getting all the update files will take up all of my friday night probably. OMG I will loose all my anime too!!!! My poor Naruto.
If you guys have any ideas let me know. I can't find anything through virus scans, ad-aware, spybot s&d, hard drive scans, ect. I am at a loss. I have my Hijackthis log posted on another website for examination.

Oh well...

I'm sorry I cant add any technical advice, but I give you my strongest condolances on the loss of Naruto. :? I have 1-118(119 is dl now) so if I can do anything(file transfer I dunno) let me know^^

 

[Kurgon]

I know that I didn't give a lot of information but here we go. Along with viral scans, spyware, malware, trojan scans, etc I have also monitored the critical temperatures of my hardware. I haven't checked the memory though. I've also cleaned out the case with compressed air just incase. All the fans are working normally. I am confuzzled. This morning I booted in safe mode and running a final virus check.

Unfortuantly my old computer really is in shambles. I have harvested many things off of it to put into my current computer or sold to other people that it isn't runable anymore. When I get home I will double check all the hardware connections try seeing how stable it appears and make a determination from there. I am really leaning toward OS problem though...

 

[Kelsilv]

My advice is to watch all the anime before you delete it. :twisted:

 

[Kurgon]

That my friend is my plan. I stopped archiving my anime a long time ago. I need to catch up on my Naruto, Gantz, the 2 episodes of Xenosaga (which follows the videogame exactly), and a couple other random series I d/l for trial viewings.

 

[Dirgesong]

well, as for constant lock ups, I'd also check out your power supply, a bad power supply can cause your computer to do a hell of a lot of crazy shit.

and just to be sure, try and load up some other games that use your video card's prowess, it could be your video card or drivers that are causing the problem, I have seen video cards reboot computers in the past when they're on their last legs.

if you're going to go nuts on reinstalling windows and want to save your anime, get ahold of partition magic and make a little partition for all your media you want to save and install windows on the other partition.

either that or try a repair install first and see if that wipes out any shitty system files that could be bunging up your system.

just off the top of my head those would be my first areas of exploration.

 

[Kelsilv]

the 2 episodes of Xenosaga (which follows the videogame exactly)

I was thinking of getting those, but if they follow the game "exactly", and I've played the game, is there really any point to watching it? Had the same problem with the Star Ocean anime, it followed the game so closely, it felt like I had seen it already.

 

[Kurgon]

the 2 episodes of Xenosaga (which follows the videogame exactly)

I was thinking of getting those, but if they follow the game "exactly", and I've played the game, is there really any point to watching it? Had the same problem with the Star Ocean anime, it followed the game so closely, it felt like I had seen it already.

Well Kelsilv the first two episodes follow the story very near exact. I had the same problem with Star Ocean as well.

Dirgesong I hope it isn't my videocard. I just bought the 6800GT like 2 months ago and everything has been stable up until this week. How would one go about testing their power supply? I will definetly try the repair option first.

There isn't anything on my computer that is just critical to save. It is just irritating getting everything back to where it was before. FFXI install plus updates, EQ2 install plus updates, reinstalling anit-Virus and spyware programs, Zone Alarm, ect. It's just a pain in the bum. :wink:

 

[Beiro]

This has been happening to me as well... my comp decides to 1) reboot itself, 2) shut itself down, 3) completely freeze. Sometimes when I turn it on, my monitor wont even come on, or it will freeze before it even gets past the DOS prompts (I think thats what they're called). There's been ONE time, when I turned it on, it shut itself off, then about 10 seconds later it came back on by itself... but I'm not completely sure if its the power supply or software or whatnot. Some days it will stay on for the whole day, others it'll shut itself off/reboot 5 times, others I have to turn it on and off 3-4 times before I can even get to my desktop. Any suggestions, or just do the same things you guys are suggesting to Kurgon?

And I have lots of Naruto on mine too, I dont want to lose it ; ;

 

[Dirgesong]

Yours sounds more hardware related.

pretty much work your way up from cheapest to most expensive.

being the geek I am I always have a spare power supply to test with.

Power Supply
RAM
Proc/ Motherboard/ Video Card

if you can't even get into Windows some times that's a good sign it's hardware related.

 

[Kurgon]

Well my computer hasn't been rebooting on it's own. When I boot up it will freeze right before the blue login screen pops up (Win XP home edition) so I will then have to hard power down and then power it back up. Until I use Go Back to restore my hard drive to the last "stable" bootup it will consistantly freeze right before the XP login screen loads.

Once I get XP to load completly I haven't had any problems doing anything until I shutdown my computer again, until last night. Last night I finished a K. Tunnel party with Summer and Acks and shut down my computer to eat dinner. I decided to log back into the game to solo the last bit of exp I needed to get to my next level. Once I got XP to load all the way I open POL, logged in, and FFXI would freeze everytime I went to the character select screen. Hard power down. Repeat. Hard power down. Repeat. Ect...

Strangley enough this morning Mozilla (the web browser I recommend everyone use) wouldn't connect to the internet so I gave my Internet Explorer tempoary internet access and it would connect to the internet. I rebboted my computer and it told me that the time stamp logs Go Back keeps were all off by one minute. I don't know what it could be but it is defenitly strange.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend!!!

 

[Kurgon]

Here is an update to my situation. When I got home my computer wouldn't boot up to the login screen no matter what I tried so I was unable to run the memory test that was suggested. I have opened the case and viewed the fans operating as per normal. I then went through and made sure that everything in the case was snug. None of this worked. So I went ahead and ran a format on my c: and things seemed to be going smoothly. I started to re-install my OS and it would freeze up 1/4 way through the install every time (at the 26% mark to be specific). So at this point I grab my anti-static gear and start to pull things apart. I have swapped out my hard drive and installed two spares that I have. That didn't work. So I then swapped my 6800 GT with my old 4200 Silarou Ti and that didn't work...

So now I plan to go forward thusly:

Since I have two sticks of ram installed I am going to pull one out and see what happens, try to boot up and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll take out that stick and replace it with the 2nd stick. Try it again. If one stick of ram has gone bad hopefully this will let me know. If that doesn't work I guess I will try to run down a power supply from a buddy and if all that fails I guess that would suggest mobo failure or proccesor (sp) or perhaps the bios have gone batty. So I guess I can attempt to somehow flash the origianl bios onto the board...

Any suggestions will be much appriciated. I will check back in to either tell you of my success or failure and to see whatelse you guys come up with.

 

[Dirgesong]

if your BIOS is ratched your computer wouldn't let you get as far as formatting, you'd sit there at the boot up screen or would already have dead ram or a dead proc

 

[Kurgon]

Good to know.

 

[Kurgon]

Final update. It always turns out to be the last thing you try. It turned out to be the power supply. Dirgesong you are the grand prize winner. You win ummmm 10k gil sound good? It is late and critical updates are still d/l'ing so it will be a while before I actually get around to installing FFXI again but whenever I actually get ingame again I will send it to your moghouse. Plus I need to buy a new power supply. I'm using an old 250 watt power supply right now and it will probably not stand up to running graphic intensive games.

My power supply was an Antec 330 watt TruPower and it died in a little over a year. :? Anyone have a good review of a nice beefy power supply for me?

Thanks for listening to me and trying to help.

 

[Dirgesong]

I have an Enermax 300 watt power supply, and I have two hard drives, 6 full USB ports, and 1 CD-RW, a few extra case fans and a pretty cold cathode.

It's lasted two years now and I barely ever turn off my computer.

I paid $65 cdn for it and it's been damned good to me.

 

[Kelsilv]

I use a gerbil running on a wheel. Costs a little extra in maintenance(gerbil food), but seriously cuts down on your electricity bill.

 

[Pascal]

I use Enermax also.

You should look at upgrading the wattage on your Power Supply while you are at it.

 

[Kurgon]

I use Enermax also.

You should look at upgrading the wattage on your Power Supply while you are at it.

That's the plan.