Bizarre Computer behavior, need opinions/advice please

[Salamander8]

I'm at a loss with my rig right now. Normally I'm helping other people with their comp questions, but this situation is just beyond anything I've seen. It's been fine up until just a few weeks ago when it started acting very oddly. I think it's a MoBo issue, but I'm not 100% certain. It's so bad that I broke down and instead of building another one, I ordered a very nice machine from Digital Storm to replace this one. Admittedly, I need to upgrade to 64-bit Windows 7, and this rig can't really handle it, but it's earlier than I wanted and it's a big financial drain. My specs:

 

Intel dual-core E8400 3.0 Gig CPU

Nvidia 470 GTX video card

1 TB SATA HDD

HP DVD combo drive

Windows XP Pro (was sp3, it's back down to sp2 after I did a repair install)

Gigabyte 32-bit MoBo (cannot recall model and the box is here somewhere but can't find it)

4 gigs of kingston RAM (32-bit windows acknowledges less, but I've had no problem in any of my XP rigs using this much RAM)

Thermaltake Armor case with honking big side fan for extra cooling

USB printer/scanner, trackball, and keyboard

Onboard sound and network

Creative labs 7.1 speakers but I almost always use my headset

 

I leave my machines running 24/7 barring storms but turn bits off to conserve life and power usage. This has never been a problem over the many years I've done this.

 

The issues have been:

 

First: I first noticed something was up when I came down to check on the comp after getting home from work, eating, errands, etc, a few weeks ago, and the comp was shutting down, even though no one had used it since I do my morning internet browsing before leaving for work. It stopped doing this as of 2 weeks ago,but did it several times for a period of about 2-3 weeks.

 

Second: I get a C++ error when I boot up Blood Bowl, but once I close the dialog box, the game runs fine. No other application (of the ones that work right now anyway) does this.

 

Third: It will not shut down. I actually let it try to shut down and left it doing so for 2+ hours before checking on it again and it was still displaying: Windows is shutting down...

 

Fourth: When i first noticed other problems, I did a deep system scan with my BitDefender anti-virus and my Super Spyware anti-spyware programs and they found nothing beyond a couple of basic cookies which I deleted and it fixed nothing. And now when I try to run the anti-virus it was still running after 8+ hours and was stuck scanning drive S, and I haven't had a drive S since I pulled my failing old drive.I currently only have out to drive H and that's with my external DVD combo burner that wasn't even hooked up when I ran the scan. I was able to stop the scan and it found nothing but that was another head-scratcher.

 

Fifth: Itunes will not start. It acts like it does, but it no longer works. The really odd part is that it remains in memory and task manager lists it but even there I can't shut it off. If I start it multiple times they all show up and can't be turned off and I have to use the case reset/power buttons to turn it off and restart to clear that.

 

Sixth: I was going to do some major back-up DVD burning today to prepare for the new machine, but Nero is acting like Itunes now. I went to try to install it via the internal DVD combo drive and it won't acknowledge that there is anything even in the drive and it hangs when I click on the drive manually. I tried my external drive and it did boot up the install program but it hangs trying to modify the install and I had to shut the machine down yet again to get clear that situation as well.

 

Seventh: I opened the case and cleaned it out and checked the connections but all looked fine if a bit dusty, barring the one dead case fan. I have been checking for heat and found it's been fine. Not hot, not cold, just normal. This case has a large number of fans and the video card has an extra fan I bought specifically for it to keep it cool.

 

Games and the internet work although with some excess start times, but nothing like my Itunes and Nero problems, and nothing odd shows up in the scans or in my perusal of the task manager. I cannot track this strange behavior down. If I can't at least get Nero to work for my back-up burning to DVDs, I will most likely either network this machine to the new one and hook up the old monitor to file transfers, or even better, I'll just rip the HDD out of this one and connect it to the new one and copy the files internally. I still wish I could figure out what the heck is going on.

 

Thanks for any advice anyone can share.

 

Addendum: 850 Watt power supply. Ram is DDR2, but I can't recall it's MHz offhand.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Salamander8

[Paxan_1]

Hi,

 

my idea in this behaviour would be a Ram or HDD issue. I would suggest to check if it would change if you use only one module. Which Kingston do you have installed? Maybe the Ram Voltage is to low, some of the Kingston want 1.9V up to 2.2V.

You should check the supported ram list for your mainboard, too.

 

Have a look into the SMART settings of your hard drive, if there are marked entries you need to change it (use HDtach for example for that).

 

Another thing, a C2D8400 has enough power for Win7 so if you want / need to reinstall your PC i would try it.

 

Maybe it helps a little,

Paxan

[Vagrant0]

You may also want to do a sweep of the registry and possibly look at how the bios is setup since it's still trying to find and use software which no longer exists. Some programs can have embedded files in windows directories, or not completely remove registries during uninstall. Cleaning your registry should be common practice after every few months, and there are some decent automated cleaners (CCleaner) that are reasonably safe to use if you aren't confident in doing it manually (can really screw up things if you don't KNOW what things are). Registry issues could also explain your shutdown lag since windows is probably hanging while it tries to finish clearing registry information from uninstalls.

 

I'd say that this, or faulty RAM seem to be the more obvious ones.

[Qwaxalot]

You definitely have a registry problem. Try Ccleaner @ www.ccleaner.com

[Salamander8]

Thanks all!

 

I will try the registry cleaner and go from there. The last time I used such a tool, I didn't have such strange problems as I usually run a pretty tight ship. The only real upside is that I was saving for a laptop for my upcoming classes and then I found I can do them all online so the money I was going to use on the laptop I used on the new machine.

 

I appreciate the help.

[Salamander8]

It wasn't the registry unfortunately. I ran the cleaner till it came up with no issues and it still wouldn't shut down or let Itunes or Nero run. I shut it down via the switch since it would not shut down normally and the same issues are occurring. The registry was fairly clean overall as I do try to avoid too programs from mucking about with it. I have only done minor registry tweaks as I am not 100% happy with messing with them even after my classes. It appears to most likely be a RAM or HDD issue now.

 

Since it is otherwise ok and the new rig should be here by the 27-28th I'll just live with this till it gets here.

 

Thanks again for the help.

[prandiningrat]

you said only repair your OS(with downgrade the service pack), maybe you need clean install your OS with formating the drive and try another antivirus with new database update after install. It's likely you loss your files that needed by Nero or iTunes and your OS too (mightbe files corrupt).

or mightbe you could upgrade your BIOS, as not every mainboard will support with 1 TerraByte HDD (i can't see the type of your mainboard). if you wish to know your motherboard model try Everest

As far as I know when the problem on RAM, the system won't start when power on button pressed (depends your chipset) mightbe would start but usually hang when running the big programs(such as game). if the problem on hard drive, system usually hang when accessing files (not accesing drive)..

[Salamander8]

I've done OS reinstalls before in fact not too long ago on this very machine. The odd thing is that Itunes briefly worked again after the repair install and it wasn't until I rebooted again that it stopped working. The service pack downgrade was only due to the fact that my factory CD is with SP2 and I didn't DL updates yet as I always do them manually. The MoBo is rated fine for the drive and the RAM I installed is within the manual as well when I built this one some time ago. The only major hardware change I've ever done after building it was to upgrade the video card, and that was in May.

 

I just got an update on my new machine as it's in the testing phase so soon I'll have a much better rig and XP will not likely be supported much longer. I was loathe to go to Vista as even my 2 IT friends were not overly happy with it, and knew I was going to have to get 7 soon anyway, I just pushed to get it a little early with the situation.

 

I also now see a small graphical anomaly on the windows boot screen, a pair of small colored 'streaks' to the right of the windows logo. I've never seen that before either.

 

I appreciate the help everyone.

[Salamander8]

It's definitely a HDD issue. I was checking some files on my C partition when it spat up some errors at me. The thing is this follows at roughly 6 months after I had removed my older HDD I was using to boot with that was also acting odd and had corruption, but was both different and worse than the current behavior. Having 2 drives both get this on the same setup makes me suspect something is causing this beyond a simple OS or HDD fault. This makes ordering the new one even more important than I at first suspected.

[prandiningrat]

maybe your C drive has bad sector?? you should check it first. usually "not permanent bad sector" drive can be solved with reformatting on that drive or Re-Partition..

It's getting difficult when a bad sector is in the first partition as this used for booting system, otherwise when bad sector in the last partition we can hide this partition so won't bothering the system when was accessing files.