What's the Problem?

Pain

Pain

Pain

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Joined
29 Mar 2004
Posts
481
Hi Everyone,

I hope someone on here can help shed some light on what is causing my PC problems I am experiencing currently.

Tuesday I went out and left my PC on. I got back about 2 hours later and went into my room and saw that the PC had frozen. This has never happened before. The PC was completely unresponsive so I powered off the PC, and turned the PC back on, and now Windows will not boot. The green bar just scrolls and scrolls for ages. I've tried running in safe mode, but the PC just hangs on crcdisk.sys.

I've run the Western Digital Hard Drive Utility tool (My main drive is a Raptor), and done a quick check and it suggests there is a read problem on the HDD. I think the code was 0007. So, I thought ok the HDD has packed up. It's still under Warranty, so not too fussed. I have most of the things I need on their already backed up, it's just a pain having to install all my programs again.

So, I get my spare HDD (a 500GB Seagate), install that and put a Fresh copy of Windows Vista x64 Ultimate on there, so far so good. Then last night I start getting the uploads and the same thing happens again. The PC just freezes? Now I know there was some kind of bug that wouldn't let you install Vista with 4GB of Memory, so I did a complete format of the drive again, and re-installed Vista again with only 1x2GB stick installed.... Same thing, the PC just locks up. So this leads me to believe that there is another underlying problem somewhere, but I'm stumped as to where to look.

Does anyone have any suggestions what to try?
My PC Spec is in my sig.

Many Thanks!
 
Boot from a live cd/usb flash drive (Ubuntu, Knoppix ,etc...all free and easy) see what happens.
If that can get to the desktop....use it if possible to check temps (or just shove your hand in and grab a few things to see if your skin stays behind ;) ). May be worth trying to start it up from one of these with no HD at all in it....just to see if that makes any difference....if it stays up for hours with no HD but craps out in minutes with one in...it looks bad for the motherboard.

My gut feeling is an overheating CPU or iffy RAM....may be worth trying the install again with the other stick inserted.
 
As above and download an ISO of memtest, burn it to disk using an iso authoring program and boot from it. Id leave it running over night, assuming it doesn't fall over right away.

Remember that memtest may say you have errors in the RAM but it could still be the motherboard. You should test some known good RAM too if possible.

The freezing up can also be a symptom of a duff PSU, any chance of borrowing one from someone?

Keep posting up, hopefully we can narrow it down ;)
 
Well looks like I've found the problem.
It seems to be one of my DVD/RW drives. I unplugged one and no freezes at all, all night!!

I'll keep you all updated.
I tried re-connecting my Raptor though, and it's recognised in BIOS, but I can't get it to come up in Windows. I have some data on there I really want, like a .pst file for my emails etc.

Any ideas how I can get these back? I've been told PING (Ghost) is a good App, will I be able to get my data you think?
 
ok well still no freezes at all now.

But I get a weird thing going on when I turn the PC on.

I turn it on, fans all spin but the PC doesn't post. If I restart the PC or hold in the power button and restart it, the PC then boots up fine?


PCs when they work you love em, when they don't you hate em.
I tempted for an upgrade now.....
 
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