PC Troubleshooting...

[Nemesis]

Of course with a system that is acting flaky there is one thing to do FIRST.  Backup your data DO IT NOW! and keep it current at least until you solve the issue and know that the system is reliable again.

I sent a PC to a friend on indefinite loan and recently got it back.  He claimed that it was overheating and crashing 15 minutes after he turned it on.  I checked and the crash was true but the overheating was not.  I then spent the next 4 hours in safe mode (Win98SE) defragging the 17gb hard disk.  It has worked without a crash for up to 3 weeks at a time since then.  Defragging may not help you but it definitely won't hurt.  A scandisk would also be a good idea as you could have a bad sector that windows is using.

You didn't mention your OS but I have found with Windows that not only the defragging is important but also that just booting into safe mode and rebooting again seems to enhance stability.  While in safe mode it might be wise to check your device drivers, at times I have seen duplicate copies that only show up in Safe Mode and which once fully removed and reinstalled again improved reliability. 

Exporting your registry lets Windows clean it up and then reimporting the registry seems to help at times too.

Another thing is just how many things do you have in your start group?  I have seen machines so loaded down that they were crippled by "utilities" that people were loading everytime they booted.

Finally there is a utility build into Windows (98 and 2000 at least) called System File Checker (SFC.EXE) that can be used to check system files for corruption.   It can allow the reloading of corrupt or questionable files.  Have your install CD ready.

[Tus]

i actually have a pretty good idea why its unstable as it was stable before my new vid card.   However why its unstable is what i do not know, and is drving me insane.

I'm running xp pro, have run a defrag (no scan disk, will do that next).  I've done a quite a bit to ensure i have everything correct on it.

only thing that is confusing is the reason.  Its not like it shuts down every 15 mins, its the exact opposite.  It only shuts down when i leave it idle for a period of time, what the period is i don't know.  this in it self is really wierd to me as it doesn't make a bit of sense.  When i'm doing stuff cpu intensive it runs great, when i let it idle for to long it restarts... wierd.

[Nemesis]

i actually have a pretty good idea why its unstable as it was stable before my new vid card.   However why its unstable is what i do not know, and is drving me insane.

I'm running xp pro, have run a defrag (no scan disk, will do that next).  I've done a quite a bit to ensure i have everything correct on it.

only thing that is confusing is the reason.  Its not like it shuts down every 15 mins, its the exact opposite.  It only shuts down when i leave it idle for a period of time, what the period is i don't know.  this in it self is really wierd to me as it doesn't make a bit of sense.  When i'm doing stuff cpu intensive it runs great, when i let it idle for to long it restarts... wierd.

I refuse to put up with Microsofts activation nonsense and so have very limited experience with XP.

Could be that your power supply is on the weak side for the system as updated.    You might try the link below to calculate the wattage of your system and compare it with the powersupply you are using.  Link provided by Darth Lyr (obviously;) )

Here is the link:http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

You might also try an alternate video driver newer preferablly older might still be worth a try in case it is a bug in that precise driver version.  In addition you might wish to look at your video settings in the system BIOS and see if perhaps they are a little too agressive.   Even testing at lower performance levels might reveal more precisely where the problem is.

You might want to review your power management settings.  Specifically tell it not to power down the monitor when not in use.  The video driver may be having trouble reactivating it.

If it runs fine at full CPU usage ... run SETI @ Home it keeps the CPU at 100% and for most usages gets out of your way when you go to do things with the system.    It might be worth a test anyhow.

Good luck.  Let us know how it works out.

[Tus]

hmm, suppose i should gve my system spec and not just the problem

P 4 3.2 ghz
1 gig (2 512 mb) PC 3200 (kinston) (slot1 and slot 3)
WD 120 gig HD (100 and 20 gig partitions)
e-GeForce 6800gt (EVGA)
Asus P4P800 motherboard (agp 8x compatable)
550 watt Antec power supply (power is not an issue)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
TV card
Linksys wireless lan card

I have 5 fans running in the case, and a cool master Aero 4 (copper heatsink) on my processor

edit:  just used that site, 244 way under what my ps can produce

oh and as for seti, wish i could, that computer doesn't have internet as i don't feel like having USAFA comm sqaud installing anything onto my computer

[toasty0]

i actually have a pretty good idea why its unstable as it was stable before my new vid card.   However why its unstable is what i do not know, and is drving me insane.

I'm running xp pro, have run a defrag (no scan disk, will do that next).  I've done a quite a bit to ensure i have everything correct on it.

only thing that is confusing is the reason.  Its not like it shuts down every 15 mins, its the exact opposite.  It only shuts down when i leave it idle for a period of time, what the period is i don't know.  this in it self is really wierd to me as it doesn't make a bit of sense.  When i'm doing stuff cpu intensive it runs great, when i let it idle for to long it restarts... wierd.

This sound every much like an electrical short. It is almost impossible to recreate or track down without diagnostic equipment. Pull out your new vid card and reinstall the old one and see if the crash occurs. If not it is a pretty safe assumption it is the card causing the issue and not any software conflicts.

Jerry

[Tus]

looks like i will be bumming a neighbors card then, sold that one already lol

[toasty0]

looks like i will be bumming a neighbors card then, sold that one already lol

Make sure the drivers work...hmmm...

wait a minute...hey, just take out the card and run it with the window driver. Everything will look crap, but you wanna see if the behavor is recreated. If not, then it's your vid card...or........


You could install the card on your friend's 'puter and see if it does it on his/her box.


Jerry the cat skinner

[Tus]

think i figured out what the problem was (as it hasn't shut off in a day and half).  my screen saver wasn't working correctly and was crashing my computer (somting i dled).  Finally caught it w/ an error message which pointed back to that.  hopefully its as simple as that, other wise i'm going to be annoyed lol

[E_Look NCC-9091]

Hey y'all (who can help at all), I installed some document viewer I needed for a very short time and it came with some Installshield Installer program that acts like a virus/adware.  I pops up every so often and tells me this or that program needs to be updated, programs I don't care about.  So I deleted the viewer.

But the Installshield Installer won't go.  I can't even delete some of its files.  This tells me it's viruslike or adware.

Suggestions?  Specifically, I'd welcome effective uninstallation advice.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 

Check your Add//Remove programs for something that looks like this program and if you find one, remove it.

If you don't see it there, check Start --> Programs --> Startup and see if it loads from there.  If so, right-click and delete it.

Also run regedit and go to HKey_Local_Machine --> Software --> Microsoft --> Windows --> Current Version --> Run and see if you seen it loading from there and if so, delete it.  While you're there, you can also delete tkbell (unnecessary RealPlayer associate) qttask (unneccessary Quicktime associate) and anything else you find there that you don't need....

[GE-Raven]

I also recommend the tool

Hijackthis.exe

Very nice and powerful tool to view and remove stuff that runs on startup.

BE VERY CAREFUL, you can easily hose your machine with it.

Google the name to find it.

GE-Raven

[Skawpya]

Another puzzle for you folks.

former and hopefully soon to be restored system
Msi 865pe neo 3 motherboard
4 x 256mb ddr ram
non over clocked pentium 4, 300 ghz
radeon 9550 256 MB
Linksys lne 100tx ethernet card
Siig sound card
power supply allied model 1 AL-A300 ATX, 300 watts
a 80 gig maxtor hard drive and a 200 gig maxtor hard drive

a few weeks ago there was a brown out, in some places, a black out, locally. Upon returning home, the 200gig hd that held the os was fried. I hooked it up to the other machine, reformatted, and then reattached to the original system, reinstalled windows ((first mistake likely)). For a while things went well enough, then the system would first have a freeze of the moniter display, a repeated refrain of any music playing at the time, and a second or two later, it would lock on one repeated note.

A few times of that and I backed up both hard drives on each other, though the os hard drive was as lesser concern as I didnt store anything unreplaceable on it. Anyway two days ago, it finally died again. I took the drive out, reformated it again, found a bad sector, had that dealt with, and again tried reinstalling windows. I also installed windows on the 80 gig drive.

The puzzle is that now, with the 200 gig drive it freezes every time I get to the "Welcome" screen, while the 80 gig drive freezes just after the normal windows display comes on.

So far I have cleared that it is not
the hard drives (both function normally if slaved on the other machine, though I did have to reformat the 200 gig hd)
the speakers or moniter, both are working fine now that I using my back up machine with them.

[Javora]

Skawpya I think I would take the system down to a local computer store(IE not Best Buy, Circut City, etc.) and have them put a electrical tester to it.  I'm thinking that the brown out might have damaged something besides your hard drive.  My first guess would be the Power Supply, followed by the Motherboard and then the Processor.  But I think taking the system in and paying $5~$20USD might be worth the time you would spend trying to test it out yourself.

While you are down there I would also take a look at a good UPS (Uninterpretable Power Supply).  That should protect you from any further brown/black outs and the cost of replacing something in your system.  Hope this helps.

[Overmind]

What HDDs are those ?
What models (WD, Maxtor, Seagate, etc.) ?

[Soliton]

One thing that drove me crazy was bad memory. It will make you PC just act flakey and it is a pain to diagnose unless you are looking for it. If your PC is doing goofy things, try running memtest. It will stress test your system's memory. It should be able to run for hours without any errors, something I do whenever I assemble a new PC. Even name brand & brand new memory can fail this test (though name brands are far better than generic memory). If you get any errors, you should replace that memory as any errors will eventually lead to big problems (corrupted files).

http://www.memtest86.com/

[Nemesis]

Twice now I have had my router "die" on me and have it turn out to be the power supply that died not the router itself.  The second time was just this week.

[Sirgod]

Twice now I have had my router "die" on me and have it turn out to be the power supply that died not the router itself.  The second time was just this week.

Raises hand ... Me also. Hell I took mine apart this last week, In order to look at the board, smell around for burning. Linksys, has crap when IT comes to adapters, as the board was fine. Well, It was untill I got upset and took the 12 gauge to the whole mess.


Stephen Shooting electronics each and every day.

[Nemesis]

I can't shoot it.  It is an old US Robotics router with a built in serial port that I use for modem sharing - nearly impossible to replace.  At least until I find where I put that &^*% spare.  Meanwhile I plan to go looking for some spare power units for it at an electronics surpluss store when I get the chance.  Considering its age I can't really complain too much of problems after years of trouble free working.

As a side effect I did learn a couple of things about Linux.  When I plug a digital camera into the USB port it is recognized right off as a camera.  Turns out that it recognizes the directory structure not the camera.  This falls in the good news bad news category.  Good news is that it autmatically gives me a selection of software to load and handle the images.  Bad news is it assumes there are only images and doesn't allow me to treat it as a hard drive.  Even if the memory card is moved to a card reader it still detects as a camera and is limited.  A little annoying as I tend to use the same cards for file transfer and cameras.  Fortunately I have a 512 mb compact flash card that is only used for file transfers but I can't use the 4gb card from the digital camera directly from the camera like I can with windows.

[Sirgod]

If you don't mind, what kind of Card do you have? I ask because I finally got around to hooking up my Copier (this huge 400lb + POS, for use as a printer, and Eventually, I want to Make some large prints of the grandkids.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

If you don't mind, what kind of Card do you have? I ask because I finally got around to hooking up my Copier (this huge 400lb + POS, for use as a printer, and Eventually, I want to Make some large prints of the grandkids.

Stephen

The new camera uses secure digital (I have a 512 mb as well as the 4 gb) the older cards are all compact flash (I have 1x16mb, 3x128mb, 1x512mb).   I prefer the larger size of the CF cards, they are easier to handle and harder to lose than the SD cards.

I do like the new camera having a capacity for 1314 (6 mega pixel) images before needing to delete things.  In theory it can take 2 hours of 30fps video on that card.  The only issue is that the camera can't format the card, I have to format it on a card reader with the computer.

[E_Look NCC-9091]

Hey folks- guess what: new problem.

So what else is new, right?

Anyhow, two computers on my little home wireless network are connected by Netgear WG311T wireless PCI adaptors.  The funny thing is that on one, the antenna seems to be bad.  There is evidence from unscrewing and switching antennae with the other computer and whichever computer that bad antenna was on, reception was very poor.  The system with the antenna got pretty good reception.

Could it be something else?  I mean, how does an antenna go bad?  It's not like its a moving part like a fan belt or in contact with constantly moving parts like motor brushes.

I'd like to get a better idea of what could be going on before I give in and swap out the card.

Anyone got any ideas?

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 

Well, my first thought was "How could an antenna go bad - It's really just a piece (or two) of wire!"?!?  But if it's always been that way, maybe it has a manufacturing defect.  I'd be very surprised to find that something hit it with enough current to damage it but not completely toast your router in the process...

You should be able to find a new antenna for it on eBay pretty cheap.

[E_Look NCC-9091]

It's not for the router itself, but the wireless adaptor card (receiver) on the networked computer.

I think, though, that I might have an extra card in the house somewhere.  If I can dig it up, I'll simply install the new one in place rather than go through eBay.

[Sirgod]

Trojan Help.

It seems my C:/WINDOWS/system32 according to AVG has the Codex.exe infected with a Trojan Genric.zzq

However, Norton doesn't see it, It can't be removed normaly, and I'm almost afraid to remove it manually.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

I just did some looking on the internet and Codex.exe is part of a piece of spyware called WinRecon.  Here is a link to manual removal instructions plus a program to remove it.  I am not familiar with the source of the program so its "use at your own risk" time.  Before trying it have you tried any of the antispyware programs on the Security sublist of the Free software list?  One of them should do the trick.

[Sirgod]

Thanks again Nem. I'll be trying the Auto Removal tool Spyhunter 2.7 From Enigma, It figures Windows defender didn't find this...

Anyway, If not, and you hear a large Bellowing scream up North, You'll know It was just me playing with the regestry again.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

Thanks again Nem. I'll be trying the Auto Removal tool Spyhunter 2.7 From Enigma, It figures Windows defender didn't find this...

Anyway, If not, and you hear a large Bellowing scream up North, You'll know It was just me playing with the regestry again.

Stephen

 Let us know if it works and what actually worked as well.  To be fair to Microsoft Windows Defender is still in beta isn't it?

[Sirgod]

Yep, Still BETA. I tired a few different ones, Finaly settled on using SbyBot  (USed to use it all the time), And IT found everything but. So I just did the Regedit thingie, and It seems to have fixed everything right up.

Well, now to the gaming forums to pester peeps over GC 2

Stephen

[Capt. Mike]

Hey folks- guess what: new problem.

So what else is new, right?

Anyhow, two computers on my little home wireless network are connected by Netgear WG311T wireless PCI adaptors.  The funny thing is that on one, the antenna seems to be bad.  There is evidence from unscrewing and switching antennae with the other computer and whichever computer that bad antenna was on, reception was very poor.  The system with the antenna got pretty good reception.

Could it be something else?  I mean, how does an antenna go bad?  It's not like its a moving part like a fan belt or in contact with constantly moving parts like motor brushes.

I'd like to get a better idea of what could be going on before I give in and swap out the card.

Anyone got any ideas?

10 days late, but what the heck...

There can be a problem with the antenna itself...many times there is an RCL circuit (very miniturized nowadays) that is an impedance matcher

See this...

A "antenna component" is a portion of the antenna performing a distinct function and limited for use in an antenna, as for example, a reflector, director, or active antenna. "Parasitic elements" are usually metallic conductive structures which reradiate into free space impinging electromagnetic radiation coming from or going to the active antenna. The "electromagnetic wave refractor" is a structure which is shaped or positioned to delay or accelerate transmitted electromagnetic waves, passing through such structure, an amount which varies over the wave front. The refractor alters the direction of propagation of the waves emitted from the structure with respect to the waves impinging on the structure. It can alternatively bring the wave to a focus or alter the wave front in other ways, such as to convert a spherical wave front to a planar wave front (or vice versa). The velocity of the wave radiated have a component which is in the same direction ("director") or in the opposite direction ("reflector") that of the velocity of the impinging wave. A "director" is usually a metallic conductive structure which reradiates into free space impinging electromagnetic radiation coming from or going to the active antenna, the velocity of the reradiated wave having a component in the direction of velocity of the impinging wave. The director modifies the radiation pattern of the active antenna and there is no significant potential relationship between the active antenna and this conductive structure. A "reflector" is usually a metallic conductive structure (e.g., screen, rod or plate) which reradiates back into free space impinging electromagnetic radiation coming from or going to the active antenna. The velocity of the returned wave having a component in a direction opposite to the direction of velocity of the impinging wave. The reflector modifies the radiation of the active antenna. There is no significant potential relationship between the active antenna and this conductive structure.

An "antenna coupling network" is a passive network (which may be any combination of a resistive, inductive or capacitive circuit(s)) for transmitting the signal energy between the active antenna and a source (or receiver) of such signal energy. Typically, antennas are designed to operate in a relatively narrow frequency range. The design criteria for receiving and transmitting antennas differ slightly, but generally an antenna can receive and transmit equally well. This property is called "reciprocity".

The vast majority of antennas are simple vertical rods a quarter of a wavelength long. Such antennas are simple in construction, usually inexpensive, and both radiate in and receive from all horizontal directions (omnidirectional). One limitation of this antenna is that it does not radiate or receive in the direction in which the rod points. This region is called the antenna blind cone or null. Antennas have practical use for the transmission and reception of radio frequency signals (radio, TV, etc.), which can theroretically travel over great distances at the speed of light (the true velocity depends on the transmission medium over which it passes). These signals can also pass through nonconducting walls (although often there is a variable signal reduction depending on the type of wall, and natural rock can be very reflective to radio signals).

Also there could just be a simple break in the antenna...replacing the antenna could be the answer..

Let me know

Mike