My PC sucks :'(

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Zyxoas, Nov 19, 2007.

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  1. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

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    My computer sucks sweaty Afghan spice-merchant balls.

    IT KEEPS RANDOMLY FREEZING. I would turn it on, and randomly, after a few minutes, the fan speed would increase (audibly) and it would freeze up, with even the keyboard switch LEDs not working.

    After doing some research, I downloaded a scanner for the W32 Blackmall virus from somewhere (was it McAFee?) but it did not discover anything. However, the scanner had an unexpected side effect: using it temporarily solved the problem, as the computer would not freeze at all, even after the scanner stopped. No, I kid you not. Perhaps it's the way it uses the hard disk?

    So now I'm forced to quickly run the program after starting up. However, for some weird reason, the good effects are lost when I put it into hibernation (it's a 1.7 Celeron, running XP professional), as the computer freezes shortly after restoring it. So I'm forced to keep it on permanently, as I'd rather not close the dozens of windows I usually have open at a time.

    This is obviously a viral infection. Does anyone know what the virus may be, or where I may find a good stand-alone free virus (VIRUS, not spywear) scanner (as opposed to a full antivirus software)? I've tried Stinger but it doesn't find anything.

    Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.
     
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  3. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    Try AVG Free,
    but to me it sounds like a hardware problem, maybe your RAM is damaged,
    more likely you have some serious heat problems with your system due to fan malfunction and thus your processor is forced to halt when it reaches critical.
     
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  5. DeepThought Banned Banned

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    The fan is speeding up because the processor is working harder.

    Some processes are dominating its time and causing your system to freeze.

    If your running windows XP then CTR-ALT-DELETE and click the 'processes' tab. Try and track down the offending process from there.
     
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  7. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Go to .... start...open it up and find run...type msconfig ,click ok..then go

    to the start up tab open it and close everything except your virus

    control...then hit apply and turn off the pc and reopen it. That way

    everything will be off but your virus controls so your PC should be running

    fine.
     
  8. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    Go to www.trendmicro.com and do the housecall scan. It will find nearly anything unless it's brand new. Then it will probably clean it. If not at least you will know what virus.
     
  9. jlocke Registered Senior Member

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    412
    Windows? Well there's your problem right there...
     
  10. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    Sounds like overheating to me.

    Either that, or bad ram......but I'm putting my money on overheating.

    If it's overheating, you either need to make sure they put cpu compound between the chip and the heatsink, OR you need to get a nicer heatsink.
    It may also be an airflow issue, but I doubt it. Improper airflow (not enough fans/holes in the case) typically takes at least 30 minutes or so to fail.....at least that's the way I've seen it on the other's I've worked on.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2007
  11. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

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    189
    I appreciate all your responses, but...

    I don't have the bandwidth to do that. Do you know of similar programs I can download?

    Yes, I know how to use msconfig, but I don't think this will work. What do you mean by "virus control"? I imagine the virus might have infected some startup program. I'll try turning off all the startup programs and see if it goes away, then work from there to identify the culprit.

    Does anyone know what TINTSETP (under system32) does at startup?

    No, the fan speed increase is just a weird symptom of the freezing. If it was due to heavy use, I imagine that the hard disk light would be on, CTR-ALT-DELETE would work, the mouse cursor would move, and the keyboard lights would respond when I pressed the caps, scroll, and num lock keys -- none of these thing happen. The processor completely stops responding.

    I've checked the system using the ASUS motherboard probe software (looking at temperature and voltage, among others), and nothing critical happens just before the freezing. There could indeed be a hardware failure, but I'd like to exhaust all software possibilities first.

    :shrug:
     
  12. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

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    189
    As I said above, the motherboard probe reprts perfectly cool temperatures just before the freezing.
     
  13. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    What are the temps?

    Welp --- if you want a standalone/no spyware scanner, try this:
    http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

    Doesn't require install, and runs directly from executable.
     
  14. DeepThought Banned Banned

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    1,461

    Have you checked recent programs you've added and software updates?

    Does the problem occur when the computer is booted into safe mode?
     
  15. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    189
    It's currently at 49C/120F. I've seen it go up to mid 50s. I'll download that software (but not necessarily now, depending on its size). Thanks.

    You know what the sad part is? My computer can't boot into safe mode. It always stops dead when loading a certain driver in the Windows directory. I'm too lazy/frustrated to check now what the file's name is, but I guess maybe I should... :shrug:
     
  16. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    19,083
    Well, as I already mentioed, AVG Free is a good free anti-virus solution,
    but, as it is always easier with windows, a totally fresh reinstall will be the quickest solution. If it's not a hardware problem, it should work.
     
  17. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    DEFRAG your Drives.

    If you've been having constant problems with startup and using Hibernate (which stores a capture of operations in a cache file) then your Disk drive is likely heavily Fragmented. A fragmented drive will increase Drive activity since piecing together files and holding them in RAM/CACHE's is resource heavy.

    However before you Defrag, make sure you Run the Scandisk function to make sure the Actual Disk drive (Well partitioning) hasn't been damaged (it can occasionally occur from multiple crashes).
     
  18. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    19,083
    Good advice, Stryder
    I once bought a new hard drive only to discover after the purchase that one partition (/home) on my main drive had only 170mb free space left.

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    Sure enough, I cleaned it up and my pc didn't hang up any more.
    With modern hard drives it's easy to forget that they have limited space.
     
  19. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

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    189
    Thanks for that Stryder. I would need to delete a whole bunch of stuff first, but I'll certainly try to defrag.

    I'll also download and install AVG later this week.

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  20. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

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    I downloaded several antiviruses and scanners, used them, installed AVG, and now the problem is gone!!! :yay:

    Domesticated's info about ClamWin was incorrect. Not only did it require installation, it then neede to download the virus definition database (which is the reason why it was so small). I'm not using it...

    I had several viruses, 2 stoopid VB worm (vb.LD and VB.CID), two viruses from torrents, and Backdoor.sdBot3.

    Thanks for your help.
     
  21. Till Eulenspiegel Registered Member

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    I've recently had a similar problem with my pc. The fan doesn't speed up but it freezes. It might freeze when I am in the middle of typing something. Neither the mouse nor keyboard work and I have to do a hard shutdown. It might freeze when the screensaver is on. I never know when it will happen.

    After it started freezing I took it to my computer guy and he said one of my hard drives was damaged. I had it replaced with a new 250 gig drive. It still freezes and is back in the shop.

    I am seriousl thinking of just getting another lap top and a 500 gig external hard drive to store my music and photo on.
     
  22. Zyxoas Registered Senior Member

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    189
    It did it again, so I'm sure it's somrthing hardware related.

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    In an effort at Voodoo debuging, I changed my RAM timing back from T1 to T2. Since it's a Celeron, that's the only thing I could do to improve performance (I couldn't overclock it).:grumble:

    I'll see how it goes...:scratchin:
     
  23. ashura the Old Right Registered Senior Member

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    3,611
    A warning about computer repair shops: a lot of them are BSing you. That includes big names like BB's geek squad or Circuit City's name-I-can't-remember.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=nsHoTxU5hwg

    My personal opinion is that you're better of going to community sites like www.ocforums.com or plenty of others that you can google and asking for help, or asking for a reference for a good repair guy/gal in your area. I can understand not finding the time to do such a thing, but I have no idea what else to suggest in defense against the numerous people who would rip you off.

    NOTE: I realize that there are plenty of good people in the industry too, but how likely is it for the average person to run into one?
     
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