50 replies to this topic

[Ultilee Stupid]

I hope this is the right place to post this apologies if not.

 

My Computer keeps freezing at random. the mouse won't move, Ctrl+Alt+del doesn't work so i have to switch the power off. It's been happening for over a week. it only happens once and rarely twice a day. a few days ago it went 2 days with out happening. very strange

 

It's a desktop with vista. i've tried scanning with Malwarebytes and also Avast & COMODO. all is clear

 

Hoping someone can help, thanks.

Edited by Ultilee Stupid, 10 August 2015 - 11:21 AM.

[roadrage]

Hi US,

 

First thing I would do is to start saving your files to a thumb drive now,  from my experience this is a HD that is failing and the more it is running the more likely it will get to a stage where it will not even boot anymore,  I suggest to do a Vivard test but save your files first if you can, you can run Vivard from a live CD that runs from ram only and test it,    wait for one of the experts here to tell you more but "save save save" your important files right now.

Also Vivard is only good for spindle drives,  if it is an SSD you will need something different,  don't know what brand your HD is but they may have their own HD test program...check there first.

Edited by paws, 23 August 2015 - 03:09 AM.
(reference to bootable disc containing applications with unclear/ potential licensing issues removed

[Ultilee Stupid]

If it is a Hard Drive failing what will i need to do? just buy a new Hard drive and install?

[roadrage]

If it is a bad HD then yes,  but clone it or make an image and transfer it to your new hard drive if it is failing,  wait for the inhouse experts here to weigh in on this matter as I have my ways but so do they and I will go their way,  there are some limits on the correct procedures for doing that and we don't know for sure what is wrong it is only speculation on my part and someone may have a better way for you to go,  also I am not sure if you have a hidden partition or a recovery DVD and if it is proprietary you will need the same hardware and HD as the one in it now and for cloning or ghosting it should be the same size or bigger

 

Edit:

I will tell you what,  if you don't get help by the time you need it or a response and you are desperate  I will jump back in, but have blank dvd's and thumb drives at the ready and as always if a mod comes in I will hand it over to them and bow out, check out Acronis trial version but if you have a WD hard drive which is not really a trial but the full version,  for some reason Western Digital HD's have full access to Acronis for free other than the trial version for non WD drives,   I have 10 of them right now I am looking at and never had any problems for experation or trial date gone, WD HD subject to change of course...Edit just now: it has changed for WD since I last used it

 

 Make sure to read the user manual before you have anymore questions.  But for the most part even the trial version should be ok for non WD drives.

Edited by roadrage, 10 August 2015 - 10:33 PM.

[Ultilee Stupid]

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to hard drives. i'm not even sure what make mine is.

 

When i bought the PC the hard drive died with in 5 months. the manufacturer (DELL) sent me a new one and talked me through installation. i'm fairly certain i can install a new one if i need to. I'm not too concerned about cloning the HD most of my files, video and pics are saved on an external drive and most of the programmes i have should be easy enough to reinstall. plus it's an old hard drive so it might be a good idea to start from scratch or is it always recommended to clone?

 

My big problem is knowing if i can just buy a HD from amazon and it will fit or are there certain requirements i need to look out for.

 

I found this one last night

http://www.amazon.co...81V6AVQ3F&psc=1

 

My drive is small only 149GB, would putting in a 1TB effect anything? (see very novice )

 

I just need to know now if that is the problem.

 

[terry1966]

first thing you need to do is find out if the drive in there is a pata/ide or sata drive, here is an image google search :-  https://www.google.c...bih=808#imgrc=_

 

notice the pata/ide drives have a wider connection that will use a ribbon cable where as a sata has a narrow connection and a much thinner cable. only old pc's will use the pata/ide connection type all newer pc's will use a sata connection.

 

the next thing you need to look at is the physical size, only really applicable for laptops, you can use any size drive in a desktop but may need an adaptor for the smaller ssd type drives.

 

if it's a sata type then you might want to check the motherboard specs to see if it uses a sata 1,2 or 3 type connection, they all look the same except the higher the number the more/faster data is able to be transfered,

sata 1 = 1.5Gbs, sata 2 = 3 Gbs, sata 3 = 6Gbs.

this isn't critical tho because they are all backwards compatible and will work with each other, just pointing it out because it may or may not save you some money if there are 2 sata drives of the same storage amount say 1TB that your looking at where one is sata 2 but slightly cheaper and the other is sata 3, yet your motherboard is only sata 2 capable, buying either drive will work it's just your motherboard will not be able to utilise the faster sata 3 drive to it's full potential thus wasting the extra money you paid for that extra performance over the sata 2 drive.

 

now you can install and use any capacity size of drive and have it work just fine, BUT depending on your motherboard's bios/uefi, anything upto 2 TB drives can usually be used without any problems, over that then you can run into problems unless the bios/uefi of the motherboard can utilise gpt partitions (may need a bios update.) if not, then you will run into a mbr size limit, this doesn't mean you won't be able to use all the drives capacity but would need you to work around that mbr physical size limit first.

only really apllies to older pc's now, all newer pc's will work just fine with any size hard drive.

more on the 2TB limit in these links :- https://support.micr...n-us/kb/2581408

http://blogs.technet...ws-storage.aspx

 

that drive you linked to should work just fine as long as your pc uses a sata connection.

 

Edited by terry1966, 11 August 2015 - 06:07 PM.

[roadrage]

Also I thought I put it there but Ram is one to check out as well,  run something like memtest...it seems like Ram and hard drives are bed fellows and you have to check both out to narrow down the problem,  did you do the Vivard test or at least a HD smart test ?

[terry1966]

no idea if your problems stems from hard drive failure or memory problems, etc. etc.

 

but here is a link that should help you diagnose any problems, it's for windows 7 but same thing applies more or less for any operating system. :- http://helpdeskgeek....random-freezes/

 

things i'd do first myself besides looking at the logs is run a clean boot and see if the problem appears, only trouble with this is your problem seems very intermitent, and these are always the hardest problems to narrow down because they may not manifest themselves when your running tests.

i'd also run the chkdsk and sfc /scannow commands to check no windows files are corrupted.

 

and of course not forgetting what roadrage has also mentioned, running a physical check on your hard drive using some software or another, and also running a memtest to check your ram.

 

 

this is a guide for the vivard test roadrage mentions :- http://www.pctechbyt...rd-drives-only/

Edited by terry1966, 11 August 2015 - 10:42 PM.

[roadrage]

Where ever did you find that at T,  you are a computer ninja I have to say it is a great site and please drop by, we will plug the malware issues this way if it ok with mods and I will put it in my sig.

Edited by roadrage, 12 August 2015 - 12:26 AM.

[terry1966]

not sure what malware issue your talking about roadrage, but if ultilee does think they have a malware issue then the best place to sort that is in the

Spyware / Malware / Virus Removal

part of wtt forum, where they can post  the required logs and the true malware experts can then take a look and advise the best steps to clean the pc.

 

Edited by terry1966, 12 August 2015 - 09:03 AM.

[Ultilee Stupid]

I became overly focused on a new hard drive and that being the problem. also i had no idea what a Vivard test is

I was also waiting to see if one of the inhouse experts as Roadrage put it would help.

Some of the above has flown right over my head to be honest

If it is memory problems is there anything that can be done?

 

I don't know if it's significant but 3 times in the last 2 days this has popped up "windows sidebar has stopped working"

 

I'll try doing the scans mentioned above now.
 

[Ultilee Stupid]

First part of troubleshooting.

Event Log

Dozens of warnings dating back months for FilterManager

errors from Service Control manager Eventlog provider & DistributedCOM

Tried chkdsk scan but no idea which option to tick Automatically fix file system errors or Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors

the first one wanted to schedule disk check the next time the computer is restarted.

Tried sfc /scannow

"Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them"

 

Tried opening the log but access denied

 

----

Anything here that points to the problem? is there any chance it could be a problem with the fans? they could probably do with a clean.

 

I'll have to buy a disc tomorrow to do the memset

 

On doing a "HD smart test" i can't find S.M.A.R.T.

 

Is the vivard test safe to do right now before doing the memset. this worries me

 

"It really should be noted that if the HDD being tested has certain mechanical issues or problem that are 'advanced' or maybe better put, very close to failing, the HDD test can cause it to fail completely."

[terry1966]

well to be honest if the sfc /scannow found errors and repaired them, then you have to start wondering what caused those errors in the first place, and in my experience it is usually a failing hard drive if malware wasn't the cause.

 

personally i've never yet experienced a hard drive fail during testing, but like you said you have all your important stuff backed up anyway so if it did you'd just need to get the new hard drive a bit sooner and do a clean install of your os than you might have originally wanted.

 

seeing how your os did have corrupt files though and they have now been fixed, you may find your freeze problem has also been fixed and your good to go again for a long while yet.

 

with the chdisk i always used to just tick fix file system errors that scheduled it to run on next startup, then rebooted the pc to start it running letting it do it's thing until it finished and booted back into the os.

 

Edited by terry1966, 12 August 2015 - 05:55 PM.

[Ultilee Stupid]

Tried to run chkdsk but got

 

Checking file system on C:

The Type of the file system is NTFS.

Cannot open volume for direct access.

Windows has finished checking the disk.

.

 

does this point to something else?

[terry1966]

boot your vista install cd and choosing repair pc then using it's system recovery options select command prompt and run chkdsk /p from there.

 

has it frozen since you ran the sfc/ scannow option?