Hello all!
I was here back in April over on the HJT and Malware removal forums after a virus scan pulled up something I wasn't familiar with. We got the malware removed, but the other problems I'd been having weren't fixed. Tomk determined that the problems weren't malware-related, and suggested I try here. I put it off for a while, but things aren't getting better (of course) and now I think I have some time to devote to this, so here I am. I'm running Windows XP Home edition on a Dell Insperon 1501 and I've had it approximately 3 years. I had the motherboard replaced back in perhaps December when it would not boot up at all after a few false starts, and had some additional memory installed at the time since it was running slowly at startup. Things were fine for a while. Now, I seem to be having some problems with my video and/or audio devices. Here are my major problems:
1. More often than not, my Internet browser hangs up on sites with lots of Flash content or embedded videos (including ads and videos that don't automatically play). Needless to say, sites like Youtube or Neopets are practically off limits. Flash games as well. This is especially annoying when I'm on a website that I don't think will have videos or anything like that and then WHAM a video ad- eBay and DeviantArt are terrible offenders in this regard. When this happens I can minimize and maximize/restore, but I can't close the program. It happens with both Firefox (which I use almost exclusively because it seems to happen less) and IE 8. I can also move the mouse, and other programs that are open are not affected. I can't open any new ones, though, or they will freeze/hang up as well. I am able to bring up the task manager and try and end the program that way, but it doesn't always work or may take 20 minutes or more to kill it. I usually don't wait that long and power the laptop down manually (probably not good for it but I am impatient!).
2. Intermittent loss of sound due to an "unrecognized" sound device. No sound. This usually goes hand-in-hand with the browser hangups. I know that if I can't hear any sounds, then I probably shouldn't even attempt trying to play a video or opening WMP or Winamp to listen music. I have a sound-scheme applied, and I can usually get sound at startup, but it's within minutes that the sound is disabled. Then it might randomly come back. I'll get MSN notifications when nobody's talking, just because the sound card is trying to catch up or something.
3. NONE of the USB ports will recognize new hardware unless that hardware is plugged in prior to powering up. I have a flashdrive pretty much perma-inserted into one and it is recognized, but my mp3 player (a Sansa Fuse) and printer are just…ignored, even if I plug them in before turning on. For the printer, this may be because I uninstalled the printer drivers on accident and haven't gotten around to re-installing them because my room mate can't find the CD. But I don't know why it won't recognize the mp3 player anymore, since it did a couple of times using the pre-plug method. The "Found New Hardware" notification never pops up, and I can't use "safely remove hardware" because it doesn't actually do anything (but that's not a problem because I never take the flashdrive out).
4. Neither WMP or Winamp will auto-play CDs. I have to open the program and tell it what I want it to do. It's more like the the CD isn't even recognized, because software CDs don't auto-run either, and I don't even get that box that pops up and asks what you want to do with it. WMP also won't recognize a new CD replacing the previous one. I have to close it and open it again for it to realize there's something different in there. It's possible that I have some sort of mixed signal between Winamp and Media Player as to which one is actually supposed to play the CDs. Maybe both? Maybe neither?
5. I cannot enable a screen saver. I have tried and tried, and nothing ever happens. No matter which one I pick. I can't even get the preview to stay up for more than a second. I'm pretty sure I used to be able to have a screen saver, and then it started hanging up when it resumed, so I disabled it and now it's gone forever.
6. Alt-text doesn't display for more than a second. Especially annoying on sites where images are tagged with alt-text. I can't read that fast! It also greatly affects my Sims 2 game because none of the Head-Decision-Bubbles show up long enough for me to click on more than one choice. So frustrating.
7. In MS Word, and ONLY in MS Word, highlighting+backspace and highlighting+overtype does not work. I have to use the delete button, not the backspace button. It's fine if there's no highlighting, but if I want to delete a big block of text, or replace it with fewer words, I have to hit "delete." Not too major but kind of weird.
8. INCREDIBLY long shut down/log off time. Logging off especially. It can take up to 30 minutes just to turn off…sometimes. Other times it's just fine. Most times, though, the blue "logging off" screen displays for a very long time. My startup time is fine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can provide a link to the malware topic if needed.
Make sure you use the option to perform a full surface scan such as (chkdsk /r)
Keep your eyes open for messages about windows replacing bad clusters. This is a sign of hard drive failure.
Third, to help us get an overview of your system's configuration please run the PCPitStop Overdrive tests, here's how:
How to run PCPitStop's Overdrive tests:
Please click here to go to the PCPitStop Overdrive sign-up page: Signup at PCPitStop (You need to use Internet Explorer with this test so that an ActiveX control can be installed.)
Click "Create a free account"
Enter in your relevant information on the sign-up page. You must sign-up in order to have your results recorded so that we can take a look at them here.
After signing up you'll see the "Registration Complete" page, and you can click "Test Your System Now" to return to the test page.
Login with your newly created e-mail address and password on the left hand side.
Follow the directions to "Scan this system now." An activeX control will need to be installed. It is safe, and you should allow it to be installed.
Once the tests have been run, you will see an "Almost there" page requesting further information about your computer and your experience with PCPitStop, just scroll down to the bottom and click "GO."
A test results page will display, and I need the link to that page.
Look in the address bar of your browser. It will look like 'http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/…' Please copy and paste that here to the forum.
Note: PCPitStop may recommend that you use certain utilities to fix problems on your computer. At WhatTheTech, the help we provide is free. We do not endorse or recommend the use of any products PCPitStop may suggest. Instead, we prefer to help you with each issue manually without using possible pay to use programs.
You mentioned that when you plug in a USB device after the computer is powered on it is not recognized. Can you be specific as to what happens when you plug the USB device in? Do you hear the "Ba Dong" noise? How about when you remove the device, do you hear anything?
Please describe your video problems?
Please describe what you mean with "unrecognized" device concerning your sound card.
You mentioned you had your motherboard replaced, and some of this stuff you are mentioning sadly sounds like a motherboard issue again. Your answer to the above questions will help.
appleoddity-
I'm having some problems with ImgBurn and creating a bootable CD because my D: does not auto-run CDs. I have created an .iso file and had no problem downloading/installing ImgBurn but when I go to put the .iso file onto CD, nothing happens. ImgBurn opens and tells me that the CD is ready but when I try and write it, no progress is made at all. The CD does not spin, and progress stays at 0%. I let it run for an hour last night to see if it would do anything, but… Then I couldn't close the program. It "acknowledged" my abort request, but never actually closed. SO longstoryshort, I can't test my RAM. :/ I'm trying again, and I'm gonna leave it open while I'm at work and see if it will start randomly at some point. Should I wait to test my hard drive and run PCPitstop until we've figured out the RAM issue, because I haven't moved to those steps yet, figuring I'd do them in order.
As for USB things: I do not hear BA DONG or any sort of acknowledgment, but the option to safely remove the hardware is on my start bar. When I unplug anything, I don't get a noise for that either, but the option disappears. Occasionally (VERY occasionally), after I plug something in after powering on, a while later the laptop will suddenly decide to recognize it and then I'll hear BA DONG, but that doesn't happen very often.
Video problems: the page the video is on will hang up, and I won't be able to navigate to any other tabs I have open. Usually the progress bar or whatever that thing is at the bottom of the screen that says stuff like "website found, waiting for reply" etc, will say "transferring data from" and then something that looks like a website address (for a long time it was something like "admt" dot something and then it ran out of space to display) but I guess all that data it's transferring never gets transferred. If I'm at a place like YouTube, or if there are embedded links to a YouTube video that isn't set to autoplay, it's usually okay until I try and play the video, then it starts transferring data, and the video never loads. The progress/loading "circle" will stop moving and then my browser icon in the top corner will turn into a blue and white box and then sometimes it'll say not responding but other times it just hangs up. GIFs and other really simple animation stuff (like emoticons) will load fine. I'm pretty sure I'm up-to-date on all my media programs like QuickTime, WMP, Winamp, RealPlayer, and Java, so…
The first time the sound quit working on my laptop (right before the motherboard crapped out), I went to the sound troubleshooter and from there looked to see what kind of sound card I had. It was grayed out, which I took to mean that the computer wasn't recognizing it. I KNOW there is a sound card in there. I'm trying right now to see if it's doing the same thing (I have no sound at the moment), but I can't get the list to come up. Anyway after a reboot that time, the sound came back and then the option wasn't grayed out anymore. Does that make sense? I haven't checked since then, since I figured it would be doing the same thing.
Vectris: THANK YOU! That is exactly what was wrong. I'm not even sure how something like that would have gotten turned off in the first place, but it's back on now and so much better.
Please continue the chkdsk /r and the PCPitStop tests.
If you have access to another computer, please burn the Windows Memory Diagnostic on that computer and then come back to this computer and boot that disc to test your RAM.
So it turns out that ImgBurn worked after all? I let the program run while I was at work, and when I came home it still hadn't done anything, even after 7 hours. So I rebooted and on a lark (since I forgot to take the CD out) went to Multiboot and ran the CD-ROM drive and the diagnostics started just fine! I ran it for 50 passes (mostly because I didn't realize it didn't stop automatically), and no problems were found. I'll start the chkdsk now and let you know how that turns out.
Also thanks TomK for the link.
appleoddity:
Okay! After a slightly frustrating night and morning, I've gotten all the tests done. It took all night for my computer to tell me that CHKDSK could not be run, so when I got up this morning I closed that window and then tried to restart so it could run. After waiting an hour for it to log off, I just pushed the button and rebooted myself (sorry, I am not a very patient person and wanted to get all this done before I had to go to work). The CHKDSK ran, but took less than a minute, and "the volume is clean." Then I attempted the PCPitstop tests. Internet Explorer would not cooperate and kept hanging up. Most of the time I couldn't even get my homepage to load, BUT I could close it instead of it being unable to close like Firefox. So I said forget about it and went to work. I tried again just a while ago and everything went okay. Here are the results: http://pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?conid=22308480
click start -> run -> type cmd and press ENTER.
At the command prompt type chkdsk /r.
When prompted about scheduling a scan during the next restart, answer 'Y'es.
Restart your computer.
The chkdsk scan will take a long time. Probably 30 minutes to an hour or longer depending on if there are problems.
I want you to do it at a time you can look in on it periodically. I want you to look at it before it finishes step 5 and see if you are getting messages about "Windows replacing bad clusters."
I'm sorry this stuff takes a while, please be patient so it can be performed properly.
I understand. I don't have time to run it right now, but I'll do it Saturday so I can keep an eye on it while it's going, and I'll also have plenty of time to wait for everything to respond properly. I'll get back to you when it gets done right.
Hi Crazydiamond… This is rather discouraging. You've got quite a list of problems on your computer. Your event log is full of tell tale signs of performance issues you are experiencing which are also probably causing other problems. I'm not exactly sure why all this is happening.
Let's try running dial-a-fix and see if we can get any of these services working right.
Open the .zip file and run the dial-a-fix.exe file. Click the double green check marks at the bottom of the window so that everything is selected. Click "GO." Reboot your computer when dial-a-fix is finished.
Please upload some CodeStuff starter lists: How to use CodeStuff Starter to view services and startup items:
Well I haven't seen any improvements. When I first tried to unzip Dial-a-fix it told me that there were no files to extract. I re-downloaded it and things worked fine after that. When I ran it, it immediately told me that Dial-a-fix couldn't determine what version of Internet Explorer I had so some DLLs would be skipped (I have version 8). Then I got 8 other error messages during the run, all coming from system32. It recommended that I email Dial-a-fix but I haven't done that because I wanted to check with you. I have them all written down, if you need the list.
I'm fairly certain I have the discs. I'll check either tomorrow or Monday morning, since right now I'm not at home.
Here are the CodeStuff links:
7. In MS Word, and ONLY in MS Word, highlighting+backspace and highlighting+overtype does not work. I have to use the delete button, not the backspace button. It's fine if there's no highlighting, but if I want to delete a big block of text, or replace it with fewer words, I have to hit "delete." Not too major but kind of weird.
8. INCREDIBLY long shut down/log off time. Logging off especially. It can take up to 30 minutes just to turn off…sometimes. Other times it's just fine. Most times, though, the blue "logging off" screen displays for a very long time. My startup time is fine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can provide a link to the malware topic if needed.
The first time the sound quit working on my laptop (right before the motherboard crapped out), I went to the sound troubleshooter and from there looked to see what kind of sound card I had. It was grayed out, which I took to mean that the computer wasn't recognizing it. I KNOW there is a sound card in there. I'm trying right now to see if it's doing the same thing (I have no sound at the moment), but I can't get the list to come up. Anyway after a reboot that time, the sound came back and then the option wasn't grayed out anymore. Does that make sense? I haven't checked since then, since I figured it would be doing the same thing.
Vectris: THANK YOU! That is exactly what was wrong. I'm not even sure how something like that would have gotten turned off in the first place, but it's back on now and so much better.
