not sure

Hi. have used the site before, but not on this subject. for a while now my comp runs well, then all of a sudden it will take ages to start, another time it will freeze up, widows will stop working then resume. other small gliches going on. dont know where to start on this one, usually can manage to sort things out with the help i've had in the past from your site. do you think this is just an age thing with the comp, or a virus i've not detected? all help most welcome. thanks.

I would not rule out some form of malware.

Have you cleaned out the inside of your computer? How are the temperatures of the CPU, GPU (video) and hard drive(s)? You can use Speed Fan to check them.

I would also recommend you go to the Spyware / Malware / Virus Removal forum, read the info there and follow the posted directions. Once you receive a clean bill of health, come back here if you have any additional questions or concerns or it turns out not to be a malware problem.

Please be patient as that is a very busy area. If you do not receive a response in 3 days, post a message here: What To Do If You Have No Response In 3 Days?

thanks Rich, will do as you say. Ian.

CPU temp didn't come up in the readings this is what i got, Found ST3160815AS on AdvSMART Found ACPI temperature End of detection Fan1: 1529 RPM Fan2: 1105 RPM Fan3: 0 RPM GPU: 0 C Temp1: 39C Temp2: 28C Temp3: 12C HD0: 29C HD1: 42C Temp1: 11C Core: 10C the comp would not start this morning….all I kept getting was a blank screen with a cursor flashing in the top left hand corner. Rebooted a couple of times..then it started up.

Couple things to try.

Run chkdsk from Recovery Console:

You are going to have to get into BIOS Setup on your computer to set the CD/DVD drive as the first bootable device, so you can then boot your XP CD, unless it provides the ability to press a Fn key at boot time to bring up the boot selection menu. If it does, use that.

How you do this varies with each manufacturer. Normally you press F1, F2, F10 or Del when you see the manufacturers logo. Often there is a clue somewhere on the screen when you boot normally telling you what key to press. Some computers (most newer ones) have a key you can press (often F12) to bring up the Boot Menu from where you can select the CD/DVD drive to boot from.

If you don't have an XP CD, download and run ARCDC by Artellos. It will download the required files from the Microsoft Web site and create a .iso file. It will also offer to burn the iso image to a CD for you. If you don't do it then, there is a good freeware burner called ImgBurn which will do it at a later time. If you're unsure how to do this, you can follow the tutorial here: How to Burn an ISO File. This can be done from any computer.

Boot the CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.

Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk /r
Allow it to complete undisturbed. It can take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard drive.

Remove the CD, type exit and the computer will reboot. Hopefully that will have fixed the problem (corrupted file system).

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools:

Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

Test memory:

Download Memtest86+ (you want the 2nd one Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)). Unzip it then create a CD from the iso file using your CD burning software. There is a good freeware burner called ImgBurn which will do this easily.

Boot the CD and run for at least 3 complete passes unless it shows errors sooner than that.

hi rich. I know its been ages. not been able to follow this through up till now. can you recap for me, ( You are going to have to get into BIOS Setup on your computer to set the CD/DVD drive as the first bootable device, so you can then boot your XP CD, unless it provides the ability to press a Fn key at boot time to bring up the boot selection menu. If it does, use that ) this was in your earlier reply. i'm using window vista not XP WINDOWS VISTA Home Premium, version 6.0.6002 Service Pack 2 Build 6002 the comp takes a while to start, once i log in to my account,( there are three accounts on here) takes ages to get to a point where i can start to use the comp. once it is ready to go, works fine, where do I go from here? Ian.

Welcome back. No problem with the delay, life happens. We never close threads here except for the malware area so you can always pick up where you left off when you get the time.

Since you can still boot the computer, try this:

• Open the Run box by pressing the Windows key (to the right of the left Ctrl key) and the R key.
• Type chkdsk c: /r and press Enter. You will see the folllowing:

  The type of the file system is NTFS.
  Cannot lock current drive.
  
  Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
  process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
  checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)]

  Type Y and press Enter.
• Reboot and let chkdsk run to completion. This can take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard drive.

tried that, but as soon as i press the enter key, I get a quick flash of a box ( cant tell you what it say as its so quick ) and then nothing…………….as if I haddn't done anything at all. tried 6 times same thing all the time.

You will need to run the command with "elevated privileges" on a Vista machine
Take a look here for details:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67612-ch…isk-chkdsk.html
Regards
paws

have run chkdsk. dont know what it done as it had finished when I returned to the comp.

something else has happened, when I right click my mouse, the menu isn't showing, can just make out the right side and bottom of it. it reveals as i run the curser down it. quite strange! will see how its working tomorrow. just tried to use the tools icon on the page to open an "in private browsing " and the same is happening there. again, i'll see whats happening in the morning.

Hi Chkdsk will have fixed any file errors or disc inconsistencies that it can…. How did you get on running the mem test that Rich suggested and the hard drive tests? Try a new mouse Not a wireless one but a wired one running into a USB port ..see if there is any improvement Have you backed everything up on your machine that is important to you…stuff that you would not like to lose? Regards paws