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Possible Memory problems causing computer to stall and crash.

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One thing i have not thought of trying because i was sure it wasn't infections was to see how this machine acts under safe mode. I think i might try that, in fact i might have to in order to run any software cause its slown down to a crawl right now.

 

EDIT: Ok so what i gather from the KDE is that its a Linux OS being installed on my machine? that is what i got, where do i go to test my computer for any faulty software and hard drive issues. I have never used linux before so i am very new to this.

it's a live cd,

you just download the iso file, this file then needs to be burned to a dvd.

next you boot to the dvd and run the os.

DO NOT INSTALL it to your hard drive.

just choose the run live kde option from the menu when it starts up.

 

when using it if there are any problems with your cpu,ram or motherboard you should be able to notice them, there is nothing to run to actual test those things except noticing if the pc still "slows down to a crawl" 

 

yes run in safe mode also and see if things are still running slow.

 

you never actual told us how much hard drive space is on your os drive.

 

i'd be looking into finding out what is running that won't let you remove your external hard drive too.

 

:popcorn:

Alright, i'll check that out now and monitor it.

 

yeah i usually don't  make that mistake. of not having enough data left in the drive. I have around 196 Gb currently, out of a 1TB drive. So that should be sufficient enough. 

Ok so yeah im running it now even as we speak and yeah i can't believe how much faster things our, although i will say the browser is not loading certain objects on screen as for example this website is being loaded with a different format and missing text images, etc. But i am pretty sure that is just an issue with using this OS. I was able to safely delete all the junk files i wanted to. I even unlpugged and plugged in my HD's to see if this OS would pick them up, it did perfectly, no issues. So with that being said, something is obvously going on with windows is my guess. I will continue to monitor it though and see if i notice any unusual slow downs and staggering. But as for now it works fine and its like 10 times faster. Its kind of strange because after all the work i did in removing infections, it would be wierd to think that the machine is heavily infected again. I do have a bagel worm on the machine, i know that, but its being quarantined by avast. With all the devices functionally properly, browser showing no signs of slowing down, being able to open applications with no problem, leads me to believe that windows 7 is the culprit. But why, what could be wrong with it?

Oh yeah also, my files our copying much much faster, all this time i didn't even realize how fast you can copy files, im copying around 78.6 Gb in like 11 min, with a USB 3.0 cable plugged into a USB 2.0 controller port, which should give me only USB 2.0 data transfers. On windows 7 platform that would take me at least an hr or an hr in a half. Since i have been receiving issues with bad drives failing or data curroption, im almost certain windows might be the cause of that as well, cause i have had to remove them unsafely due to windows not responding correctly.

yes so whatever the problems are then i'd say they are not hardware related, just windows os or os hard drive related, at least now you know where to concentrate instead of thinking there's something wrong with your ram or motherboard, etc.

 

sorry can't offer any advice on narrowing it down further, been to long since i've done any windows diagnostics.

with any luck someone else will offer advice on your next steps. probably run scannow command to see if you have any corrupt windows files.

 

:popcorn:

TBH I would nip over to the virus section, and ask them to give you a check up, and actually remove the infection safely, and make sure there are no residual issues because of it, get an all clear from them first is my advice, when infection is present (even though quarantined) there is no knowing what else may be going on, and you could be chasing shadows.

It is pointless trying to chase issues, if there is a chance it is another issue causing the issue, if that makes sense lol, so until they give you a clean bill of health, do NOT make any changes to the system in any way as it can make their job harder.

I do have a bagel worm on the machine, i know that, but its being quarantined by avast.

 

Sorry for not getting back sooner, didn't have the strength to type the last day or so, Thanks to Terry for finding out a major factor in your slow down, hard drives MUST have space to move, and the bigger the file you move the bigger the space it needs, so most will advise about 75% full as a max point approx before the drive starts to struggle and shows out in such performance as you have experienced until it is given free space to move again, because it needs to use temp files during any actions, which means space, choke the space and choke the performance.

TBH I would nip over to the virus section, and ask them to give you a check up, and actually remove the infection safely, and make sure there are no residual issues because of it, get an all clear from them first is my advice, when infection is present (even though quarantined) there is no knowing what else may be going on, and you could be chasing shadows.

It is pointless trying to chase issues, if there is a chance it is another issue causing the issue, if that makes sense lol, so until they give you a clean bill of health, do NOT make any changes to the system in any way as it can make their job harder.

I do have a bagel worm on the machine, i know that, but its being quarantined by avast.

 

Sorry for not getting back sooner, didn't have the strength to type the last day or so, Thanks to Terry for finding out a major factor in your slow down, hard drives MUST have space to move, and the bigger the file you move the bigger the space it needs, so most will advise about 75% full as a max point approx before the drive starts to struggle and shows out in such performance as you have experienced until it is given free space to move again, because it needs to use temp files during any actions, which means space, choke the space and choke the performance.

 

 

Ok i can try that, but it just doesn't make any sence, i just got done removing all the infections on my machine, but ill link this thread when i create another topic there so they can get caught up on what iv'e been doing.

 

As for motherboards, i might just decide to purchase another one anyways, i mean its pretty old at least around 4 years old or so and it does not support 3.0 apparently, which i didn't know that when i bought it. Also its having major issues with USB ports and controllers and this has been going on for along time, i don't know if that is an issue with windows or not. If i were to purchase a new mobo, what would you recommend for a price of like $150 dollars? I want something that can run all of my hardware like my i5 CPU of course but now a days lots of mobo are socketed for I3/i5/i7. But i also want a motherboard that is good quality, ive always believed in ASUS to be great, but what do you think about "Asrock" i heard thats a good brand as well. I guess EVGA is generally not that great of a brand, or some one told me that. I mainly use my computer for high intensive tasks, such as encoding, decoding, video editing, video capturing, photoshop, etc. I also need something that fits my tremendous heatsink, that heatsink i bought is amazing though. It has kept my pc at the lowest temps that i have ever seen before. The only problem with it, its so high in heighth, that i can't install a side fan on my side panel, so i just left it off, but surprisingly enough the case has enough fans and cooling to keep the temps down.

 

 

 

Yes terry has been a great help on many different occasions, before he even became a tech on these forums, his information has always proved very valuable to me and has helped me numerous times in certain situations.

 

In any case its definitely apparent that my pc is running much more smooth well running this OS. I have had it running for a few days now and so far no slow downs what so ever. Occasionally i will get distorted graphics on web pages, or links and pictures that do not load, but i think that might be a case of not having the proper extensions for this OS like flashlplayer.

 

If i did have any infections or software related issues, they would not be able to attack this OS, is that correct? Because everything is running services on windows 7 and this is completely different.

My mention of getting a check up is because you have it quarantined, this suggests you have dealt with the infection(s) yourself, nothing wrong with that for some users, but when troubleshooting problems like this, or more importantly when security is involved, more so if doing any kind of money things like buying or banking, not to forget id theft, it is better safe than sorry, and it would help rule out one possible cause of problems, more so when there is evidence of an infection as in this case.

 

The problem with a motherboard fault is there is rarely a way to prove it, we can only prove the other components that can be tested, are OK or not, beyond that it becomes a leap of faith, and no one is going to suggest getting a new board unless they truly believe there is no other possible cause for the problem, and so far there is nothing to say one way or the other.

 

Should you feel the time is right for a new motherboard for more than just this situation, then it is certainly a good move, it means you get the board capable of what you need, and it removes this board from the equation, but it doesn't mean this problem is not still present, and is actually in something else, it also means you will have to reinstall, this would help rule out a corrupted OS, it's possible the infection caused some damage, and it's that corruption causing problems, which could easily be tested on this system by a reinstall if you wanted to check that out as a possible cause.

 

There is only 1 way to 100% guarantee from getting an infection online, that's to pull the plug and stop using the net, other than that we can only take the best precautions we can, yes the new(er) OS's are far more secure than ever before, but NO, it doesn't mean they can't be touched by anything nasty, there is a multi million £\$ industry out there always making new ways to catch people out and steal from them.

 

And they are getting more clever at it as technology moves forward, even mobiles are not safe, and will soon be a boom area for infection (if not already), and one of the latest tricks here was they are attacking cash points at the terminal level, drilling into them to access a USB port, and directly uploading an infection from a thumb drive to the cash machine directly, so ALWAYS be aware.

 

As to board makers, sorry but I will NEVER touch an EVGA board again, I got seriously stuffed by them with a board that became known for it's problems, initially they denied everything, then they had no choice but to admit it, then making me post the board abroad via insured post at my own expense before they accepted the board was at fault, before they sent another, but the postage was never returned, and they refused to let me change to another board in their range due to the horrendous issues that one had, that said many people probably have such a nightmare story about each of the makers.

 

Now Asrock as last I knew, were the budget range of Asus boards, but others may know better, and as a budget board you get what you pay for, that does not mean they are a bad board, it just won't have the same power and ability of a bigger name\model, I think the vast majority of builders prefer Gigabyte or Asus as their weapon of choice, because they have a proven history of reliability (but there are always ones to avoid) and performance, more so with overclockers as they demand the extreme from what they buy, but again it doesn't mean there are no other good choices about.

 

I used to go for the most expensive boards when I started, believing them to be the best, but unless you are going to be doing anything other than running the board at it's manufactured state, you can get a board for under half the cost, that will serve you just as well, so my advice is buy a good solid board, but unless you will be changing it's settings you will only be wasting money going for top end ones (in terms of what you need). 

 

As to the kind of intense usage you require, I don't think the board has much to do with that, not compared to the CPU, and the higher end you go, the higher end a video card are the greatest power area's you need, not forgetting ram of course, 16gig would be a minimum I would personally look to for this, purely because it means it will do the same job with less effort than say 4gig, you know this already having 16gig I would guess, but when getting a new board (if you go that route), make sure the slots can take the ram, in stick size as well as spec.

 

Now I've just been going through all this again to try and refresh my mind, and I noticed your screenshots, this immediately raised a red flag to me when I noticed the voltage's, I would seriously check the PSU out, if the 12v reading is correct that is well out, unless I am missing something (quite possible with my arm currently), and if this is out, it will cause no end of varied problems, and have you going in circles, not to mention if it does go bad, it "could" take your entire system with it in the worst case, although it is a good unit, they are not infallible, so get this checked out ASAP to be safe.

 

Here is the chart I use as to what each lead should be within with it's power, if it does not come within the ranges shown then the PSU needs replacing, the good news is the PSU has a 5 year warranty if it is going bad, so with luck will still be new enough to be covered if needed, but they now show as out of stock, but face that problem once you prove the PSU to be bad, I hope I'm wrong, and\or the software is giving an incorrect reading, but if the reading is correct, then that is certainly the source of your problem, or at the least a major factor in it, so check that out before spending any money I would say.

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