PC freezes on initial boot

After switching the computer on, approximately 1 to 5 minutes after boot up the computer crashes, you cannot use the mouse, the keyboard or any other item at all. The only way to remidy things is to hold down the power button and restart the PC that way. I got the following error codes today in Computer Management: 7000 - The ForceWare user log service service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified. 7023 - The IPSEC Services service terminated with the following error: The attempted operation is not supported for the type of object referenced. 7024 - The Forceware Web Interface service terminated with service-specific error 1 (0x1). 7009 - Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the ForceWare IP service service to connect. Spec: Nvidia Abit KN9SLI motherboard 2, Nvidia Palit Geforce 7950SLI graphics cards, AMD Athlon dual core 4.2ghz processor and 4gb of Ram. Assembled it all back in October and to this day, I have still not got things running properly, after 9 reinstalls and countless days of stress looking for an answer to this glitch. I finally admit defeat and am begging for help. I have tried several cures through troubleshooting and to no avail, its been nearly four months since I initially built this PC and it is starting to frustrate me now, please can anyone help?

Hi Sorry to hear of the problem with your computer, especially as you have built it yourself and the problem has resisted your best attemps to fix it. over quite a few months. With a non standard set up the trouble shooting could take a long time, but if you are up for it so are we! There is a huge amount of experience and expertise on this site and the various experts here will do their best to get the issues resolved but you shouldn't expect a "magic Bullet" which will instantly fix the problem. As a starting point, please download and reinstall the latest drivers for your motherboard, graphics and soundcard. .Remove any connected peripherals, printers, usb drives and the like and update all your drivers reboot and report back on how you computer is behaving. (You may have already done this, but please download fresh drivers for all and reinstall so that we know exactly what has been done Regards paws

I have installed the drivers again as you advised, this is something I have done about 10 times now. There was an error with the ethernet driver where 3 or 4 files were supposidly missing, the internet and email still work fine but we all know that there should not have been those error messages. The problem still exists, I reported it to Abit, who manufacture the motherboard and they suggested it was a Ram problem by asking me to check what voltage it was set to? I checked it out and it was correctly set as 2.20v (Corsair Dominator) looked on their website and it showed 2.20v. Wonder why Abit thought it was a Ram issue? Any new ideas, and why does the ethernet driver from Nvidia show 3 or 4 errors? This PC is baffling me now and its beaten a couple of wizards that I know aswell. HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME OUTSMART IT. Thanks

Hi, When you reinstalled the drivers did you download fresh copies or use ones you had downloaded previously? I know its tedious to repeat steps that have been taken in the past, but after 4 months you must have tried practically everything already…apart from the correct solution of course! ….that we have yet to find. When you reinstalled your operating system 9 times, did you format your hard drive each time or do a non destructive reinstall on top? You need to address the errors on your ethernet and find the files that are missing, and make sure they are in the right place and the right versions, you will need to do some research here and this will take you some time but stick with it until you are happy that this side of things is OK. When posting back can you please tell us if your computer suffers the same symptoms when running in safe mode, (give it a good trial but don't use the net whilst in safe mode) what we are trying to establish here, is steer on whether it's a: 1 Driver issue 2 Hardware problem 3 Software or OS related Finally, has your machine ever (in its short life) worked correctly? As I indicated in my first post to you, the road to recovery is going to be a long and hard one, and you are going to have to spend time and effort in researching various areas, and apply dillegently, the recommendations provided. There are no "magic bullets" for a home built 4 month old system that has a history of major dysfunction. As previously indicated, we here on the Tom Coyote "Other Computer Problems forum, are up for it and will do our best to help you get your machine functioning satisfactorily. You will, however, need to be dedicated and committed fully to the time, effort, and resources necessary to resolve the issues with your machine. Regards paws

Hello, I downloaded fresh drivers and have also tried the original ones again which I still have on disc. When I reinstalled Windows, I did complete formats all 9 times and I cant be 100% but, I am sure the PC seemed to work for the first day then suddenly it started freezing. Could it be a Trojan? I remember trying to solve the problem once and I searched on Google and ended up reading a Tom Coyote topic about a similar fault which turned out to be caused by quite a nasty one. I have looked and looked and cant find the topic again, which is anoying me somewhat. Sorry I have not replied for so long, I do appreciate you assistance. After spending so many hours trying to correct this problem before Christmas I had fallen behind on other matters like completing all the work on my house so I put aside my computer for a few weeks to concentrate on that. I am now ready to fight this problem again, even if it takes a year I will not be beaten! The error files on the ethernet are - Cannot load nv_common.dll: MofCompAndDfit Cannot load nmi.dll: MofCompAndDfit Cannot load specialcase.dll: MofCompAndDfit Cannot load textutil.dll: MofCompAndDfit Then I get the following message - InstallShield Wizard Complete The wizard was interrupted before NVIDIA ForceWear Network Access Manager could be completely installed The system has not been modified. What should I do? (As you recommended, I will be trialing Safe Mode for the whole week to see if I still get the crashing). I will keep you posted, Thanks

Hi, Its good to know that your machine has worked correctly even if only for a day after a reformat. The experts over on the malware forum will be able to give you specific advice on potential malware but as you have reformatted 9 times and presumably have your machine patched fully with all Windows Critical updates and an updated antivirus installed with a 2 way software firewall, you should be reasonably secure. If you post a HJT log in the malware forum please let me know as I will not wish to interfere with any recommendations made by the malware removal expert, but will be happy to contribute again on this thread on this forum once they have declared your machine clean. You are using 4GB of RAM on your machine, there are bits and bobs of extra memory in various places on your motherboard and a goodly amount on your video card, not to mention some "virtual memory" that may be used in your paging file. As you know the 32 bit version of Windows Xp has trouble with anything over 4GB (and sometimes quite a bit less. (The 64 bit version is generally considered better in this respect,) but in any event after you have carried out the prolonged test in safe mode then the next step would be for you to remove 2 RAM modules so you are just running on a matched pair of 1GB each (I am making some assumptions here, so post back if I am in error) You will need to make sure you have them in the correct slots (see your mobo manual for details) and please take all personal safety and antistatic precautions before proceding. Try an extended test once again in safe and then normal mode and post back these results together with the result from the current safe mode test. Regards paws

I tried safe mode this morning and it froze at the logon screen. Strangely there was another logon user account called administrator. The funny thing is, that I am the administrator on the PC anyway and in Control Panel - User Accounts, the other user is not present. I can remember removing an unknown user which seemed to appear after installing McAfee (I know its poor but it was free with Sky Broadband). I also have Norton, but again people say its rubbish and have advised the McAfee if either. Could the problem be McAfee? When I do a reinstall, the first thing I would do after the OS was installed is set up Broadband then immediately download all Windows updates. Then I would install Virus software, downloading all updates for that then all other drivers. I said the PC tended to work for the first day, then it seemed to start crashing again. I have not posted a Hijack this log yet, is it worth me doing that now?

Hi Chris,
There are some more clues here.

There is a main Administrator account that is set up automatically when you install Win XP and which does not normally appear in "user accounts" it should be left alone (apart from giving it a password and changing its name if you want to be really sure…Please don't try and delete it! it is there as your fall back position if things go wrong.

The fact that your machine still crashes in safe mode (when only a minimal set of drivers is loaded indicates that it may not be a driver problem (Its not definite but a good indication.)

There is nothing wrong with Mcafee or for that matter Norton as anti virus applications (apart from the fact they tend to be resource hogs) but what you musn't do is to have both running at the same time. This will create problems, instability, and the likelyhood of system crashes.

The rule is one software firewall and one anti virus product running real time protection at the same time.

When you reformat, you should first install your drivers, for Mobo, chipsets, video card and Direct X
see here for details
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details…;displaylang=en
and you should not (in my view) connect to the internet until your firewall and antivirus is installed (make sure you have as up to date copies on disc as possible before you go online.
I would then update your av before using windows update…otherwise if you hit the wrong key you could be in real trouble as your machine is very vulnerable untill these are in place.

Yes it is always a good idea to have a malware removal expert check out your machine so if you do want to post a log on the other forum I will wait until your machine is declared "clean" before offering any more suggestions as I do not wish to compromise the work of the malware removal expert.

When you post back can you let me know how your machine ran when you removed half the RAM
Regards
paws

To keep it brief, it has still been crashing (also restarting sometimes). I have tried several combinations with the RAM and there is only small change in the PC's behaviour. It sometimes restarts and I have heard some strange noises every now and again (old tape game loading noises from 1980's) I am sure you know what I am on about? Like the ZX Spectrum & Commodore 64. I have had one other recent error which was actually related to a driver (according to Microsoft error reporting) so it could still be driver related. I was so sure that this problem was a Trojan because I read about an identical problem like this a few months ago but just cant find it anywhere now. I have posted on the other forum and will let you know what they come up with, if anything. Getting to the stage of selling the machine to a scrap dealer now!!! Thanks for your assistance so far, I will keep you posted.

Hi Paws

I have just found this http://forums.tomcoyote.org/Serious_Virus_…33.html&hl=

This is again very similar to my problem.

Hi, I noticed you have posted a follow up in the malware removal forum to your first post there. Unfortunately this may delay matters as the experts on that forum will look for any unanswered posts. So by posting a second time (answering your first post) it gives the impression that you are being helped! We will wait until your log has been checked by an expert, although nothing jumps out at me as being too serious (However I'm not a trained Tom Coyote malware removal expert) and also its a pretty powerful trojan that can survive 9 reformats! However as you have accessed the internet without an effective anti virus in place you could have been unlucky and picked up something whilst downloading stuff immediately after a reinstall. When you removed half your system memory did this help? Regards paws

Hi Paws, I did have a pretty up to date copy of Mcafee on the PC before I first accessed the internet to download from Windows Update but understand I may well have just been unlucky and picked up something whilst downloading and updating drivers and virus software. Could a Trojan have been on my old PC and when I saved all my music and other stuff on to CD's & DVD's it transferred into this one? In answer to your question, when I removed half the memory it didnt help either. To be honest, the first two sticks of RAM worked fine the first day without freezing so the next day I tried them in the other slots. Again, the PC did not crash. The day after that, I swapped them for the other two and it crashed pretty soon after so I thought I had narrowed it down to 1 or 2 sticks being faulty. The next day I tried just 1 of these sticks and it crashed. Excellent, I thought at this point we had found the culprit but sadly the other stick crashed the next day and the the first two which seemed to have worked then crashed when I put them back in to try them again. The reason it again took so long for me to come back to you was because I spent 3 weeks trying different ways with the Ram. My PC crashed early last week and I have not used it since. Basically, I switched it on and Windows Automatic Updates started downloading a malicious software removal tool and then low and behold the PC froze. When I switched it off and restarted it went through memory checking (so I pressed Esc) and windows started to load up, then the screen started to flash (which it normally does a couple of times anyway, is this selecting which graphics card output the monitor is connected to?) but it would not stop flashing. 10 minutes later it still would not start. I tried to restart it around 4 times and to no avail. If I recall, this happened once before and I reset CMOS to enable the PC to switch on. I was planning on doing that tonight because I have to remove the sound card to get to the jumper. I have now made a vow……..This is the last time I build my own PC!!! Its driving me mad.

Hi Chris, I admire your patience and perseverence, a lesser man than you would have thrown in the towel by now. I think in view of the fact that you have formatted your hard drive and reinstalled your operating system 9 times. Its time to concentrate on the hard ware issues. This is a suggested plan of attack. Disconnect as much from your machine as possible i.e. Remove: 1 any hard drive other the main bootable c drive 2 any optical (CD DVD drives 3 all your ram apart from one stick 4 all peripherals , printers, scanners, usb gizmos and the like 5 modem 6 sound card and any other cards. now just with a power connector wire, a ps2 keyboard (not usb) and a ps2 mouse (not USB) and simple VGA and taking great care with your MOBO out of its case reset BIOS to failsafe or Conservative or default (according to your BIOS) and see if you have a stable machine. (please make sure that no one can touch the MOBO whilst it is out of its case) I guess you can see the drift if you can get the machine going and stable then putting each bit back one by one establishes (hopefully the culprit) If the machine is not stable with the minimal setup then its a question of swapping your Ram sticks and if this is no go then its probably a mobo fault or the hard drive itself so try another hard drive first (and cable) and see how you go. Regards paws

Hello, I am off work the whole of next week so I will get cracking then. I use a Logitech MX 3000 cordless mouse and keyboard at the moment (could this be my problem?) I will have to go in to the loft and try to find a normal PS2 mouse and keyboard to use. I shall keep you posted. If this doesnt work, I will go for install number 10!!!

Hi Paws, Mmmmm, It seems that I have now narrowed down this problem to one of 2 things. I am running on 3x 1gb Ram sticks and just 1 graphics card. Everything else is again connected and the PC has run fine for 3 days now. Right, now do your stuff…………help! Tonight I will reconnect the other graphics card and see what happens. SLI fault coming up I think. Please can you advise what course of action I should take now? There is again hope at the end of the tunnel. Cheers Chris