computer help :(

[Silentsnake]

Good morning everyone

Basically last night i was watching a movie on my pc once i finished i went to shut down my pc it took about 15minutes

So i went to sleep woke up today turned it on, and it crashes on memory test although it posted as normal... hmmm that was weird so restarted it did the same so i reset cmos loaded it and it loaded fine

so know i have just gone to shut down my computer and 30minutes on its still on the shutting down window

I am running vista

What should i do?? force the shut down or leave it?

What is the problem could it be ram? or maybe i need to defrag :S

Please any1 thanks

Update: Ok the shutting down window has just gone and it has forced my monitor in to stand by mode but all fans are still spinning :S wtf is going on??? :'(

 

[Rastalovich]

Does sound like a memory thing, setting or something.

This is a good time to have memtest on a usb bootable stick or similarly boot vista and use it`s memory test thing (knowing m$ it`s probably a copy of memtest with just enough changes to be legal).

Here`s the first link I found on doing it for vista http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial146.html I thought u could tab into it during a restart also, but that might be on failures only.

Ur best bet is to do the cmos clearing and load the failsafe default settings, save the bios settings and restart - then test ur memory. Once it goes through ok, u can try putting ur desired memory settings in the bios and retest the memory.

Once it`s establish that ur cpu/memory are working ok, u`d have to think it`s ur OS install that`s acting up - but b4 u look into that, u`d be wize to make sure the mobo/cpu/memory are working ok.

I`d probably even skip the desirable settings for ur memory/cpu, and just try the OS once I know the cpu/memory works ok with the failsafe settings in there.

Chances are, ur pc was on the edge of being stable with the settings u originally had and whilst working with movie playback it went over the edge.

 

[Titan]

Firstly not familiar with Vista but the ts'ing steps I use should roughly be the same

More or less what Rastalovich said but slowdowns like these are usually corrupted o/s (and usually the SAM) without getting too technical - user profiles. There are ways to repair this but honestly, it's more trouble it's worth and a complete re-install is usually best. Try booting into safe mode (F8) and see if you get the slowdown.

This could of course be down to hardware causing the corruption and or crash so first things first elimination..download memtest and put it on a bootable floppy / USB key / CD.

Most HDD manufacturers have a HDD checking program, grab a DOS one if you can and stick that on your floppy.

You can stress test your cpu, but it can also break it (and shorten it's life) if there's a problem so I generally don't use them UNLESS the problem reoccurs once I've discounted everything else.

Get your PC down to basics and I mean basics, if it has onboard gfx, take out your gfx card, network card, etc, just leaving mem and cpu. Unplug all your drives (apart from floppy ofc). Set Bios to defaults.

1. Test psu if able (as it gets older maybe it isn't kicking out enough power)

2. Run memtest and cpu test if you decide to.

3. Plug in o/s HDD and test it.

4. Plug in any other HDDs 1 at a time and test those.

5. I'd probably boot into windows next and deal with any missing hardware issues - if you're not confident and I don't know how vista handles not having a gfx card in, I'd probably stick in my gfx card only and try it like that.

6. Check if you actually have free space on your HDD

7. Turn off Paging and System Restore - reboot

8. Defrag check

9. Virus & spyware scan.

10. Errrr something else probably - If everything has checked out ok I'd be inclined to wipe and start again backing up essentials first ofc.

Apologies if i've missed something but it's 2.15am, I'm tired and more than slightly pi$$ed. Also acutely aware that when the first 2 conditions are met I ramble more than Wainwright - hope I've helped or at least given you a few pointers.

Latest Hiren's has some testing porggies on.

 

[Silentsnake]

Thanks for the replies, i have done some of the stuff itseems to be working fine now :s which is weird!

but i will get to the bottom of what happened, i will try everything you have said later on today hopefully

Thank you

 

[Titan]

not so weird..the long times saving when shutting down is the o/s trying it's hardest to verify the user profile information and 'fix' it (if that's your problem). It's usually ok once it's done that (although not optimal) and although I just realised I didn't say it... it's always best to let it shut down itself and not force it for this very reason - I've had one that took 7 hours to shut down hehe.