I refuse to pay anyone to fix my computer, so I'm taking the alternative route of doing it yourself. Normally I'm pretty good on a computer, built a couple... but I'll be damned if I can solve my OWN computer problem lol. Does anyone know some good computer tech forums? -Travis
I usually just google the problem or the error message. Do you need to trouble shoot a software issue or a hardware issue?
You could just ask the wiz's here. If you absolutely want to go to a CT forum, I think Hard Forum is the best. www.hardforum.com
http://www.google.com/search?q=tech...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a There you go, sir.
What's the problem? Many of us on here have worked in I.T. for a long time and we know you, so I think we're about the best tech support forum you can find.
Well... the problem as of right now isn't as complex as it once was. Throughout my computers 5 year history (it's been updated periodically, 2.0 ghz, 2 gig DDR2 ram, decent video card, decent hds), it's been a fairly good computer until about a year ago or so. I've done nothing different, but a "curse" has fallen upon my computer that I cannot seem to get rid of. Every 2-3 months I have to reformat because some random ****ing freeze in windows, causing me to do a simple "reset button press", APPARENTLY corrupts my entire drive to the point of where "last good config settings" and "start windows normally" don't ****ing work. It's not the reformatting so much that bothers me, partly because I've gotten used to it, but its the fact that even though I reformat so much I still loathe the process of restoring everything again. Also, I keep most of the stuff I value on my external drive that I refuse to install Windows XP on because of the curse. The thing with the "curse" is that I've bought 3 different hard drives in the last 8 months and the odds of ALL of them going kaput? Next to none. Hard drives don't last decades, I've worked on them long enough to know that, but a few months? No. Not at all. This is a problem that I would bet money on is not hard-drive related but somehow (and again I don't know how) related to the motherboard or basically anything other than my BRAND-NEW, neatly wrapped hard drives I've bought in the past year. What's the deal here?? I can't post my system specs for now, I might get around to posting them later if I feel like reformatting my drive again. My latest reformat lasted 12 hours before my computer ****ed up again. Now it freezes even BEFORE the black windows xp screen with scrolling green bars come up. If anyone can make sense of that tangled information, I would appreciate it more than anything.
For a problem as bizzarre as that, maybe you SHOULD shell out some money to find out the problem..? Although they'll probably just tell you to get a new comp yet charge you 60 bucks for the labor/inspection fee. I can already picture it, a tech support version of House, featuring a super smart yet super handsome tech support dude who fixes people's most bizzarre computer issues.
What's your operating system? I've never seen what you describe happen on a Windows 2000/XP machine. It has happened to me in Linux back before Linux supported journaling filing systems. NTFS (the file system Windows 2000/XP uses) isn't supposed to corrupt if you reboot while its writing to the drive. My guess is that there is a common task/circumstance/software package tying all of these events together, causing the failure. What are you doing when the machine locks up? What software are you using? Do you run any strange software drivers or the like that could interfere with normal file system operations? Are you keeping your machine updated and virus/malware free? If it's not that, a software problem, I'd start by replacing the hard drive that keeps corrupting. Hard drives are cheap. Yours could be slowly failing, causing your machine to hang and the file system to corrupt.
Windows XP Home w/ Service Pack 2. Well, I've mainly just been doing simple stuff like browsing the internet (with internet explorer AND mozilla), opening file explorer, clicking on random icons on my desktop. I don't believe I run any software drivers out of the ordinary. Sure you have the video card that doesn't pass the "Xp installation test", but that's about it really. Virus/spyware checks regularly as well. I don't see the point in buying a new hard drive though when I've bought plenty already, lol
When you say you're certain it's not the RAM and that the ram is only six months old, you're not certain unless you've run a Memtest program. Google Memtest, find a program and run it and make sure your RAM is coming out with no errors. The most common reasons for repeated reboots/BSoD's are ram failures and overheating. First check your voltages in BIOS for all your hardware and make sure they're running within normal ranges. You'll want to check your manufacturers suggested voltages for your RAM and set them in BIOS (make sure to look this up online - very risky) rather than have it automatically detecting. Furthermore, you'll want to check all the temperatures, especially the processor and graphics card. You can do this in BIOS but the problem is that you're not seeing the temperatures under a normal or even full load. This will require some more programs that monitor temperatures like coretemp or speedfan. You'll be hoping for something like 40 deg C. Anything above 70 is really too hot. Finally, make sure you download all of the newest drivers for everything you're running. You'll also want to consider updating your BIOS (again, look it up because anything with BIOS can be risky).
This is what I was thinking. Flash the bios or update it. beyond that . . . maybe something is faulty on the motherboard Rocket River
Also it might be a corrupt registry, try rolling back your XP to like a month before, you don't lose any data and you might actually isolate or fix the problem. DD
What does this mean, exactly? Your computer will suddenly freeze, so you have to do a hard reset, and then...what? Does Windows go into a reboot loop? How far does the boot go before it kicks you back out again? What happens if you try to start into safe mode instead of start windows normally?
what are your computer specs? cpu - motherboard - memory - videocard - hard drive - power supply - optical drive - additional -
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ i usually go there for computer related advice, under the COMPUTERS - PC Hardware forum. Gurus on that forum and usually reply within few mins if even that no matter what time of day
"That means anyone who has a quarrel with you, holds a grudge against you or just plain doesn't like your looks, can kill you and never be found out."
