Computer Help Needed Please !!!!!!!!!!!
Discussion
Question for all you IT guys out there.
In the last couple of days, my PC has started turning itself off, and then straight back on again!! Any ideas why this might occur?
It has today also started freezing up and sounding a continuous beep through the speakers. Only way to stop it is to turn off on the base unit...
Do you think this might be a virus or hardware / software problem? Any ideas how to fix it?
I had a message come up a with a bright blue windows screen with basic type text scrolling through, saying it was trying to recover orphaned files or something? It said it was checking for consistency, then CHKDSK Verifying Files, then Indexes. I don't have a clue what that was, and how it started by itself.
It found an error in index $130 for file 29 - whatever that means. It then tried to fix itself by recovering a load of orphaned files. Still no joy though.
And now I get a window popping up saying windows has recovered from a 'critical event' or something like that, which it obviously hasn't !!!
Only things that have changed recently is that I've updated to the latest Norton internet security, and also added a Tesco internet phone so we can phone the outlaws in Spain for nowt ...
Any help peeps - it's driving me crazy!!
Cheers,
Andy.
In the last couple of days, my PC has started turning itself off, and then straight back on again!! Any ideas why this might occur?
It has today also started freezing up and sounding a continuous beep through the speakers. Only way to stop it is to turn off on the base unit...
Do you think this might be a virus or hardware / software problem? Any ideas how to fix it?
I had a message come up a with a bright blue windows screen with basic type text scrolling through, saying it was trying to recover orphaned files or something? It said it was checking for consistency, then CHKDSK Verifying Files, then Indexes. I don't have a clue what that was, and how it started by itself.
It found an error in index $130 for file 29 - whatever that means. It then tried to fix itself by recovering a load of orphaned files. Still no joy though.
And now I get a window popping up saying windows has recovered from a 'critical event' or something like that, which it obviously hasn't !!!
Only things that have changed recently is that I've updated to the latest Norton internet security, and also added a Tesco internet phone so we can phone the outlaws in Spain for nowt ...
Any help peeps - it's driving me crazy!!
Cheers,
Andy.
Andy_CTR said:
Question for all you IT guys out there.
In the last couple of days, my PC has started turning itself off, and then straight back on again!! Any ideas why this might occur?
It has today also started freezing up and sounding a continuous beep through the speakers. Only way to stop it is to turn off on the base unit...
Do you think this might be a virus or hardware / software problem? Any ideas how to fix it?
I had a message come up a with a bright blue windows screen with basic type text scrolling through, saying it was trying to recover orphaned files or something? It said it was checking for consistency, then CHKDSK Verifying Files, then Indexes. I don't have a clue what that was, and how it started by itself.
It found an error in index $130 for file 29 - whatever that means. It then tried to fix itself by recovering a load of orphaned files. Still no joy though.
And now I get a window popping up saying windows has recovered from a 'critical event' or something like that, which it obviously hasn't !!!
Only things that have changed recently is that I've updated to the latest Norton internet security, and also added a Tesco internet phone so we can phone the outlaws in Spain for nowt ...
Any help peeps - it's driving me crazy!!
Cheers,
Andy.
In the last couple of days, my PC has started turning itself off, and then straight back on again!! Any ideas why this might occur?
It has today also started freezing up and sounding a continuous beep through the speakers. Only way to stop it is to turn off on the base unit...
Do you think this might be a virus or hardware / software problem? Any ideas how to fix it?
I had a message come up a with a bright blue windows screen with basic type text scrolling through, saying it was trying to recover orphaned files or something? It said it was checking for consistency, then CHKDSK Verifying Files, then Indexes. I don't have a clue what that was, and how it started by itself.
It found an error in index $130 for file 29 - whatever that means. It then tried to fix itself by recovering a load of orphaned files. Still no joy though.
And now I get a window popping up saying windows has recovered from a 'critical event' or something like that, which it obviously hasn't !!!
Only things that have changed recently is that I've updated to the latest Norton internet security, and also added a Tesco internet phone so we can phone the outlaws in Spain for nowt ...
Any help peeps - it's driving me crazy!!
Cheers,
Andy.
the blue screen is the system checking itself from an incorrect shutdown which is looking for errors on the hard drive
the fact you are getting corrupt indexes and orphaned file recovery suggest a hard drive or controller failure or as a result of multiple restarts ,which point to a power supply problem of some kind i would suggest ,
the continuous beep also points to a hardware failure of some kind but it could be anything memory motherboard processor overheating
sorry can't be more help
Have you thought that it might be overheating or power supply intermittent feature.
On my PC's I set the temperature alarm to continuously beep when they get too hot and then shut down (and restart) if the temperature is exceeded for i think 5 minutes continuously.
what operating system are you on ? Windows Xp, Me, 2000 ?
Do you get a blue screen of death when it fails or does it go straight to black ?
Is there any consistency to the beeps when they occur i.e. are they following a pattern of beeps ?
The chkdsk is a tool that is used to check consistency of the file system on your hard drive after an unexpected shut down, which makes sense.
Thanks so much for your replies so far.
The blue screen of death only appears when I re-start the computer after it freezes. It also comes on sometimes when the computer turns itself off, then on again. When this happens, the screen goes blank, then the computer re-starts. Sometimes normally, sometimes to the blue screen of death, and sometimes it fails to re-start properly, and needs to be turned off at the base station.
The beep is just a continuous beep that doesn't happen every time the computer fails, perhaps every other time it freezes. (As described above it doesn't freeze every time, sometimes it re-boots itself).
I'm running windows XP, and don't know how to set a temp alarm, as I'm not that computer savvy....
Does anyone know of a trustworthy pc repairer/expert in the Reading/Bracknell, or Woking area, as hell will freeze over before I take it to PC World !!
The blue screen of death only appears when I re-start the computer after it freezes. It also comes on sometimes when the computer turns itself off, then on again. When this happens, the screen goes blank, then the computer re-starts. Sometimes normally, sometimes to the blue screen of death, and sometimes it fails to re-start properly, and needs to be turned off at the base station.
The beep is just a continuous beep that doesn't happen every time the computer fails, perhaps every other time it freezes. (As described above it doesn't freeze every time, sometimes it re-boots itself).
I'm running windows XP, and don't know how to set a temp alarm, as I'm not that computer savvy....
Does anyone know of a trustworthy pc repairer/expert in the Reading/Bracknell, or Woking area, as hell will freeze over before I take it to PC World !!
Edited by Andy_CTR on Thursday 15th February 19:46
Don't know about PC repair there - but I run my own PC repair business here in Liverpool, no fix-no fee, unfortunately you could look at my website www.foxcomputers.co.uk (But I've just posted a trial website for a TVR independent on top of it TorqueRVT - so he can try before buying so to speak).
The cost of sending just the base tower/desktop by 'parcels to go' is normally a £10 and I'll be happy to look at it for you and send it back asap - normally 24/48 hr turnaround -PM me and I'll send you the details - sounds like Power supply, overheating, or possible memory issue - hard to diagnose remotely unfortunately.
Right.
Unplug everything and open the case up.
Take a medium stiffness paintbrush and clean out all the fans.
If possible take a note of who made your hard drive.
Reassemble.
Boot in to windows.
Right click on My Computer, right click on your hard drive.
Play around in the window that opens and look for "Check for errors". This will also show who the drive thinks made it.
Tick the two boxes that pop up and click "Ok".
Reboot.
Allow the system to scan the drive completely.
Now visit the manufacturer of your hard drives website (i.e. www.seagate.com).
Mooch around the website and see if they have a diagnostics package for download.
Download and install it.
Run Diagnostics.
Download SpyBot, AdAware SE and the usual gormet selection of software offered to check for nasties.
Install them, update them. Run Spybot THEN run AdAware.
Reboot, Tap F8 and select "Safe Mode"
Repeat the scans.
Reboot and allow to boot normally.
Go Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.
Look through the the listed events around the time of these mysterious deaths and reboots.
See if anything obvious is mentioned (i.e. nv4disp.dll, lost connection to module X, etc.).
Right, the top block of text should be your first stop. But after that feel free to attack the other blocks in any order you fancy, running through this lot: eliminates overheating, eliminates spyware, eliminates bad disk, eliminates corrupted Windows files and begins pointing you at the System logs to find odd events.
Unplug everything and open the case up.
Take a medium stiffness paintbrush and clean out all the fans.
If possible take a note of who made your hard drive.
Reassemble.
Boot in to windows.
Right click on My Computer, right click on your hard drive.
Play around in the window that opens and look for "Check for errors". This will also show who the drive thinks made it.
Tick the two boxes that pop up and click "Ok".
Reboot.
Allow the system to scan the drive completely.
Now visit the manufacturer of your hard drives website (i.e. www.seagate.com).
Mooch around the website and see if they have a diagnostics package for download.
Download and install it.
Run Diagnostics.
Download SpyBot, AdAware SE and the usual gormet selection of software offered to check for nasties.
Install them, update them. Run Spybot THEN run AdAware.
Reboot, Tap F8 and select "Safe Mode"
Repeat the scans.
Reboot and allow to boot normally.
Go Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.
Look through the the listed events around the time of these mysterious deaths and reboots.
See if anything obvious is mentioned (i.e. nv4disp.dll, lost connection to module X, etc.).
Right, the top block of text should be your first stop. But after that feel free to attack the other blocks in any order you fancy, running through this lot: eliminates overheating, eliminates spyware, eliminates bad disk, eliminates corrupted Windows files and begins pointing you at the System logs to find odd events.
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