I've run aground trying to repair a home PC problem over the last couple of days. Don't know whether to post here or in the hardware forums, so here goes:
My desktop (Windows XP Home, FX 55, A8N SLI Deluxe) has become very erratic. Usually either it boots up as far as the Windows splash but then goes blank before the desktop appears, or it boots fully but at some point (after a couple of minutes, or after an hour) the desktop freezes and nothing I do from the keyboard (including CTRL ALT DEL) has any effect -- I can only reach for the power or reset buttons.
Rebooting in Safe Mode doesn't improve matters. Sometimes Safe Mode similarly fails to open (the list of drivers always freezes at the same one -- \Windows\system32\drivers\Mup.sys) or sometimes I get to the desktop but again after a few minutes it freezes.
Event Viewer has showed various system errors, but they are not consistent. Mostly they involve drivers or files that cannot be read. There was a lot of event ID 7026 and 7023, and a lot of the errors involved Symantec files (I have Norton Antivirus 2006). But I have re-installed and updated Norton.
I have also repaired and re-installed Windows XP.
I have run CHKDSK twice -- the first time replaced "bad clusters" in eight unimportant files (from various games), and the second time ran right through with no complaints. (I have one hard drive.)
I have run MemTest for 40 minutes with no reported RAM errors (that was as long as I could run before the PC froze again).
The thing I have failed to do is run a full malware check -- I have tried my Norton Antivirus, as well as online virus and trojan detectors (from BitDefender, TrendMicro and WindowSecurity). But my PC freezes every time before completion, and I've been trying for 48 hours.
And some re-installations are getting unwound -- eg, I find myself downgraded to Internet Explorer 6 although I had previously installed IE 7 (before you ask, I use Firefox except where IE is required). Also, a lot of Windows security updates got unwound (obviously I'm trying to reinstall them, freezes permitting), as did an earlier installation of Windows Media Player 11.
I almost never get blue screens but, twice, I did and the message was "kernel stack inpage error".
What should I check next? How to tell whether this is a hardware problem or malware, if I can't even run any malware defences before the computer freezes? Given the variety of problems, it's easy to suspect malware, but I can't find a way to fight back. Help!
My desktop (Windows XP Home, FX 55, A8N SLI Deluxe) has become very erratic. Usually either it boots up as far as the Windows splash but then goes blank before the desktop appears, or it boots fully but at some point (after a couple of minutes, or after an hour) the desktop freezes and nothing I do from the keyboard (including CTRL ALT DEL) has any effect -- I can only reach for the power or reset buttons.
Rebooting in Safe Mode doesn't improve matters. Sometimes Safe Mode similarly fails to open (the list of drivers always freezes at the same one -- \Windows\system32\drivers\Mup.sys) or sometimes I get to the desktop but again after a few minutes it freezes.
Event Viewer has showed various system errors, but they are not consistent. Mostly they involve drivers or files that cannot be read. There was a lot of event ID 7026 and 7023, and a lot of the errors involved Symantec files (I have Norton Antivirus 2006). But I have re-installed and updated Norton.
I have also repaired and re-installed Windows XP.
I have run CHKDSK twice -- the first time replaced "bad clusters" in eight unimportant files (from various games), and the second time ran right through with no complaints. (I have one hard drive.)
I have run MemTest for 40 minutes with no reported RAM errors (that was as long as I could run before the PC froze again).
The thing I have failed to do is run a full malware check -- I have tried my Norton Antivirus, as well as online virus and trojan detectors (from BitDefender, TrendMicro and WindowSecurity). But my PC freezes every time before completion, and I've been trying for 48 hours.
And some re-installations are getting unwound -- eg, I find myself downgraded to Internet Explorer 6 although I had previously installed IE 7 (before you ask, I use Firefox except where IE is required). Also, a lot of Windows security updates got unwound (obviously I'm trying to reinstall them, freezes permitting), as did an earlier installation of Windows Media Player 11.
I almost never get blue screens but, twice, I did and the message was "kernel stack inpage error".
What should I check next? How to tell whether this is a hardware problem or malware, if I can't even run any malware defences before the computer freezes? Given the variety of problems, it's easy to suspect malware, but I can't find a way to fight back. Help!