Computer acting like a girlfriend

[Pinero]

Hi everyone

went through the forum and I couldn't find an answer to this problem.

if I cold boot my computer (after computer sits off for 8 hours) it says one of three things...

1. command.com ...(other system related files) corrupted or missing.

2. not reading C drive.

3. a message saying "it is safe to shut down the computer now..." in dos text

but after a few resets (about 3-5) everything boots up fine.

I've ran scan disk many times.

seems that there is nothing affected by this weirdness.

when I had my computer built, nothing like this happened. in fact, my computer worked fine for 6 months prior to this.

4 months ago the weather got colder and that's when all this started.

do you think it's the temperature affecting my hard drive or something?

thunderbird 900
kk266
nividia gts/pro
IBM harddrive 40 gig
optical mouse logitech
GEM monitor
creative cd rom 52X
some no name cd burner (Got it at price club, works perfect, and cheap too)
about 3 fans (medium sized fans)
350 enermax power supply
SB live 16
one slot fan

thanks in advance for any help or comments...


Pinero

[Pinero]

oh yeah

forgot to mention this

nothing is overclock on this computer.


pinero

[Thermal]

Sounds like an OS problem. Have you tried reinstalling windows?
Hopefully your hard-drive does'nt have bad sectors...

[rogerdugans]

Welcome to the Forums!

The bad news is that it sounds like one of three things to me:

MOST LIKELY: hard drive is dying and corrupting files. Try scandisk and defragmenting the drive, see what they say.

possible: Virus. corrupting files; run a virus scan and check for viruses

least likely: motherboard is buggy or on its way out- the ide channel isn't stable. One possible way to fix this is to use the secondary ide channel if you have one. I haven't done this myself, but I have seen posts from people who have. It still doesn't bode well for the mobo if this works, but it may keep you going until you get a new board.

Good luck.

[Pinero]

hi and thanks for the quick replies...


I have ran scan disk many times.

I haven't defraged since...since...god knows when.

I don't know if that would actually have anything to do with it.

I've ran virus scans on both Norton and that free on you do on the web. Nothing.


You mentioned that it may be the motherboard. The only motherboard related thing was flash the bios a few months before the problems started. (kk266 incompatible with sb 16...way to make a mother board...solution comes in the form of a bios flash 4 months later...thanks guys, next time i'll just order a computer from mongolia and have a donkey deliver it.)

Are there any ways to check the mother board to see if it is "healthy?"

so you don't think it is temperature affecting it at all? seems logical to me.

Pinero

[jazztrumpet216]

Defrag anyway, if you have bad sectors that will recognize them, and you'll be able to see if it's your HD or if you can rule that out. I tend to also think it's the hard drive on it's way out. If the defrag doesn't work, reinstall the OS.

[Pinero]

thanks for the advice

I'm gonna defrag tonght when i'm asleep

and if that doesn't work

gonna format and re install everything

yea I went to the local puter shop to pick up a ide controller that fits into a pci slot

after he heard about my problem he was convinced that it was window problems

he wouldn't even sell me the controller

i looked around and saw three guys repairing on computers

i'm guessing if they do that every day they must know what they're talking about


hopefully i'll talk to you all again with a functioning computer


pinero

is anyone else getting as addicted to ghost recon as I am?

just bought a "discount" star trek package at bestbuy for 14 bucks

includes the fallen and away team

what to spend the next 4 hours i've got left?

choices choices choices.....

[Gliderguy]

this is a longshot but I have read about it being a problem:


What altitude do you live at? I have heard that people living in the mountains go through hard drives faster than normal...I dont mean Denver or Albuquerque type altitudes, but more like 10,000 ft above sea level or even higher...
the air is so thin up there that the hard drive heads dont "float" over the platters as well as in thicker air, and hard drives crash frequently...

A lot of mountaintop observatories have special pressurized hard drives to combat this....

Just thought I would throw that out there.

[turd]

just a big stab but could it be that your ram is not set properly, that it has "walked" with the hot /cold structural changes

[Warlord2]

it sound like your hard is either failing or just doesnt like the cold weather...

I would defrag and if it comes up with a error you know the hard drive is going bad are you should think about getting a new one

if no error comes up I wouldnt worry too much about it.....maybe a OS problem so you can try and format and see if that works or maybe just reinstall the OS over the current one so you dont have to reinstall all your apps

[Dabljuh]

Hmm...

But first of all I would try switching cables and channels...

No help? Try this: Get into Dos mode and enter

FDISK /MBR

This will rewrite your HD's initial sector... It solved my problems when my rig _never_ wanted to boot up correctly (had to use a floppy back then)

Also, be sure that you run scandisk _with_ surface check...

And if all goes crazy,
format C: /S /C
+ Windows reinstall

(BTW did you install the actual drivers for mobo?)

If the problem still occurs, you'll have to replace either the mobo or the HDD... My bet is on the HDD, but its a 50/50 chance

[Billvill]

I read you asked the best way to see if a motherboard is "healthy" . Thats easy have it bend over and cough.

Sorry, I needed some humor at this time of the morning.

Seriously , I would defrag immediately and try to back up your important files.

Billy

[-EternitY-]

That's a simple Answer.

and that is.



















Format

And re-install windows.

[Pinero]

lol you guys crack me up.

i'll try to relpy in order of posts...

I live in a desert in california. don't think i'm up too high. I mean, I can smoke without being dizzy so I guess my hardrive can do it's harddrive stuff without being dizzy too.

as to my ram that "walked." I do have a kk266 board and it is notorious for ram "walking." I heard on a forum that you have to jam that ******* in with all your might. but one thing seem to say otherwize. when I boot up, the ram number is correct. I would imagin if the ram is floating it'd show like half the ram or something (2 sticks). never the less if I get desprate enough i'll try jamming it in.

yea it maybe the harddrive acting like a prom queen after prom (wink). I would switch it with another hard drive but I don't know anyone who would lend me a harddrive to test it out. something about the fear of wiping out everything porn movie he's ever downloaded. some people are so protective....

interesting note, when I defragged an error showed up, had it corrected and defragged again.

okay this FDISK/MBR stuff really scares me. will try it as an option before full drive wipe. thanks man!

I'd bend my mobo over but it'd break in half. besides my mobo doesn't eat meat so there's almost no chance for prostate cancer. ;)

(wait, kk266 sounds female!)

yea, format...gonna have to do that next week if I get anymore boot up problems. so far after defragging I've only had one.

thanks everyone for your input.

by the way, something else driving me nuts. how do you set the size for the new window in internet explorer? I mean like when you right click and select "open link in new window". well my new window is like freaking 2 inches by 2 inches and I constantly have to pull that wider. If you can help that'd be great. would add 2 years to my life.


Pinero

seriously, no one here likes Ghost Recon?

[turd]

ok, with walking ram i just ment that with the what sounded like cold overnights and then turning on your computer you get some materials changing with the cold then hot physical change, the ram will not actually be out or misplaced, just slightly misconnected, this used to happen in older systems,and like I said it was just a stab. i was just sugesting that you take it out and reseat it.

and no if you post, boot and correctly ID your RAM it does not mean that it is error free.

people here just trying to help solve your problem by tossing out educated guesses, its not always that cut and dry, and very difficult without the system in front of you. often i spend hours of trying things to debug one system, and sometimes i take 20 seconds

to resize your new window in explorer, and this is really gonna crack u up,
get u one of those small windows that are driving u nuts, click and maximize it, then hold down the shift key and close it, then close IE and reboot, good luck, why dont u let us know what the prob was when/if u fix it

[Pinero]

hi, formated my hd and reinstalled everything.

wasn't really hard at all.

guess what? same boot up errors.

ran scan disk with surface check before formate, nothing wrong.

okay now i'm confused.

what do you think I should do?

1. buy ide controller that fits into pci slot and by past motherboard ide controller?

2. buy new hard drive?

3. buy new mother board?

4. screw it, leave it alone?

Pinero


by the way, that ie windows resizing thing didn't work, tried it 2 times.

[jazztrumpet216]

I would put my money on a hard drive failure then. If that's the case, a format wouldn't do squat. Maybe something called a Low-Level Format would, but I don't advise a LLF to anyone because of the high risk it can kill your HD for good. If you decide to get a new HD, then you might want to go ahead with the LLF before you do that, ya never know... it might help.

[Pinero]

thanks jazz for the advice.

i'm a big pop jazz fan. hope you don't hate me hehehe...

anyways, i was screwing around and I decided to replug all my ribbons in a different way.

now I got the hd running on a "slave" connection off a different mother board slot

went to bed and 9 hours later NO ERRORS!!!!

freaking weird man.

so hopefully i've solved the problem for now.

I find myself wondering into alienware more and more often.

maybe in another 5 months.

can't really justify a 1500 dollar per year habit.

yes my friends, it's a habit.

thanks to everyone who cared enough to give advice.

I will try to return the favor in the future.

: )

Pinero