[exparisstevie]

Hi,

I'd kind of gotten to the point that I thought this problem was unfixable - but since i've had help today from Keith on this forum for my other box (the one i'm currently using to tell you about this) - I have a glimmer of hope once more.

OK - first issue is the biggest. Whether from a cold start or a reboot - system takes 50-60 mins to boot. The system is certified clean of malware by spywarewarrior. Spent 3 weeks with the guys there going through very very comprehensive scans with everything but the kitchen sink! - was then advised to download the disk management software for the brand of HD that I have (Maxtor) and ran basic tests that came back as passes - then ran burn in test. again, no issue found.

Came to the conclusion at the time that noone could help (didn't know about you guys)

Once started the system is mostly fine. It will however freeze up at the most basic of tasks - .i.e opening my computer, opening task manager.

Would be tempted to try the same fixes that Keith suggested for the other box (Tune up 2006 trialware) but the fact that it needs so many reboots would make it almost unuseable on that box.

A big problem for that machine is that nothing shows during boot (I do remember that this wasn't always the case - it used to show a black screen with white text showing current starting processes etc - similar to mac verbose mode) and so I don't know at what point it's struggling.

At the moment I cannot access the other box as it is running chckdsk - as it has been for nearly 30hrs - it's currently on stage 4 at 59%

This was done as a troubleshooting exercise as drivers for an external device were installed and recognised in device manager but the system still wouldn't recognise the device when connected.

I don't want to drone on and probably am. I suppose at this stage what i'm looking for is any information that I can provide in a future post that will help to troubleshoot the box to aid in a fix.

Thanks for your time. It really is appreciated.


Steve

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When the machine does finally startup, are there many programs running in lower right hand corner?

[emery]

When the machine does finally startup, are there many programs running in lower right hand corner?

[aero05]

hello steve

im most likely certain that this is a hard drive problem more than anything else. when you get the chance to log on to the system do the following:

1. start
2. click on run
3. type cmd and click on ok
4. type chkdsk/f
5. it will say that chkdsk cannot run because the volume is being used by another process, just type Y and press enter
6. restart your machine
7. should start checking your pc after the restart, when it logs on to windows, do the same process except this time instead of typing chkdsk/f .......... type chkdsk/r

like i mentioned to some other guy's, when your hard drive has dammaged sectors, it runs extreamly slow because it finds it difficult to read the files on the damaged sectors, hopefully this helps........this is not 100% sure thing it will rebuild your dammaged sectors but yo will get something out of it

post again to see how it went

[exparisstevie]

Hasn't started up as yet. But to clarify the situation - I don't have a silly amount of programs in start-up - and nothing suspect - i'm fairly clued up with this side of things. Whatever the issue is - will not be easily sorted. by that I mean that I have already had other techs look at this - I myself am not a newbie when it comes to this either.

I've closely scrutinised any installed programs and can pretty much say that it's not as simple as looking at installed programs - the system has issues that were not solved by a full erase and reinstall of the system OS - this would seem to indicate that it's not a basic software issue but something a little deeper - the fact that I have run maxtor troubleshooting software and the system has passed these idicate that a hardware issue is unlikely (even though once a software issue is discounted it would normally indicate a hardware problem)

I work as tech support for apple and as such - understand the concept of the OS - software and hardware config, even if this doesn't translate into extensive knowledge of windows per se. I've used XP myself on various systems for a few years don't usually have issues such as this. I'm running xp on 3 of my boxes at the moment and haven't had anything similar on the others.

It's an issue that has been ongoing for a long long time and one that (as i said before) has had tons of support thrown at it and given do discernable improvement in what can only be seen as dismal performance.

were you thinking that startup items were causing issues or did i jump the gun a tad there?


Welcome any suggestions at all - and thank all in advance for any help proffered.

Cheers


Steve

[exparisstevie]

Hi Aero

Checkdisk is running at present. Question re your last post. If it was a sector issue on the HDD would the burn in test not have found this? - I appreciate what you're saying re the possoibility of it being a hardware problem - and the fact that the current check disk is taking so long would back this up, but it kinda makes the maxtor troubleshooting software a touch redundant if it can't pick up on sector read/write issues doesn't it?

i'd like a bit more info re those scans you mentioned - what do they do? - think the current one is f - what does r do?

Steve

PS thank you for your advice - as always another perspective on the situation is helpful and welcomed.

[aero05]

sorry i couldn' get to you earlier steve
well, to beggin, the maxtor troublesooting software is a freebe, so i would say it is not necesarily as great a we may think. The burning tactic you are using, also checks for hardware errors, but rememeber your hard drive is hardware with a logicla structure, which the bur in softwtware will probably not detect for the same reason, the logical strocture..... which here is when we talk about clusters, sectors, tracks, cylinders, whic all make part of the logical structure of the HDD. if the structure is damaged, it makes it very difficult for the pc to actually read the files on the hard drive. the information is on the HDD sectors. when the sectors are damaged, they cant work properly, so we have to fix them. windows has it's own utility to TRY to fix the damaged sectors on the HDD. it does not guarantee that it will fix them, but ist worth a shot. thats where we use the CHKDSK/R. what this command does is try to REPAIR the damaged sectors, thats what that R is for. and CHKDSK/F will TRY ti FIX any damaged system files on the computer, thats what that F is for.

hope this helps

[exparisstevie]

Thanks for your advice guys, I'm not able to do anything as yet as that box is still running checkdisk (been 48hrs + at this stage) - it's currently on stage 5 at 39% - woo hoo! - (sarcasm)


As far as this kind of fix goes - are there any more robust programs I could try (generally speaking - that box has never coped well with checkdisk - it's always taken silly amounts of time and helped not at all - the only reason it is running now is due to a driver for a symbian OS mobile phone not working and a troubleshooting step was to run checkdisk )

I had a thought today - with all of the work that's gone into trying to fix this (you wouldn't believe the hours spent on it!) - I could never pinpoint any software/hardware changes around the time that it started acting up - I was reminded today that It started being a pain before my hols in may and I then remembered that just before my hols I had trialled windows onecare and it had been a real pain to get off the system - as i'd then gone on to enjoy myself i'd completely forgotten about it.

I wonder if anyone else has heard of any knock on issues from that trial period of the software (of course the timing could be purely coincidental and be of no help to me whatever)

As far as device manager goes - there were no issues showing in there (it's the last place I was before checkdisk) - not even for the drivers that I know aren't working (for the symbian phone)

I'd really like to find a strong hd repair program - I don't know if i pointed this out previously but a reinstall a couple of months back didn't help at all. I'd be happy to wipe the drive if I could be certain that it's be fixed too....


Steve