[Mughi]

My computer was running Windows XP Pro as its operating system before my reformat.

I just reformatted my hard drive and did a fresh install, but with this completely new install of Windows XP, I'm having one serious problem:

When I perform an action, regardless of what the action is, it has a chance of causing my computer to act as though my monitor has been completely disconnected from the PC. My "Samsung SyncMaster P2250" monitor will show that it is attempting to find an analogue or digital signal, before going into rest mode. The harddrive will then begin spinning fast and constantly, and the computer will not respond to any keyboard or mouse input (won't restart with CTRL-ALT-DEL twice).

The actions that have triggered these crashes so far include:
-Changing the resolution of the screen
-Clicking on "Classic Start Menu" (Right click on Start > Properties > Start Menu > Classic Start Menu)
-Changing the desktop from the default Field image to blank
-Opening MS Paint
-Pressing Printsceen
-Dragging the Desktop Properties window
-etc.

It is important to note that I did successfully chance my resolution, select classic Start Menu, and open MS Paint without a crash occurring as well. These crashes do not seem to occur without being prompted by an action, but the times they do happen it seems completely arbitrary.

The most graphically intensive thing I've done so far is dragging windows, and when I do they do not move smoothly like I'm used to, but instead move very choppily skipping 10 or more pixels at a time.

Despite it seeming like hardware, I'm personally convinced that this is a software issue because everything was functional before the reformat.


Sorry for the messy nature of my scrawling, I'm quite irritated and desperate. Any help is appreciated, and I would love to give you the information you need to help as soon as I can figure out what it is.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Mughi, 16 July 2011 - 09:57 PM.

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If I was you i would test both my memory sticks and my Hard Drives.

For your memory stick use MEMTEST86, download the bootable ISO image of the program and burn it on a CD then boot with it, make sure that you test only one stick at a time if you have more than one and let it go through all the passes until the end of the test (might take a while for each test)

For your HD check the manufacturer of your HD and download their bootable program and test it to see if it is still in good working order and yes one day a hard drive can work great and the next it is damage.

[Alzeimer]

If I was you i would test both my memory sticks and my Hard Drives.

For your memory stick use MEMTEST86, download the bootable ISO image of the program and burn it on a CD then boot with it, make sure that you test only one stick at a time if you have more than one and let it go through all the passes until the end of the test (might take a while for each test)

For your HD check the manufacturer of your HD and download their bootable program and test it to see if it is still in good working order and yes one day a hard drive can work great and the next it is damage.

[Mughi]

Well, it's just crashed while running hard drive test and while attempting to reinstall Windows, so it's definitely seeming much more like a hardware issue now.

MEMTEST86 comes back clean, but hard drive is a prime suspect, so thank you very much for your suggestion. I'll be working on it much more today.

Edited by Mughi, 17 July 2011 - 09:12 AM.

[123Runner]

How long did you run memtest? Its recommended overnight if possible but at least 3 to 4 hours.
As for the hard drive test it is running from the cd (or should be), so if the hard drive is bad it might crash.

[Mughi]

Memtest ran for 6 hours.

At this point, I'm about to start testing my hard drive using Seagate SeaTools, since my hard drive is "Maxtor 6L200M0", and apparently Seagate now owns the brand.