[britechguy]

Hello All,

 

            I'm back again asking questions.  I'm in one of those "it never rains but that it pours" mode as far as unexpected computer problems.  This time it's on my Win7 Ultimate 32-bit Gateway Desktop computer.

 

            The computer has started to get wonky at boot time.  It was typically getting through booting up, then I'd get what I call the "pink dissolve screen" where it appeared that the monitor was failing, but isn't.  It works just fine on other machines.  At first I thought it was probably the video card, but now I'm not so sure.

 

            Yesterday when I started to try some serious diagnostics it got stuck during boot up in the "Flying Window" screen.  The slight pulsing that you see in the window aura just comes to a halt.  I ended up having to do a power button power down, which I hate doing but I had no choice.

 

            Today I got back to work and on boot up it recognized there was a problem with booting and suggested that I try Startup Repair, which I did but after I'd gotten past the login prompt for an administrator ID I had to step away from the computer for a few moments, and when I came back it was back to the main screen that asks if you want to do Startup Repair, System Restore, Recovery from System Image, etc.

 

             I thought, OK, I consistently do backups, lets try rolling back with a System Restore.  It was mere seconds after making that choice that I received a BSOD that did not self-dismiss.   Unfortunately I had to leave and had to shut the computer off.   I can tell you, definitely, that the complaint on the BSOD was about volmgr.sys and the issue reported as attempting to write to read-only memory.

 

             At this juncture I'm trying to get opinions about what might be wrong and about how best to proceed correcting it.   I have system image backups from this machine that are not very old at all, and since it's not our primary computer there will be almost no data loss if I recover from a system image.  However, I don't know if this is the best approach or if any of the above symptoms might tell someone who's "been there, done that" what is actually going wrong.

 

             All assistance is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Brian

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It might be a good first move to try a system restore point again, but this time from safe mode..... use a system restore point created at least a week before any of these problems started..

 

Let us know how you get on....

 

Have you managed to run the free home version of  "Who crashed" yet?

 

Do you still have the same problems when running in safe mode?

 

Regards

paws

[paws]

It might be a good first move to try a system restore point again, but this time from safe mode..... use a system restore point created at least a week before any of these problems started..

 

Let us know how you get on....

 

Have you managed to run the free home version of  "Who crashed" yet?

 

Do you still have the same problems when running in safe mode?

 

Regards

paws

[123Runner]

Have you added any new hardware or software?

And, as suggested, try running in safe mode.

How old is the computer?

How dusty is it inside?

You could try checking the memory. How many modules?

Can you remove a module and run with 1 and then do a swap.

You can also run a memory checker on the memory.

[britechguy]

Hello,

 

          Thanks for the suggestions.   I have done nothing further (other than shutting the machine off) since the BSOD because I wanted to see what advice might be offered first.

 

          Now, on to answering specific questions:

 

Have you added any new hardware or software?

         No.  This machine has been awfully static for a while now.

 

And, as suggested, try running in safe mode.

         Not yet.

 

How old is the computer?

         About 5 or 6 years old.

 

How dusty is it inside?

         I'll look to see, but it shouldn't be too terribly dusty.  I have vacuumed this machine out in the recent past (and, no, there was no misbehavior immediately subsequent to that.  I don't touch the components.)

 

You could try checking the memory. How many modules?

         I can't recall how many modules.   I don't have any way to run a memory check unless this computer boots.  It's the only desktop I own.

 

Can you remove a module and run with 1 and then do a swap.

         I can try that, but I'll probably try another system restore from safe mode first if I can get safe mode boot to complete.

 

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether it would be better to do a system restore from a restore point versus a recovery from an earlier system image?

 

 

 

[britechguy]

Here's the latest.

 

I pulled the cover off the side of the computer and while there was a little dust inside, it was nowhere near to what I've seen in desktops that still continued to run.  Still, I unscrewed the CPU fan & heatsink assembly and vacuumed every trace of dust from it and the tiny bit of dust on the mother board near the CPU.

 

I decided to allow Startup Repair to launch at boot again and this time it ran to completion.  The machine has rebooted and is running now, but I'm not declaring this fixed just yet.  It needs to remain stable for several days before I'm willing to say that.

 

It has only 2GB of memory in two slots.  This is the first machine I've noticed having memory slots with white tabs on two slots (1 & 3 - currently loaded) and black tabs on two (2 & 4).  I don't know whether this really means anything or not, but I almost certainly could do a memory upgrade and probably will.  I don't anticipate disposing of this computer any time soon if it remains stable and it would be nice to give it a bit of a performance boost with more RAM.

 

I'll report back as events progress (or regress).