[eholm]

I am an experienced PC user... tried everything I know to no avail, so I need help. Reward of $10 offered for working solution, or more if it ends up being more complex.

I have an HP desktop PC running Visa Ultimate. It is only a few months old. It has Intel Quad core 2.83Hgz processors. It has 8GB of RAM. It has 750GB NTFS HDD.

It was running great until now...

Here's the situation:

I went on vacation for 2 weeks. I left my PC running so I could access it via GoToMyPC.

I accessed it throughout my trip with no problems at all.

I came home, started checking my email and running a few other programs. Within a few minutes, everything froze... except the mouse. Also I could still click to close the applications, but they wouldn't close. The windows dialogue boxes just kept coming up offering me the option to force-quit the programs, but that wouldn't work either.

The start-menu was not accessible, and CTRL-ALT-DEL did nothing, so I did a hard reboot.

Upon restarting, before starting Windows... it said there may be a problem with the HDD, and it wanted to check it. So I hit enter, and it ran CHKDSK (and maybe something else?) on my C drive.

It then took awhile and scanned all the files and fixed the "attributes" of a bunch of files.

Then it restarted, and Windows started. I worked for awhile, and transfered a ton of photos to my HDD from my digital comera. But then my PC froze again (same as before... the mouse still functions... the programs won't close).

So I had to do a hard reboot again. The same thing happened again and it ran CHKDSK again. But this time it did not fix any attributes. It just fixed some "orphaned" files, which happened to be JPG photos (but not the ones I had just added).

It then restarted and Windows started normally.

However, now I still have a few problems that I'm aware of...

1) AVG antivirus won't run. It won't initialize. It won't uninstall. It won't do a "repair installation". I even tried running AVG's removal tool, but it won't run either. This makes me suspect that it might be a registry problem.

2) If I download a file (such as a zip file) from the Internet, it appears to download successfully, but then it does not appear on my HDD. I've tried different folders, and I've even tried downloading to an external drive, but the file will not appear. I've also tried from different browsers (IE and Firefox). This would make me suspect a hard drive problem, but then why would it not save to the external drive?

3) A handful of my JPG files are now corrupt. It's OK, I can go without them, but don't want it to happen to more files.

4) It still freezes up occasionally. In those cases I've done hard reboots, and it's come back OK. Also Windows Explorer seems to be running SLOW.

I've already backed up my important files, but I really do not want to do an OS reload if there is any way to avoid it.

I work from home and have dozens of programs and various configurations on my computer that would take me weeks to reconfigure.

Your help is appreciated.

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I forgot one important part of the story...

I did do a system restore today. I restored it to right before I went on vacation. The restore was successful, but the problems remain!

[eholm]

I forgot one important part of the story...

I did do a system restore today. I restored it to right before I went on vacation. The restore was successful, but the problems remain!

[Broni]

I'd start with....

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

[eholm]

Ok, I'll run it and let you know...

[eholm]

OK I have a Seagate Barracuda ST3750630AS, so I downloaded Seatools for Windows. Actually since I'm unable to download anything to my HDD, I downloaded it to my laptop and then brought it over on a USB flash drive.

I was able to copy the exe file from the flash drive to the HDD with no problem. So I guess that's good.

The first time I ran the tool, everything froze as I was looking at the menu on it. So I had to do another hard reboot.

My PC took a VERY long time booting up, but Windows did eventually start.

I tried again and ran the "short" disk scan and it found no problems.

I am holding off on the "long" scan for the moment, as it says it can take 4 hours. So if I do not find a solution by bedtime, I'll run it before I go to bed.

I am going to boot into safe mode, and try disabling some services to see if anything helps. If anyone has anything else for me to try, I'm all ears!

[Broni]

That's why don't run it from within Windows, but create bootable CD, so the hard drive doesn't have to be involved.

[eholm]

That's why don't run it from within Windows, but create bootable CD, so the hard drive doesn't have to be involved.

OK, I did not see that option, but I will look into it now.

[eholm]

Hmmm... I do not see how to make a bootable CD with Seatools. It comes as an EXE file, but needs to be installed on Windows to run...

[Broni]

Download...
SeaTools for DOS v2.13b (Graphical) (12.16.2008)
- Download SeaTools for DOS (ISO CD-ROM Image)
Look at my post #3 how to create bootable CD from .iso file

[eholm]

Download...
SeaTools for DOS v2.13b (Graphical) (12.16.2008)
- Download SeaTools for DOS (ISO CD-ROM Image)
Look at my post #3 how to create bootable CD from .iso file

OK, I'll try that.

After disabling some services and startup items (including AVG), I was finally able to uninstall AVG... I was afraid it might have been corrupted. But after uninstalling it and rebooting, Windows froze again after I tried checking my email in Outlook.

I'll let you know if the boot disk works

[Broni]

I'd suggest, you stay away from AVG, and make sure, you use AVG Remover: http://www.avg.com/download-tools to get rid of it completely.

Your other options...

- Avira free antivirus: http://www.free-av.c..._antivirus.html
- Avast! free antivirus: http://www.avast.com...avast-home.html

- free PC Tools Antivirus: http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/
- free PC Tools Firewall Plus: http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

- free Comodo Internet Security (firewall + AV): http://www.personalf...all.comodo.com/
NOTE. During installation, Comodo will also allow you to install AV only, or firewall only, if you prefer to combine one Comodo product with some other product.

If you decide to install Avast, or Avira, make sure, Windows firewall is turned on, or use PC Tools Firewall Plus, or Comodo firewall..
If you decide to install Comodo Internet Security, or just Comodo firewall, make sure, Windows firewall is turned off.

IMPORTANT! Make sure, you use only ONE antivirus, and ONE firewall.

[eholm]

OK thanks I'll look into those AV options after I solve this.

I just made an interesting discovery... I WAS able to download the ISO file to my HDD. So I tested some other files, and apparently it is only having trouble saving certain file types from the internet (Zip and Exe are the ones I know of)

Making the boot disk now...

[eholm]

I spoke too soon. I CAN download Zip files and Exe files now. So maybe removing AVG or disabling something else helped somewhat...

[Broni]

I strongly suggest, you got rid of AVG, just to eliminate one of possible causes.
You don't even have to install any other AV right away, as long, as your firewall is up, and you won't go to any "places"

[Broni]

I'm telling you, AVG is getting very close to Norton's level - sometimes causing problems, you wouldn't even have slightest clue, they may be caused by AV program.