Ok Windows is dicking me over, but is it Windows that's the problem?

[lazygamer]

Ok alot of l33t d00dz here. Now I have been having a very tempermental Wind0ze as of late. This is why Linux shall be on my harddrive(alongside the wind0ze) as soon as I format it. Yet today I made a discovery that MAYBE just maybe it's not Windows fault.  :eek:


Here are my symptoms.

Windows seems to freeze up sometimes, doesn't matter whether it's Windows 98 or Windows XP. Even when I re-installed XP(strangely it just put a second XP on the harddrive rather then writing over it) it does the same thing.

I get no error message, often(or always?) no crash, and Windows just freezes up. Then I have to press the reset button on my computer. Sometimes this freeze syndrom has been accompanied by having limited access to mouse movement and perhaps a few of the open windows(although the end result is still having to press the fucking reset button).

Ok what have I done recently? Recently I put on AVG anti-virus and it found some viruses and took care of them. But I honestly think those viruses were low danger viruses. I also put on a program called "BC Wipe". It says that when you delete a file, it only deletes the references on the harddrive and the file is still there. BC Wipe deletes the actual raw content, not just the reference. It can also scan through your harddrive to find "raw content" to delete if you didn't delete the file with BC Wipe. Anyways, I doubt this program or the Virus scanner has anything to do with it.

Ok so you might have some thoughts right now, but it gets more interesting. I think it has something to do with my harddrive(s?).

A couple months ago I started having problems with my system just crashing outright, even in Windows XP(which I found to be somewhat more stable then W98). Sometimes it would reboot and at computer start up screen and say "Primary hard disk fail and Primary slave disk fail". This was only temporary, one or two reboots and the problem disappeared.(until it crashed in this manner again anyways) Now these crashes weren't common, but they weren't rare either.

Recently I've started to notice that it seems like my harddrive sometimes makes alot of wierd noises(reminds of accelrating and de-accelrating) before it does a Windows freeze up.

One harddrive is an 8GB, one is a 40GB. The 40GB was bought a year to one and a half years ago. Windows 98 is on the 8GB and XP is on the 40GB.

[voidmain]

Are all of your cooling fans running?  Do you have a fan on the processor and if so is it also running?

[lazygamer]

Affirmative. I have three fans. Chip fan, case fan, additonal case fan. All three are up and running. I did however carefully blow out the case with an air compressor(keyword carefully), particualary the fans. You need an air compressor to get all the in-grained dust out of the fan blades. Hopefully that sound I heard was the fans having problems or something due to dust(it was quite dusty in there). I have a sinking feeling that it was not the problem though.

If the problem still persists(we'll see...), would formatting the harddisk magically solve it?  

[voidmain]

It is common for the case fans to make that noise, and it's really the only thing that can make that noise, other than the hard drive. It's easy to tell which one is making the noise.  Take the case off and run the machine.  As soon as it makes the noise see if it's coming from the drive or the fan.  They are two different sounds and once you've heard a dry fan bearing you'll know right away which one it is.  Hard drives can make all different kinds of noises when they fail, but fan bearings pretty much all sound the same.

It's not really a problem though other than being annoying.  The bearings are dry, it will fail eventually but it could easily run two more years, wear ear plugs or spend the 5 bucks on a new one.

I would suggest deleting all your partitions and installing Linux.

[ June 23, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[choasforages]

ok, quick way to check and see if your plaged with my same problems, ok go get a magnifiing glass and open up your cass. turn on a sutibly bright light and look at all the capiciters. if there is brown or black shit coming out the top your fucked./*unless your almost an electronic engeneer like one of my friends*/. i have lost three systems to them. my advice is to keep everything cool as possible

and if im rong would someone of more knowledge correct me on my stance of the dead capiciters killing my boxs

[voidmain]

Chaos, what Motherboards have you been having problems with?  I'll make sure I never get one.  I have never heard of someone having this problem, let alone 3 times over.  Do you have line power problems?  I would buy a UPS and run your machine off of it, keep your machine from being effected by voltage swings in your line power, and if it's a lightning issue it would help save your system.

[choasforages]

varoius brands. now that i think about it i think i only lost 2 boards to capictiers /*it was a few years ago iv lost more then 3 boards and a fourth board died 3 years ago.  i don't know what killed it but a pc repair shop ran a test on it and it was toast. notice there not in chronalogical order*/ and i think i might have fried the third one, i don't know. also one of my friends lost an ethernet card by a capiciters. and my power should be pretty good becuase we have surge protecter outside on the line coming into our house cuase the place eats light bulb's like crazy
now correct me if i am wrong but could i take a working capiciter and replace the broken one/*umm, very carfully. i have a friend that says it can be done*/

another question could it be the case that i was using. it is kinda old. but it ran for years though

[lazygamer]

Well the air from the side vent of my computer feels cool, so obviously im keeping the temp low?

[voidmain]

Chaos, the only time I remember seeing anything bust open on a motherboard or any other type of card was on an old Number 9 video card.  One of the big chips literally exploded.  A big chunk came right out of the middle of it.  Pretty cool actually.

LG, if your airflow output is cool then you likely don't have a cooling problem.  You are having the exact symptoms of an overheated processor though, of course it could always be Windows.  If you run a chkdsk/scandisk and find no errors on the hard drive (still could be an electrical problem with the hard drive) then I would suggest either installing Linux and see how it runs or heaven forbid, format/reinstall Windows and see how that works, but lets see, you already used up two of your supplied XP installs (gotta love M$).  How many do they give you before you have to buy another copy?  

[Calum]

replacing a capacitor should not be that hard. All you need do is get one of the same value, and put it in the right way. So long as you know which capacitor it is, and can figure out what its value is, you're sorted. Appart from that it should be a case of steady hands.

I haven't done this with an actual motherboard so the practice will be a lot fiddlier than my description makes it sound, since those boards are designed to be disposable (which is ludicrous).

[lazygamer]

Not to worry, I don't have the standard XP. I have a late beta version.  

[Master of Reality]

I have a feeling that windows is searching through your hard drive madly trying to find some configuration file or somthing, and when it didnt find it/ when it started searching too fast it simply froze.

[lazygamer]

IF That is the problem(we'll see after teh format), Linux never EVER has that problem right?

[psyjax]

quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:
IF That is the problem(we'll see after teh format), Linux never EVER has that problem right?

No, not if you don't run in root all the time. BTW, you shouldent run in root all the time. Don't worry, youll learn as you go along.

[HPC GUY]

if i remember correctly some older althlon Dfi boards had a problem with frying capacitors..