Repairing XP

[VCArk333]

I been having little odd problems pop up on my system here lately and it has been over a year since a fresh install was done. Was wondering if I could just repair windows instead of reinstall. Main reason is due to a large amount of programs and data would have to be backed up for a new install and I think I saw something about a repair wont touch existing info just repair the missing/corrupt pieces of the OS. What is everyone's opinion?

[FAT64]

Before you repair XP have you tried ...

Click on Start>Run

sfc /scannow

But you are correct, a repair will leave all user accounts, device drivers and applications alone.

[Ponch]

a repair wont touch existing info just repair the missing/corrupt pieces of the OS. What is everyone's opinion?

Unless you get clearer, I doubt this is going to solve your "little odd problems". This is for heavier problems.

[VCArk333]

Just every great once in awhile I get the blue hardware failure screen at boot. turn off and restart and everything is ok. was told it MIGHT be just a corrupt .dll but who knows

[FAT64]

Do you happen to know which item of hardware is causing the BSOD?

[Grake]

I'd backup the data anyway. Pretty soon you'll be in the software section of this forum asking how to retrieve lost data

[VCArk333]

Do you happen to know which item of hardware is causing the BSOD?

No idea what is doing it.

[Volatus]

*Cough* Power supply, anyone? *Cough*

Have you tried swapping out the power supply? Usually, random lockups and BSODs are caused by either a trashed CPU (not all that common), trashed RAM (in all my time, never seen a RAM-related problem caused by an actual bad RAM stick), or, you guessed it, that power supply. As load increases, older power supplies will start introducing more "noise" (uneven DC current) to the stream, which during that noise may cause circuits to flip their state, or be misinterpreted, causing a whole chain reaction that crashes the system. In my experience, dead/dying power supplies, while not nearly as disastrous, is even more common than a hard drive dying...

So if you've got a spare one lying around, snap it in and see if the problems cease

[Tarun]

Start > Run > eventvwr.msc

Check System for any errors and paste them here.

[Ponch]

*Cough* Power supply, anyone? *Cough*

Have you tried swapping out the power supply? Usually, random lockups and BSODs are caused by either a trashed CPU (not all that common), trashed RAM (in all my time, never seen a RAM-related problem caused by an actual bad RAM stick), or, you guessed it, that power supply. As load increases, older power supplies will start introducing more "noise" (uneven DC current) to the stream, which during that noise may cause circuits to flip their state, or be misinterpreted, causing a whole chain reaction that crashes the system. In my experience, dead/dying power supplies, while not nearly as disastrous, is even more common than a hard drive dying...

So if you've got a spare one lying around, snap it in and see if the problems cease

I've never seen a power supply causing a bsod. And I've seen plenty of actual bad RAM sticks. More than trashed CPUs. I guess every case is different.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Just every great once in awhile I get the blue hardware failure screen at boot. turn off and restart and everything is ok.

Sounds like your PC hardware is having trouble with cold boots.

This may be an early sign of bad caps on the motherboard.

Edited February 12, 2008 by RJARRRPCGP

[Volatus]

Side question: can the opposite also be a sign of bad caps? That is, starts up and runs great for hours, then, even with extremely low power consumption (underclocked CPU to lowest possible setting), like clockwork, it starts rebooting (with Machine Check and "Hardware Failure" BSODs), until I let it sit off for another several hours? I've got a side-project computer that's doing that and it's driving me batty... before that, though, it was the power supply

[TheFlash428]

*Cough* Power supply, anyone? *Cough*

Have you tried swapping out the power supply? Usually, random lockups and BSODs are caused by either a trashed CPU (not all that common), trashed RAM (in all my time, never seen a RAM-related problem caused by an actual bad RAM stick), or, you guessed it, that power supply. As load increases, older power supplies will start introducing more "noise" (uneven DC current) to the stream, which during that noise may cause circuits to flip their state, or be misinterpreted, causing a whole chain reaction that crashes the system. In my experience, dead/dying power supplies, while not nearly as disastrous, is even more common than a hard drive dying...

So if you've got a spare one lying around, snap it in and see if the problems cease

I've never seen a power supply causing a bsod. And I've seen plenty of actual bad RAM sticks. More than trashed CPUs. I guess every case is different.

...I've seen on at least 2 different occaisions bad RAM sticks actually causing RAM-related problems.

[VCArk333]

Sorry for the delay. Work got in the way of my hobby.

[VCArk333]

Well, For the last couple of days I have lost the BSOD but I still get random reboots with errors showing up under the event manager for service control manager and iviVD. I am really scratching my head on this.