[Help] - Problems with my old PC

[Mamoun]

Hii

I have been using my old PC to use the internet for 3 years, I had no problem when I first use it, I left it for a long time, and then I'm back again to use it, but many problems suddenly occured, I hope you find a solution for these problems, My system configuration is windows XP wihout SP2, 128 mb ram..

These problems are:

1- Sometimes, the computer closes programes by itself, without giving an error, and sometimes programes not even start, I see its process start, then close in a second.

2- As the same problem above, the computer auto restart, without a ceratin time, and wihout an error or a count, It restart and loses all the data of the programes that was opened, and this is very annoying.

3- Ie download manager, the default download manager, doesn't work, it worked before, but now when I save a file from a download link it hangs, and when I open it, it download until it reaches 99% then it hangs again, Flashget or other download managers works fine, and I need Ie download manager for certain links, like megaupload hosting that the other download manager don't work with it.

4- Open a directory, choose a place to move/copy a folder/file to, this dialog box in most of the programs, hangs, and the whole program hangs with it.

5- Task manager doesn't open any more, the computer just do nothing when I click alt+ctrl+del, I downloaded Processes explorer as an alternative and it works fine.

I scanned the computer for ad-ware & spywares using Ad-Aware, but that didn't fix these problems, I can't install any antivirus program because the setup closes even before it starts

Please tell me what can I do...

Thanks

Edited March 2, 2006 by Zxian

[cluberti]

1. Open a command prompt and type the following command:

drwtsn32 -i

2. Once Dr Watson is configured as the default debugger, type this command in the command prompt window:

drwtsn32

3. That will open the "Dr Watson for Windows" window. Make sure the following options are "checked":

- Crash Dump Type: Full

- Dump All Thread Contexts

- Append To Existing Log File

- Visual Notification

- Create Crash Dump File

Click OK to close the Dr Watson window.

Now, if a program closes itself because of a crash, you should get a visual Dr Watson notification, and it should also create a .dmp file in the location specified in the Dr Watson window you opened in step 3. If you don't feel comfortable debugging a dump file, post it here and we'll take a look.

4. Open Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Performance "Settings" button > Advanced tab > Virtual Memory "Change" button.

Make sure that your Paging file is configured on drive C:, and that it's initial size is at least as large as the amount of RAM installed on the machine +50MB. For example, if you have 512MB of RAM, your initial pagefile size should be at least set to 562. Once changes are made, click the "Set" button, then click "OK", then "OK" again.

5. Click the Startup and Recovery "Settings" button. Make sure that, under "System failure", the following options are set:

- Write an event to the system log

- Send an administrative alert

- Complete memory dump

- Overwrite any existing file

Make certain that "Automatically restart" is NOT checked. That way, if these random server restarts are actually crashes, we'll get a bug check telling us what happened, and we'll also get a complete dump of what was in memory at the time. Again, if you aren't comfortable debugging dump files, we can do that.

As to the other issues you're seeing with installing programs, running task manager, etc. - download autoruns from www.sysinternals.com, and boot into Safe Mode. Run autoruns from there, disabling all non-Microsoft items. Reboot in normal mode, and see if the issues continue, or if you are able to install apps, run task manager, etc. Otherwise, you may wish to use an online virus scanning utility like the ones offered by the major A/V vendors or Microsoft's OneCare online application.

Good luck .

[Mamoun]

Wow! what a fast and expert reply, thank you very much, I did all the steps you mentioned, I will tell you if the problem is still there or not.

Thank you again for your respond.

Edited March 1, 2006 by Mamoun

[Andromeda43]

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch.......

Leaving a PC off for a long time is very hard on the electronics and also the CMOS battery.

Being an electronics tech of many long years, one of the first things I'd do on your system is install a new CMOS battery. It's most likely a CR2032, available in almost any drug store or electronics shop like Radio Shack.

Next I'd probably take out all the plug-in cards and clean the edge connectors thoroughly with a cloth and alcohol.

Next, I'd take out the ram sticks and clean them thoroughly with alcohol and an old toothbrush, giving special attention to those little pins coming off the sides of the ram chips themselves. Don't forget the edge connector.

Dry the ram for several hours and reinstall.

Pull all the power connectors and reseat them.

A little dirt here and a little oxidation there can seriously cripple a system.

I've saved many a plug-in card or ram stick with the above mentioned cleaning routine.

And, stabilized many a funky Mobo by just installing a new CMOS battery.

Good Luck to you,

Andromeda43

[CptMurphy]

BTW, when cleaning with alcohol, make sure it's 99.99% isopropyl. The other kind with fark it up.

[Mamoun]

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch.......

Leaving a PC off for a long time is very hard on the electronics and also the CMOS battery.

Being an electronics tech of many long years, one of the first things I'd do on your system is install a new CMOS battery. It's most likely a CR2032, available in almost any drug store or electronics shop like Radio Shack.

Next I'd probably take out all the plug-in cards and clean the edge connectors thoroughly with a cloth and alcohol.

Next, I'd take out the ram sticks and clean them thoroughly with alcohol and an old toothbrush, giving special attention to those little pins coming off the sides of the ram chips themselves. Don't forget the edge connector.

Dry the ram for several hours and reinstall.

Pull all the power connectors and reseat them.

A little dirt here and a little oxidation there can seriously cripple a system.

I've saved many a plug-in card or ram stick with the above mentioned cleaning routine.

And, stabilized many a funky Mobo by just installing a new CMOS battery.

Good Luck to you,

Andromeda43

Hii Andromeda43,

Thanks for your advice, I left the solution of installing a new CMOS battery later, because I checked on it, and it was okay.

This cleaning routine was a good idea , the computer stopped displaying a blue screen with an error message (I didn't have time to read it, it always disappear quickly) anyway, this blue screen doesn't appear now.

BTW, when cleaning with alcohol, make sure it's 99.99% isopropyl. The other kind with fark it up.

Okay, thanks.

After that, as cluberti said, I installed my antivirus in the safe mode, and scanned my computer also in the safe mode, and it found 140 viruses/trojans/adwares ( leaving the computer for a long time is not a good idea ) and Mcafee cleaned them except one adware can't be cleaned or deleted in directory (C:\windows\system32\spooler.exe) I think that this was its name.

When I went back to normal mode, the problem occured in explorer.exe (that it was not responding) solved, but there was another annoying problem, pop-ups of Internet explorer with different ads, animated borderless ads, popups in the browser I use itself (netscape & maxthon) ,I'm sure it's not from the site I opened.

I scanned the computer with ad-aware again, nothing changed.

What do you recommend a program for removing spywares and adwares better than ad-aware?

Also Is there any small & free firewall that I can install on my computer?

Edited March 4, 2006 by Mamoun

[cluberti]

The Windows XP firewall should be sufficient, but there are other 3rd party firewalls that may suit your needs (I personally prefer ZoneAlarm's firewall, but that's just a preference). Also, as to spyware removal, try Windows Defender:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/s...re/default.mspx

[-I-]

as you have - done so mutch allready why not re-install windows as well,

you may want to create an updated install-cd with SP2 and RVMpack's first,

(read about that on this forum)

there are a lot of things you might want to do like nlite-ing, adding un-attended software, driverpacks etc etc.

[LLXX]

A reformat/reinstall is probably a good idea for your system.

Another 256M of RAM is cheap and will help performance quite a bit. 128 is marginal for XP.

Edited March 5, 2006 by LLXX