Pentium 4 1.7 Ghz / ECS P4VXASD2+ / 256 MB DDR 333 RAM / WinXP Pro with SP 1 / 30 Gb IBM Deskstar HDD (2 years old).
I built this system about 2 months ago. The system had worked fine for 1.5 month, then suddently locked up. After I rebooted, regardless of what option I chose (Last known good, Start Windows Normally , Safe Mode), Windows reboot by itself. I boot by floppy disk and intend to use partition magic 7.0 to divide the hard drive into 2 partition before reinstall Windows -> get error # 110 “Number of sectors in partition is inconsistent” (before doing any repartition). I ended up have to plug the hard drive into another system to transfer important data over, do a clean repartition + format + reinstall.
About 2 days before this happened, I did run an exe file download from the Internet. This exe file is a fiction complied using WebCompiler. However, I don?t think it?s a virus as I have Norton Antivirus auto-protect running all the time + the virus definition is up to date.After reinstall Windows, I continue to run that exe file. About a week after reinstall, the system crashed again. This time, after a number of attempts to boot, reboot, the computer stops POST. I took the main board out and tested it with only the CPU + memory + VGA card; it did post. Put the board back in and it post + boot fine. After restore the boot record and master boot record, I was able to boot from the hard drive and login. However, as soon as I double clicked on the exe file I mentionabove, I got the blue screen and the system crashed again. Now, sometime the system freeze after the memory count, and sometime I get the message ?Type the name of the Command Interpreter ?? when trying to boot from a boot disk (the boot disk is a good one with command.com on it), and sometimes the system boot fine.
What went wrong? Could it be the hard drive? Please help?