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Odd Issue

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by michael34

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I have a minor problem and I am not sure what to check specifically. What happends is when I turn on my PC (sometimes it does it when you don't shut your pc down correctly and it runs checkdisk in windows 2000 pro) after a few hours or so of use (as I said its all random sometimes a few seconds sometime 3 days) the monitor goes blank as if it lost the signal from the video card, my CD Burner and Master Hard Drive, both the lights turn solid and nothing happends you have to reboot. I checked the Video card and its fine I even replaced it with a known good one so I am really clueless to what is causing this but I need to get it fixed asap. Any help is appriciated.

11 replies

by wcp

I recommend you

1. Do a hard drive (HD) diagnostic test. Your HD may have developed bad sectors or may be crashing. You can download the utility from the manufactirer's website.

2. Check the HD connection. Make sure the HD cable is connected firmly. If the HD is SATA, check the connector on each eand. The plastic part may have been loose or broken, which causes unstable connection.

3. Check your RAM(s). Make sure the rams are compatible among tham (if you have two or more). Take out one at a time to find the culprit.

by astewart

This does sound more like a hardware fault than software. Basically Windows is more than one program including background monitoring tasks. For anything to crash preventing any form of error message or the ultimate BSOD is unlikely. After the crsh are there any eventlogs apart from unexpected shutdown? Even a HDD failure should produce an error as the required monitoring tasks are loaded into memory. I would be looking at replacing DIMMs first off then the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard is not simple as you need to make sure you have the required drivers for the new motherboard installed while still using the old one.

by rindi1

There can be many reasons for that behaviour.

1. Your disks are overheating
2. The power connections to the disks are bad. Often if you have to connect the powersupply to the disks (or anything else, for that matter) via Y cables, because you don't have enoughcables comming from the supply, you can get bad connections. Try pressing the contacts of these connectors together, so that when you connect them together, you will have to press really hard for them to fit. Also chack all other connections to your disks.
3. Your disks are dying.
4. The powersupply is too weak.

by sgt_shultz

yes, hardware. i vote for processor going south. can you reseat it? something getting hot? wonder about the ide controller. can you move stuff to secondary port for a test

by willcomp

Normally when a hard disk fails after Windows boots, the screen either freezes or an error message is displayed that drive read or write failed. I don't suspect HDD failure.

Although CPU is a possibility, overheating or stability issues are generally repetitive and times do not vary as widely as in your case. So don't think it's CPU either.

Look at capacitors on motherboard and see if any are swollen, leaking, or otherwise misshaped. About 3 years ago, faulty capacitors were used on a number of motherboards. These have been failing in the last couple of years. If that's the case, mobo will need to be replaced. This is my prime candidate and needs to be ruled out.

Swap out power supply with a higher rated one, if possible. Power supplies can cause strange, random behavior.

Behavior you described indicates a random power failure within mobo.

Dalton

by cglrcng9

Common also among those w/ Win2K or XP that are being attacked by the W32.Blaster Worm but not yet infected also.

Try this after doing what everyone else said (always ck. hardware first!).

Go To; www.grc.com, get "Decombobulate" a very small tool to close DCOM in windows NT OS's. Check out the other tools while there @ the free download tools page. I use most of them.

Go To; www.symantec.com then to the security page, download the W32.Blaster Fix Tool.

Go To; your default AV updating link and update your AV definitions.

Go To; Win Update and run all the Critical Updates, all the optional Win2K updates and check for driver updates (but I would go to the actual hardware mfg.'s site for those drivers (I personally have had bad experiences downloading hardware drivers from Win Updates unless it is XP Home or Pro).

Also search for these three Win Updates seperately and download them from MS directly to your drive (My Downloads Folder Pref.)

1. KB823980
2. KB833330
3. KB823559
Look for the info on which order to install them on the MS KB site/pages. It won't let you install them wrong anyway, but all 3 will need to be installed to block/patch the holes W32.Blaster enters through. Disconnect from the net now-Important!Apply them manually till all 3 patches are installed manually restarting in between patches applications.

Then run the Blaster Fix Tool. Write down the files it finds (if any), see the W32.Blaster virus repair page @ Symantec for manual reg. key removals and just ck. those keys to make sure the tool actually cleaned em all up properly.
Note: Back up the registry properly before editing if you find any keys it didn't clean up properly! Edit those keys, or use Norton's WinDr. to do it.

Then install "Decombobulate" and restart, checking your connection afterwards, then run your AV and clean up any mess if it deleted files.

Good luck.

by cglrcng9

I forgot to add...After you get all the tools and patches and disconnect from the net, it is a good idea to restart, go into (Boot to), "Safe Mode" using the F8 key and choosing "Safe Mode" or "Safe Mode w/ Networking" (if you don't have another puter handy to look up the Symantec Manual Reg editing directions). Do all the actual work in "Safe Mode" like running the manual patches, installing the Decombobulate tool, and running the W32.Blaster Fix Tool.

by michael34

An update We swapped out power supplies and it still does it. We swapped out RAM and it still does it so now we are kind of at a stand point. I ran Western digitals hard drive utility and it shows both drives are in good shape with no bad sectors or anything so now once more we are lost.

by cglrcng9

Just thought I'd pass on the experience that I know to be true of some machines that are being attacked by the W32.Blaster Worm, but are not actually yet infected w/ it.

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