Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure

RyanDibo · 10-03-2007, 11:25 AM

Hello everyone, I'm a new poster and a long time adherer to trying to fix it on my own. I've had an abundance of PC problems over the past year and a half and although thought I was on the right track to fixing it am now completely and utterly clueless and in the dark.

First off let me explain that I am unaware of what causes these problems, but they all ultimately lead to XP Bootscreen slowdown and overall slowdown to programs. Eventually this leads to HDD clicking and failure to load windows and facing the BSOD.

When I initially built this computer I had no problems, and the only time I ever switched Hardware was a Christmas over 2 years ago, a few months afterward is when I started experiencing these problems.

My first problem was severe slowdown on booting windows (Not startup) and slowdown in loading games and other programs. Eventually one night I booted up my windows and bam, BSOD. So thinking it was a bad drive I went out and bought a new one, same make and everything. No later then 1 month later same problem and same eventual hdd death.

So I put back in my older drive, and reinstalled windows and started from scratch. Worked fine for about 2-3 months until I experienced the same problems then crash. For about a year I had been switching off both of the drives almost monthly, reformatting each time just trying to get by.

About 2 months ago I buy a new Harddrive, I believe this to be finally the end of my problems, and just in time as well since the drive I was currently on was on its last leg until having to be reformatted once more. But no more then 3 days later, Bam BSOD and the precursing slowdown. Astonished and rattled I had realized that it couldnt possibly be the drive so I looked back on what Ive done to my PC.

Knowing that there was only one time that I had ever switched components in my PC I believe that time to be the cause. On that Christmas I purchased 2 compatible sticks of RAM and a new top-end sound card. Since reformatting this new drive for the first time I had taken out both of the new RAM sticks, in case they were bad or corrupted.

But this is where my story puts me into depression, Still after removing the 2 sticks I presumed to be faulty my computer out of the blue one day takes 2 minutes to load windows and experiences slowdown just like the all too familiar precursor of death. This was about 4 days ago.

I've tryed something new and did System Restore, and it seemed to work. Fixing the slowdown and maybe reversing the precursor for good. However tonight its back to the slowdown and Im just waiting for that blue screen on this perfectly new drive. Ive done system restore once more to put it off and its back to its falsetto working state for now.

I apologize for the long story but it is very hard to explain in a short one. I'm just at wits end here and although this post has no real technical specs of my components I am ready to look up and post any one of them that is asked.

In my mind the only things that could continually cause this problem is my PSU. Its 450w and has a very bad rep for dying on newegg. I believe that the low wattage is corrupting my ram and therefore corrupting my drive no matter which one I switch to, and due to the power being spread out around my case. But since I've only had these constant drive failures starting after changing my sound card to a higher end one it makes me think that I should just purchase a new 550 or 600w PSU and new RAM (just to be safe).

I just need guidance and would love and appreciate any form of help and please mods feel free to move my thread to a new topic I wasnt entirely sure on where to post this type of problem.

~~bodco~~ · 10-03-2007, 11:38 AM

Welcome to aboard

Can you provide config of your pc.

RyanDibo · 10-03-2007, 12:11 PM

Im running on a 450w PSU, found in this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208004

A Radeonx700 pci-express, Soundblaster X-fi, 1gig Corsair ValueSelect, Western Digital 300gb SATAHDD (My newest one), Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.0ghz and an intel82801MB

RyanDibo · 10-03-2007, 05:16 PM

I was thinking of waiting for it to crap out again and get the slowdown, from then on remove the sound card and see if it was indeed too taxing on the 450w PSU. I dont think the slowdown will be fixed right away however, So I'll system restore once more and If it doesnt get the slow down again I think Ill have solved it finally (Unless the RAM has already been corrupted too much, then it might be fixed but I wont know as It'll just fail my windows again). But then again its just a hypothesis that its indeed the PSU (My own guess, It could be way way off).

Can anyone help guide me here?

RyanDibo · 10-03-2007, 08:12 PM

If anyone was wondering my first 2 drives were Maxtors, but after getting 3 drives and each experiencing the same problems in a similar amount of time it leads me to believe that isnt the problem

RyanDibo · 10-03-2007, 11:17 PM

bump.

RyanDibo · 10-03-2007, 11:28 PM

Since there are many possible reasons for why Im experiencing this plethora of possible errors I'm assuming the only way I can receive help is by narrowing down problematic hardware or software. Are there any suggestions for further investigation on the hardware that I suspect faulty?

RyanDibo · 10-05-2007, 05:11 AM

In the past few days I have noticed a sort of flicker when I turn on my system, Ill press the button and it wont turn on fully. The lights would only stay on for the duration my finger was on the power switch. I tried this at two different power sources, and both had similar results. I had never really had that problem before and assumed it was just the cord or socket I plugged into. To make the system fully activate I would have to hold the power button for 2-3 seconds.

Coming to the conclusion that possible power fluctuations thru my case was corrupting my data I decided to go into the case and disconnect the power to front LED lights on my PC door. I have since not noticed a hiccup on startup and can activate power with a normal button press.

I have only recently noticed that sort of power on problem in the past few days, and it seems to have been fixed with the turn off of the LEDs. Could have freeing up power distribution in my system and freeing up the PSU's workload have had any sort of fix to the corruption of data I have been experiencing over the past 2 years?

RyanDibo · 10-08-2007, 07:55 AM

If any extra information is neccesary I'd be more then happy to retrieve it, just waiting on a official helpful inquiry.

RyanDibo · 10-12-2007, 01:14 AM

It seems as though im SOL

10-03-2007, 11:25 AM	#1 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure Hello everyone, I'm a new poster and a long time adherer to trying to fix it on my own. I've had an abundance of PC problems over the past year and a half and although thought I was on the right track to fixing it am now completely and utterly clueless and in the dark. First off let me explain that I am unaware of what causes these problems, but they all ultimately lead to XP Bootscreen slowdown and overall slowdown to programs. Eventually this leads to HDD clicking and failure to load windows and facing the BSOD. When I initially built this computer I had no problems, and the only time I ever switched Hardware was a Christmas over 2 years ago, a few months afterward is when I started experiencing these problems. My first problem was severe slowdown on booting windows (Not startup) and slowdown in loading games and other programs. Eventually one night I booted up my windows and bam, BSOD. So thinking it was a bad drive I went out and bought a new one, same make and everything. No later then 1 month later same problem and same eventual hdd death. So I put back in my older drive, and reinstalled windows and started from scratch. Worked fine for about 2-3 months until I experienced the same problems then crash. For about a year I had been switching off both of the drives almost monthly, reformatting each time just trying to get by. About 2 months ago I buy a new Harddrive, I believe this to be finally the end of my problems, and just in time as well since the drive I was currently on was on its last leg until having to be reformatted once more. But no more then 3 days later, Bam BSOD and the precursing slowdown. Astonished and rattled I had realized that it couldnt possibly be the drive so I looked back on what Ive done to my PC. Knowing that there was only one time that I had ever switched components in my PC I believe that time to be the cause. On that Christmas I purchased 2 compatible sticks of RAM and a new top-end sound card. Since reformatting this new drive for the first time I had taken out both of the new RAM sticks, in case they were bad or corrupted. But this is where my story puts me into depression, Still after removing the 2 sticks I presumed to be faulty my computer out of the blue one day takes 2 minutes to load windows and experiences slowdown just like the all too familiar precursor of death. This was about 4 days ago. I've tryed something new and did System Restore, and it seemed to work. Fixing the slowdown and maybe reversing the precursor for good. However tonight its back to the slowdown and Im just waiting for that blue screen on this perfectly new drive. Ive done system restore once more to put it off and its back to its falsetto working state for now. I apologize for the long story but it is very hard to explain in a short one. I'm just at wits end here and although this post has no real technical specs of my components I am ready to look up and post any one of them that is asked. In my mind the only things that could continually cause this problem is my PSU. Its 450w and has a very bad rep for dying on newegg. I believe that the low wattage is corrupting my ram and therefore corrupting my drive no matter which one I switch to, and due to the power being spread out around my case. But since I've only had these constant drive failures starting after changing my sound card to a higher end one it makes me think that I should just purchase a new 550 or 600w PSU and new RAM (just to be safe). I just need guidance and would love and appreciate any form of help and please mods feel free to move my thread to a new topic I wasnt entirely sure on where to post this type of problem.

10-03-2007, 11:38 AM	#2 (permalink)
~~bodco~~ Troubled Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 118 OS: XP	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure Welcome to aboard Can you provide config of your pc. Last edited by bodco; 10-03-2007 at 11:40 AM.

10-03-2007, 12:11 PM	#3 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure Im running on a 450w PSU, found in this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208004 A Radeonx700 pci-express, Soundblaster X-fi, 1gig Corsair ValueSelect, Western Digital 300gb SATAHDD (My newest one), Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.0ghz and an intel82801MB

10-03-2007, 05:16 PM	#4 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure I was thinking of waiting for it to crap out again and get the slowdown, from then on remove the sound card and see if it was indeed too taxing on the 450w PSU. I dont think the slowdown will be fixed right away however, So I'll system restore once more and If it doesnt get the slow down again I think Ill have solved it finally (Unless the RAM has already been corrupted too much, then it might be fixed but I wont know as It'll just fail my windows again). But then again its just a hypothesis that its indeed the PSU (My own guess, It could be way way off). Can anyone help guide me here?

10-03-2007, 08:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure If anyone was wondering my first 2 drives were Maxtors, but after getting 3 drives and each experiencing the same problems in a similar amount of time it leads me to believe that isnt the problem

10-03-2007, 11:17 PM	#6 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure bump.

10-03-2007, 11:28 PM	#7 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure Since there are many possible reasons for why Im experiencing this plethora of possible errors I'm assuming the only way I can receive help is by narrowing down problematic hardware or software. Are there any suggestions for further investigation on the hardware that I suspect faulty?

10-05-2007, 05:11 AM	#8 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure In the past few days I have noticed a sort of flicker when I turn on my system, Ill press the button and it wont turn on fully. The lights would only stay on for the duration my finger was on the power switch. I tried this at two different power sources, and both had similar results. I had never really had that problem before and assumed it was just the cord or socket I plugged into. To make the system fully activate I would have to hold the power button for 2-3 seconds. Coming to the conclusion that possible power fluctuations thru my case was corrupting my data I decided to go into the case and disconnect the power to front LED lights on my PC door. I have since not noticed a hiccup on startup and can activate power with a normal button press. I have only recently noticed that sort of power on problem in the past few days, and it seems to have been fixed with the turn off of the LEDs. Could have freeing up power distribution in my system and freeing up the PSU's workload have had any sort of fix to the corruption of data I have been experiencing over the past 2 years?

10-08-2007, 07:55 AM	#9 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure If any extra information is neccesary I'd be more then happy to retrieve it, just waiting on a official helpful inquiry.

10-12-2007, 01:14 AM	#10 (permalink)
RyanDibo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 9 OS: Windows Xp	Re: Mystery Problems, Leads to XP Failure It seems as though im SOL