XP rebooting, hanging, not shutting down- aargh!!!!

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November 25th, 2005, 05:57 AM
tolstoy

XP rebooting, hanging, not shutting down- aargh!!!!

I'm running XP home, SP2 on a 6 month old Mesh 3.4 GB with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive.

Over the past few months my nearly new PC has started to constantly reboot after coming out of hibernation or stand-by and won't shut down - sometimes in the shut down process it brings back the wallpaper of the last user and won't do anything else.

I'm also finding that I can't open Windows explorer as it also hangs. Just to add to the problems over the past few weeks Eudora seems to stop during the initialisation process. I've tried recovering to before this started happening but it hasn't helped. Internet Explorer often won't start although Firefox will.

I also regularly get the blue screen of death with various error messages.

I've run spyware checkers, virus checkers, driver checkers. I've defragged and removed all items from the startup menu but haven't managed to cure it.

It looks like a complete reformat and reload of Windows unless anybody can come up with any ideas.

I've looked back through the restore points available and afaics there hasn't been anything loaded or updated over the problem period.

Over to you guys.

Cheers
November 25th, 2005, 10:40 AM
shamus

Quote:

Originally Posted by tolstoy

I also regularly get the blue screen of death with various error messages.

I've run spyware checkers, virus checkers, driver checkers. I've defragged and removed all items from the startup menu but haven't managed to cure it.

Have you turned off System Restore before running any of these?
November 25th, 2005, 10:44 AM
tolstoy

Errr... no - is there a reason to?
November 25th, 2005, 08:07 PM
shamus

Unless you turn System Restore off, all those things that any spyware or antivirus program finds SR will kindly restore for you. You'll end up in an endless loop. I found out the hard way with an infected laptop I worked on.
So...turn off system restore, restart the machine and tap F8 to get to your boot options. Choose safe mode and run your spyware/ antivirus apps from there.
Good luck.
November 26th, 2005, 05:06 AM
confus-ed

Quote:

Originally Posted by shamus

Unless you turn System Restore off, all those things that any spyware or antivirus program finds SR will kindly restore for you. You'll end up in an endless loop..

Maybe, maybe not - some anti-malware s/w is 'wise to this' & will supposedly clean up the system restore points too, but I agree its best off & any sweeps are definately best done in safe mode with a minimum set of services running to minimise the chance 'self re-infection'
November 28th, 2005, 09:03 AM
tolstoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by shamus

Unless you turn System Restore off, all those things that any spyware or antivirus program finds SR will kindly restore for you. You'll end up in an endless loop. I found out the hard way with an infected laptop I worked on.
So...turn off system restore, restart the machine and tap F8 to get to your boot options. Choose safe mode and run your spyware/ antivirus apps from there.
Good luck.

Thanks but I can't boot into safe mode as it comes up with "an XP installation has not been found" or something like that.

I've also just noticed the blue screen error message "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"
November 28th, 2005, 11:00 AM
Ferrit

Time to test the memory
www.goldmemory.cz
November 28th, 2005, 12:08 PM
tolstoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferrit

Time to test the memory
www.goldmemory.cz

Tried the microsoft memory test and it passed all the relevant tests. From a comment I read somewhere it could be related to the nic and interestingly enough I can't get into the network setup wizard or get the "connections" tab to work in Device Manager.

Is there any other way of getting to that info - registry perhaps?
November 28th, 2005, 01:49 PM
Ferrit

I wouldnt bother with the Microsoft memory tester at all.
Use goldmem and try 1 stick at a time
November 28th, 2005, 04:27 PM
tolstoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferrit

I wouldnt bother with the Microsoft memory tester at all.
Use goldmem and try 1 stick at a time

Nope, passed all the tests.

Nic maybe but how do I check it???
November 28th, 2005, 05:55 PM
fido

It may not be any help but maybe just a place to start, check out my post under "blue screen error"
November 29th, 2005, 04:20 AM
tolstoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by fido

It may not be any help but maybe just a place to start, check out my post under "blue screen error"

Thanks mate. When I've got some more time I'll do some investigating. The error I've got afaics from is a network card related error so it may be a similar problem.

Cheers
November 29th, 2005, 05:48 AM
confus-ed

Quote:

Originally Posted by tolstoy

Nic maybe but how do I check it???

Take it out /turn it off in bios (if an onboard one) ?

Your "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" error is generally down to some errant IRQ sharing & if it still won't let you into safe mode, I'd say that is definately the issue.
November 29th, 2005, 08:41 AM
tolstoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by confus-ed

Take it out /turn it off in bios (if an onboard one) ?

Your "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" error is generally down to some errant IRQ sharing & if it still won't let you into safe mode, I'd say that is definately the issue.

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

The plot has now got worse.... I can't even reformat the hard drive. It appears to be working then fails with "Windows was unable to complete the format" and without being able to boot into safe mode to do the reformat I'm a bit stuffed....
November 29th, 2005, 11:04 AM
confus-ed

I'd get the appropriate disk test utility from your manufacturer, figure out how to make a bootable floppy disk with it & test your drive - its begining to all sound remarkably like hardware issues & the other 'main culprit' for random weirdness is the PSU - if you have a tester or a multimeter I'd also be having a good look at that ..

However this unit appears to be still in warranty - so don't be opening the case without getting in touch with Mesh or it'll invalidate any warranty you've got left - if they say 'oh sure, you can try all that .. that techie's telling you right ..' then fair do's - but if not I don't want you left with busted stuff they won't replace ;)
November 29th, 2005, 12:44 PM
tolstoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by confus-ed

I'd get the appropriate disk test utility from your manufacturer, figure out how to make a bootable floppy disk with it & test your drive - its begining to all sound remarkably like hardware issues & the other 'main culprit' for random weirdness is the PSU - if you have a tester or a multimeter I'd also be having a good look at that ..

However this unit appears to be still in warranty - so don't be opening the case without getting in touch with Mesh or it'll invalidate any warranty you've got left - if they say 'oh sure, you can try all that .. that techie's telling you right ..' then fair do's - but if not I don't want you left with busted stuff they won't replace ;)

The fact I can't relate any new software to the point this began happening does point towards a hardware problem but I've run just about every test utility on the sytem I can find with no errors. I've tested drivers, disks, memory and I've come up with nothing.

I think a call to Mesh is now in order.....

Thanks for all your help. I'll let you know if there is a resolution.
November 30th, 2005, 08:57 AM
tolstoy

Problem fixed.

I disabled the network adapter on the motherboard and all the softwarec that wasn't loading started to work. Went and bought a USB network adapter and amazingly enough the PC is now working as it should be (for the moment ;) )

Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

Cheers