EDIT: Mods, please move to "Computer Help" forum if you think it that's where it belongs . I just now found it. Sorry!!!!!
I don't know if it's against the forum rules to post a thread that basically points to another one in a separate section, but I'm not even sure it belongs in the "Operating Systems" section anymore because my problem could be hardware related. All of the following quotes from the thread are my own:
Original thread
Any ideas?
I don't know if it's against the forum rules to post a thread that basically points to another one in a separate section, but I'm not even sure it belongs in the "Operating Systems" section anymore because my problem could be hardware related. All of the following quotes from the thread are my own:
I have been out of town on business this week. I came home last night, and my wife informed me that something is wrong with the computer. She said it would just sit at the Windows XP loading screen for 5 minutes, and then it just reboots. So I checked it out, and sure enough that's what happened. It just stayed at the Windows XP splash screen for several minutes, hard drive churning away the whole time, the all of the sudden it splashes a blue screen (only for a split second, no way to see what it said) and it reboots.
She said on Thursday night when she shut it down that it gave an option to either Turn Off or Turn Off and install important updates. She said it was just the standard message after going to Start > Shut Down... that we've all seen before. Ever since then, we've been having this problem.
I have a second hard drive that has Windows Vista on it. I usually don't work in Vista because the few games I play run better on XP (not to mention XP performs faster overall). Anyway, I thought that if the Windows updates for XP were the problem, there was no way that it should have affected my Vista installation. So I booted up from the HDD with Vista on it, and it did a variation of the same thing. After the Microsoft loading screen, the screen just went black. I waited for several minutes but it never did reboot.
I tried going into Safe Mode on both drives. They both lock up too (didn't wait long enough for the reboot).
What are the possibilities here? I don't see how installing updates for XP could have screwed up my Vista installation on a completely different HDD, so it's either somebody hacked us or a hardware problem, right?
If it's hardware, what are the most likely culprits? I would have to rule the HDDs out, as I think that the chances that BOTH of them have gone bad at the sametime are pretty slim.
I thank you in advance for any help, and I'll be glad to answer any questions you have for me that might assist you in identifying my problem. I'm using a company laptop from work this weekend. I went out and bought an HDD enclosure in preparation for the possibility that I was hacked and needed to view the HDD to see if I could back up some of my files.
The problem has been solved.
I was using Windows Defender for my malicious software/spyware detection and removal. Well, apparently the "update" my wife was talking about was new definitions for Windows Defender. I was getting ready to do a system restore when I noticed that the last restore point was the Thursday night that the definitions were installed. I didn't know until I googled a little bit later, because all it said in the description box for the restore point was "Software Distribution 3.0".
I did a google search for "Software Distribution 3.0" and found a forum where somebody posted the same sort of problems I was having. Come to find out, the culprit is Windows Defender, so he just uninstalled Windows Defender and everything was fine. I did the same thing, but it was still slow after uninstalling the program. I did a System Restore using a restore point from a System Checkpoint on April 14th. I uninstalled Windows Defender again, and now everything is back to the way it was before I had any of these problems.
I'll have to check into getting something else for my anti-spyware/malware needs.
Thanks for trying to help me. Even though I lucked into the solution and found it somewhere else, Anandtech forum users may benefit in the future from this. I certainly wasn't aware that a definitions update for Windows Defender would cause these problems, and maybe there a lot of others out there who didn't realize it as well.
Well it started the same crap again today. I've run multiple diagnostic tests for the RAM and HDD's, and I don't get any errors or problems found.
I installed McAfee Total Protection for Small Business (got it from work) and scanned. It found nothing on my XP drive, and 53 "threats" on my Vista drive which it deleted.
My Vista installation seems to be fine now. Go figure. But my XP drive is apparently bad, despite the diagnostic tests showing otherwise. Either that, or some malicious software has corrupted it to the point that I can't even do a Repair from my Windows XP installation CD. The first time, it hung on "Installing Devices" during Windows XP setup saying "Approximately 34 mins until setup is complete" or whatever. So I turned my head for a few minutes to do a couple of things, and I heard the PC reboot. I don't know what happened. When it rebooted and got past the Windows XP loading screen, it said "Setup is being restarted..." and it started all over. Same thing happened again with the hanging at Installing Devices with "34 mins" to go. However, this time it didn't restart. It finally popped up a warning box saying that the software I was trying to install for "Primary IDE Channel" hadn't passed Windows logo testing and if I wanted to continue anyway. I found this odd, but I clicked yes. So it went back to just hanging at the setup screen until it asked me the same question again. This time I clicked No. Then I waited another ten minutes and just gave up and rebooted into Vista, which is where I am now.
I still can't decide if this is a software or hardware problem. Do any of you have any ideas? I'm stumped now. I would back up all my files from my XP drive and reformat, but I'm concerned about that for two reasons:
1) If the HDD itself is the problem, then it will be a big waste of time
2) If a virus is causing the problem, obviously it hasn't been deleted and is still running amok on the hard drive. I'm afraid that when I copy over the files I want to back up, I'll just bring the virus over with them.
I just can't determine the best course of action. Your help is very much appreciated.
Original thread
Any ideas?
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