Urgent!! What happened to my computer...

[digitalduck]

Okay, let me fill you in..last night I was shutting down my comp and turned off my monitor. A minute later I noticed it was still on. So I turned on my monitor to see what program wasnt closing. It was just "bitpim" which is a program I use to connect to my cellphone to update my phonebook etc. Apparently it was another instance of it running since I remember opening another one since that one wasnt working right..however ive done this before and nothing bad happened...im not saying this had anything to do with the problem, im just giving you all the info that lead up to it.

Anyway I ended it because it was not responding and the screen goes to nothing but my background, which it normally does right before it shuts down. Then it just hung there. So I power it down and then a friend calls me and wants me to look up something for her. So about 10 secs later I power up the comp again and this is what happened:

It got to the point where you should see the Windows XP splash screen and before it did, I restarted....then posted, got through it, then resarted before you saw the screen again...did it again, then restarted again, repeat..still the same thing...only this time it got to the point where it gave me the option to safe mode it or go back to the last known configuration...i tried safe mode and before it got to windows it restarted....I tried last known config and it just hung at a black screen....so i restarted and now its a 50/50 between posting and restarting before windows screen and freezing at main post screen before mem check....

I tried load XP cd to get to the recovery consol (im not familiar with using it) but I could at least tell my files were still there...but windows is seriously messed up. I tried resetting bios to fail safe.. and nothing...I havent tried clearing the CMOS yet, but what the h*ll happened? It was working perfect before... I didnt touch anything...cards power is connected and everything...that program wouldnt have done this and ive had to open two copies before because the first one would hang..my HD is only a month old and its not O/C or anything? Worse case is I hook it up to another machine so I can at least copy imporatant files over and then reformat and hope it takes....

 

[spyordie007]

have you tried booting on last known good configuration? (hold down f8 during the boot up process)

EDIT: and update your title "Urgent!! What happened to my computer!!" doesnt mean anything to us.

 

[digitalduck]

Originally posted by: digitalduck
I tried last known config and it just hung at a black screen....

Tried it again (f8) and still the black screen...

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: digitalduck

Originally posted by: digitalduck
I tried last known config and it just hung at a black screen....

Tried it again (f8) and still the black screen...

opps sorry I must have missed that part.

You could try a repair install

Of course since you know your files are safe now you might want to hook the drive up to another machine and backup any important files in case your problem is hardware related and it starts doing the same thing after reinstalling windows.

 

[Smilin]

last known good is so misunderstood. It's not going to apply here.

Boot with your XP CD and get to recovery console. See if you get any directory enumeration errors and run a chkdsk /P.

The point at which you are rebooting along with the fact that sometimes you can get to an F8 menu and sometimes not indicates you may have a hardware problem going on. Get that chkdsk out of the way and if it doesn't come up starting looking at hardware.

 

[spyordie007]

last known good is so misunderstood. It's not going to apply here.

It got to the point where you should see the Windows XP splash screen and before it did, I restarted....then posted, got through it, then resarted before you saw the screen again...did it again, then restarted again, repeat..still the same thing...

My thinking was that perhaps he had a driver updated while the machine was running (there are hundreds of installers that will install drivers of many forms); his application crashing on shutdown could have been pure coincidence. If it was driver related last known good would have gotten him back up.

 

[Sianath]

For those that are interested in why or why not the LKG might resolve an issue....

When you boot your machine, we load the system registry hive during this process and use the contents of this hive to determine service/driver startup, among other things.

If you open the registry up and look at it, you'll notice that under system you have ControlSet1, ControlSet2, and CurrentControlSet (some people have more, but the same idea applies).

The CurrentControlSet is an exact mirror of one of your ControlSetx keys, whichever you booted with. When you choose Last Known Good, we switch the ControlSetx key we mirror during boot. To determine which one we will switch to next, along with what your current ControlSet is check out the System\Select registry key under HKLM.

The Last Known Good value is updated AT THE LOGIN SCREEN. This means that if you successfully reach the login screen, last known good will not help you resolve your problem.

It doesn't hurt anything to try it, but if you understand what it does, you'll understand why some of us get frustrated when it's touted as the "resolve everything" solution (along with fixmbr.... grrr!).

If you are interested in this stuff, open up Regedit and look in the ControlSet key structure. Anything not listed in there will never be affected by using the Last Known Good setting during boot... so if it falls outside those bounds, don't waste your time.

 

[digitalduck]

Im attempting to try all of your ideas, but its funny because when I start it sometimes the clock speed shoes as 00mhz (which the mobiel barton normally does I guess...until you adjust it in bios..i set it at factory) Anyway now its showing up as three different things....sometimes its 800 (which it doesnt post) or its 600 or its 400....the 600 and 400 work..the 800 doesnt...im still trying to get in so I can chkdsk


UPDATE: I was in my case and noticed the fan on my mobo (the one connected to the NF7 factory) with the two posts on either end..wasnt spinning...i havent been in my case for about two weeks and it was spinning then...what if it hasnt been spinning for awhile..what is it convering? the chipset? If so could that be the problem?

Sometimes its also giving me a long beep every 4 seconds...

 

[Sianath]

Your hardware shouldn't vary in what it reports during POST. Sounds like you may have some hardware issues to deal with.

A common one for weird issues during post (messed up system clock, etc) is if the power supply is going bad.

If you can plug the disk into another machine, you can change the registry setting for the autoreboot to 0 (controlset1 or 2\control\crashcontrol) and then when you boot you should stop on the blue screen. Having the exact stop code will do wonders for determining the cause of the problem.

 

[digitalduck]

Thanks so far guys....Sianath...after the beeps every 4 secs i restarted again and now it posts at 600mhz and managed to get to the XP setup so i could run chkdsk....and it said:

found one or more errors on disk

Does that mean a HD hardware issue? Or something with the installation...if so, and this is a dumb question, but at this point im totally confused....will running the XP cd restore by copying the setup files back into windows..that will preserve the files in C: right?

 

[Smilin]

You have a hardware problem for sure. The fact that you found one or more errors on your disk is likely just a symptom of either the hardware problem or some bad shutdowns because of it.

That fan on your motherboard is covering the northbridge of your chipset. There isn't much data on your system that doesn't pass through that chip at one time or another. Try blowing out the fan with some air to see if you can get it going again. If not, get a replacement or look into a new motherboard.

Lookup your beep codes in your motherboard manual. It's likely 'no video' or 'memory error'. Both the memory bus and AGP bus connect to the northbridge.

 

[digitalduck]

Thanks, but it posts fine 2/3 of the time...it only restarts when windows is trying to start....so, would a clean install "possibly" fix it....as far as the fan goes...could that be the culprit? Not the fan itself, but what damage it has done ? if any?

 

[Smilin]

You *may* yet have a Windows problem but you *definately* have a hardware problem. So to answer your question, no a clean install would not fix the problem.

It is also possible with a little luck there is no actual damage to the northbridge. It's just overheating and not functioning properly. With the heatsink still in place the chip *may* have survived. If the heatsink and the fan were both gone altogether it would burn up the chip.

You can try setting your bus speeds low to see if you can boot, but you would be pushing your luck. If blowing the fan out doesn't get it spinning, leave the computer off until you can replace the fan or motherboard.

 

[digitalduck]

OK guys...what do make of this..I took my HD out an put it in a different comp with the exact same mobo, vid card, ram and processor...I made it the only drive on it and it did the exact same thing which tells me that it wasnt a hardware problme..at least not my immediate mobo because its doing the exact same restarting thing to a "T" on his working mobo same as mine....so then I hooked it up as the slave adn copied over my files...now that I know that I am formatting since I saved my files and ill see what it does from there...

what do you think? Do I try to RMA the board to newegg or obviously get a new fan for the northridge?

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: digitalduck
OK guys...what do make of this..I took my HD out an put it in a different comp with the exact same mobo, vid card, ram and processor...I made it the only drive on it and it did the exact same thing which tells me that it wasnt a hardware problme..at least not my immediate mobo because its doing the exact same restarting thing to a "T" on his working mobo same as mine....so then I hooked it up as the slave adn copied over my files...now that I know that I am formatting since I saved my files and ill see what it does from there...

what do you think? Do I try to RMA the board to newegg or obviously get a new fan for the northridge?

What if the hardware problem is the hard drive itself?

 

[digitalduck]

I considered that...I reforamted C: and so far everything is smooth..posts fine and no restarts.. I dont know. I hope its not the HD since I just bought it at Best Buy under a month ago..so well have to see. Ill be getting a new fan for my Northridge though...can i get it at Newegg or do i have to do through Abit? (If it has to be a specific fna or just any) No sense RMAing the board just for that if I can replace it.

 

[Delorian]

Smilin is perfectly right, the only thing that "Last Known Good Configuration" would help is if you had problems logging on to your machine, it will revert to how the PC was configured in the last successful logon attempt. In this situation you had logged on fine, but had problems shutting down so the last known good configuration is that of the failure. I would try these troubleshooting methods in this order.

1) Try the repair option on your WinXP CD

if that doesn't work

2) check BIOS to ensure your HD is correctly configured, if your CMOS battery loses power it may not correctly recognize the drive causing errors

3)Check all case & CPU fans to ensure they are working and not causing a quick failure due to heat, which can happen in 10-15 secs. which can and will fry your processor

4) Download a bootdisk from Bootdisk.com (at least winNT, XP, 2K + for NTFS support if that is what you are using) and try to use their emergency repair process if possible

5) All else fails, wipe the XP partition with a dos bootdisk's FDISK utility, Also available from bootdisk.com and freshly reinstall Win XP to gaurantee your problem (if it is software) is fixed

Always remember to backup your critical data and separately partition your OS and Storage space on a single HD configuration, hope one of these helps, good luck!

 

[digitalduck]

Delorian, thanks for the indepth reply..check my psot above it though, ive reforamated. I chose to do that instead of just doing a repiar because I figured hey, why not So far so good...however I do need to replace the northridge fan because its not spinning right now...

 

[digitalduck]

Ok...two days after reformatting..now I tried to restart and its giving me boot disk failure..insert system disk. It did it like 5 times in a row..during this time my Northbridge fan wasnt spinning...its probably coincidence but once I spun it up again just by moving it with a screwdriver it loaded to windows.....WTF? Is it my HD? Its not even a month old?

 

[digitalduck]

anyone?

 

[digitalduck]

^

 

[CTho9305]

READ what people write. Your POST should ALWAYS report the same data (unless you change your hardware). The fact that it does changes means you 100% definitely have at least one hardware problem. The hard drive won't affect the reported CPU MHz - it hasn't yet been accessed at that point in the BIOS boot process. Since you have a busted northbridge fan, and the north bridge is likely malfunctioning, EVERY bit of data that goes through it (i.e. everything that goes to AGP, PCI, disk drives, etc) may sometimes be corrupted.

Note that if your FSB is resetting, that could cause speed variations, and could indicate a bad CMOS battery, but you need to fix or replace that fan. If you don't want to, then you need to RMA the motherboard.

You say that when the fan isn't spinning it doesn't work, but when the fan is spinning, it works... and you wonder if it's a hard drive problem? :roll:.

Fans cost companies money to include, and companies like to cut costs, so when there is a fan on something, it's PROBABLY important!