ok... resident PC guru please.. before i smash this PC..

[sidriptide]

ok i need a lil help here.. my PC is gettin all FUKY on me this week... heres basically what i did... keeping in mind i had no issues with this machine until this week..
my PC:
ms windowsXP upgrade
500mhz celeron proc
256 mb ram
160 G hard drive... yes its really that big...
this week i installed a new norton antivirus program... installed a firewall... and hooked up to comcast cable modem.... the first day or so no dig issues.. i think this next step may be a key to my problem.... i ran a "spyware" program i have.. AD-AWARE... and it basically deleted my cookies and half of my grokster program.. i've run it before with no issues... maybe the third night i had the "blue screen of death" while i was online... after i restarted it i figured that since i had not run a disc defrag in a while and with the recent program changes i'd run it..... i go to the SYSTEM TOOLS folder and it's EMPTY!!!!! WTF is this!!! not only can i not run a defrag now, but no disk cleanup or anything else in it... it's just EMPTY! i crashed 2 more time that nite... wondering now if my SPYWARE purge took some MS info with it...... next day i get a CORRUPT FILE message on startup.. i do a DSKCHK and it "fixes" it.. it happened again later too.... the file names that were corrupt were :
windows\preftech\explorer.exe082f38a9.pf
windows\preftech\explorer.exe03946f00f.pf

i tried to run a norton "full system scan" and it errored out... error#
3019.1 or something like that..
the explanation is something like a MS program issue that they will issue an update for soon..... now i get the same error when i try to log in sometimes......... i uninstalled norton last night and no crash or error so far..... i found a manual way to run a defrag so it ran but listed multiple files that were not defragged... i'm backin up all my files tonite and think the only real fix for this is to REINSTALL my XP upgrade ..... i assume its just like a master reboot with the OEM disk.... i also installed a driver disk that came with the modem... mainly because they told me to.. but i imagine XP should find a driver when it recognizes new hardware........
what else should i try?
what the hell did i do??
am i overpowering my processor since it's my current weak link?? i have tried running multiple tasks and never over loaded it before........
i dont want to do a master reboot and lose everything..... but i also dont want to get so angry that i uplug it throw it in the closet and buy a new machine.... that would mean no new gears and spool in the trail rig and i cant let that happen...
any thoughts or pointers will be appreciated.......
mike

as a foot note.. im on dial up because my comcast isnt locating a connection now........

 

[5-90]

Let me ask this - how long ago did you apply XP upgrade? I ask because Microsoft has a p1$$-poor track record with upgrades - I am now to the point where I flatly refuse to use their upgrades anymore. Something to think about - you may want to scratch and apply XP from the beginning.

Also, what OS did you have before the upgrade? And why did you upgrade? May be germane to the discussion at hand... I still run W2Kpro, and haven't been impressed enough with XP to build a testbed machine to play with it yet...

5-90

 

[CStamm]

ok try this if u haven't already. pop in ur XP cd. if u reboot the machine with the cd in, it should give you the option to repair windows xp. this will check all of ur system files and reinstall any necessary ones. this hould help you out big time.

btw, XP must be slow on that machine, it is a very processor hungry os.

 

[sidriptide]

i upgraded the machine last spring.. new H/D.. XP upgrade.. RAM chip.. upgrade rather than new..... was Win98 before.... and in case it matters, its an Emachine .. this is the first Emachine that had not given me grief so i stuck with it... XP isnt very slow at all.. at least not by my standards.. runs as fast as my daughters' PC with a 1.6G proc. i did put the XP disk back in but i didnt see a prompt for repair, like i expected.. so i'm backin up some stuff before i go anyfarther than that...
mike

 

[sidriptide]

oh yeah. 1 more thing.. i have tried several times to run a Win update..... last update was about a month ago... it downloads fine but the install is slooooooooooow and freezes up the machine after about 30 mins...
mike

 

[Glenn B]

Of course, back up everything you want to keep.

Have you tried to roll back to a previous restore point with XP?

The Repair feature on the CD.. you have boot to the CD, so you probably need to change your boot device order in your BIOS if you do not have the option to select a boot device during boot.

If all else fails, SFC may help.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310747


There may be a few other things to try, depends on how much time you want to spend. Otherwise, a good old reload of Windows will make it happy again most likely.

BTW: There is no real difference between an "upgrade" CD and the full version. Both contain the full OS. The Upgrade CD will only prompt you to insert the CD from a qualifying lesser OS (Win2K and below). So you still have all of the files on either disc.

IMHO, if you have backed everything up to another HDD or CD etc.... I would suggest you format the HDD. Installing over your current OS can make things goofy IMHO.

Glenn

 

[sidriptide]

i did have the presence of mind to create a restore point before my recent installs..... too bad the SYSTEM RESTORE is listed in the now-empty system tools folder in accesories..... i found an altrenate way to find the defrag option by right-clicking on MY COMPUTER..... but restore is not in that file...... where else cani find my restore points?

 

[Glenn B]

Try safe mode?

You should get a couple options if you press F8 (IIRC) before Windows starts to boot.
Glenn

 

[sidriptide]

i know "safe mode" well....... my previous Emachine liked to go there all by itself.. i'll give it a shot
mike

 

[Glenn B]

..... but restore is not in that file...... where else cani find my restore points?

Try this:
There are three methods that you can use to access System Restore functionality.

You can access the System Restore Wizard through the Start menu. To access the System Restore Wizard, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.


You can access System Restore through Control Panel. To open the System Restore Wizard, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System. Click the System Restore tab, and then click Learn more about System Restore. In Help and Support, click Performance and Maintenance, click Using System Restore to undo changes, and then click Run the System Restore Wizard.


You can access System Restore through Help and Support Center. To access the System Restore Wizard, click Start, and then click Help and Support. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Using System Restore to undo changes, and then click Run the System Restore Wizard.

 

[sidriptide]

ok glenn.... no worky!first option won't work because the file in ACCESORIES is listed but has no arrow next to it.. so it doesnt recognize the file
second option wont work because i ope the SYSTEM RESTORE TAB and there is nothing in there like perf. and maintenance... it will allow me to create a new restore pt but i dont want that
thrid wont work either... the restore point i created is not listed, and when i chose an earlier date and click "next" it does nothing at all..... nothing... when i do a master reboot i need to unplug my printed and external USB cable modem dont i?

 

[Kejtar]

i know "safe mode" well....... my previous Emachine liked to go there all by itself.. i'll give it a shot
mike

couple things before you attempt the reinstal:
1. did you run a full checkdisk? the one that makes you reboot? If not, open a command prompt (Start->Run type "cmd", hit ok) and there type "chkdsk /r" THis will say something about running at next reboot... do so. Then watch it. IF it fixes stuff run it again after you boot up and reboot .... if it happens to fix stuff for the second time in a row... then your HD is going to the same place my clutch went..... look into replacing it and moving your data ASAP

2. another place to check is your sytem and application logs. You don't have to be a pc guru to make a little sense out of those, and if you ahve questions, post... someone will know what the answer is.... to get to the system logs, right click on the "my computer" icon and choose manage and open up the event viewer and look into the system and application logs. See what you can find: errors (recent ones) are what you're after

3. restore point.. unfortunately that's not as fool proof as some may think. Don't take me wrong, I love the feature, but it works best with driver rollbacks (even multiple) and not whole system....

4. the prefetch stuff is the most active location on your HD thus again it might imply the HD failure. Btw.. are you running FAT32 or NTFS on your HD?? Size implies that you'd have to use NTFS, but I know that FAT32 is getting up there as well.... If you're not sure, when you run chkdsk it tells you which file system you're using. If its fat32, let me know and I will help you move over to NTFS, although there are potential problems you might encounter if your drive is already corrupt.... getting back to the prefetch stuff, let me know what the first two points and the 4th one yield and I will try to digup the ways to clear out the prefetch directory as if it migth be as simple as that (well it's not THAT simple to do, but you get my point). In any case, it might be especially important if you're running a fat32.....

Anyways.. I will check this thread again in about 8 hours... it's time to catch some Z's

 

[sidriptide]

thanks Remi.... if you get me thru this i won't release the pics of your "breif delay" on TOP OF THE WORLD.....:angel:
mike

 

[sidriptide]

Remi.... your option #1 didnt fix anything.. i ran it twice option #2 showed some errors in my office 2000 on the day after the install, thats when this thing went to hell... its set up as FAT32... i did a reboot with the XP disk and the first thing it did was error out.. second try went all the way thru, i used the option that would not delete my current settings.. if it doesnt work this time i'll wipe it all out and start fresh..... my INTERNET EXP. is working now.. but i still got some errors regarding a problem with my office 2000... we'll see how it goes..... its nappy time for me though....
mike

 

[imma honky]

I know exactly how you feel. Been there, done that. Emachines ARE NOT good computers. I had soooo many things go wrong with it (i gues thats why is was so cheap??). My main problem was Norton Anti-virus. It ate up all my resources. Since it is no longer MY machine, I ditched out on everything. Started fresh. Now it only has an OS, OfficexP, and few smaller apps. Its a word-processor only now. So far, not one problem(been like that for 4 years). It is a celeron 400.

 

[Kejtar]

Remi.... your option #1 didnt fix anything.. i ran it twice option #2 showed some errors in my office 2000 on the day after the install, thats when this thing went to hell... its set up as FAT32... i did a reboot with the XP disk and the first thing it did was error out.. second try went all the way thru, i used the option that would not delete my current settings.. if it doesnt work this time i'll wipe it all out and start fresh..... my INTERNET EXP. is working now.. but i still got some errors regarding a problem with my office 2000... we'll see how it goes..... its nappy time for me though....
mike

ok.... lets move you to ntfs... A lot of problems/headaches can be avoided by using it as a file system. To do so first make sure that all your files are backed up (the important ones). Even though the process is pretty reliable.... things happen.
After you made sure that you have all your files backed up, open the command prompt like you did before (start->run cmd) and in there, type "convert c: /fs:NTFS" and follow the prompts (one of them will tell you to reboot)

 

[RichP]

Dont waste any more time fixing

Diminishing returns if you need more than an hour to fix it, not worth it except as an exercise in recovery. 1st step, go buy a hardware firewall, I won't go into my normal rant about software firewalls and how I feel about them, I make alot of money removing them and fixing the damage they cause on 98 and XP, they don't seem to be as damaging on wink2 for some reason. 2: back up your important files to a seperate drive or CD R, reformat the drive and reinstall XP from scratch. Install the OS first, second install the chipset software from intel, emachines use intell chipsets from the ones I've had to fix, find out which chipset you have from the emachine web site and download from intels site or from the system/device manager.
Install the dma drivers next, then video, then network. At that point you should be back up on the cable modem and can download XP updates from microsoft, one recommendation, NEVER, NEVER EVER download driver updates from microsoft unless you really really want to get to know your drivers on a first name basis. Downloading critial and normal updates is OK but stay away from the hardware one's. If you need or think you need a hardware driver update go to your hardware manufacturers web/ftp site and get them from there

 

[sidriptide]

ok heres what i'm thinkin.. i'm tired of troubleshooitng and trying to patch this up and getting nothing... since this is an XP upgrade i think i'll reinstall the OEM Win98 disc and wipe out everything.. and make sure it is working properly... then upgrade to XP and make sure its still cool... then install 1 program at a time .. i'll look into a hardware firewall too, others have suggested it too.. i will most likely go with the NTFS convertion as well after its all hunkey dorey.... if that doesnt do it for me i'm gonna part it out like an old XJ!!!! any hints or pointers before i begin in about an hour??
mike

 

[Glenn B]

me, I would not even waste the time putting Win98 on it. Go directly with XP. Saves ya time, and makes for a cleaner install.
Just my $0.0002
Glenn

 

[Majo]

To start some of your problems are coming from system requirements with out a doubt at all, I almost cried when I saw celeron 500 runnign windows XP. That's a mistake in itself as microsoft recommends minimum of 700mhz on a amd athlon/ pentium 3 breed, yes the box says 700mhz , but a 700mhz celeron lacks instructions sets that allow it to keep with with quick changing graphics etc.. and lags behind athlon and pentium breeds in just ever aspect. If your looking to upgrade, my friend has his own store he sells comps for cheap, cheaper if i tell him ur a good "friend" www.focushardware.com If you have comp questions feel free to IM me directly on aol at JeepinMojo, or email me directly. I go to college for this type of stuff so I should be of great help.