TSGL: XP pro ++SOLVED ++ problem

[Tilman Brandl]

Hi All,

just wanted to let you know: I've solved my nasty problem by following 
advice I had read about often, and also by following more stringent methods 
in identifying the culprit. Also something several of you guys had mentioned 
in their posts. Thanks!

The problem was with one of my two 1GB RAM modules.
During tests I had first pulled RAM no.1, leaving in place the second bar 
only. I reinstalled a fresh version of win xp onto a new HDD. There were 
problems already from the beginning. I was told that some files couldn get 
copied to the HDD, there were reboots .... the old litany. It took me three 
attempts to get something like win xp to (about) work on this machine.

The next I did was running tests with no.2. Ram module still in the PC:  As 
soon as I startet memtest, there were only failures, not a single successful 
test. So I swapped that failing no.2 Ram bar with no.1. No reboots no 
errors, so I started repairing and updating the XP system and also adding 
some of my software. Everything was fine, and still is ..... What a great 
feeling.

Bottomline - During some 25 years with computers I've *never* had something 
like a failing Ram, even though many of them were noname stuff. As a result 
I thought there was only a tiny little chance of this being my problem, also 
bcs I had paid more for quality stuff this time, like e.g. 2Gigs of Kingston 
Ram ! Ha! Anyway, I just didn't look there but and followed other options 
instead ...  ;-(

Another result of all the bluescreens, deleted or + cut-off files was the 
dire consequence of slowly failing security: a stopped firewall, AV shutting 
down etc. - even if for a short time only, but sometimes up to a few hours. 
This led to infection through viruses, trojans, worms which AVG (free) did 
not detect (why?). As far as I could tell these nasties didn't do much (if 
any) harm, but diverted my attention. Well, all this was quite a lesson!

I've meanwhile installed Avira AntiVir (free version) which I think I can 
get used to. It's seemingly doing a good job, and even cleaned up an old HDD 
with leftover malware in some archives.

So, again, thanks to all of you who offered their ideas and advice !

Cheers
Tilman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tilman Brandl" <tbrandl2 at chello.at>
To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <List at tsgserver.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 4:13 AM
Subject: TSGL: XP pro - Now HDD continued problems


Hi,

I'm not getting happy with my new PC - bought in Nov 07, applied a fresh
install of XP prp sp2 - since then there's trouble.

***** Question: CAN any kind of 'standard' software (if there is such thing)
damage my machine's HDDs ?


That's all I want to know just now, the rest is for the curious of you, and
not the faint at heart ;-)
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm asking the above, because I'm running into a new (or old) problem nearly
each day.

- XP Firewall is getting set to OFF after reboot
- can't install different programs - last one was BitDefender
- machine reboots a few times each day, asks to run chkdsk afterwards and
sometimes finds/repairs defective entries + indices on system + program
partitions
- errors show up in taskbar: "...file xxxxxx corrupt: Run chkdsk to repair
.... " saw it a few times, sometimes it stopped an installation. This is the
first time I've EVER seen those

What I've done:
* Ran chkdsk on all drives,
* Sofar I've been running AVG free with updated definitions nearly each day,
rarely was there anything worth mentioning, and what was found were mostly
old finactive files somewhere stored away in a .zip or such.

A while ago I had lots of reboots, which stopped after I tweaked a
timings-setting in Bios (w/o really knowing WHAT to tweak)

In the works:
Currently I'm running a thorough check with adaware - a first smart scan
only found 2 old favorites, marked as malware (removed it) and the usual
collection of tracking cookies (left them)

Will do more checks, if I can install another antivirus program.

I really wónder if this all is normal windows trouble, a 3rd-party software
thing (any drivers...) or actually hardware related, like my old Sata-HDD
dying (this one isn't old, just 1/2 year at max). The second Sata-HDD is
brand new
<sigh>

Tilman
ww.tsgserver.com/list/