TSGL: XP pro ++SOLVED ++ problem

[H Davis]

Well, you get a medal for persistence Tilman. I'm surprised the thing 
ran at all. It really is a good feeling when you beat the beast at its 
own game isn't it.

BTW I think most of the big memory card manufacturers have a lifetime 
warranty.

H Davis

Tilman Brandl wrote:
> 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/ 
>
>
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>   

-- 
H Davis   hdavis1 at gmail.com