Almost Halloween--is bad hardware haunting me?

Oi! I need help driving the computer demons away! :cry I’ve been troubleshooting for months, trying to find the source of multiple problems and all I can think of at this point is that it might be a wonky drive or other hardware.

I had this computer built for me 2 years ago especially for graphic work. It used to run very fast but a few months ago became e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y slow, especially when moving files around. I use 2 monitors, and when I drag windows from one screen to another, the graphic interface breaks up and stalls. Unless I move very slowly when this happens, the computer crashes. Frequently when I perform a function like saving a file, even just a small Word doc, all the icons disappear from the monitor and take about 10 seconds to start reappearing.

Anytime I input information online, the computer takes many long pauses. When I have to input my name, for instance, I can type 4 letters, then the computer pauses for a full 1-minute, sometime longer, before I can type the rest of my name. I have noticed that the Avast “A” icon on the toolbar always starts spinning as soon as I can type again, so I suspected a problem with Avast. However, I tried working on a friend’s computer that also runs Avast and had no such problems.

For the last 2 months, my computer has been crashing hard anytime I’m working with a lot of copy & paste of html files.

This week, problems escalated with the computer taking a l-o-n-g time to access one of my 2 internal drives. Ordinarily, when I go to My Computer and click on the letter for Drive 2, the window for it pops up instantly. Now, however, it takes more than 1 minute for that drive’s window to open. When it finally does open, I hear the drive make a loud “thunk.” The red LED light that usually blinks when I’m switching between drives is not on.
In addition, this week a small icon has shown up on any Word doc or PDF doc on my desktop. The icon is a small green circle with a white check mark in it, or alternately a small red circle with a white exclamation point in it. I’ve never seen this displayed before and don’t know what it means. Word docs make multiple temp files on y desktop as I work, and these must be manually dragged to the trash when I finish working.

Thinking the lack of the red LED light might mean a drive is falling, I went to the Western Digital site and downloaded their diagnostic tool for my 2 WD drives. The diagnostic said Drive 1 is “Pass.” When I select the other drive, the diagnostic tool says “Not available.” If I tell it to run the diagnostic program on that drive, the computer crashes.

These drives are still under warranty by Western Digital, so I wrote their tech support and asked them to tell me what my experience with the diagnostic tool means. I have not received a reply from them.

Over the last 2 months I have done this:
Replaced the mouse twice in case it was a problem with the input device.
Uninstalled Spybot Search & Destroy because an error message for TeaTimer.exe came up after each crash.
Uninstalled all Logitech software that was generating frequent error messages.
Uninstalled very other piece of software I could spare.
Checked and triple checked for adware, spyware and malware.
Run CCleaner numerous times.
Defragged numerous times using Smart Defrag.

Each time I run all these system tools the computer will run faster for a few hours, but as soon as it crashes, I’m back to slow mode.

The windows Event Viewer sunder “System “ will say “Error…System Control Manager” or less frequently “Error… System Error.” Under “Application” I get frequent Yellow waning signs for Msinstaller.



Belarc Advisor says I have this:

Operating System System Model
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600) MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-7235 REV:1.1Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.87 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo64 kilobyte primary memory cache2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-7235 REV:1.1Bus Clock: 266 megahertzBIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 08/08/2006
Drives Memory Modules c,d
640.13 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity524.47 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free SpaceOPTORITE DVD RW DD1205 SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-152A SCSI CdRom Device3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]SATA WDC WD3200KS-00PFB0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 1, s/n WD-WCAPD2655068, rev 21.00M21, Not SMARTWDC WD3200KS-00PFB0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0 2048 Megabytes Installed MemorySlot 'A0' has 1024 MBSlot 'A1' is EmptySlot 'A2' has 1024 MBSlot 'A3' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 1) 320.06 GB 278.36 GB free
f: (NTFS on drive 0) 320.07 GB 246.11 GB free

Network Drives
None detected
Printers
Adobe PDF Converter on My Documents\*.pdf
EPSON Stylus C86 Series on USB001
EPSON Stylus C86 Series on USB003
EPSON Stylus Photo R340 Series on USB002
Microsoft XPS Document Writer on XPSPort:

Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controllerIntel(R) ICH8 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2825Intel(R) ICH8 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2820Primary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x) NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS [Display adapter]IBM 9497 T86A [Monitor] (18.2"vis, s/n S55C5724, July 2001)Relisys 786 [Monitor] (15.2"vis, s/n T298090881, March 1994)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
JMicron JMB36X RAID ControllerIntel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2830Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2831Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2832Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2834Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2835Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 2836Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 283A Realtek High Definition AudioUSB Audio Device
Communications Other Devices

1394 Net Adapter
Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC





Networking Dns Server: 192.168.1.1
VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host ControllerStandard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 KeyboardMicrosoft PS/2 Port Mouse (IntelliPoint)Microsoft USB Wheel Mouse Optical (IntelliPoint)Generic USB HubUSB Composite DeviceUSB Root Hub (7x)
Virus Protection [Back to Top]
avast! antivirus 4.8.1229 [VPS 081024-0] Version 4.8.1229
Realtime File Scanning On

 

Hi. wow what a fiasco. As far as the HD goes a loud 'CLUNK' from experience is the drive is on the way out. Have you tried running chkdsk /f from run command and see if that detects any bad sectors. As far as your slow speed this sounds like you have malware there, even though you may rid initially if you have a downloader virus hidden in the registry over a period this will invite more in and cause computer to slow. My best tip is to go to 'Malware' section and follow chaslang's instructions on how to completely rid com of malware. He's the Wizard/Guru of viruses etc.

 

Thank you for the suggestions. I appreciate your taking the time to read through my novella! I ran chkdsk /f this morning. It didn't find any problems to fix, so I'll head off to find chaslang.