BSODs and other probs

Hi All,

Long story that I'll try to make as brief as possible. My XP Pro computer seemed to rather suddenly experience greatly delayed startup. I initially suspected too many apps starting simultaneously at bootup and tried a couple of boot managers to delay some of them. Not much benefit.

I read that remnants of previous antivirus programs could cause probs. I tried to remove previous remnants using the respective programs to do so. Not much benefit.

I checked Task Manager and MSSE was consuming almost all the cpu usage by two different files. I contacted Microsoft and initiated an incident. Through several weeks, several apps were put on the MSSE Excluded list (msmpeng.exe, msseces.exe, and explorer.exe) MS took control of the PC then did cleaning with Comodo System Cleaner, and did quite a few tweaks to try to improve the overall system operation. Bottom line was the excluded items helped the boot time but I would need to wait patiently at boot for MSSE to perform the scan before trying to use the PC - a couple of minutes. I think some update caused the boot scan to begin taking longer, but have no idea which one. I'm OK with being more patient.

A week or so later I began to notice that the PC would have Blue Screen crashes (BSOD) when in IE. This machine never (I can't remember one) bluescreened before. Not sure of the operations going on at the time, maybe opening a new tab, going back, others maybe. It wouldn't crash every day initially but later seemed to be crashing daily, sometimes multiple times. I think some of the cleaning or tweaks put some setting into a bad range, but I don't know for sure. So I uninstalled and reinstalled IE8. No change. So I installed Firefox set it as default and use that now for browsing. But IE is needed for certain things. I thought this was at least a partial solution. But FireFox just BSOD'd too.

There is at least one missing file, I get error messages about this frequently: adsldpc.dll. Also, when I shutdown I sometimes see that some apps don't respond properly, but it happens so fast I can't catch the names.

IE8 is installed now but when started takes a long while to load. If I become impatient and try to close it (or one of the extra instances that may have been triggered by clicking again when no response) it throws a Not Responding message. If I force it to close, an error report will ultimately (after several minutes - maybe 5 minutes) be generated. Usually the report is corrupted and I get a message back that it is unusable.

I don't set restore points as a general rule but have a few times. I haven't tried to restore.

So the machine may be working a little better with Firefox, but I'd like to get IE working again and suspect that there are some other system files that may have gotten nuked during multiple cleans with Comodo and with CCleaner.

I will ultimately load Win7 on this machine but do not want to do so until late next year. I'd like to try some repairs that won't risk seriously damaging the already wounded XP installation. I have bunches of programs that I don't want to reload and don't have time to reload.

Here's what I'm thinking may be a reasonable, non-risky approach to try to regain some system integrity and IE8 stable operability:
(1) Run some program to view the blue screen crash data (I don't know how to do this).
(2) Uninstall IE8 and IE7 using the spuninst.exe file in the respective program folder structure to take the system back to IE6.
(3) Run SFC (not sure of the command name) to repair the XP system files as may be needed. I have an XP CD with SP3 slipstreamed - I think properly - I've never used it but created it because I thought I'd probably need it one day, just not this soon.
(4) After the SFC is finished then reinstall IE8 (I have the install file from the MS site).
(5) Maybe run Memtest of some version too to ensure nothing is flaky with the memory. I'll consider adding more memory if I can get the machine back to normal, more memory will help now and with Win7 later.

Here are the specs:

Homebuilt (in 2005 I think) as an HTPC but never installed HT SW.
MB: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
RAM: 1 GB (2 sticks) PC3200 DDR SDRAM
CPU: AMD Athlon XP, 2200 mhz 3200+
Video: Nvidia GeForce 6200 AGP 512MB (this is new)
HDD: 160 Gig, 3 partitions, plenty of free space
OS: XP Pro SP3.

The current video card was installed a few months ago because the original card from when I built the system went bad. But the system worked fine after working through that.

I try to keep it patched, scan for viruses (MSSE) and malware (MBAM) every couple weeks and SpybotS&D less frequently now. I defrag using Defraggler every couple of weeks too. I used ZoneAlarm for years, recently had a 1 yr free pro trial that recently expired. ZA is removed now due to the MSSE probs, but I like it to lock the system down both directions. I've used several AV progs in the past, Avira, Avast, Trend (to wipe a virus once), maybe NortonAV or McAfee a long time ago if I had a free version, maybe others. Always used free AV and ZA and more recently used free antimalware.

So I'll take advice from you great gurus and gurettes about what is reasonable to do to try to repair without getting risky.

Let me know what you need and I'll do my best to get it for you.

Thanks in advance!

BobTN

 

Hiya bob, first of all, what does the Bluescreen say?

 

The bluescreen is gone now. Isn't there a program I can use to view a dump file or report or some way to view the bluescreen info?

Thanks.

 

Yea but theres a few things you gotta do

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246

 

Hi Driz,
Before I saw your post, I stumbled on Blue Screen View on the site so I downloaded it and it shows i assume the last 5 bluescreens. Lotta info in the link you provided; it said that Blue Screen View was easier.

Interestingly, the 5 dumps arent for the same BugCheckString (I assume this is sort of a description). Two strings are the same (String: Page_Fault_In_Nonpaged_Area, Code 0x10000050 ) but have different drivers in the stack at the time. I'm repeating text that I read, I don't really understand this. One has kmixer.sys, ks.sys, and ntoskrnl.exe; the other has ntoskrnl.exe, and rdbss.sys. The latest dump doesnt have any drivers in the stack, but all 4 before that have ntoskrnl.exe.

I pasted all 5 dump reports into one file. See attached.

Let me know what you need next.

 

Very interesting set of BSODs there ... I'd be guessing hardware. Have you got everything you would possibly want to keep if something went wrong backed up? If not this is the part where you do that quick smart Just in case its the Hard Drive is all. Then once your done doing that, open CMD (you seem like you know how), and punch in chkdsk /r C:

You may have to press Y twice, then restart, and watch for the result, what we're looking for is "bad sectors". Its easier if you wait till stage 5 is at 90 something percent and sit and watch to save us going diving into the event manager later trying to find it.

 

Yep, backed everything up a week ago. Wish I'd made an image back when things were better. Not liking the look of the storm clouds.

Well, I didn't want to muddy things too much, but I tried to use the hurt PC to download the BSV program but FireFox would hang every time I clicked the ALLOW button when FireFox was directed to the download site. I tried to open IE but it didn't want to load. So I figured I'd try to reboot the PC and start fresh. I looked up and I think it was chkdsk that was running. Found some bad files and a fairly long list of crud that it was really unhappy about but it finished and started. I'm using the hurt PC for this post.

Before I run the chkdsk that you requested (assuming that was what ran, I should have written it down....), would it be beneficial to have a look at what info may already be there (with event manager or some other program)? FYI I do have SysInternals downloaded, but I've never used any of it - just figured I was going to need it some day.

Could have some other puzzling news: I looked up how to run event viewer (start/run/eventvwr.msc) and got the following when I tried to run it: MMC could not create the snap-in. The snap-in might not have been installed correctly. Name: Event Viewer. CLSID: {975797FC-4E2A-11D0-B702-00C04FD8DBF7}. I ran compmgmt.msc and it ran, but event viewer isn't there.

What do you think? Is there some way to look at what chkdsk may have just done, or do you want me to bull forward and run it now?

 

Update.... I had hoped to hear from Drizzle shortly after my last post, but didn't. I decided to try to move forward and not to delay so I ran dskchk /r. It ran without a single issue reported. So no current problem with disk integrity (although dskchk had recently run - so the test may not be that valid).

I'm not feeling that the issue is disk integrity, I thnk it is files that were A) improperly modified by MS or B) deledted during aggressive cleaning with CCLEANER and COMODO by either/and MS and me.

What's next?? What about removing IE8 and IE7 then running SFC. Then reinstalling IE8. Will SFC look for IE files? If so, would I need to use my original XP disk (I think IE 6 was the version then) instead of the SP3 slipstreamed XP disk (is IE8 part of SP3?).

Do you think I should check something else first? I only have until Tuesday to work on this before I have to travel.

Thanks!

 

Sorry Bob, I work in a Retail Electonics store as our IT Tech and it got quite busy shortly after my last post, then I sorta had a nanny-nap when I got home cuz of a splitting headache :-o

Well, it's good we got nothing on chkdsk it almost completely rules the hard drive out, the remaining tests for your HDD aren't applicable for your problem.

It still sounds like Hardware to me, so number five of your possible fixes sounds like a great idea. Grab a bootable memtest disk and set it to run overnight. (Thus allowing it to run for several passes, the more the better), RAM was actually my first thought but I just wanted to rule out the HDD first ...

I'm thinking it's Hardware, just in case your wondering, for a few different reasons'

1) There are too many different BSODs for it to be one piece of software causing the issue, as a general rule, software should usually cause 1, 2 at most different BSOD errors.

2) Several different BSODs usually points directly towards RAM.

3) You have multiple problems with other programs

(Quote:

But I tried to use the hurt PC to download the BSV program but FireFox would hang every time I clicked the ALLOW button when FireFox was directed to the download site.

Quote:

Could have some other puzzling news: I looked up how to run event viewer (start/run/eventvwr.msc) and got the following when I tried to run it: MMC could not create the snap-in. The snap-in might not have been installed correctly. Name: Event Viewer. CLSID: {975797FC-4E2A-11D0-B702-00C04FD8DBF7}. I ran compmgmt.msc and it ran, but event viewer isn't there.

Plus you said in your first post that firefox was playing up a little.)

So I'd be giving memtest a go overnight. Good luck!

 

Hi Drizzles,

Gday mate. I think I'm opposite side and end of the earth from you. I'll run memtest today. It is AM here.

I understand what you said about the hardware suspicions and reasons. And I'll admit that it could be hardware. But, I know the MS techs did some major tweaking on my PC to 'improve its performance' as part of their support case. They ran comodo to clean things. I'd been running CCleaner. I have to say it was scrubbed really, really hard and lots of things in the registry were deleted as well as on the hard drive too. And the problems happend right after the MS tech support event. It could be coincidence but most of my money is still riding on the missing files - rememeber ""There is at least one missing file I get error messages about frequently: adsldpc.dll"".

I'm not a novice, but I'm not a full-on techie either. I appreciate your help trying to sort through this.

 

S'all good, yeah it's now 12:50 in the morning so I'm about to take a shower and go to bed, but yeah, try the memtest, just to rule out the most common HW problems, then if we come up with nothing we'll try some software things.

I didn't actually realise MS had been tinkering with it, CCleaner is usually pretty safe but I've never used Comodo personally so I couldn't say at how good or bad it is.

Lemme know how your memtest goes.

Oh and yeah, I live in Australia

 

G'day Drizzles,

I saw that you live in Australia. I'm in Tennessee, USA. I got a chance to visit your great country a few years ago and did a project in Bayswater, just East of Melbourne. We drove all day Saturday in the Yarra Ranges Nat'l Park and never saw a 'roo. I spit the dummy over that.

MemTest86 has been running for 6 hours 35 minutes and counting, 10 passes, ZERO errors.

Any other diagnostic you think I should run? As I said earlier, I'll be on travel after Tuesday, so if I don't get it sorted before then, I'll have to put things on hold - this is a desktop PC that we're dealing with.

Will you be checking the site over the weekend?

Regards,
BobTN

 

Lol thats too bad, I almost hit one in the car every few weeks :mad

Alright well if RAM checks out good, there's not too many other HW problems that can cause this kinda trouble. So, well begin with software. I',m thinking it might be worthwhile giving System Restore a go. If you can bring it up and check when your last restore point was made, prior to MS' tinkering, and see what the restore point was made for.

And yes, I will be checking over the weekend.

 

Hi Drizzles,

OK. hmmm. System restore. hmmm. I've NEVER had to do that. I reckon it is due to good living. I can pick a point before the boys from Bellevue (actually India) had their way... I mean: performed some mystical and magical software surgery... but before I do that, since it is past my bedtime here, lets first discuss the relative benefits of System Restore vs SFC. I have an idea what System Restore does, but don't really much about SFC except that it supposedly replaces critical system files form a cache or from an installation CD.

If I restore to a point before the MS techs tweaked my PC I'll likely get back the slow boot times that were the complaint at the time. Now, maybe with all the patches that have come out, maybe whatever was causing the delay/conflict will be resolved... maybe not. But certainly (I imagine) the PC will be back to the general condition it was in before. Regardless, slow boot is better than unstable operation. If we give that great growth story and benefactor of us all some credit, maybe the tweaks they made actually adjusted the system settings to more optimal conditions than could otherwise be obtained during normal, ordinary system use. Maybe a file or two got pruned that shouldn't have during their use (or subsequently my use) of Comodo and/or CCleaner. Like you, I've used CCleaner with no problems, but didn't use Comodo before the techs at MS used it. Honestly both programs seemed to find a lot of broken linksand other inappropriate things in those days before the dark clouds descended over my PC. Both asked if it was OK to perform the surgery with a tactical nuke, and I allowed it.

So if instead of Restore, we go the SFC repair route, maybe any needed missing files will be replaced (I don't know what adsldpc.dll does, but the PC doesn't like that it isn't there any longer). Maybe those secret MS settings will be retained but any missing or out of bounds files will be reinstalled or replaced. I have the original XP install CD, and also a copy that has been slipstreamed with SP3 (first time I've done this so don't know if I got it right or not). I'd say there is a better than even chance I got it right.

It seems to me, that if I Restore, I'm almost certainly bringing back a previous problem. If I try SFC maybe I can get the PC running while avoiding the previous problem. Let me emphasize that I do not know the strengths an weaknesses of SFC. Maybe it gives a slight advantage, maybe not. It seems that if SFC doesn't work, I can still restore to the same previous restore point that I would otherwise use.

So, lets have a few shrimp from the barbie, and drink a few beers. Which option do ya reckon (of these two or whatever else we may want to consider) offers the best opportunity for success, and which option do ya reckon presents the most risk of disaster. If we go the SFC route first, can you imagine any scenario that we couldn't recover from without too much trouble?

Should I: Restore, try SFC, or do something else.

Regards,
BobTN

 

Ok, well SFC certainly isn't going to harm anything, you can give it a go, but it may or may not fix your problem, same as system restore, except system restore is much more likely to fix your problem than SFC. I'm only thinking of the time factor here. By all means, give SFC a go (you have to use a disk that corresponds to the original installation of XP, in some cases you may have to use a slipstreamed XP disk), if SFC doesn't work, we'll have to go the System Restore route, as far as slow boot times etc goes. I have something that I wrote that should fix up everything when it comes to slow boot times.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=194632

The command for SFC is SFC /SCANNOW in Command Prompt.

By all means give SFC a go, it's not gonna harm anything and if it works, great, but if it doesn't well have to give System Restore a go.

 

Hey Drizzles,

I ran SFC twice. Both times I started with my XP SP3 Slipstream but after a few minutes it demanded the original CD. I assume the SFC completed successfully, but there was nice ending message.

I need to go run some errands, but when I get back, I may uninstall IE8 and IE7, run SFC again, then install IE8 UNLESS you have other ideas.

I didn't look at your link about improving slow boots yet, I will though.

Regards,

BobTN

 

Nah give everything you've got a go if you like, as I said, it may or may not work, and its not gonna hurt. Give it a go and lemme know of the results.

 

Let me clarify, when SFC finished, it did NOT give any nice ending message. Sorry for the missing word, I'm using a new mini keyboard on that PC and haven't gotten used to it.

OK. Tomorrow AM I'll uninstall back to IE6, run SFC, then install IE8. I'm losing patience though as my deadline approaches for travel, so if this doesn't work, I may just try a system restore. I assume that I'll need to run Windows Update after the system restore and will obviously need to reinstall any SW (not much to install, just an external hard drive sync/backup program is all I can think of).

 

Yea, in my experience SFC tends to do its thing and then disappear, so if it didn't say anything, chances are it's completed its little routine and then left.

And yeah give your procedure a go, if it works then we're all good, if it doesn't you must complete a system restore to the LATEST point BEFORE MS did their little thing. Then run Windows Update and restart after all updates, testing in-between, so if we do come across the problem again we have a better idea of whats causing it. If after completing Windows update all is well, then we will move on to cleaning up and tuning up, however if you get that far lemme know before you start.

 

Hi Drizzles,
There could be a problem with this plan. I uninstalled IE8 using the c:\windows\IE8\spuninst\spuninst.exe method and noted the programs that I'd need to reinstall. Not too many. I then used Ccleaner. Then I started to uninstall IE7 the same way but there were several programs that I'd be unable to reinstall, and maybe hundreds of patches many that I recall required some tweaking because they broke something when applied (ex. no internet access). So I thought I probably didn't want to go down this path. So I tried to run SFC /Scannow and placed the original XP Pro CD in the optical drive. The SFC dialog came up but I never saw any progress on the progress bar. I turned and started email on the other PC then noticed that the dialog was gone. I thought it was too soon to have finished based on the last time it ran. So I tried to run it again. The black CMD screen flashed then nothing. Twice. So I shut down the PC the re-started. I removed the XP cd from the drive and ran SFC again. This time the dialog appeard but never asked for the CD and never showed any progress then closed.

Fearing not, I decided it was time to go the System Restore route that was, I thought, my safety valve. I need to restore to some point before October 1. Restore won't give me the option to show any points before Nov 1.

Prior to all this, yesterday checked your link for your maintenance process. I did run Ccleaner to disable a few things from startup. I didn't defrag because I figured I'd be doing so after uninstalling IE. I didn't run MBAM because I'd done so a few days ago. I donloaded an ran Passmark's BurnIn Test. Passed, no probs.

This morning when I first booted the PC, I started IE and saw an interesting story on my Yahoo home page so clicked the link to the story. I scanned the story then was distracted by something on the TV. Next thing I know the PC crashed/booted itself. Chkdsk ran and fixed some problems. So....... not sure what this may indicate. The error report was corrupted so it couldn't be read. I looked at the dump files BlueScreenView, and looked at the histry of dumps. Now, please recognize that I don't how to use this, but it seems to me that there is a pattern.

Seems that many of the dumps are caused by the floppy drive controller driver - a total of 3 times. 2 crashes wre caused by the redirecxted drive buffering system. 1 crash each was caused by tow other files. I recall that the floppy drive (A was not tested during the BurnIn Test. Also, on this PC I installed a combo 3.5" drive/memory card reader. I don't know if that would tie-in with the redirected drive buffering issue listed in the crash report.

I'm going to post this reply then switch to the problem PC and post the BlueScreenView reports that I composed.

Do you think that there could be a HW issue that I need to dig deeper for? The video card is new and was installed in mid to late September because the original video card failed.

Stay tuned for the next post.

 

Here is the BlueScreenView crash report. The is a compilation of all the txt file reports. I was going to send a PDF file compilation of screen shots that shows the files that were in the stack (that may be important to you ? ) when the crashes occurred. But the PDF file I created and the Word file I used to paste the screenshots into are both too big. Not sure the data is beneficial or Irfan would have made it convenient to report this info.

What in the heck do you think is going on and what should I do to to proceed?

Thanks for your help mate!

 

Perhaps we should look into the floppy drive thing. You know when you first turn on your computer and you get the logo of your computer, down the bottom somewhere it should say "Press xyz for Setup" or something like that, spam the button it tells you to until your in setup, then your looking for something that says "Floppy Drive" or 3.5" Drive etc, and change it to NONE or the equivalent value. Then navigate to the area where it says Save & Quit and do so.

Then, after your done rebooting, in your start bar, right click on My Computer and select properties, then go to the Advanced Tab, then Environment Variables. Now in the bottom box, click NEW, in the box that just appeared in VARIABLE NAME put

DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES

then in the VARIABLE VALUE put

1

Now press Ok, Ok, Apply, Ok.

Then go back to the start bar, right click on My Computer and select Manage. Now select Device Manager and see if you can access it. If you can, in the VIEW drop down list up the top, now you should be able to see "Floppy Disk Drives" and "Floppy Disk Controllers", delete everything in both and restart.

Now lets see what happens.

 

Hi Drizzles,
Saw your post as I was about to shut down and get some sleep.

Did what you said. There wasn't an option to accept. Also couldn't delete fdd and drivers, had to uninstall.

After restart, the PC found: floppy disk, generic volume, generic volume disk drive, disk drive. At first I wouldn't let it auto install the drivers fro the fdd, I tried to find a driver disk. I don't have one, the instructions that came with the card said to download the driver. But I couldn't find a disk where I had done so. FDD is Mitsumi Multi-Drive 7FDD FA404M. Mitsumi apparently doesn't support the fdd any longer. Other driver sites in the MG sticky seemed sketchy - so I've stayed away. The fdd works, but the memory card slots don't. A light illuminates when I install a SD card, but a driver letter isn't created in my computer so I can view the contents, nor does a folder open. I installed the fix (at quite some trouble) to prevent auto installs that I think disables the autofolder open option.

I'll look for your next post in the AM.

Regards

 

Do you still use the FDD or Memory card slots anymore? It may be a good idea to unplug it and uninstall the drivers and see if you get the error anymore.

 

Hi Drizzles,

I do still have the fdd and the card reader combo installed. I don't use the fdd much anymore, although that is how I ran memtest. I couldn't get my optical drive to run memtest on bootup. I can temporarily remove the unit later and uninstall and try running for a while and see if the problem continues.

At the moment though, I've got to put on hold the problems with this PC and finish some things prior to travelling. I'll shout at you around the 1st of the new year when I'll be able to work on this problem again.

Thanks for your help. Have a Merry Christmas mate!

Regards,

BobTN

 

Sure, I'll still be here so I'll se you then!! Merry Christmas!

 

I'm back, but the problem PC didn't magically get better.

Here's the current, bleak, status. I returned from travel around the 1st of the year. The problem PC was running but occasionally crashed. Some of the apps would crash or otherwise stall and I'd shut them down using TaskManager. IE was extremely slow to load so when I accidentally started it, I'd then start Firefox and later kill the IE task or shut it down when it started.

One of the crash reports suggested that I needed to run a disk scan (not sure if I have this task name correct) so I set it up and it ran at the next boot. The scan found many problems and displayed the message: "Replacing invalid security ID with default security ID for file xxxx" for each of the files. Then the scan proceeded and displayed the message:"Cleaning up XX invalid index entries from index YYY of file ZZZ". Then the scan continued and displayed:"Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream". The PC then booted fine and operated with the occasional crash in FireFox.

This morning the PC started OK and I was reading pages in Firefox but when I clickked the 'back' button to return to the previous page the machine crashed. Now it won't boot. The scenario is at boot, the PC will get through the memtest and at least part of the boot sequence (not sure where this process really ends) but ultimately displays a white line consisting of a series of small (1/2 inch tall by maybe 1/8 inch wide) vertical bars that continue across the screen. It appears that nothing is happening but apparently the proc is crunching through something because after a lengthy delay, maybe 4 or 5 minutes, the Win XP splash screen appears then a screen that displays a message "Autocheck not found, skipping autocheck. Then the screen blanks and the white line appears again. I let this cycle for a while and I suppose it would continue if I had patience to allow it.

I opened the PC and blew out the dust from the proc heat sink and from the power supply. I reseated the memory, video card, and card for extra USB ports. When I rebooted no change, same scenario as above. I ultimately pushed reset button and the machine rebooted and gave me the option to enter Safe mode. I selected the lowest Safe option, no internet etc. but this wasn't succesful either.

When booting into Safe mode, it seemed to be slow, perhaps hanging for a while at bootvid.dll then proceeding slowly though some other files then a lot at once then finally hanging with mup.sys as the last file. Its been hung there for 30+ minutes.

I'm wondering if there is a problem with this video card (it is the last component replaced just a few months ago after the previous card appeared to be dying a slow death. Either a bad card or maybe incompatible with something in the MB?? Or maybe the power suppy is going/gone bad? Maybe the MB or possibly the HDD?

Any thoughts? Any hope of resurrecting this PC? :confused

I have the data backed up except for a few recent letters so not a problem with data loss. But I do have some training programs on the PC that I'd hate to lose as I no longer have access to the install files.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

there is actually a way to eliminate as much hardware as possible, does your MB have an onbard graphics card?

 

Hi Drizzles, good to hear from ya. I thought you might be affected by the flood.

No on board video, but the problem may be even worse now.

Later yesterday, I booted the PC and was greeted by new errors. Same screen on the PC now. I think this is one of the post screens. A msg at the bottom says "keyboard error or no keyboard present". But, more ominously, at the top it says Primary Master: Plextor DVDR, Primary Slave : None. I suspect that I should see my HDD as the Primary Slave.

Since no KB is detected, I can't get to the BIOS to adjust settings. I'll look for an old KB later today to determine if the KB is really a problem, but I doubt that it is. The current KB is wireless but don't think it is (one of the many) the issue, I think it is a symptom of something else. Maybe MB or PSU???.

 

That's a pretty good indicator that its your motherboard my friend. By all means try a new keyboard, and we'll give this other little test a go too, by I'd be guessing that if that error continues to come up, your motherboard is buggered.

If you test a new keyboard and it doesn't work, try disconnecting every bit of unnecessary hardware from your motherboard (System Fans, all but one RAM Chip, sound cards, internal modems or adaptors, front and rear USB ports, front Memory card readers, CD-DVD ROM Drives and Floppy Disk Drives) Basically all you want plugged in in the end is the bare essentials; your main Hard Drive, a single stick of RAM, CPU, CPU Fan and heatsink, Graphics Card, PSU and power buttons. Then try and boot, and let us know of the results.

Obviously by doing this, using the process of elimination, we are cutting the problem down to a few things, based on the latest set of problems, you could guess Motherboard and probably be right.

And as far as the flood goes, I'm actually aboout 400 - 500kms North of the first affected area (Rockhampton), so it's missed us. Although, usually it's us who get it and everyone else who misses it, so it's a bit of a change. But, they're actually expecting us to cop a bit over the next few days ...

Strangely enough it's affecting everywhere at the moment, South Australia is flooded, Northern New South Wales is flooded, Victoria is flooded and Tasmania is flooded as well as Queensland (altough Queensland has been hit the worst), bushfires in Western Australia, around here its almost as if Armageddon is coming :confused ... wierd with birds dropping from the sky and fish turning up dead around the world ... but yeah, so far the Death Toll in QLD is 15 with 75% of the second largest Australian State declared a Disaster Zone and another 51 people still missing. Very wierd happenings around here at the moment.

 

Plugging in a diffeent keyboard got past the KB not found error. I plugged in the old (wireless) KB and it booted too. I know when I was blowing out the dust and reseating everything the wireless KB came unplugged but I thought I got it plugged back into the same USB port, but maybe not.

Recalling that there was a problem with the combination 3.5 FDD/memory card reader driver, I tried to unplug that but got an error. I need to read the MB manual to see if I need to try to disable something to unplug this unit. Not sure that disabling anything will be possible with the current boot status of this machine. I haven't tried to boot into BIOS yet, I'll try that tomorrow when I pull the manual out.

Even with the KB working, the PC still doesn't boot, the seemingly final point is the white line at the bottom of the screen consisting of a bunch of narrow white bars. I also tried once to boot into safe mode but this wasn't successful either - same basic scenario as before, it goes so far then reboots and gets stuck in this loop.

I don't have the experience to say if these symptoms are MB or PSU or HDD or the new graphics card gone bad. I can understand that maybe the new graphics card has experienced infant mortality, or that the OS files on the HDD have become corrupted after multiple crashes. I don't know that the bad vid card would explain the slowdowns that the PC had that led me to file a case with MS and them to fool around tweaking all kinds of things to improve performance. The old vid card failed then I noticed the performance issuses - maybe MB was starting to fail then.

Given that the PC doesn't boot properly at the moment..... Is there some way to perform an XP install that might fix a corrupted file set and also keep the existing installed programs?

I hope all the excess rains stop and you folks can get back to some normalcy. When I was there Melbourne was at the end of a couple of years of drought so I REALLY hope that your weather will return to something close to normal. The extent of the flooding is incredible and the videos showing the rushing water and flooded city center (was it Brisbane?) are sickening. Just horrible. I hope for the best for you folks.