PC Very Slow to Startup, Zone alarm not Loading

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by misterbojangles, Nov 27, 2008.

  1. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    Not sure if this is a hardware or software or if related to one of the other threads.
    PC (not this one) took an our to bring up my desktop this morning, and even then Zone alarm was having trouble initializing. Yellow triangle icon told me virtual memory was low. Nothing new installed and nothing untoward occurred last night, but PC innards seem to be churning over an awful lot of stuff.
     
    misterbojangles, Nov 27, 2008
    #1
  2. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    Sorry, running XP SP3.
    Also, Windows Firewall now appears to have switched itself back on in place of Zone Alarm. - Edit, I was wrong about Windows Firewall, but ZoneAlarm is using 500MB Memory according to task manager.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2008
    misterbojangles, Nov 27, 2008
    #2
  3. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    My first thought, if you haven't changed any virtual memory settings is that one of your RAM sticks might be bad and windows is compensating for the laoss of RAM by using your virtual memory.

    Download Memtest86+ and boot from it (floppy or USB). If it finds even one error, then there is a problem with the RAM.
     
    plodr, Nov 27, 2008
    #3
  4. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    Thank you, I shall report back.
    I've tried to uninstall Zone Alarm to re-install it, but I am not able to uninstall True Vector whilst doing Zone Alarm.
     
    misterbojangles, Nov 28, 2008
    #4
  5. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    I failed to boot Memtest86+ from either CD or USB. Can someone please give me an idiots guide to doing this starting with th3e download bit.

    Thank you
    (And I mean real dumb idiot here!!! :-o )
     
    misterbojangles, Nov 28, 2008
    #5
  6. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    When your computer first starts up, you will see something like "press F1 to enter setup". Your computer might not say F1; whatever it says, press that key to get into the BIOS. Your mouse won't work in the BIOS. All movement is done through your keyboard. If you see a tab that says Boot, press the right arrow key until you get to the boot screen. You will see something like Boot Priority. Change the order so that the CD drive comes before your hard drive.
    You exit the BIOS and save the change you made by pressing the F10 key. You might see a popup that asks you if you want to exit and save the changes. Use the right or left arrow key so that Yes is highlighted, then press <enter>.
    You should now be able to boot from the memtest cd.
     
    plodr, Nov 28, 2008
    #6
  7. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    Still struggling. Did the F10 Setup thing, changed the boot priority to CD first, nothing happens with the CD. I burned the .bin file that came out of the zip download onto the CD, XP just starts as normal.

    I've been trying to uninstall Zone Alarm so I can re-install it as it is not initialising, but I cannot get past True Vector, which I seem to have no control over - cannot find it in Control Panel things, but still in use so Zone Alarm will not delete. I'm now thinking this may be a software or malware problem.
     
    misterbojangles, Nov 29, 2008
    #7
  8. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    You need to burn the download as an ISO not a data disk. If you did not do the burn as an ISO, it isn't a bootable CD.
    What burning program do you have?
    Maybe someone can jump in to explain how to burn an ISO with whatever software you are using.

    Here http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
    you should be clicking the 2nd link, Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)
     
    plodr, Nov 29, 2008
    #8
  9. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    Just had another go, file I burned to CD was memtest86+-2.10.iso which I burned using Windows Explorer drag and drop. Computer did not boot from CD, no test started. I'll have a go burning with Nero Data.
     
    misterbojangles, Nov 30, 2008
    #9
  10. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    NO! Do not try and burn as a data disk - it won't boot.
    I said this earlier
    Grab ImgBurn http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download and install it. If it asks, just associate it with ISO files.
    Then right click the MemTest ISO and select, burn with ImgBurn. You will have a bootable ISO.
     
    plodr, Nov 30, 2008
    #10
  11. misterbojangles

    misterbojangles Private E-2

    ImgBurn worked and the Memtest booted from the CD, thank you very much.
    Good news is test was clean - zero errors. Even better news is I think i've cured the problem.
    Zone alarm was not initialising, so I tried uninstalling it, but the True Vector service was jammed and I couldn't unisnstall Zone Alarm. I only managed to uninstall Zone Alarm after I had uninstalled the Folding @ Home application (don't know if the 2 are related.) Anyway, downloaded and re-installed Zone Alarm, and it is up and running.
    Great stuff!!:-D
     
    misterbojangles, Dec 2, 2008
    #11
  12. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    Good and you learned all about burning ISOs in the process. ;)
     
    plodr, Dec 2, 2008
    #12

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