Virus,Hard Ware problem I'm just not sure.

Recently my computer has been restarting itself. At first I thought it was virus ran multiple virus scans nothing. Later on when I tried turning it on nothing I can hear the fans running but my screen stays black. First I thought it was the monitor,fixed the cables nothing that wasn't the problem,(I think it could be the problem not sure) and I was forced to pull the plug on the computer. I decided to turn it back on and it worked. In about a week once again I had the same problem except this time the computer would start up within the first couple of minutes while on the computer it would restart itself sometimes it would restart normally sometimes it would restart but the screen would stay black. After much work it turned back on and the computer was running once again smoothly. One day the computer didn't turn on at all once again I heard the fans running but he screen stayed black and this time there was a weird noise coming from the computer while I tried turning it on. I told my friend about this problem and he told me it could be either one of two things,since it has happened to his old computer himself,he told me to clean the dust off or the motherboard was fried. Just today this morning it took me almost half an hour to get the computer running it just would not start up I hear the fans but nothing in the screen. I decided to clean the dust off, after cleaning the dust I reconnected the computer and it worked but as soon as I turned it on couple of minutes into it once again restarted itself and would not start up. Sometimes it also restarts itself while I'm playing games even low end games that my computer can handle. I'm not sure what's going on hopefully you guys can help. I'd also like to mention that I live in Southern California and it has reached 50- degrees on nights sometimes,I turn on the computer around 9 or 8 in the mornings. My question is could that have some effect seeing as the computer is cold to the touch and with the sudden heat reaching into it from turning it on can that possibly have some negative effect and that's why it could be restarting my comp? Can you guys help me find out what the problem is? If it does turn out to be the motherboard,power supply or the fan how much would it cost to take it the local computer repair shop get it replaced and fixed?

Edit: Could a simple computer reformat solve this problem?

 

Done with that now I'm just guessing I have to wait until my computer restarts itself right?

 

Sorry for the double post but for some reason I can't edit the thread. My computer just restarted itself there was no BSOD it restarted normally. Before hand I was regulary browsing the web watching youtube videos for about an hour. The computer did not restart it only restarted when I started playing my game and attacked a mob(large group of monsters).

 

Try downloading this Harddrive Health check program. Unzip it and run the DiskInfo.exe file. See if it says your HD health is good. [It is probably OK but I always think of HD when booting works after several tries. Usually if the HD was going bad you would get a warning on the times it wouldn't boot. I still like to rule it out]

50° temps are probably good for your computer rather than bad. So no worries there.

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Edit just saw your post. The fact that it goes down when playing games could point to a heat or memory issue. It couldn't hurt to check the HD but I doubt that is it. Hang in there, until some real hardware guys see this thread and can troubleshoot the problem better than I can.

 

Downloaded and checked I'm at 53'C and my health status is good. I just played the same game and went through a match of killing mobs without the computer restarting. Though I did forget to mention that it did work all good for a whole day without the computer restarting itself but when I tried turning it on the next morning it never turned on. Like I said I heard the fans and everything turn on but the screen stayed black.

 

Alright I turned on the computer today it started normally no problem but this time the computer once again restarted itself and this time I did get a BSOD.

 

Is this game Everquest? I haven't heard the term 'mobs' (mobile objects) used in years!

The monitor not coming back on could very well be a red herring. I've seen two computers whose monitor sometimes wouldn't come back on after a reboot - suspected to be incompatibilities between video card and monitor (really hate that as a diagnosis as it's so vague) as the monitor/videocard/cable and PSU output were eliminated. For you to be in that situation I would expect that you rarely turn your computer off (and are therefore rarely faced with that problem when first booting it up), but if not then this situation probably does not apply.

A cold house helps your computer because electronics like things to be cold. The only negative would be if you are having snow or storms, and it's disrupting your power lines - computers are more susceptible to fluctuations in voltage than your other electronics.

Cleaning the fans was a good idea. You might also want to make sure all your fans are actually able to spin too.

I would start by booting from Memtest or the Ultimate Boot CD and running a memory test - allow it to run for at least 5 passes. Once that's ruled out you could test your hard drive - I doubt it'll be the cause, but the more you can eliminate the better. Next I'd plug my monitor to the motherboard's VGA output rather than your graphics card (if applicable). If you're able to spend some time in Windows, then look through the Event Viewer (Control Panel ->Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer) for any clues in the Application and System error logs. Finally, you could boot to Safe Mode With Networking, and spend some time browsing the Internet as normal to see if the problem reoccurs. Let us know the results of all that and we should have a much clearer picture of the problem.

Also can you describe the "weird noise" you heard?

 

Okay skip down to where I asked you to look through the event viewer. We want as much information about the Errors and Warnings that occurred before and during the time of the BSOD.

 

For weird noise when I first started it was more of a beeping sound. It wasn't like a beep beep beep type of a sound but more of beeeeeeeeeep type of sound. (hope you know where I'm getting at) As for the Event Viewer I do have a couple of warnings and errors. Some of the Error come from the Service Control Manager,some warnings come from the TCpip, one error is from the Windows Update Management, and a couple of errors from DCOM.

 

Can you pin any of the errors to the exact moment of the BSOD Make sure time and date is correct)? The two places to look are the Application errors, and the System ones.

 

No so far in applications I get no errors the closet error I got from applications happened three days ago. As for the System I do get get a warning from TCPIP and Error Service Control Manager that did occur around the time of the BSOD and a couple that occurred yesterday.

 

Stop teasing and give us the details, please

You can export the System log as an .*evt file, zip it and attach it to your next post, it'll help us work out what's happening.

 

Sorry about that here you go

 

You've actually been getting some errors for at least the last couple of weeks. It looks like there's a problem with either your Windows Installation or your filesystem, which is either the cause or the symptom of a larger problem. I don't see any hard drive failure messages so that rules out a faulty hard drive. I also don't see any drivers crashing, so that makes your graphics card or monitor very unlikely candidates.

Your problem not looks like either a fault with the memory, or software. The weird noise might be a red herring, and if so then the problem could be 100% software. You described it as a kind of beep. Did it sound like the computer was trying to 'say' something, or more like a physical sound? A physical sound would be a sticky fan, or like plastic rubbing against metal, or a painful squeaking sound, whereas the computer trying to 'say' something would be more akin to R2D2. Sorry for the twee description, I hope that made sense!

Did your problem seem to relate to either the installation or update of your iTunes/Apple software, or a Windows Update perhaps Service Pack 3?

Do you still have the Windows CD / recovery CD?

I want you to go ahead and run that memory test I mentioned earlier so we can rule that out, and if that comes back clean we need to work on software.

 

I'm not sure about the beeping sound all I remember it being was it was loud, it did come from inside the computer. I'm not really sure if it was trying to"say" something. Unfortunately I no longer have my windows recovery CD's. How ever I did recently install gamebooster which stops certain programs to help improve game performance, I also just uninstalled it thinking that might have been causing some of the problems. As for the memory test can you tell me how to even start running it because I'm not really to computer literate.

 

Are you using the comp for gaming by hand or running a bot?

I see no signs of BSOD's, too many signs of your A/V 'choking' and timing out on scanning various files and constant TCIP errors from too many concurrent connections.

How many Services does your PC run on startup? Can you upload a screenshot from Taskman, please?

 

When I play games I use both both hands and bots however I haven't botted in a long time so most of my gaming has been done by hand.

Here are the processes that I have on start up.

Sorry I kept get upload errors so I had to upload it here
http://i56.tinypic.com/2h7411d.jpg

 

Seesh! 64 processes using 640MB of memory, I see why you used GameBooster now ><

You really need to take control over those startups and Services.

Can you install, update and run Malwarebytes please, we need to check if you're clean or not before deciding where to go from here.

Post the log here when you've done it.

 

Alright I'm guessing I do a quick scan I'll post the log soon.

 

You've shown a lot of comp know-how so don't sell yourself short.

The memory test will take several hours to complete, so follow steps 1-3 for now, and then do steps 4+ before going to bed. That way you can keep troubleshooting the software problems until then (and you still get to use your computer in the mean time!).

1. Download the Ultimate Boot CD from here.
2. Put a blank CD in your comp and open your CD burning software.
3. Chose to "burn disc from image", or an option that looks similar to that.
4. Put the CD in the computer we're troubleshooting, and reboot it.
5. Make sure the computer boots from the CD (might have to change some BIOS settings if it goes to windows rather than booting from the CD, but don't worry that's not hard to do)
6. From there select the Memory category and chose Memtest86+.
7. Let it run over night, and then in the morning look at the results (the scan continues indefinitely until you stop it)
8. Post to us how many passes it completed and whether it found any errors (and how many).

 

Sounds easy enough problem is getting a blank CD.

 

Alright here's the Malware scan report.

 

Quick question I have a old game CD if I delete everything can I use that as a blank CD instead?

 

Ugh instead of using a blank CD is it possible to use a usb device instead?

 

Scroll way down for the *New* ver 4.10 memtest for USB. http://www.memtest.org/ I haven't tried it but it seems to be what you are looking for. Of course if you have a blank DVD that would work as well as a CD for UBCD.

 

The Malware Bytes report is clean (as I suspect you already noticed!).

I'm afraid no, you can't turn an old CD into a blank one .

Sach's idea about memtest for USB is a good one. If that doesn't work out for you then it's probably worth while buying some recordable CDs - they're very inexpensive. But in the meantime, we have more things to troubleshoot.

First of all, can you check whether the comp ever crashes in Safemode? If you don't want to sit waiting for it to crash, you can boot to safemode, then open a program, go to bed, and come back to see if the program is still running (and therefore didn't crash and reboot).

I'd really like to run the sfc /scannow command to scan your Windows files, but without a CD you won't be able to complete that - let us know if you're able to locate the CDs though.

Do you see any unknown devices in the device manager? (Click Start, click Run, type devmgmt.msc, and hit enter)

Do you have any high priority updates at the Windows Update? (Open Internet Explorer, click Tools, then Windows Update, and choose the Custom update)

 

Alright I ran that scan and I got 26 passes and 0 errors. For safemode I'll do that later on all regular devices are there and as for the updates there is one update but for some reason it never installs.

 

One thought here is that when it starts ok do see a BIOS screen before Windows starts? If you normally see a BIOS screen and just see a black screen when you have a problem then it seems to me you do have a video problem independent of any crashes during Windows.

 

Well I got to admit it didn't happen all the time but I did get a bios screen about once or twice I usually put "start windows normally" and it started with no problem. So far I've been starting up the computer with no problem. It hasn't restarted itself I doubt the problem fixed itself and if the problem really is a video problem is that something I have to get fixed/replaced or is that something I can fix manually using the computer.

 

I'm with Sach that the crash is independent of a video problem, but I don't think you necessarily have a problem with the video card - the problem with the monitor not regaining a signal from the card is all too reminiscent of the two computers I mentioned earlier.

Your memory is fine.

I'm interested in this update that is never able to install - what is it?

Is there anyone you can borrow a Windows CD from (for the version that matches your version of windows)? Do you have a c:\windows\i386 folder?

 

I was just thinking that if your screen was totally black with no sign of life when starting the computer than BIOS was unable to find the video card or having trouble with it. If you get anything on the screen when first booting then it is more likely a Windows issue.

When it comes to troubleshooting video problems I really am not very knowledgeable so again I leave it to someone else.

 

The update is just some random Windows Security Update.

 

"just some random Windows Security Update" I don't think Microsoft have issued any random security updates for XP ...

The error message is 0x800f0102 and the update is Security Update for Windows XP (KB956572) "A security issue has been identified that could allow an authenticated local attacker to compromise your system and gain control over it.".

There's a topic here discussing this problem, work through it please to ascertain whether the update is actually installed or not and report back with your findings.

 

Things left to try:
1. Looking in Device Manager for problems with hardware
2. Running chkdsk on your hard drives (I thought we did this already but can't find any mention of it!): Open My Computer --> Right click Local C: and select Properties --> Tools --> Check Now --> Check/tick both options --> Click Start and agree for it to run on next reboot --> Reboot, and if it looks like you're not going to get a signal on the monitor then immediately restart until it does (so you don't interrupt it during the actual chkdsk, which should begin after the BIOS pages but before Windows boots up)
3. Seeing if the problem ever occurs in Safe Mode
4. Running dxdiag: Start --> Run --> dxdiag --> go through each page to check everything's working
5. Running sfc /scannow, but need Windows CD: Start --> Run --> cmd --> sfc /scannow
6. Troubleshooting this failed security update (as it may be a clue)