XP Pro, like ex-gf, becoming more unstable daily

Let me vent just a little right up front. Having suffered through the abomination known as windows me, I certainly got my hopes up about XP, which has proven itself to be an equally unstable platform as ME, albiet a little faster.......

First, my wife's email stopped working. She was prompted to insert the MS Office XP Small Business disk, after which, a new copy of Outlook was installed on the machine-her ID and mine. However, our .pst files were intact so I used them to get us back to normal. Everything worked fine for a few days, now we're both having probs. When I try to Send/Receive it simply says "Operation Failed".. That's one of my favorite error messages. Because it is so stupidly obvious it must be profound. Please don't tell me how to fix outlook; I never should have used it in the first place; this info is here for background only. Read on please.....

Next, I noticed that my Freecell program would seem to reload itself; that is, every few days, or every day, my stats and settings would disappear as if the program was new.

Next, Microsoft invited me to take the tour on my newly installed OS, which incidentally I have had since August of '04.......so XP thinks it was just installed.

Next, Adobe wouldn't work. Again, the prog's there, but won't fully run and wants to reinstall itself..

Occasionally, Firefox glitches and won't launch but running a chkdsk /f has always solved that prob.

The one common thing with all these progs is that they work partially. For example, I can navigate through outlook, and I think I can still send mail; but I can't receive it (yes, all settings are correct). I can launch Acrobat and use it, but some functions aren't working.

No probs yet with MS Word or Excel.

Now, I'm nowhere near a major geek although admittedly I do admire intelligence......but it seems to me that these probs are related to the registry. By that I mean that when I've had registry probs in the past, the progs affected behaved in much the same way.

I've run Outlooks repair tool but honestly I should be using a web based email prog anyway so bye bye outlook....

I've tried (unsuccessfully) to do a System Restore (puter says "cannot restore-select another restore point" ad nauseum.)

Wifey's working on her masters degree, and I'm online 2-3 hrs/day; definitely not the time for this thing to start crapping out.

For those of you who helped me out a number of months ago (my system crashed when SPII came out), everthing's been working fine for months. I wouldn't say flawlessly but let's face it, the last stable OS microsloth developed was Windows for Workgroups. Ah, to return to the days when you actually had to learn how to operate the computer in order to use it.....anyway, if I paid myself $.25/hr for all the troubleshooting of this damn thing I've still spent more than the OS cost me, and I sprang for the expensive shizzit; XP Pro and Office Small Business.

I've already done the whole format the drive, partition it and "clean install" XP a few months ago so I can do it again although I'm sure this will keep happening. I do frequent sweeps/scans; and I bought Registry Mechanic quite a while ago; using AVG for AV; Firefox for default browser (IE when absolutely necessary); CCleaner after each surfing session; XPepius (great startup manager feature); MoveOnBoot if I'm getting rid of something I really know I don't want.......a few more as well.

Any ideas what's going on???

Sorry about the frequent tangential diatribes; it's Friday at 10pm and I haven't even gone for beer yet.

Peace jtone

Oh yeah-the spec's are:
Custom built machine (yeah, yeah, there's my problem!); 2.8 gig Prescott ed. P4; 120 gig drive partitioned (OS and MS Office on c drive; all other progs on h drive, wifey and I each have our own drive for docs, pics, whatever); crappy ECS Mobo; 512 megs RAM; Hyperthreading disabled, can't think of anything else pertinent.

 

For sure you've taken it to the max

Just out of curiosity would like to know ... is the comp Firewalled or not ?

 

I had Windows Firewall turned on. Some people advised me against it but most said to run with it on as long as it would work with my ISP.

I just looked and noticed that my firewall is NOT running, although I didn't disable it. But this is not unusual with this machine. (For example, it never remembers my volume setting; it always defaults to all the way off no matter what I do)

One more thing from last thread-occasionally, the puter will restart on it's own, usually after you click something. The screen goes black, the power supply kicks back on, etc etc...

Sounds like a virus but I've done all the recommended stuff and I'm pretty vigilant about the scanning (although I hesitate to call myself vigilant and admit to running Outlook at the same time.)

 

Probably shouldn't reply to a post with a post, but not sure how else to do it...

I tried to edit my initial thread (accidently hit submit instead of preview) but since I'm long winded I spent more than 5 minutes editing-consequently you guys saw the unedited version, which is a little more colorful than I had intended. I know that some of you either work for MS or are fond of their products and I am not as bitter on them as I can appear to be. I'm sure I've offended one or two people with my ranting but with free speech being what it is idiots like me frequently spout off without thinking about what we say.

Please keep in mind that I've spend literally hundreds of dollars on software and a couple hundred hours more just trying to get it to work and what you are reading is my frustration at having to spend both time and money to correct flaws in a product in which the only part I played was that of purchaser.

That still does not give me the right to be an offensive a-hole and I'll do my best to keep the future narratives to a minimum unless they are pertinent to the thread.

Since I suck at apologies I'll quit right here.

 

If was my PC I'd make sure my PSU was up to snuff, better test her.
Make sure your free of Virus/trogen etc., what do you run for spyware prevention/removal?
Ya might have a look here:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=25834
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=27385
When you run antivirus/spyware removal tools/utilities make sure you scan all of your partitions.
You also said "crappy ECS Mobo" Well I gotta agree with ya there!
CCleaner after each surfing session? Wow, excessive, maybe need to clean up surfing habits?
I'm thinking your problems are combination of many things.
Are you getting any error messages?
Might be having software conflicts?
How's your temps? heat can cause stability issues.
Is your OS running with all MS critical updates & sp2?
Is MS Office Xp up to date?
Some of your other software may need updates

I have a few PC's running XP pro, Home & even W2k pro all are happy & stable, all use free Antivirus/Spyware/Firewall/Registry utilities.
My favorites: Avast "or" Anti vir antivirus, Seagate firewall, Spyware Blaster, AdAware, tweak now registry cleaner, there are other's but I find the ones I listed user friendly & quite good at what there designed for, plus they play well togather.
Ive never had need for start up manager or regular use of CCleaner

It's probably a little early to say Format & reinstall, but is great way to clean up a collection of garbage/spyware/Viree & other unwanted junk, Did you say last OS install was Aug 04?

 

Asus:

Thanks for the reply. I run AdAware mainly and occasionally Spybot and Spyware Blaster. For virus protection I use AVG Free Edition. I know that I went off in my original thread but I actually prefer to use Outlook vs. my web based server for email. Office XP and XP Pro are both up to date with SPII installed and AutoUpdate turned on. I wiped my HD clean, formatted it and started from scratch about 4-6 mos. ago with much help from MG Forums. If you have time you can browse my past threads most of which are interrelated.

Not sure how to test PSU but I'll follow your links next. Temps running about 20 deg in winter, about 40 in summer-I have a Raidmax case with 4 cooling fans and a socket 478 P4 with external cooling fan; 5 in all. I keep thinking about liquid cooling it, but at that point I might as well build a new one with that Thermaltake case that I've been eying....

I'll do a bit more research today and post my results.

Thanks

jtone

 

Wanted to amend my last post a little bit.....
When the puter restarts itself, it doesn't go completely dead; e.g. the lights on my case fan remain illuminated, but the power is interrupted to the processor/HDD. There is a relay which makes an audible "click" when power is applied or removed; presumably this relay is located in the PSU?

So, either the PSU is on the fritz, or maybe it's my MOBO? If so, this might explain some of the other probs I've been having. I've replaced the PSU once already. When I built this machine I had to control the cost; hence I bought a cheap case (Raidmax) and MOBO (ECS). Since I needed XP Pro, Office XP, a good CDRW; lots of memory, P4 processor etc I had to cut corners somewhere. Well, I've learned my lesson.

And yes, I get error messages all the time, although they usually don't cause the prog to quit working. They could happen with any prog I run, not just one or two. Hence, my confusion. Do I have a hardware prob, or a software prob? Maybe I'm barking up the wrong forum?....if so I apologize.

As far as surfing habits, I spend a lot of time online. Professionally I work for a financial planning firm, and on my own I do quite a bit of research. Wife is working on her Masters and we also do everything that we possibly can (like banking and bill paying) online. Consequently, temporary files/etc can get bogged down pretty quickly, and I've never been a fan of them anyway.

I am equally brutal with cookies, Temp. Internet files; .tmp files, etc...they take up precious space and seem to do nothing positive (yes, I understand the theory behind .tmp files but I've never personally seen them do anything save bog my machine down with unusable info). Indeed, a large percentage of files on a modern PC are useless to the user, but figuring out which ones to get rid of can be quite daunting, since there are thousands....most of us just give up. I miss the days when you bought an OS and the extra progs were included, not bundled, so you could install the OS by itself if you wanted.......

I am the opposite of the person to whom the modern PC is marteted; I want more control and less automation; fewer features with more speed; etc. To me this machine is something that is useful to my life and the only entertainment I need are my crappy punk mp3's blasting in the background....otherwise it's a tool for work, or for home, or both.


jtone