Strange erratic computer behavior.help!!

titewad_2

My computer is behaving rather oddly and I have no idea what is wrong with it.Several things are happening that I'm not sure whether they are connnected or not.Initially it just used to turn itself off occasionally(several months ago this started.) This is now becoming more frequent.Sometimes it will be whilst on the internet,sometimes not.Sometimes not at all for days at a time,sometimes several times in a day(occasionally repeatedly,4 times in ten minutes yesterday.) On some occasions it will reboot itself straight away,on others a manual restart is needed.Sometimes a very loud long shrill beep is heard while it is deciding what to do.Sometimes it will say it has recovered from a serious error.Sometimes it will change my default settings for dialing up the internet,sometimes it willl change the time by several hours,(usually to earlier) It now won't play several stored downloaded songs that previously did play(something about not supporting the file) At one point my whole downloads file had disappeared and was not available but then on one of it's turn off phases a scan disc thing happened and in among all the text on the blue screen,It said it was repairing or returning orphaned files,and I noticed this was my music, track by track..I think this was after a message saying about a critical error.My entire "my pictures" has disappeared and I know I haven't erased them.These have never come back.
A small game that had been played earlier on one day,gave a message later saying "fatal error--could not find needed graphics" Wordpad documents that my daughter had created both for play,and for school work have just disappeared as have saved PS2 game walkthrus my son had done.I have Mcafee anti virus that never shows any infected files or viruses,I have Xp with sp2 installed. I know I have missed out something else that is escaping me at the minute but the above list as it is is rather alarming.Please someone help,preferably in language for idiots and the technically inept..

Reluctant_spender

You do seem to have a few problems, what have you done to cause these problems.

By this I mean normally when my computer go's nuts it is because I have done something like install new software or drivers and they conflict.

Have you upgraded components and the computer PSU is struggling to cope.

Have you looked at device manager in the control panel, system, hardware, device manager - you do not want to see yellow exclamation marks - these indicate a problem.

Although you have not said do you have anti virus software etc.. and uptodate window patches. If not deal with this first and then scan the disk from system tools.

This may then point you in the right direction.

titewad_2

Went to device manager as suggested(previously didn't know about this) no yellow exclamation marks..I did mention in original post that i have Mcafee anti virus..Add to that windows automatic update is switched on.
One other problem I have now remembered is that some times you have to persistently click an application to open it and on extremeley bad days it can take up to two minutes for a programme to open.

bbb_uk

Restart the computer and wait until everything is loaded (on some slow computers can take a min or so) but don't load anything.

After a few mins of inactivity (not doing anything), press Ctrl-Alt-Del (same time) and click on the processes page (top). At this point, wait a few seconds for it to settle down and see how many processes are listed and CPU usage (bottom).

DVB_3

It could be a memory (RAM) fault. PSU fault is another possibility.

bbb_uk

DVB, I agree but titlewad mentioned in his last post that his computer is extremely slow to respond and therefore I thought he may have programmes running in the background that he isn't aware of and these would show up along with their CPU usage by opening up the Windows Task Manager.

Failing that, I would backup the whole system (using Norton Ghost or similiar software) and format the harddrive and do a fresh install of WinXP. I know it's a time consuming problem but unless the cause of the problem(s) are found, it may be the only option.

I suspect though, he may have in excess of 35 processes running. I've got mine down to only 22 (including running a firewall and AntiVirus software).

A friend of mine recently started complaining of the speed of his computer and I asked him if he had loads of things running, he replied "no" and was shocked when Windows Task Manager reported he had over 50 processes, some of which were using a lot of CPU time.

DVB_3

bbb_uk wrote:

DVB, I agree but titlewad mentioned in his last post that his computer is extremely slow to respond and therefore I thought he may have programmes running in the background that he isn't aware of and these would show up along with their CPU usage by opening up the Windows Task Manager.

Failing that, I would backup the whole system (using Norton Ghost or similiar software) and format the harddrive and do a fresh install of WinXP. I know it's a time consuming problem but unless the cause of the problem(s) are found, it may be the only option.

I suspect though, he may have in excess of 35 processes running. I've got mine down to only 22 (including running a firewall and AntiVirus software).

A friend of mine recently started complaining of the speed of his computer and I asked him if he had loads of things running, he replied "no" and was shocked when Windows Task Manager reported he had over 50 processes, some of which were using a lot of CPU time.

That is certanly true. I suggested memory because of the variety of errors discovered, with most of them being unconnected to each other. This is a common outcome of a memory corruption, and the first step should be an extensive memory (and, perhaps, PSU) test. If hardware is OK - sure enough, as you said, complete reinstallation would probably be the only effective cure.

bbb_uk

The resets could be caused by BSoD's (Blue Screen of Death's) - basically a serious error that windows couldn't recover from. Unfortunately, by default, WinXP is set to automatically restart windows if one of these occurs therefore you don't actually get to see these BSoD's.

Try this:-

Start Menu > Setting > Control Panel

Within the Control Panel, double-click 'System' icon and then once System Properties window is displayed, click the 'Advanced' tab (top) and then the 'Settings' command button within 'Startup and Recovery'.

Now, untick 'Automatically Restart' and OK everything to close it down then restart windows.

That should stop the automatical restarts and if you notice any BSoD (white text on a blue background) then note down the first few lines of the error message.

If within the first few lines, you get an error message that mentions IRQ then this would indicate a driver/hardware problem.

Either way, post the error message here.

The only way to recover from this type of error is to reset the computer

HLK

bbb_uk wrote:

DVB, I agree ......

I suspect though, he may have in excess of 35 processes running. I've got mine down to only 22 (including running a firewall and AntiVirus software).

A friend of mine recently started complaining of the speed of his computer and I asked him if he had loads of things running, he replied "no" and was shocked when Windows Task Manager reported he had over 50 processes, some of which were using a lot of CPU time.

Query...My TM show 50ish processes running as a minimum but I can't see anything obvious to take off..

I've MS Anti-spyware running, NAV, spywareblaster, some stuff for wireless keyboard/mouse etc..

Used Hijack-this and pasted the reulrsin Imnotageek ...
alos ran ccleaner but was a bit aprehensive about what I should analyze and delete..

Is 50 such a bad number ? (being so close to my current age!)

Browntoa

50 seems alot .....mine runs about 20 at the most, sort of ties in with the other poster

bbb_uk

HLK wrote:

Query...My TM show 50ish processes running as a minimum but I can't see anything obvious to take off....

...Is 50 such a bad number?....)

After restarting your computer and waiting few minutes for everything to settle down then using Task Manager see on average how much your CPU usage is (whilst idling). Mine barely goes higher than 2%.

Another trick within Task Manager is to go to 'View', then 'Select Columns' and tick on 'CPU Time' and 'Peak Memory Usage' (if they're not already displayed). Now restart the computer and whilst doing normal routine things every now and then just bring up the task manager and monitor anything that uses a high CPU %, and also monitor CPU Time. Out of the processes I've got loaded apart from 'System Idle Processes', none of the other processes have used more than 1min.

For more info on the different Windows Processes, see BlackViper's website which lists all Windows Processes and their uses and whether they're needed or not.

(At time of writing this post, BlackViper's website is down and by going to their home page it read that it was under construction)