Windows XP Trouble - Anyone?

[Warik]

I've had WinXP installed for about 2-3 months with no problems. Suddenly I started getting system freezes and reboots, followed by blue screens of death with cheery messages such as "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_EQUAL" or "Some shit tried to close a thread it did not own," etc. Since WinXP seemed prety stable, and it's unlikely that a problem will suddenly appear with no apparent cause, I went ahead and backed up my data to try a reformat and reinstall of the OS. With absolutely nothing on my drive, my system kept having similar trouble during the XP installation formatting and the installation of the setup files. The only conclusion I can seem to draw is that my hard drive is starting to go bad on me, which I find kind of strange since it's a Western Digital and is only about 2 years old.

I'm planning to go out tomorrow to get myself a new HD... probably 60 GB since I don't really need much more than that (hell, I'm doing fine now with just 30 GB... but 60 GB is pretty cheap). Is there anything else I should try before getting a new HD? What brand would you recommend? Maxtor? WD?

Oh yeah... I format my drives with the FAT32 file system, even though I'm using XP. Should I use NTFS or are they both the same shit?

Thanks,
-Warik

 

[2 ton hoss]

NTFS IS ALWAYS BETTER TO USE THAN FAT32 AS LONG AS YOU DON'T NEED WIN9x TO BE ABLE TO READ YOUR FILES (I.E. YOU ARE NOT DUAL BOOTING).

NOW AS FOR YOUR PROBLEM, AM I RIGHT IN UNDERSTANDING YOU DON'T HAVE XP CURRENTLY INSTALLED? IF YOU DO, CHECK THIS OUT

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q244617

THERE MAY BE A SIMILAR THING FOR WINDOWS XP.

I WOULD REALLY, REALLY BE SKEPTICAL THAT THIS IS YOUR HARD DRIVE. WHEN DISKS THEMSELVES GO BAD THEY USUALLY LOSE DATA INSTEAD OF CRASHING YOUR SYSTEM BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A DISK DRIVE CONTROLLER GO BAD. IN FACT IT IS VERY LIKELY NOT A HARDWARE PROBLEM AT ALL, BUT A DEVICE DRIVER PROBLEM. I HAD PROBLEMS WITH XP DRIVERS THIS WINTER, UNTIL I UPDATED THEM FROM NVIDIA. BOOT IN SAFE MODE (HIT F8 DURING BOOT) AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS, TRY TO REPRODUCE THE ERROR. TRY UPDATING ALL YOUR DRIVERS.

 

[Taps]

Ummm.....I dunno. A faulty hard drive sounds likely, but I'm not sure.

I'll check with some of the tech guys around here and post what they say later.

 

[Warik]

hoss,

I do have XP installed right now. The reason I am thinking it is a hardware, specifically, a HARD DRIVE, problem, is because when I completely backed up my system and prepared for a fresh reformat from the XP installation CD, the system kept crashing and giving me meaningless BSODs during the "Push this button to format your hard drive to FAT32" screen from the Windows XP cd. It was crash after crash after crash. Finally I tried out my Windows 2000 CD and it let me format again, but apparently my drive's partition had disappeared (shouldn't this only happen if I tell it to delete the partition? A normal format shouldn't do that.) Also, the drive seems to have 8 MB of unusable space that I can't recover or repartition according to the WinXP and Win2000 CD for the partitioning utility just before the OS installation takes place. That doesn't sound normal to me, since my D drive (which is a 5 year old 4 GB Maxtor drive, lol) doesn't have this strange 8 MB of missing space problem. Anyway, I finally managed to reformat with a hell of a lot of trouble and install the OS. Now I'm having the same freezing/crashing/BSOD/spontaneous rebooting errors that I was having before I reinstalled WinXP.

Another reason I suspect the HD going bad is because I have had WinXP installed for 2-3 months prior to these problems taking place and I have not installed ANY new devices (drives, scanners, printer, even RAM) since then. Only new stuff has been software, and any software related problems should have disappeared with the reformat.

Then again, no one wants to buy, install, and set up a new HD only to get the same stupid ass error and have to un-do everything. Do you know ANYTHING else that could possibly be causing this and a way to diagnose it? My friend suggested 1) spyware from KaZaA (I ruled that out since I was having this trouble while reformatting the vanished-partition drive) and 2) a damaged heatsink causing my PC to overheat. I think I can rule this out since I leave my computer on for 8-12 hours a day, and, sometimes, 24-72 hours without a break. If this trouble started 2 weeks ago due to a malfunctioning heatsink, I'd think my CPU and mobo would have melted by now, and set fire to my entire desk, of course.

It all seems to go back to the HD to me. Your thoughts?

-Warik

 

[2 ton hoss]

SURE DOES SOUND LIKE A HARD DRIVE ISSUE, BUT THE CRASHING IS WHAT MYSTIFIES ME. I HAVE NEVER SEEN AN NT BASED OS CRASH FROM A BAD DISK. I SUPPOSE IT COULD BE THE DISK CONTROLLER. DID YOU HAVE THE PHANTOM 8MB PROBLEM WHEN YOU INSTALLED XP FOR THE FIRST TIME?

HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR CMOS SETTINGS?

I DO NOT KNOW OF ANYTHING SPECIFICALLY THAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM BUT DO TRY BOOTING IN SAFE MODE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. THAT AT LEAST WILL HELP YOU RULE OUT DRIVER PROBLEMS.

 

[Warik]

SURE DOES SOUND LIKE A HARD DRIVE ISSUE, BUT THE CRASHING IS WHAT MYSTIFIES ME. I HAVE NEVER SEEN AN NT BASED OS CRASH FROM A BAD DISK. I SUPPOSE IT COULD BE THE DISK CONTROLLER. DID YOU HAVE THE PHANTOM 8MB PROBLEM WHEN YOU INSTALLED XP FOR THE FIRST TIME?

Honestly I don't recall seeing or not seeing the "phantom 8" problem. That would really help me make a good conclusion here. The "phantom 8" is what is leading me to believe that the problem is with the drive and not the controller, because I don't see how the controller would cause me to have some inaccessible drive space (then again, I don't know that much about HD controllers).

HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR CMOS SETTINGS?

I wouldn't know what to look for. Everything is set to default except for automatically turning Numlock on at startup. Maybe that could be the probelm? (j/k )

I DO NOT KNOW OF ANYTHING SPECIFICALLY THAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM BUT DO TRY BOOTING IN SAFE MODE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. THAT AT LEAST WILL HELP YOU RULE OUT DRIVER PROBLEMS.

Booting in safe mode takes me into XP in safe mode successfully. At that point I tried running McAfee to scan for any viruses I might have picked up despite the fact that I haven't downloaded any executable files from risky places. Went AFK to take a shower and was welcomed back by a BSOD. BSOD while in safe mode? I think this is a first.

Think I have enough data to warrant the purchase of a new HD? I'd hate to spend $130 on a WD 60 GB HD, but I don't seem to have a choice at this point (unless I get a Maxtor for $30 less... my 5 GB 5 year old immortal drive is a Maxtor too).

-Warik

 

[TheProject]

I'm having similar troubles with XP, and I believe it's hardware related. I have 2 NICs in my system, and the lockups stop when I pull the 2nd NIC. I think the NIC is sharing an IRQ with something but XP shows everything as using IRQ 3, and I haven't gotten around to screwing with the BIOS yet to see if I can find the root of the problem.

 

[takniteasy]

I just installed WINXP on a friend of mine's computer and had to sell him another hard drive because of basically the same problems. He had problems with graphics card and modem and thought it was a software problem. When he brought it to me, we checked it out and decided to reformat and install winXP. The old OS was win98 and the motherboard and processor was AMD Athlon. It seems as though the AMD processors dont have much liking for NTFS, so we tried to set up FAT32. Even that did not work. I plugged the hard drive into my computer and I got the same problems. It was an WD hard drive. I sold him my backup hard drive, had to reformat with FAT32 and then installed WINXP. Works like a charm. There are diagnostic DOS programs out there somewhere that can tell you if you have a trashed hard drive. Sometimes too if your BIOS needs to be updated, that will cause problems with installing new OS. Hope my suggestions could help

 

[Steroid_Virgin]

I would manually set the IRQ's you can do that pretty easily..

 

[malhavoc]

I was having the same problem you described in the first message. It turned out that my machine was overheating and xp would crash.

It may be a long shot, but has the weather gotten a lot warmer where you live? Maybe the room you're running the pc in has gotten warmer. Try running the box with the case off for a bit, or setup a fan to blow right into it.

 

[TheProject]

I would manually set the IRQ's you can do that pretty easily..

Yeah, I just have to jack with the BIOS to do it. XP won't let me change them in software, presumably because the OS setting is on PnP in the BIOS.

 

[Warik]

I live in Florida with 80 degree weather. Overheating would be likely, but it's been hotter here before. Where would I go on the web to find something to upgrade my BIOS?

-Warik

 

[TheProject]

I live in Florida with 80 degree weather. Overheating would be likely, but it's been hotter here before. Where would I go on the web to find something to upgrade my BIOS?

-Warik

Depends. If you built the system yourself, go to the MB manufacturer's website. If it's a brand name system, most will have the BIOS utility on their support website.

 

[HappyScrappy]

there are far too many words on this thread for me to see them all.
if your computer is overheating, then there are 3 places it would do so... no, 4.
1) the processor - if you have a fan on there and it isn't overclocked, then that is not likely it (esp if it worked just dandy for some time)

2) the ram - this is only likely it if you have had the computer some time and there is dust on the ram

3) the video card - this is highly likely b/c xp has different (better) drivers for many of the newer cards for the newest directX BUT they tend to push the card to its upper limits and they crash a lot - this was a big problem with the Nvidia GeForce cards (esp if you have the VIA chipset on your motherboard).

4) harddrives - as your disk gets more fragmented, it has to work harder to search the disk to find shit, and more work means more heat.


you can tell if it is an overheating problem by the amount of time it takes for it to crash.
put your system under full load (distributed.net will help) as soon as it starts and wait to see what causes it to crash and how long it takes.
then have it under no load and see how long it takes.
the higher the load, the higher the heat - and then longer time also means more heat.

you could also take the case off and have a housefan blow on it, that was what I did much throughout summers in college b/c they didn't have AC there.

but personally, it doesn't sound like overheating to me.
it sounds more like the driver you have and xp aren't playing nicely together.
since xp is relatively new, some driver people aren't bothering to make the newest drivers for things - or in your case, perhaps the newer driver is out there, but you don't have it installed.

have fun

 

[Drifter]

All good suggestions so far.

I would go to the WD website and check for hardrive diagnostic utilities and see if that finds any problems.

Unless something has been changed recently I doubt you are having irq problems as they would have existed previously.....but then again it is a microsoft product.

There is also a slim chance that your powersupply is failing. This can cause some really strange problems up until it either dies completely or start rebooting on you for no reason. Try and borrow one and see if it helps.

For the hell of it I would also check for viruses. Sometimes it pays to be safe.

 

[normstar]

I'll stick witn Win2k Pro for a while longer....

n*

 

[Y_lifter]

I would Imagine being a Non Human Super Hero, living in the steamy swamps off Alligator Alley, that overheating would indeed be a Problem.

Did you check to see if your TRS 80 is on the XP H/W Compatible list?

 

[malhavoc]

I would Imagine being a Non Human Super Hero, living in the steamy swamps off Alligator Alley, that overheating would indeed be a Problem.

Did you check to see if your TRS 80 is on the XP H/W Compatible list?

trash 80 ... haha, that was a good one.