Computer repeatedly crashing

[bbb2k4life]

Ok I am having a SERIOUS problem with my PC constantly crashing. The crashing started yesterday morning and since then, my PC has crashed at least 10-15 times which is way too many times. All the crashes have been at random times, and I've noticed it happens whenever I run a program that may take up some of my PC Usage. For example, whenever I try to play a game or run a virus scan, 5 minutes later, my computer just completely crashes. I've noticed that my browsers (IE, Firefox) are the only programs I can run that won't cause my PC to crash. There's no error message when it crashes. All that happens is that my keyboard light, mouse light, and the power light on my PC is frozen on. I have to hold the power button for a good 5-10 seconds for my PC to turn back on. Sometimes if I try and turn my PC on right after it crashes, it won't even turn on. I will have to wait a good minute before it turns on. I already tried a system restore, which suprisingly it completed without crashing, but the crashing continues. I've even tried running a virus scan during "Safe" mode and my PC still crashed, so I can tell this is a serious problem. Can anyone tell me if this is virus related or has my PC just given up on me?? And please tell me if there is any other information I need to provide. Thanks in advance.
Specs:
Windows XP Home Edition 2002 SP2
Compaq Presario Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53GHz
2.52 GHZ, 512 MB of RAM

[Xpenetrator]

Hello bbb2k4life,

before someone else digs with you into malware checking...

This sounds like a hardware malfunction: Is there summer where you live, too? Is it hot? That often causes computers to fail, especially when they ran already for a year or two - dust may have accumulated somewhere and the air circulation may have been suboptimal by design all the time. Then in summer, cooling suddenly fails to be efficient enough. If it were your Processor, your mainboard should have warned you, but anyway check CPU temp. in the BIOS. Then memory modules could be getting too warm, which is not being monitored by the BIOS, thus leaving you without warning but with problems you encountered.
Enough CPU-load by a game or something could push the temp. right over the edge...
Easy to check: Just open the casing and try again. It shouldn't crash then (so fast). If it does - call for a software verminator in these forums...:)
Ollie

[bbb2k4life]

ok im not that pc-literate lol so how exactly can i check the temp in BIOS? and yes it is summer over here. It's WAY HOT in Texas, about 105 degrees right now, but how does that still effect the PC when it's cool on the inside? and plus, we have 3 other computers in the house with no problems from them. Matter of fact, my father's PC is about a few months older than mine and he's having no type of problems with his (bummer, lol). and how exactly do you get the casing open?

[Xpenetrator]

Ok, that was just a wild guess. If you and your PCs sit in a cool, air-conditioned environment (envy :mrgreen: ), this is most likely not temperature related. :cheesy: It just sounded familiar to me...
Open case: Depends on model - some even have doors, others will need loosening some screws. But unfortunately the solution seems not to be that easy - you'll maybe have to go through this kind of hassle:
Providing HiJackthis logs, running rootkit detectors, reinstalling the OS from scratch. I'm not an expert in these things and I guess you'll find better help in the "Viruses, Spyware and other Nasties Forum" here.

And there still is a chance (no error messages!) that your hardware lets you down and you could check this only by swapping parts or calling for the repairman, if you're not used to fumble around with hardware.
Indefinite crash issues can even drive nuts real experts and help from a distance could be hard to impossible...

So read in this forums how to make a HiJackThis log, post it and wait for expertise on possible malware infections... Also try to remember what
you changed/installed on your system or which websites you visited
before that happened.

Compassionate greetings,
Ollie

[bbb2k4life]

ok i will try to run Hijackthis. hopefully my PC won't crash when i do this lol

[bbb2k4life]

OK, I looked at the event viewer because I just recently had a crash about ten minutes ago and I saw this error:
07/18/06 Source: DCOM
11:03:15 PM Category: None
Error Event ID:10005

DCOM got error "The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it." attempting to start the service iPodService with arguments "-Service" in order to run the server:
{7A7FB085-6068-4898-8CCA-48QA9187277C}

Anyone know what this error means?

[Xpenetrator]

Don't know exactly. Can be related to a MS automatic update gone wrong. To see if this is related to your crashes, you can disable DCOM with the DCOMbobulator tool available at

http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm

(Simply run it again if something on your PC needs DCOM - otherwise just leave it off)

[bbb2k4life]

ok well lol, i had yet again another crash and this time, there wasn't an error logged in the Event Viewer. now im getting to the point where i'm about to give up because this is just ridiculous. i've never seen something where i can't run a dang program without my PC crashing.

[goldeagle2005]

Lets go sequentially. First up, disconnect all non necessary hardware -- modems, grphics cards (if you have an onboard adaptor. Otherwise, leave the graphics card), sound card, LAN card etc. Make sure only the graphics card and HD are cnnected. Then power up the system. If the crashes don't occur, reconnect each device till the system crashes. The last attached device could be faulty. If the crashes still occur, go to your BIOS, and under PC Health, check your CPU and board temp. Post that temperature in a reply. Next, take out your RAM sticks and clean the golden contacts with an eraser. Also, use a can of compressed air to blow dust out of your system, especially an and around the CPU, the heatsink, fans, RAM slots, PCI and AGP slots. Also make sure all components are plugged in securely.

[bbb2k4life]

OK well unplugging modems and stuff is something im going to have my father do because if i mess up my PC he's going to crazy. But anyways, how do you check the PC temperature through the BIOS?

[caperjack]

hi ,if your bios looks like this one . http://www.yoreparo.com/images/articulos/bios_html_m41f2952d.jpg ,, then when in the bios go to the one that reads pc health status

[bbb2k4life]

ok well i still don't know how to get to the BIOS lol

[Xpenetrator]

I c+p some methods I found by googling (which was just declared to be a legal english verb :)) :

"Reboot the machine. When the company name, Compaq, displays in big red letters on the Presario's screen, a cursor should appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Press F10, and instead of booting normally, you should see the setup screen for the Compaq's BIOS.

Someone, in response to seeing this page, told me that some Compaq machines have F12 as a BIOS setup key. If F10 brings you no joy, it's worth a try. Another person just recently suggested Ctrl + F10 for newer models."

Another guy says:
"You get the BIOS setup menu by hitting Control-Alt-Escape while the "Compaq" logo is on the screen at boot time."

Which one is right, depends on the exact model your Presario is.
The most common thing with other computers is pressing or
during bootup to enter the BIOS setup screens.

[bbb2k4life]

Ok thanks for that.

[bbb2k4life]

OK I found the BIOS screen and there was no option anywhere that showed the temperature of my PC. I'm going to upload a picture of what my BIOS screen looks like so I can show you.

[bbb2k4life]

OK, something major has just happened. Earlier today I contracted a small virus that messed up my computer a little bit. I was thinking that I could easily get rid of it with a few virus scans, but of course that didn't work because everytime I ran a scan, my computer would crash. So then I tried to do a system restore. The first time I did it, my PC crashed right in the middle of the restore. So then I tried again, and it actually completed the restore but I got some wierd messages during the restore. The messages stated that "Windows has to keep a registry entry due to a log". That wasn't the exact message but that's basically what it said. I've never seen this message during a System Restore so I was thinking that this was the virus acting up again. So then after the Restore finished, it started loading but then it stopped at the blue screen with the Windows logo on it (you know the same screen that shows the"Welcome" message on it when you turn on your PC). So now, I can't even load to my desktop. It just stops at that screen. And I've tried going through "Safe Mode" but it still stops at that blue screen. Now I'm thinking that my computer is just completely trashed. Can anyone tell me what has happened??

[Xpenetrator]

Sounds pretty messed up by malware, yes. You can try waiting a bit longer: Watch the HDD-LED if there is still flickering, indicating activity - once I waited 30 minutes for a system recovering from something.

But since your system seems to be compromised, it doesn't matter too much that you can't boot it up anymore. You'll need a complete reinstallation of XP, including formatting the HDD. Some experienced users may try to recover the OS and to remove malware with a "BART PE" bootable CD or using a Linux Live-CD, but if things messed up that much, a recovery may take longer than installing Windows and is not trivial. "Easy recovery" is a rare thing and with modern malware, you even can't rely on scans run from the infested system itself.

Instructions on "how to install XP" can be found if you feed Google with that string. You'll find sites like:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
or
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

You really should try to get someone experienced on your PC to assist you with this, if you never installed XP before. Good luck that you have access to some more computers to download needed stuff and ask questions about it. Don't give up. It can't get much worse than it is.

[bbb2k4life]

Yea, yesterday I went up to a computer store for help and the guy up there explained that I need a full re-install. So now, I'm waiting for a CD to come that's gonna do all that stuff for me, since my PC doesn't have it's on "System Recovery" feature. Thanks for all the help and suggestions. If this doesn't fix the problem then I'm just gonna buy a new PC, which is the last thing I want to do.

[caperjack]

If this doesn't fix the problem then I'm just gonna buy a new PC, which is the last thing I want to do.

LOL,worse case would be all you would need to do is buy a new hard drive !! and install windows on it .not a new computer

[bbb2k4life]

lol well turns out that the computer techs couldn't fix it so my dad bought a new one. I just have a quick question. On the box it says that this PC has 512 MB of RAM, but my system specs says I only have 368 MB of RAM. Anybody know why this is? And I just want to thank everybody who helped me through this situation.