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My computer is crashing randomly


Giraffe
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Right after I buy a bunch of downloaded curricula and before I got the chance to back it up. I inserted a brand new flash drive into it to copy some files and all h-e-double-toothpicks broke loose. I've been fighting with it for two days and it's just getting worse. I think the drivers on the drive were at best corrupted, at worst contained a virus.

 

I don't know what to do. DH (the computer programmer) is in the US, I'm in Turkey. There is no Geek Squad here. I have a backup from about two weeks ago, so at least most of my stuff is safe, but what do I do about the blasted computer?!

 

Just venting.....

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I've texted him that very question, but he's so busy right now that I can't get his attention. He was at the lab all night long.

 

I'm just so upset because this is money I don't want to spend right now. Computers are so expensive here that we often import them in our carry on for family. No one is coming for at least two months, so I may have to buy one if this can't be fixed.

 

I'm so angry. It was a brand new flash drive in it's original packaging. Now my computer doesn't even recognize the USB ports, so no printer. Plus it just randomly freezes or crashes.

 

:rant:

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Probably, your issue is related to the HW you bought and installed, and the SW that came with it, but, possibly it is a coincidence. Could be a problem with the Power Supply (PSU) or Memory (RAM).

 

My wife's Windows XP PC had issues and she tried a number of different things. Finally, she installed the Shareware by IObit, Advanced SystemCare Ultimate. She liked it so much that we paid for a license, about 2 months ago. I believe you can download and install it and use it, for 30 days, free. Here is a link: http://www.iobit.com...e-antivirus.php

 

I am running several different IObit utilities on this VERY OLD Windows XP PC and their software seems to be very stable and solid. The license from IObit is for up to 3 Windows PCs, so we are going to uninstall the McAfee Suite that was installed in the Dell factory, on the PC we ordered for DD last October, and install the IObit Advance SystemCare Ultimate on that one, also. I believe it works on Windows XP, Vista and 7.

 

GL!

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There is also a tiny fan mounted above the CPU. Is this a Windows Desktop PC or is it a Laptop? Does this happen when it is cold (just turned on), or when it has been running awhile and is hot?

 

When it is turned on, look on the outside of the case at the fan(s) and be sure they are turning. The fan over the CPU may be mounted inside a shroud, so if you take the cover off, you might not be able to see that fan.

 

I would like you to run Diagnostics on the RAM. Is it running enough that you would be able to download something and burn it to a CD or DVD, so that you would have that RAM Utility to use? Or, do you have another PC you could do that on? You need to be able to use that CD or DVD, to boot the PC and run the RAM Diagnostics.

 

Be patient. Don't run out and buy another PC. The issues your PC has may be very minor.

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memtest86 is the free Memory (RAM) testing diagnostic utility I highly recommend to you. When booting a "Live CD" for Linux (I use CentOS Linux, for example), the option to run memtest86 is one of the boot options. That is how common RAM problems are.

 

This article does a great job of explaining how to get and use Memtest86.

http://pcsupport.abo...r/memtest86.htm

 

If you run memtest86 and it finds one (1) problem, then you need to replace that RAM. If you buy new RAM, run memtest86 on the new RAM, to be sure it is OK.

 

I'm not positive that the problem your computer has is from overheating or from bad RAM, but you need to rule those possibilities out, before assuming that it is a bad driver, malware, virus, etc., etc.

 

GL

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I'm on my iPad.

 

The computer will no longer boot. I'm trying to boot in "safe mode" and it won't. I'm in an infinite loop of safe mode, startup repair, fail, reboot, safe mode, startup repair....

 

Since the computer won't even boot, I can't install any of your recommended fixes. It's not overheating. I've turned it off several times over the past couple of days and let it rest, to no avail.

 

I still can't believe a stupid flash drive did this.

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Not sure this is a result of your new Flash Drive. That's possible. I wish you had a "Live CD", for a Linux distribution. I would like to know, if you can boot from a Live CD, and with that, you can, very quickly determine whether or not your Hardware is working properly. You would be able to see, very quickly, if your Motherboard, RAM, Power Supply, Video, Monitor, etc., are working or not. If you could not see Video, with the Live CD booted up, then, you can look for someone to replace whatever hardware has died. If your PC is running, from the Live CD (for example, you can use the web browser to surf the web), you will know that basically it is OK. If you cannot see the "Desktop" of the Live CD Linux distribution (Knoppix, etc.), then you are going to need to find someone (hopefully honest and competent) who can take a look at the PC for you.

 

Here is a link to an article about Live CDs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_live_CDs

 

Knoppix is a very popular Live CD. I have 1 or 2 Knoppix Live CDs in this room. As I recall, the download is pretty small. if you download something like Knoppix, you need to burn the ISO image onto the CD. (The ISO image you download has lots of files inside it)

 

I know you are on your iPad now, so you will need to get someone else to download this for you, and burn the CD for you. If you can make a Live CD, test it on another PC, to be sure it works properly, and then, test your disabled PC.

 

if there is some defect in the hardware, no amount of time that you might spend, trying to remove a virus, malware, etc., is going to help you.

 

If you can get a Live CD and boot from that, it will not change anything on your PC, but it will let you know, if your hardware is working (it runs off the CD, so if your hard drive is damaged or corrupted, the hard drive is not involved).

 

Knoppix has, as I recall, some utilities that are helpful for repairing problems on hard drives, etc.

 

Be sure the BIOS in your PC (to enter Setup, press F8 or something, when it starts to boot) is set, so that it will boot from the CD/DVD drive BEFORE it tries to boot from your hard drive.

 

I wish you much good luck with this and again I advise patience. HTH and GL!

 

P..S.

The son of one of my cousins, and his family, are in Turkey now, temporarily, for 2 years.

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<snip>

The computer will no longer boot. I'm trying to boot in "safe mode" and it won't. I'm in an infinite loop of safe mode, startup repair, fail, reboot, safe mode, startup repair....

 

Since the computer won't even boot, I can't install any of your recommended fixes. It's not overheating. I've turned it off several times over the past couple of days and let it rest, to no avail.

 

<snip>

 

 

What version of M$ Windows is installed on it? Do you have the M$ Windows installation CD/DVD? If so, please try to boot from that CD/DVD (see my previous post, regarding having the BIOS set to boot from the CD/DVD, before it tries to boot from the hard drive) Or, if you have any kind of "Recovery" CD/DVD. Try to boot from that.

 

If you can get that to work, there may be a "Repair Windows installation" option, or something like that, that you can try to use and if so, hopefully, it will repair the problem, if the problem is corruption of the M$ Windows installation. From the infinite loop you are in, when it tries to start M$ Windows, it sounds like your hard drive may be very corrupted, or, damaged.

 

If your hardware is OK and the Repair option in Windows works, you are good to go. If not, you will need to reinstall M$ Windows (hopefully, without losing your data, but, I suspect you will lose your data).

 

This could, in the end, be some kind of Virus, Malware, etc., but it is MUCH easier to check out the Hardware, FIRST, to be sure your bare metal is OK, before looking for Software problems.

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Where in Turkey? Incirlik?

I'm in Izmir.

 

They are in Ankara. My cousin and his wife visited them last year and they are going to take a tour of Turkey this year.

 

You are in a big city, so, if the Live CD test shows a problem, hopefully, someone you know there knows of someone who is competent and honest, who can work on the PC for you.

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It's Windows 7. I don't have any installation disks (of course).

Thank you so much for trying to help. At this point I need to find a repair place I believe.

 

You are very lucky that it is not Windows Vista or Windows 8... When the Dell factory assembled the PC for DD last October, it was probably one of the last with Windows 7.

 

It is NORMAL, for them not to provide installation disks. When I factory ordered the PC for DD, I asked about that. The man told me that within one week of the PC being delivered to us, I could call and request that they send the installation DVD for Windows 7 to us. I did that and they sent it to us

 

You are very welcome. I hope I gave you some ideas, about what might be wrong. Start with the simple things (Hardware problems) and if all of the hardware is working OK, then start looking for a Software problem.

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After fussing and fighting and getting completely undone, DH finally was able to walk me through a few things. It was a virus, and we re-imaged the drive with the back up I'd done last month. I've lost a month's worth of files, but that's fixable - most everything is in the Cloud somewhere.

 

Thank you again Lanny for keeping me sane and walking me through some solutions. You really did help.

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After fussing and fighting and getting completely undone, DH finally was able to walk me through a few things. It was a virus, and we re-imaged the drive with the back up I'd done last month. I've lost a month's worth of files, but that's fixable - most everything is in the Cloud somewhere.

 

Thank you again Lanny for keeping me sane and walking me through some solutions. You really did help.

 

 

WONDERFUL! You were correct, at the start, to suspect a virus. Congratulations!

 

Now, we need to know which anti virus program, if any, you have installed, because it did not work in this case. Always have your Anti Virus utility set so it automatically looks for and installs new definitions to the virus data base.

 

I am using the free version of Avast and have been using Avast for approximately one year. Before that, for many years, we used the free version of AVG, but one year ago, there was a huge update for AVG and after updating, we couldn't surf the web, so we removed AVG from our Windows boxes. My wife is now using the anti virus in the Advanced SystemCare Ultimate suite. My DD is using McAfee that came preinstalled from the Dell factory, but we are going to remove that (a 2 step process) and then we will install Advanced SystemCare Ultimate on it since the license is valid for up to 3 PCs.

 

Again, you are welcome. I hope that I gave you some ideas, about what to look for, if something goes awry in the future.

 

You said that you have backup in the Cloud. My free DropBox account saved my rear, when my PC was destroyed by a nearby lightning strike. I had my data backed up on CD-RW media, but the latest versions of our web sites were on DropBox. I was able to recover everything from DropBox and get on my way, on a different PC.

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WONDERFUL! You were correct, at the start, to suspect a virus. Congratulations!

 

Now, we need to know which anti virus program, if any, you have installed, because it did not work in this case. Always have your Anti Virus utility set so it automatically looks for and installs new definitions to the virus data base.

 

I am using the free version of Avast and have been using Avast for approximately one year. Before that, for many years, we used the free version of AVG, but one year ago, there was a huge update for AVG and after updating, we couldn't surf the web, so we removed AVG from our Windows boxes. My wife is now using the anti virus in the Advanced SystemCare Ultimate suite. My DD is using McAfee that came preinstalled from the Dell factory, but we are going to remove that (a 2 step process) and then we will install Advanced SystemCare Ultimate on it since the license is valid for up to 3 PCs.

 

Again, you are welcome. I hope that I gave you some ideas, about what to look for, if something goes awry in the future.

 

You said that you have backup in the Cloud. My free DropBox account saved my rear, when my PC was destroyed by a nearby lightning strike. I had my data backed up on CD-RW media, but the latest versions of our web sites were on DropBox. I was able to recover everything from DropBox and get on my way, on a different PC.

 

 

DropBox, GoogleDrive, and Gmail are saving me. The fact that I hadn't exceeded my download quotas for my curricula also has saved me. I also had a backup on an external hard drive which saved my older files.

 

I am running Norton Internet Security. I thought this had anti-virus, but maybe it didn't work on the flash drive - only on the internet?

 

Yes, I am going to look at a different program. Something didn't work.

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According to Symantec, Norton Internet Security 2013 DOES include an Anti Virus utility. I think it should have protected your entire PC... http://us.norton.com...ernet-security/

 

We used Norton Anti Virus (and I believe a Suite of Norton Utilities) many years ago. I remember paying them $1 a year, per PC, for the Update service. We stopped using Norton, as I recall, because it became unstable. That is when we switched to the Free version of AVG Anti Virus.

 

I would suggest that you contemplate using either: (1) The Free version of AVG Anti Virus or ((2) The Free version of Avast.

 

Whichever Anti Virus program you use, be sure that in the Settings, it is set to automatically look for and install updates. There are days when I see Avast updating 3 times, in the same day.

 

Scan the Curricula you had Downloaded! The Virus may have been in one of those files.

 

Could have been on the USB Thumb Drive. That's possible. The USB memories we have did not come with any Software to install and we do use them, frequently.

 

Another Suite, that we recently bought a license for, that you might consider, is Advanced SystemCare Ultimate. It is Shareware, so you can install it and try it, for 30 days, free, as my wife did, It has an anti virus utility included.

 

URGENT NOTE: If you switch, from Norton, to another Anti Virus program, you MUST COMPLETELY remove Norton Anti Virus from the PC, before you install another anti virus program. In the case of the McAfee that was preinstalled on the Dell PC we ordered for DD last October, we first need to Uninstall it in the normal way, then, download a utility from McAfee, then remove the rest of it with the McAfee utility we downloaded. Then, we can download and install the Advanced SystemCare Ultimate on it.

 

Again, congratulations!

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DropBox, GoogleDrive, and Gmail are saving me. The fact that I hadn't exceeded my download quotas for my curricula also has saved me. I also had a backup on an external hard drive which saved my older files.

 

I am running Norton Internet Security. I thought this had anti-virus, but maybe it didn't work on the flash drive - only on the internet?

 

Yes, I am going to look at a different program. Something didn't work.

 

I've never had any luck with those programs preventing viruses, and they aren't so great at removing them after the fact, either. If I think I have a virus, I usually use Combofix to hunt it down. That thing once found and killed four different viruses on my computer that AVG, Avast, and Malwarebytes all completely missed.

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