My Computer Just Died (and then came back to life)

Hi guys, sorry if this is in the wrong place, didnt understand what the sections were about, to nerdy for me.

Right, so I downloaded sum new programs last night, then today my computer was giving me an error message saying something about a file could not be saved, (or maybe it could not be deleted), and a little error symbol kept apearing in the taskbar, but nothing happend when I clicked it. Then my computer crashed, so I turned it off with the power button. Then when It turned it bak on it got half way through loading up and then went black and stayed like that until I pressed the power button, same thing happened in save mode. I retryed a few times, and noticed that when it started up it said something about looking for a file, and then not being able to find it. which I assume is linked with the error message I got. Then turned it on one more time and left it while I made a cuppa tea.... When I came back it was on, and all seemed well, but when I opened windows live messenger it installed it before opening. And when I open firefox all the addons and stuff are acting as if i've just installed them; Theyre all starting on there home page in different tabs, and ever addon has its own tool bar, when I usually have most of them hidden.

Any ideas whats going on? what I need to do? Would a system restore do the trick, if so, will someone remind me how to do it, and the implications... Or should I just carry on as normal, ignore what happend?

Thanks,

-ZEEBEE-

EDIT. My external hardrive is not showing in my computer either, and when I unplug it and plug it back in it it comes up as 'new found hardware'.

 

Hi zeebee123.

You'll be more helpful if you provide the following info:
-The new programs you just downloaded.
-Your operating system (xp 32bit, vista 32bit, etc...).
-Your pc specs.
-Your security programs (av, as, fw,etc...).
-Have you been infected recently?

I am pretty sure people here will assist you better and faster with your problem if they know the above info. And, btw, welcome to the wilders

 

Sounds a lot like a new profile was loaded.

Sul.

 

Hi. A freind reccomended I system restore, so I did, and then ran a scan on Trend Micro which found 'CRACKINGAPPS_PASSWARE', some profiling cookies, and some 'vunerabilites'. I have re-organised my firefox, and my MSN is working normally. But when i try to plug in and set up my external HD it won't work. It trys to install it from a CD-ROM or Floppy, but it should just work without anything...

I downloaded Tor and a little prog called Diana which is like little agenda thing. I'm running Xp. Don't really know much of my PC specs, what kinda things you want to know? I'm using AVG Free and Spybot S&D. Havn't been infected recently, my computer has been slowing down recently, but I think thats just old age...

 

Every once I get a error message from Opera Browser saying " File could not be saved" in a checkbox with a yes button, I found out it refers to the Bookmark folder. As I have not made a bookmark that day..I just ignore it. But in your case I would look for a clue in the Events log.

I would allow whatever action the computer askes for or I might find all my peripherals not showing in my computer as well as my USB ports.

 

Yeah I do let the computer do what it wants but it wont install, it cant find the installation driver thing, even though it shouldn't need one.

 

Oh and also, when I first tryed to plug in the external, I had a 'Do not start this wizard again' thing checked, so now nothing happens when I plug intot that port, I'm having to use another one. how can I make it start showing the wizard when I plug it in to that port again?

 

Hmm, I just tryed inserting the external on another computer, and it didn't work there either. What does that mean? Is my hardrive f***ed?

 

Hi zeebee,

And your cord, is it okay?

 

It certainly is beginning to look like there is a problem with the drive, no idea if its repairable or not though so f***ed is not necessarily the case.

 

What you mean by 'cord' as in the usb cord?

Right... So do you think a hardrive failiure could take out my whole system like that? And if it is f***ed, can u recover stuff off it if you take it to the manufacturers?

Thanks for the replies

 

... between the drive and your computer of course, my dear Watson ...

... and push the switch, please.

strongly.

P

 

HAHA, must have been a loose connection SORTED

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

S*** It's stopped working again. I went to unplug it, safely removed it, but it didn't expept because some of my programs were using it, but I didn't notice and unplugged anyway, then I plugged it back into another port, and it came up, but was empty when i clicked on it. So I wen't to restart, to see if that made a difference, but then the computer crashed, so I again had to turn it off at the mains. And when I turned it back it wouldn't install again. Back to square one...

 

Time to change your power unit.

 

Change the cord, zeebee ...

P

 

Yes, restart your computer. Have you your Assistant?

 

Which the one in the hardrive?

Hmmm where can I get one?

 

Hard drive cable select:

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_select#Cable_select

Here: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2006-February/msg03239.html

Here: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html

... and here: http://www.answers.com/topic/ide-technology


Yes? OK.?

 

If its the drive then the system is OK, you just need to replace the drive, however,,,,,,,,,

I had similar problems with my USB drives and the problem eventually led to a full system meltdown,,,,or rather I should say after experiencing intermittent problems the PC died to the pint of being junked. Not to alarm you but I would backup the PC more frequently in case this is happening to you. I hope not.

For my experience do a search, there was a lot of discussion about this as I tried to resolve the issue.

 

Managed to get it to work again temporarily, by fiddling about wiggling wires and plugging it back in, but then the computer semi crashed, (the taskbar dissapeared but the rest was working) when I was looking around inside the hardrive folders. Then I got that same error message I got at the very beginning, and it crashed competely, and took ages to turn on again.

I'm gonna order a 1TB external, if I take the old external out of its case, and put it straight into the computer, do you think it will stay alive long enough to backup all the data onto the new one?

Thanks,

-ZEEBEE-

 

One can only hope so, BTW I would connect the drive as little as possible if its causing such problems with your system.

I cannot recall if you mentioned trying to hook it up to a 2nd PC or not. Hopefully it is in fact the drive and not something more serious. In my case what I thought at first was an issue with an initially specific USB (and later any USB drive) drive turned out to be an issue with the PC since the devices in question all worked fine with my laptop.

Please be sure to do regular (and frequent) images of your PC until you know for sure that its the drive and not the PC. What you are describing is what I was experiencing in the later stages of my problem and as I mentioned above the PC in question is now scrap metal. Even a month running back and forth to the mfgs tech support office was unable to rectify the problem. At the end I was not even able to boot the PC into safe mode (and thats was after a full reformat and OS install).