Bad hardware

[Parker Race]

The family XP SP2 machine started acting strangely last week. The
screen would go black and then refresh occasionally. The OE Express
started crashing, then IE7. It got so bad with spontaneous reboots
that I downloaded and attempted to install SP3, that failed with a
message that it can't verify Update.inf (are the cryptograhy services
running?, yes they are). So I attempted to a repair with a SP2 CD. It
fails after hardware detection. I have Acronis backups on a second
drive so I booted off an Acronis boot cd, verfication of the archive
passes but any attempt to restore fails immediately. The system drive
doesn't appear to be trashed. I can browse it looking for archives.

I'm thinking I have a hardware issue. This is a white box built by
myself using quality components. What are good tools to test the
hardware, Memtest?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The family XP SP2 machine started acting strangely last week. The
screen would go black and then refresh occasionally. The OE Express
started crashing, then IE7. It got so bad with spontaneous reboots
that I downloaded and attempted to install SP3, that failed with a
message that it can't verify Update.inf (are the cryptograhy services
running?, yes they are). So I attempted to a repair with a SP2 CD. It
fails after hardware detection. I have Acronis backups on a second
drive so I booted off an Acronis boot cd, verfication of the archive
passes but any attempt to restore fails immediately. The system drive
doesn't appear to be trashed. I can browse it looking for archives.

I'm thinking I have a hardware issue. This is a white box built by
myself using quality components. What are good tools to test the
hardware, Memtest?

It is a common misconception that the installation of a Service
Pack will repair pre-existing problems. It does no such thing.
The purpose of a service pack is address issues that became
known after the initial release of the software. If a problem happens
to get fixed then this is pure luck.

Since you think you have a hardware problem, a hardware
newsgroup would be a good place to ask your question.

 

[Parker Race]

It is a common misconception that the installation of a Service
Pack will repair pre-existing problems. It does no such thing.
The purpose of a service pack is address issues that became
known after the initial release of the software. If a problem happens
to get fixed then this is pure luck.

Since you think you have a hardware problem, a hardware
newsgroup would be a good place to ask your question.

Well if the problem is a corrupted system file that is replaced by the
service pack I suspect it could fix the problem.

 

[Alias]

Well if the problem is a corrupted system file that is replaced by the
service pack I suspect it could fix the problem.

But if the problem is not a corrupted system file that is replaced by
the service pack ...

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Well if the problem is a corrupted system file that is replaced by the
service pack I suspect it could fix the problem.

Yes - that's what I meant with "pure luck".

 

[Anna]

The family XP SP2 machine started acting strangely last week. The
screen would go black and then refresh occasionally. The OE Express
started crashing, then IE7. It got so bad with spontaneous reboots
that I downloaded and attempted to install SP3, that failed with a
message that it can't verify Update.inf (are the cryptograhy services
running?, yes they are). So I attempted to a repair with a SP2 CD. It
fails after hardware detection. I have Acronis backups on a second
drive so I booted off an Acronis boot cd, verfication of the archive
passes but any attempt to restore fails immediately. The system drive
doesn't appear to be trashed. I can browse it looking for archives.

I'm thinking I have a hardware issue. This is a white box built by
myself using quality components. What are good tools to test the
hardware, Memtest?

Parker Race:
Well it certainly sounds like some sort of hardware issue, so do this...

First, check out the HDD with the diagnostic utility that (hopefully) will
be available from the website of the disk's manufacturer. Or have you done
that already?

Assuming the drive checks out OK hardware-wise...

After shutting down your machine (I'm assuming this is a desktop PC,
right?), remove (disconnect) all peripheral devices including your hard
drive(s), optical drive(s), sound card, etc. Disconnect all storage devices,
printers, and any other devices connected to the machine.

So that all you'll be working with is your motherboard, processor, heat
sink, RAM, video card, and power supply. Better yet, should your motherboard
be equipped with onboard video/graphics capability, disconnect your video
card from the system. Just make sure your BIOS setting (should there be one)
reflects that onboard graphics/video is enabled.

Reconnect your A/C cord and power on the system.

What happens? Do you get a "normal" screen display? No error messages or
strange notations?

Can you access your BIOS without any difficulty at this point and review the
CMOS settings? Can you check the hardware monitor in the BIOS to determine
that all temps are within normal range?

Assuming all is well at this point leave the system powered on for the next
hour or so, checking to see if anything untoward shows up, particularly
temperature-wise.

Using your reset button, try powering down & up a few times to determine if
there are any problems there.

Should all appear well at this point this is an indication that there's
nothing wrong with the basic components of your system. While it's not
absolutely definitive that this is so, it's a very strong indication that
something else is amiss.

I don't suppose you have any spare RAM modules you could substitute?

Anyway, if there doesn't seem to be any hardware issues based upon the
above, do you have or could you get another HDD and try a fresh install of
the OS to see how that goes? If no problem there, i.e., the system boots
without incident and apparently properly functions, perhaps your existing
problem is due to a seriously corrupted OS that can't be resurrected by a
Repair install which previously failed.
Anna

 

[Parker Race]

Parker Race:
Well it certainly sounds like some sort of hardware issue, so do this...

First, check out the HDD with the diagnostic utility that (hopefully) will
be available from the website of the disk's manufacturer. Or have you done
that already?

Assuming the drive checks out OK hardware-wise...

After shutting down your machine (I'm assuming this is a desktop PC,
right?), remove (disconnect) all peripheral devices including your hard
drive(s), optical drive(s), sound card, etc. Disconnect all storage devices,
printers, and any other devices connected to the machine.

So that all you'll be working with is your motherboard, processor, heat
sink, RAM, video card, and power supply. Better yet, should your motherboard
be equipped with onboard video/graphics capability, disconnect your video
card from the system. Just make sure your BIOS setting (should there be one)
reflects that onboard graphics/video is enabled.

Reconnect your A/C cord and power on the system.

What happens? Do you get a "normal" screen display? No error messages or
strange notations?

Can you access your BIOS without any difficulty at this point and review the
CMOS settings? Can you check the hardware monitor in the BIOS to determine
that all temps are within normal range?

Assuming all is well at this point leave the system powered on for the next
hour or so, checking to see if anything untoward shows up, particularly
temperature-wise.

Using your reset button, try powering down & up a few times to determine if
there are any problems there.

Should all appear well at this point this is an indication that there's
nothing wrong with the basic components of your system. While it's not
absolutely definitive that this is so, it's a very strong indication that
something else is amiss.

I don't suppose you have any spare RAM modules you could substitute?

Anyway, if there doesn't seem to be any hardware issues based upon the
above, do you have or could you get another HDD and try a fresh install of
the OS to see how that goes? If no problem there, i.e., the system boots
without incident and apparently properly functions, perhaps your existing
problem is due to a seriously corrupted OS that can't be resurrected by a
Repair install which previously failed.
Anna

I'll try the disk diagnostics, SMART is enabled and shows no errors
though.
I can access the Bios, no errors, etc. I'm going to run Memtest on it
first. If it passes I'm going to try a fresh install to another
partition. If it passes testing and I can install on another
partition, I'm going to try
putting the disk in another pc and running the repair.

Thanks
Parker

 

[Anna]

I'll try the disk diagnostics, SMART is enabled and shows no errors
though.
I can access the Bios, no errors, etc. I'm going to run Memtest on it
first. If it passes I'm going to try a fresh install to another
partition. If it passes testing and I can install on another
partition, I'm going to try
putting the disk in another pc and running the repair.

Thanks
Parker

Parker:
Yes, since you have another machine at your disposal I can understand that
you could install the HDD in that machine as a secondary HDD at least in
order to attempt to access its contents and copy off any important files
that you want. And that's certainly a good idea which we always recommend
when the possibility exists for doing so.

But I'm at a loss to understand your motive re running a Repair install of
the XP OS on that HDD using that *second* PC. What would be your objective
here? Assuming a Repair install would be successful - what then? Is it that
you would be planning to utilize that drive as (another) boot drive in the
second PC? Or this would be some clue that the drive & its contents are
non-defective and you would plan to reinstall the drive in the problem
machine for another attempt at a Repair install?

Anyway, keep us informed of your progress, particularly if you can pin down
the cause of the problem and how you were able to resolve it.
Anna