G
Guest
Friend's Gateway 3yr old computer acting up - freezing, restarting by itself,
etc. I did a lot of system maintenance - they never did - and also NAV
updated and AdAware installed, updated & scanned. After all that, we
re-installed WinXp (a repair install? It seemed to go very fast, but had to
do it 3 times 'cuz computer kept restarting on its own.
On restarts, it runs error checking. Bunch of times, had errors that
supposedly were fixed. "First allocation unit is invalid - truncated", some
others - "cross-linked files" that were copied to correct places. Also, the
report (when it showed up) said that there were 32KB in bad sectors.
Today, also checked the Gateway Utility and ran hard drive test - first 3
portions passed, then the surface scan failed. CPU test and memory test
passed.
Will try to get to manufacturer's disk utility to test hard drive, but I'm
wondering if there is any other possibility here. It really seems to be
pointing to the hard drive. On some restarts, a window would come up that
Windows has recovered from a serious error. Also the Analysis report said
that there was an "unrecoverable hardware error". I saw this a few times.
Another question: This WinXp computer was sent with FAT 32 file system.
Ithought Xp was always NTFS. I don't htink the file system is causing the
problem, because it was sent from factory this way, and was OK for 3+ yrs,
but it makes me wonder when I see first allocation unit errors.
On other post, some replies asked to check for dust, etc. I had already
blown out the computer with canned air, but I did check both the fans. They
are running fine; never appeared to slow down.
This lady says that the comp appears to restart when she's been on about an
hour+. She feels it seems to be when she's on Internet (DSL) and goes to
"weather.com". I don't know if that's a coincidence or just that she goes to
other sites and then gets to weather site after an hour. Any ideas?? There's
no obvious thing to point to overheating - I'm leaning toward bad drive.
Suggestions gratefully accepted - thanks.
etc. I did a lot of system maintenance - they never did - and also NAV
updated and AdAware installed, updated & scanned. After all that, we
re-installed WinXp (a repair install? It seemed to go very fast, but had to
do it 3 times 'cuz computer kept restarting on its own.
On restarts, it runs error checking. Bunch of times, had errors that
supposedly were fixed. "First allocation unit is invalid - truncated", some
others - "cross-linked files" that were copied to correct places. Also, the
report (when it showed up) said that there were 32KB in bad sectors.
Today, also checked the Gateway Utility and ran hard drive test - first 3
portions passed, then the surface scan failed. CPU test and memory test
passed.
Will try to get to manufacturer's disk utility to test hard drive, but I'm
wondering if there is any other possibility here. It really seems to be
pointing to the hard drive. On some restarts, a window would come up that
Windows has recovered from a serious error. Also the Analysis report said
that there was an "unrecoverable hardware error". I saw this a few times.
Another question: This WinXp computer was sent with FAT 32 file system.
Ithought Xp was always NTFS. I don't htink the file system is causing the
problem, because it was sent from factory this way, and was OK for 3+ yrs,
but it makes me wonder when I see first allocation unit errors.
On other post, some replies asked to check for dust, etc. I had already
blown out the computer with canned air, but I did check both the fans. They
are running fine; never appeared to slow down.
This lady says that the comp appears to restart when she's been on about an
hour+. She feels it seems to be when she's on Internet (DSL) and goes to
"weather.com". I don't know if that's a coincidence or just that she goes to
other sites and then gets to weather site after an hour. Any ideas?? There's
no obvious thing to point to overheating - I'm leaning toward bad drive.
Suggestions gratefully accepted - thanks.