Windows 2000 freeze, large pixels on mouse pointer & icons

C

Corky St. Clair

Hello. I've had some interesting troubles with my windows 2000 pro
re-install and was hoping someone out there might be able to point me
in a direction. I'm kinda stumped because I've had the same
components for the past year and its been great. Here's a not-so-quick
synopsis (really sorry for the length, wanted to include all the
stupid details):

Last weekend, my computer got into the habit of restarting shortly
after booting successfully to the w2k desktop... some of the time. If
it did stay stable at the desktop, any attempts to access the
emergency repair disk, run norton antivirus, or do any other kind of
utility work would end in a system restart.

Backed up all my data, reinstalled win2k completely fresh last
weekend. Latest security & service packs for windows, office,
explorer, media player, etc. Latest video drivers from Nvidia.
DirectX 9.0b. And most of my software, including Zonealarm Pro,
Norton System Works 2003, and Norton Antivirus 2004. Worked fine
until yesterday.

I start up my computer and after about 1 1/2 hours of using IE6 I
started getting these weird pixels flashing in a couple random areas.
Then they appeared more and more, mostly around the mouse and my
desktop icons. I moved my mouse around a bit and it finally just
froze. Restarted my computer. Got the error at the status-bar black
& white windows boot screen:

windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt:

WINNT\SYSTEM32\config\SYSTEMced

I used "go back" to go back 2 days and restarted, but got the same
error after all the go-back files were installed. Hmm. Reinstalled
win2kpro fresh... AGAIN (!), since I had all my data discs from the
week before. Installed all the same patches and software
packages/firewalls, etc. Then last night, just after doing a scan of
all disks for windows problems (in norton sys works) and showing no
errors, I think I have it beat. I setup to install some of the
patches I need for my games, then go to sleep. I wake up this
morning, and see that the screen is frozen and there are the same
strange pixelly-dots around the icons on the desktop and the menu bars
at the bottom. It froze shortly after I went to sleep, judging from
the download progress.

I restart and run diagnostic check disks on my RAM - it's fine. On my
HDD (Western Digital 120G) - it's fine. Now it's got to be either my
mobo or my video card, right? Or Windows? Oh, and incidentally, on
the first time I reinstalled W2K the mouse drivers loaded fine, but on
the 2nd time, I had no mouse ability until I loaded them manually from
the disc that came with my mouse. Both were installed from scratch,
so that was a bit random.

Anyone want to venture a guess on a direction I should go? Any other
tests I can run? Beer is on me if anyone can help out.

System Specs:

AMD 2400+ cpu (thermaltake volcano9 HS/fan)
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard (on-board sound & LAN)
1 gig (2x512) kingston PC2700
Geforce 4600ti
400W power supply
 
D

dcdon

Chances are you're infected or hacked.
Try an online scan at http://securityresponse.symantec.com
Maybe this may help
--
regards,
don
" Do a kind deed for someone less fortunate everyday."
It will warm God's heart"
====================


Hello. I've had some interesting troubles with my windows 2000 pro
re-install and was hoping someone out there might be able to point me
in a direction. I'm kinda stumped because I've had the same
components for the past year and its been great. Here's a not-so-quick
synopsis (really sorry for the length, wanted to include all the
stupid details):

Last weekend, my computer got into the habit of restarting shortly
after booting successfully to the w2k desktop... some of the time. If
it did stay stable at the desktop, any attempts to access the
emergency repair disk, run norton antivirus, or do any other kind of
utility work would end in a system restart.

Backed up all my data, reinstalled win2k completely fresh last
weekend. Latest security & service packs for windows, office,
explorer, media player, etc. Latest video drivers from Nvidia.
DirectX 9.0b. And most of my software, including Zonealarm Pro,
Norton System Works 2003, and Norton Antivirus 2004. Worked fine
until yesterday.

I start up my computer and after about 1 1/2 hours of using IE6 I
started getting these weird pixels flashing in a couple random areas.
Then they appeared more and more, mostly around the mouse and my
desktop icons. I moved my mouse around a bit and it finally just
froze. Restarted my computer. Got the error at the status-bar black
& white windows boot screen:

windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt:

WINNT\SYSTEM32\config\SYSTEMced

I used "go back" to go back 2 days and restarted, but got the same
error after all the go-back files were installed. Hmm. Reinstalled
win2kpro fresh... AGAIN (!), since I had all my data discs from the
week before. Installed all the same patches and software
packages/firewalls, etc. Then last night, just after doing a scan of
all disks for windows problems (in norton sys works) and showing no
errors, I think I have it beat. I setup to install some of the
patches I need for my games, then go to sleep. I wake up this
morning, and see that the screen is frozen and there are the same
strange pixelly-dots around the icons on the desktop and the menu bars
at the bottom. It froze shortly after I went to sleep, judging from
the download progress.

I restart and run diagnostic check disks on my RAM - it's fine. On my
HDD (Western Digital 120G) - it's fine. Now it's got to be either my
mobo or my video card, right? Or Windows? Oh, and incidentally, on
the first time I reinstalled W2K the mouse drivers loaded fine, but on
the 2nd time, I had no mouse ability until I loaded them manually from
the disc that came with my mouse. Both were installed from scratch,
so that was a bit random.

Anyone want to venture a guess on a direction I should go? Any other
tests I can run? Beer is on me if anyone can help out.

System Specs:

AMD 2400+ cpu (thermaltake volcano9 HS/fan)
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard (on-board sound & LAN)
1 gig (2x512) kingston PC2700
Geforce 4600ti
400W power supply
 
V

Vance Green

Check your fans, all of 'em (don't forget vid card).

Open your PSU and check for blown-up electrolytic caps
(there was a bad batch of 'lytic paste come through a couple years
ago, I had a PSU with a 4700u/10V 'lytic with the can blown completely
off the gasket-this led to all KINDS of strange symptoms).

Sounds like hardware, rather then software.
 
C

Corky St. Clair

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to take a look at the PSU
today... and probably just buy another one. The one I've been using
is about 2 1/2 years old, and it would probably be a good idea to
replace it anyway.

As for the fans... of the 3 case fans I have, the one right above the
PSU is running a bit slowly. The others are fine. Video card fan is
fine, as is the CPU fan. I'll go ahead and replace the one slow one.

I just got a flash of some pixels now, so I'd better send before I
crash. Ugh. Oh, I did run the virus scan, but it came back clean.
Hopefully my new power supply will solve this problem.

Thanks again and I'll post the results.
 
C

Corky St. Clair

Well, the power supply wasn't the problem... but at least I have a
nice, fresh one in there now. Exact same crashing/freezing problem
within an hour of another install. So, my next thought was the
motherboard, becuase of some strange USB problems that I was also
having. In desparation, I bought a new Abit mobo. 2 hours later and
I've finished installing w2k on it. Same freeze with the pixels.
Definitely looks like a video card problem now. I wish I found this
post before I went out and bought a motherboard:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=....76346415%40newssvr21.news.prodigy.com&rnum=5

So, now I'm going to try to return the mobo and RMA my video card. Or
just buy a new one if that doesn't work out. Expensive weekend.
 

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