Crashing Crashing and Crashing again

[PotGuy]

Ok ive finally decided to do omething about this. Its been getting steadily worse for months and months.

Basically, whenever i am playing a game, my computer has the remarkable ability to crash randomly and loop the last sound played

it does it on rtcw, bf2, all source games and everything else.

I already have a virus which shuts down my computer randomly, and many other viruses as well, which norton, avast and the microsoft beta virus-scan-thing cant delete.

I cant format as i have no xp install, so that is out of the question

Does this sound like a virus, a hardware problem or a software problem, or anything else you can think of?

any help is appreciated it is driving my nuts

 

[Me__2001]

first do a scan with all of your scanners in safe mode and disable system restore

once you've done that move on to opening the case and giving it a good clean out inside, also check that all of your fans are working

 

[Rush]

At the worst ...spend £55 get a new XP disc ...format all ..then kick virus up its ar**.

anything else people might suggest is a saving .

 

[PotGuy]

right

i tried all 3 scanners in safe mode (not all at the same time ) a couple of days ago, and as usual it detects about 5 but cannot get rid of any of them

Ill open it up now and clear have a nosy inside

i really do not want to spend £55 because i am so close to getting the money for a new rig, but unfortunately it wont be replacing this one, and they will both be networked. And i do not want to network a pc that has viruses on it already obviously.

so im really in two minds as to what to do at the moment, but either way ill give it a clean now

 

[Me__2001]

you have to make sure that system restore is disabled, if its not the viruses will come back after rebooting

also what viruses are they ? might be able to find something to help you

 

[PotGuy]

ill do a scan later and get back to you thanks

i opened it up just now and poked around, dusted it out and replaced the pci cards so the agp had more airflow. I took out the pci modem because i dont use 56k and it was, unbeknown to me, blocking ALL the air from my gfx card.

I started it up and checked all the fans, and low and behold the gfx card fan wasn't on. When i took it out and studied it, the heatsink wasn't hot at all but the centre of the fan was very hot, and under the sticker it had been stained brown.

i presume this menas dead gfx card?

 

[Me__2001]

its working because you can use your PC, although it does sound like it has got a bit hot if you fix that then i reckon you should stop it from crashing

 

[PotGuy]

but how do i fix it?

Should i buy a replacement hsf or just buy another card

i mean the card in it is only a vanilla 9600 running on agp 4x

its worth about £40 new now, so is it worth buying a new hsf for it?

 

[ChristopherP]

wait until you get the new rig and use the new xp install disc and the old code

 

[mangrove_jack]

I would advise based on prior experience do the followiing...do all the following before rebooting...

1. Clear the INDEX.DAT file using suitable utility to its default size (I think off hand it is 32k)...i have one if you want it
2. Install. update program called spybot. Run teatimer app when prompted
3. Go into folder, view properties and select show all files including hidden system files, i assume you know what belongs there
4. Disable system restore and clear all TEMP folders that exist in LOCAL USER folder and WINDOWS system folder. Any program/virus wishing to reinstall will be prevented by teatimer resident.
5. Delete any folders contained in your PROGRAM FILES folder that are dubious and not relevant To your programs/OS installed
6. Run spybot program.
7. Press ctrl-alt-del and remove unknown running apps. Teatimer will prevent them from running if you are prompted in most cases.
8. Use firefox as a browser with 'noscript' extension downloaded shortly after.

I often have to physically browse the SYSTEM and SYSTEM32 and WINDOWS folder and remove any drivers, exe etc from unknown sources or with weird extensions, names that do not belong. One last thing is to run an older version of sygate firewall (prior to Norton buying them out). Disable auto updates once installed and prevent the firewall app from accessing itself to the net.
From hear, you should be in control again. Reboot and decide what will run and wont when winblowz loads. Then run your antivirus stuff and have fun following my instructions should you decide to go this way

 

[PotGuy]

Chris, that is a great idea. Why did i not think of that??

Right that is a lot of info to take in a couple of questions if you will?

1.could you give me a link to the index.dat clearer please?

2.um, i know have quite a lot of posts but i actually know bugger all about this . which folder are you talking about in 3.?

and just in case anyone is interested im going to buy an arcitce cooling hsf. Its only a tenner.

 

[muckshifter]

Chris, that is a great idea. Why did i not think of that??

Right that is a lot of info to take in a couple of questions if you will?

1.could you give me a link to the index.dat clearer please?

CCleaner will clear/clean your Index.dat files and a whole host of other crap ... wonder why they called it CrapCleaner.

SpywareBlaster does the same job as Teatimer ... I hope the have improved Teatimer.

Any three Antispyware program may give you 75% cleansing power ... HJThis will help even more.

2.um, i know have quite a lot of posts but i actually know bugger all about this . which folder are you talking about in 3.?

At the top of any window you have "File Edit Veiw ... etc" ... we have a thousand posts here about how to "show all files folders" ...

and just in case anyone is interested im going to buy an arcitce cooling hsf. Its only a tenner.

Why? ... no, nevermind, we been down this road.

If all else fails ... FORMAT!

 

[PotGuy]

i have spywareblaster too

ill get cc cleaner then

sorry i new how to show all files - i misunderstood what he meant

 

[muckshifter]

i have spywareblaster too

ill get cc cleaner then

... and a few others from here;

http://www.spywarepoint.com/downloads/

 

[mangrove_jack]

I use CICP...which is 'complete internet cleanup pro'. Unfortunatly for those users of microsoft products, the INDEX.DAT file contains all the crap some sneaky viruses rely on to reload every time they are 'removed' from your system. The CICP actually allows you to read what crap is in your computer and allows you to identify and destroy rogue drivers and executables that antivirus progs cannot. I would not mind betting that the size of this file in your case is rather huge. Do get back on how big it was prior to cleaning crap microsoft dont like the average user to delete. A quik GOOGLE search, using the following entries will provide you with CICP program and crack (only if you wanna quik fix)...

"index of" "parent directory" -html CICP

 

[mangrove_jack]

http://simtel.sun.ac.za/winxp/webbrow1/

Just one link with spyremoving stuff including CICP