Weird problem on a laptop - BSODs, ...

[GL]

Here is a problem I find very intriguing and extremely frustrating on an
Acer Aspire 1692 laptop running XP. I apologize if the description is
long, but believe me, its just a summary. Sorry for cross-posting.

I began receiving BSOD errors a few weeks ago on my laptop (0x000000F4
(...)). Because it only happened a couple of times and because my
computer was still able to reboot perform a chkdsk and start Windows
properly, I didn't pay a lot of attention to them. Later, I boot my
computer and it simply couldn't make it passed the Windows splash
screen. It would freeze right before the logon screen. Also, it wouldn't
make it into safe mode. I did all the troubleshooting I could think of,
from a chkdsk to all the disk checking tools you can find on UBCD4Win,
to memtest, viruses, adware, searching google with the BSOD error codes,
etc. I tried a system restore from the f8 screen and a complete repair
of my Windows installation without success. It simply wouldn't go passed
the XP splash screen. Once in a while, it would boot and the bios
wouldn't find the hard drive at all (OS not found). So I suspected my
hard drive was bad even though the diagnostic tests were telling me
otherwise, or some system files were corrupt.

So, I got tired of trying and bought a new hard drive and used the Acer
recovery cds to get a completely new installation on a fresh drive. Here
is were it gets interesting... after a few days of the new system
functioning properly, I got some BSOD again (0x000000F4 (...)), and once
in a while the bios wouldn't see the hard drive at all. Sometimes,
Windows would tell me that the delayed writing to the disk had failed
(e.g. "delayed writing has failed writing c:/$mft) before I got a BSOD.
Other times, the system woudl work perfectly for several hours. So I
flashed a new bios, fixed the Acer lunchapp.ocx bug, tried scanning for
viruses with the latest updates, uninstalled Norton, did some more
chkdsk (with /f /r), some more memtest... with no success. So if
everything stayed like that, I would have to conclude that some
intermittent hardware problem, for example cables, is the source of all
this grief.

Here is where it gets esoteric. Before I installed the new hard drive, I
put my old hard drive in an external enclosure and copied all the files
on it to a spare and empty hard drive on a desktop. By the way, my old
hard drive was working fine in an enclosure. I did not open or execute
any file on the desktop. A few days later on that desktop (while it was
idle), I see an error message "delayed writing has failed writing
f:/$mft ..." f: is the drive on which I copied my old hard drive! I
reboot the desktop and the BIOS couldn't find the drive! Exactly the
same symptoms as on my laptop...!????

Either this last part is an amazing coincidence, or there is a
software/hardware interaction I do not understand, or Sigmund Freud is
making fun of me...

Please help me before I start believing in aliens!

Guillaume

 

[Poprivet]

You did not cross post; you multi-posted, which is very poor netiquette.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting

"weird" is also the wrong word. You're off to a bad start it seems.

I'm not going to read such a missive as this one is. Learn to cross-post
and to bullet details in order to get more responses.

 

[GL]

Ok, let's do this again then... I submitted to a couple of forums
because I don't know if my problem is related to hardware, software, OS,
etc. I also included a long description because I didn't want people to
tell me "did you try a memtest?" or "did you google your BSOD error
codes?".

In brief: My laptop (Acer 1690 on XP) was freezing before the logon
screen. I tried to fix it in multiple ways and resorted to changing the
hard drive and reinstalling everything with recovery cds. The problem
persists with the new hard drive and I keep getting BSODs. I think the
RAM is ok. Don't know if this is related, by a hard drive that contains
a copy of my old hard drive failed also. Found no virus on any hard drive.

Hope this is short enough now.

GL