John said:
My Windows XP has taken to freezing up completely when
running either checkdisk or my McAfee virus scan. All I
can do is press reset.
I can't check the system for virus's because checkdisk
and the virus scanner freeze up!!
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
John
Hi, John. You might be having this lock-up problem because of a failing
hard drive or bad RAM. First, do the hardware tests: download the
precompiled Memtest86 Windows binary from
www.memtest86.com. You'll
make a bootable floppy with this file. Then, download a diagnostic
utility for your hard drive from the drive mftr.'s website. You will
also make a bootable floppy with this. Now, boot with Memtest86 and the
test will start running immediately. Let the test run for a long time -
all day or overnight. Obviously, if you get errors right away you don't
need to keep running the test. If the machine locks up while testing,
then you know the issue is definitely hardware because you aren't in
Windows at this point.
If the RAM is good, then test the hard drive by booting with the
diagnostic utility - it will be obvious what to do, just be sure to
choose "thorough" and not "quick". If the hardware is really OK, then
there are other ways to scan for viruses, but let's be sure about the
hardware first. If you need more help, post back. If this seems way too
irritating to deal with (and that's OK if it is), then take the machine
to a good local computer repair shop (not a BestBuy or CompUSA type of
store).
Good luck,
Malke