Computer problems

[vlv8vic]

righto, i am no computer junky thats why im asking here.
it seems that often lately while im on the net my pc freezes. no love at all, no alt ctrl del to save me, no pointer movement and no hard drive light. the only way out is to pull the plug.

when i turn it back on it says it needs to check my FAT32 for consistency, but if i would like to skip that i can, by pushing any key. now i couldnt find the any key so i pushed EVERY key and none of them stop it. ok, i can handle waiting a minute or so for it. when it goes through its check it says something about an invalid file or something and mentions mozilla.
now from what i can gather its only happened since firefox updated a week or so ago, at the same time i upgraded my trend-micro.
ive sorted a few bugs from trend-micro and updated firefox to version 2.0 (it was 1.something before).

now i still get the freezies, it only seems to do it when im on the net, but after a restart its fine for a while (firefox even remembers what page i was on and restarts any windows it had open when the system froze.

any help appreciated... as basically explained as possible (im good at following instructions but am rusty on the lingo).

thanks.

[VS Omega]

Not 100% but it sounds like your partitions are rooted.. when was Windows last installed? Another question, is it a fairly old PC? I ask because you're running a FAT32 partition but they're superseded now by NTFS because of issues with fragmentations and NTFS can handle large hard drives while FAT32 can't.

I'll bet it's a software thing and the next person to post will have a simple solution that will fix your problem but I was taught to check hardware before software so that's what I'm doing here

I would say try uninstalling Firefox and use internet explorer for a while and see if the problem is still happening, then you can start removing things until you isolate it (like trend though I wouldn't because you would have no protection)

[vlv8vic]

i will have a crack at exploder for a while. im running xp and have not touched that side of things since ive had it from new about 2-3 years ago.

edit: is there an easy way i can transfer all my bookmarks from firefox to exploder?

[vy_storm]

edit: is there an easy way i can transfer all my bookmarks from firefox to exploder?

To export from firefox: bookmarks > Organize bookmarks > File > Export > Choose a spot to save the html file > then press save.

To import in IE: File > Import and export > Next > Import Favourites > Select location of saved favourites from firefox > Select the destination folder > Finish.

[VS Omega]

Just googled up this not sure if it'll work or not

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ie/mozfavexport.htm

Beaten.. damn he's quick

[minux]

your problem is you are running FAT 32, not a good choice. Personally i'd do a backup of everything you want and do a reformat using NTFS, your problems will amazingly fix, i do not think it is a software problem. Could also me bad ram.

If you need a windows XP pro SP2 cd, let me know, i can post you an original that i have spare.

[vlv8vic]

your problem is you are running FAT 32, not a good choice. Personally i'd do a backup of everything you want and do a reformat using NTFS, your problems will amazingly fix, i do not think it is a software problem. Could also me bad ram.

If you need a windows XP pro SP2 cd, let me know, i can post you an original that i have spare.

the "choice" was what i could afford in a hurry 2-3 years ago while at uni when my old shitbox fell to bits mid-assignment.

i think you missed the part in the first post that should lead to you realising that i wouldnt know how or where or to what i would backup everything, i have no idea how to reformat and until i took notice i didnt know my computer had a Fat anything let alone it would work better with a FFS!!!

the sp2 bit might ring a bell, is that service pack two? that i have....im pretty sure.
thanks for the offer! i will see how i survive using exploder for a while. so far so good....

[VS Omega]

You can convert to NTFS from FAT-32, though I'm not sure if it'll repair your (potentially) corrupted Mozilla/System files though.. couldn't hurt!

What you would do if you want to give it a try is go to start -> run and type in "cmd" (without the quotation marks) .

That should open the command prompt which is a bit like DOS (a window with black background and white text)

When you're in there it doesn't matter where you are because it's a system wide command, type in "convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs" (again without quotes).. assuming you have only one drive then you would type in C for drive_letter so you would actually do:

"convert c: /fs:ntfs"

If you're using Linux or dual booting into something like Windows 95/98 then don't upgrade to NTFS because it will pretty much break them, but NTFS has been the recommended FS since Windows 2000 so you should be safe if you're just running XP.

I know what it's like to have to use Internet Explorer, it's not pretty but it's adequate until we get your Mozilla fixed

[Doubleshadow]

It certainly has quite a few possibilities on this problem.

-Firstly, there is a repair option on XP install disk that does a system file check and restores any bogus/damaged systems files.
- If this problem happens when you net surfing, you may be getting somone spoofing your ports. Ensure that your virus checker files are up to date and do your scanning. You may also want to run an Adaware utility on your system.
- If you have a rootkit on your system, you on your own. I cant help there. Rootkits are ingenius little suckers. Do a netsearch and see what you come up with.
- If this seem to be localized to firefox. Uninstall and reinstall it and get the latest fix/updates for it.
- It wont hurt to defrag your hard drive.
- By the way, check your Event Viewer. The applications log may show you what is bombing on you system that is causing the system freeze. If there is an error message there, do a search on the net for it and you may come up with a viable resolution on the net.

If that does not work. Put the CPU in a the backyard and shoot it a couple of times. Look on the bright side. It cant get much worst Just kidding on the last point, man. Good luck!

[sixshooter]

LOL pressed every key !!! hahahaha !

[vlv8vic]

ok... the any key thing was a joke... but its getting late so ill forgive that one.
i have run defrag.
it froze while i was using exploder as well. so maybe it isnt mozilla.

where does this event log thingy live? id like to visit this one for a look-see.
might dig up the XP disk and see if it does the repair thingy. its giving me the shits!

[vlv8vic]

Found event log. this is what comes up when it comes back on. this was whil ei was using IE not mozilla. doesnt say anything about the crash just the bit where i booted back on.

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is FAT32.


One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Volume Serial Number is 2629-16F0
Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)? Yes
32 KB in 1 recovered files.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
39068512 KB total disk space.
756448 KB in 1092 hidden files.
126944 KB in 3939 folders.
19907488 KB in 64675 files.
18277600 KB are available.

32768 bytes in each allocation unit.
1220891 total allocation units on disk.
571175 allocation units available on disk.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[Doubleshadow]

Found event log. this is what comes up when it comes back on. this was whil ei was using IE not mozilla. doesnt say anything about the crash just the bit where i booted back on.

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is FAT32.


One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Volume Serial Number is 2629-16F0
Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)? Yes
32 KB in 1 recovered files.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
39068512 KB total disk space.
756448 KB in 1092 hidden files.
126944 KB in 3939 folders.
19907488 KB in 64675 files.
18277600 KB are available.

32768 bytes in each allocation unit.
1220891 total allocation units on disk.
571175 allocation units available on disk.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

This just means that you did not shut down properly. Everytime you shut down properly, windows do some housecleaning in the background. When that is not done, you get files hanging out there with no links to parent files and windows tries to relink them or make other similar corrections.

I am beginning to suspect that one or more of your dll files may be problematic. Try rebooting from your XP disk. When you do that, it will give you an option to reinstall or repair your system. Choose the repair option and see if that works. I also think that XP keeps a log or something like PC doctor, but I dont know where that is. It may actually show which program is bombing and causing the problem.

You may also want to google on "crashing PC" or "slow PC" something like that. You would be amazed what you come up with.

[VS Omega]

Event log is in control panel -> administrative tasks

also try control +alt + delete to open task manager and look at the processes tab (or control + shift + escape), and see if anything is using a lot of resources on the PC (like CPU or memory).. it's possible you've spyware or something as well (dont worry about system idle process - how computers work is the cpu is always 100% and when something needs it system idle gives it some)

[sixshooter]

Yeah I've reckon you've had a virus... it's usually very terminal when windows wants you do disk checks, recover orphaned files and such etc...

Sorry but it's better to start again with a fresh install !

[vlv8vic]

how does that work? my virus stuff was down for a few days while trend had a fight with my credit card. is this something i can do or bomb it off for someone else to play with?

juzza, i wouldnt know what i am looking for on that list, i assume all the SYSTEM stuff is normal, but the stuff under my username could be bad? nothing jumps out at me... but that means nothing!!!

[VS Omega]

It can be especially hard to see which ones are virus's and which ones aren't, because some will use hardly any CPU and memory.. I'm trying to think of some apps to help you out but the one I was going to recommend, AVG, I think it's no longer free

[JD]

the free version of avg is still around the net but juzza i think your right and you gotta pay for the newest version now.

[vlv8vic]

update is that my system is still crashing, but i haven't done anything to fix it because i haven't been home... but... just today i have noticed that when its about to crash the internet all but stops and i get page error- cant load page, the connection piddles along for a bit then it crashes. i managed to get into the task manager as it was about to crash and wrote down a couple of the user thingies that didnt look friendly, one was p3xrcch.exe and another e_fatibip.exe and keyhook.exe.

they are probably ok but thought id mention it anyway.

[sixshooter]

Do a file search to find where those exe's are found.

It doesn't look good as googling fails to return a result for 2 of those exe's

If it was a binary that was released for public use then it would have some documentation on the net somewhere.

[vlv8vic]

thought i might update on the problem. after ages systematically removing things and reinstalling to see if a program was causing the trouble i found the problem!!!

it was Trend Micro PC Cillin Internet Security.

funny that the thing i pay too much for to protect my machine was the one causing all the grief. after hours and hours of uninstalling and reinstalling with the bits the tech-support people suggested i am back to having no security and $100 out of pocket.

My machine doubles most of the minimum requirements for the program yet it still bogs it down and freezes it up. Also makes using the internet a nightmare.

Does anyone else use Trend? i was really happy with the 2005 version but 2007 is a bit of a dog.

[JD]

i dont generally have background programs running for that reason, if i suspect a problem then i run a antivirus check.

[vlv8vic]

thats what im thinking i will do. they have just offered to extend my issue on the 2005 version so at least thats one win! just means more uninstalling and stuffing around!!!! bloody puters!!!!!

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Norton is the same, I hate it, scans everything you open and takes ages slowing everything down. Zone Alarm firewall and AVG is what I use.

[Low_VX_Taxi]

Norton is the same, I hate it, scans everything you open and takes ages slowing everything down. Zone Alarm firewall and AVG is what I use.

Good recommendations! Personally id recommend AVAST antivirus firstly its free for home p.cs and secondly it auto updates and is compatible with everything, ive never had a drama with it and ive been using it for bout 2 yrz. If anyone wants it juss google AVAST its free for non commercial users!! Not a big fan of Zone alarm, gave me a bit ov greif.