OT- Problem with my new PC

[kingnebwsu]

See the topic...I go

Yeah, so I got a new PC and everything seemed to be fine for a few days. Then a few days ago my PC started acting funky. I'd be in the middle of surfing the net or something then boom...I'd get a restart for no reason. Possibly more disturbing is when I'd be using my PC and I'd get a black screen. Windows wouldn't crash (that I knew of), but my screen would just go black. Ctrl/Alt/Del'ing wouldn't help, as I couldn't even see anything that was going on.

This has happened when I was using a variety of programs, so I know it's not any specific program. It happened using mozilla, winamp, halo, and OOTP (not at the same time, obviously).

Here are a few details about my new PC...

WinXP (transferred it from Win98 last week)
1.83 GHz Athlon XP
512 MB DDR RAM
Radeon video card with 128 MB RAM...etc.

I dunno how imp't that stuff is. I get the impression from talking with my buddies that it appears my hard drive is going bad.

After my PC restarts and I do a scandisk, it'll often list a file name and say "The first allocation unit is invalid, the entry will be truncated." Sounds like my HD needs a big hug or something. I've had it for 2.5+ years and never had a problem with it. Wonder if deleting all the stuff/formatting it possibly did the nail in the coffin?

I don't know much about computers, so some of my info may be unclear/just downright ignorant. However, any info/comments people have would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-Ben

[Easy Mac]

I'd say reformat your HD and install XP. I think that 98, while upgradable to XP, is just too out of date to have a consistently stable upgrade.

[sabotai]

I have 98 + XP upgrade and it always works fine for me. I would do as Easy suggests. Reformat and reinstall everything.

Have you scanned for a virus?

[Tasan]

Do a clean install of XP, like above, and also make sure you grab all of your XP critical updates, then throw on the xp firewall at minimum and install/update an anti-virus program. Theres a real nice free AV proggy at www.grisoft.com

[VPI97]

Did you build this PC or buy it pre-assembled?

Edit - I ask because it sounds a bit like a possible short circuit, which could be caused by various things, like mis-mounting the motherboard or just a faulty power supply.

[Daimyo]

If it is a new PC how did you get Win98 on it in the first place? I think you mentioned before that you were building it yourself... you didn't just take an old harddrive from an old computer that already had Win98 installed on it and plug that in your new one did you?

[wbonnell]

or the cpu could be overheating. Since you build a new rig, I'd suspect something wrong there first. Nonetheless, if you have another hard drive, you could isolate/eliminate that.

[cody8200]

I'd say its a hard drive problem. Has there been any weird sounds coming from your computer on bood, like a grating/grinding sound?
Your line that says this:
After my PC restarts and I do a scandisk, it'll often list a file name and say "The first allocation unit is invalid, the entry will be truncated."

That defienetely sounds like a hard drive error or possible malfunction. I reccommend backing anything up and reformatting.

[astralhaze]

Cody is on the ball. It is one of two things, the hard drive or the file allocation tables. If it is the later than a simple reformat would take care of it. I have a sneaking suspicion that it isn't though and that HDD is simply toast.

[Bee]

It could also be a bad power supply. I had the same thing happen a couple years ago and after replacing the hard drive and it still doing it, I bought a new (more powerful) power supply and I didn't have a problem again with it.

So I'd say the possibilities are bad harddrive, bad (or underpowered) power supply or as wbonnell said overheating.

[MizzouRah]

Had this one yesterday on a call in Pittsfield, IL. Same problems as you describle, although windows did tell me there were some bad clusters.

I would get a new HD and reinstall a fresh copy of XP.


Todd

[kingnebwsu]

I had a long reply all typed out, and my PC restarted!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!

So now I'm gonna edit this msg like every minute to make sure I don't lose everything (AGAIN!!!).

I wouldn't think the update from 98 to XP could be the problem, but I know the end result of my current situation will be a format and fresh install of XP, so maybe that'll take care of the problem.

I really am starting to think it's the HD. No weird sounds or anything, just the error message and the way it's been acting since I formatted it.

The PC was built by my friend who is pretty knowledgable about PC's...I'll have him or my other buddy take a look inside the PC this week.

I'm not sure if the CPU is overheating or not. There are 2 fans on my case, and both seem to be functioning properly (getting a cool steady breeze from both). Though I guess they could be misdirected as far as the CPU goes? I'll have my buddies look at that.

I wonder if my power supply is faulty...as that could explain the random shutdowns and such. Everything working fine then boom...power gets short supplied or something. But would a bad power supply lead to those error msg's I got on the scandisk?

I think I may have to get a new HD (sigh). But the good thing is, I haven't given my old PC to my mom yet, so I can use the 7.5 GB one out of there to test my PC. I'll put that in tonight and see what shakes down.

Thanks everyone for all your tips and further comments would be appreciated. I'll post an update when I find something out.

[wbonnell]

make sure you flash your motherboard to the latest bios

[HornedFrog Purple]

This may sound silly but before you do all that grab a different power cord and hook it up to your computer and see what happens. Sometimes the cord itself has a short causing the whole thing to reboot at random.

Another thing it might be but you would have to open it up and see is the reset switch may be messing up. My wife had bought a new case about a year ago and it would reset at random, then she even tapped it lightly and it would reset. It turned out it was the switch was faulty and she got a new case.

Just a thought.

[Bee]

Originally posted by kingnebwsu
But would a bad power supply lead to those error msg's I got on the scandisk?

It's possible. When the computer shuts down, it could be corrupting a file or something. I know I was getting errors when I had the power supply problem. Sometimes I could work for an hour or two and then bam, it would restart. Sometimes I'd turn it on and 10 seconds later it would restart. Most people told me it was the hard drive, so I suspect that's probably a more common problem that's similar to what happened to me. In any case, I hope you can find a solution.

[sabotai]

I'm not sure if the CPU is overheating or not. There are 2 fans on my case, and both seem to be functioning properly (getting a cool steady breeze from both). Though I guess they could be misdirected as far as the CPU goes? I'll have my buddies look at that.

Is one of the fans ON the CPU? You should have a fan directly over the CPU.

And be careful about flashing the BIOS. If you have coprrupted file or something goes wrong, your mobo will be worthless (as in ruined). A firend of mine ruined his mobo by flashing the BIOS with a corrupted file.