XP Start up/reliability issues

The Black Oil · 07-03-2013 5:49pm #1

Hey,

Have an 8 year old PC here (XP Pro SP3) from the elders that's giving trouble. Started a few weeks ago where the desktop wouldn't load. I ran a few scans at the time, MSE, CCleaner, Combofix, etc.

Just there now it wouldn't load the desktop again. And on a restart it said 'no primary master drive found' (and others). I wouldn't if this might mean the HD is on its way out, or if something else is amiss. The current HD is not as old as the PC itself, though. I restarted again, opting for Safe Mode, which seems OK.

The Black Oil · 07-03-2013 6:02pm

I'm back into the desktop now, a bit slow, but I think it's like that a bit, anyway. Crystal Disk Info had a yellow light the last time I ran it a few months ago, but I don't know how accurate that is.

yoyo · 07-03-2013 7:13pm

Well I would be inclined to do a full backup now while you have the chance

. Does sound like the HDD has given up the ghost

Nick

The Black Oil · 07-03-2013 8:40pm

Ran Combox fix again, running a few other scans, updated Java...not that it may be related. Seems OK for the moment. Might throw a spare HD into it and start from scratch with a fresh install after doing a back up. Have Malwarebytes Pro on it, not sure that means I'll be able to use the same license key (I bought 4 for 4 machines), or if I'll have to buy another in the event of a fresh install. Office 2007 might be grumpy, too.

druidhill · 07-03-2013 9:27pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

it said 'no primary master drive found' (and others).

What do you mean when you say and others?

Have you ensured the cable is good and correctly seated on both ends and there are no bent pins on either the motherboard or hard drive connector?

The Black Oil · 07-03-2013 9:55pm

It wasn't showing other drives like the DVD ROM.

Primary master, none.
Primary slave, none.
etc

Maybe it was just a glitch as that doesn't occur on boot up now, or else it's a sign of further trouble to come. I don't recall the full message on this particular aspect, and I'm not very familiar with how things look on the boot as I'm not in front of the PC that often. Should be just one HD and two optical drives coming up.

druidhill · 07-03-2013 10:11pm

Based on what you've said, I don't think I would be able to point to a software or hard drive hardware issue just yet.

The Black Oil · 07-03-2013 10:20pm

Yeah, I'm a bit stumped as there were symptoms a few weeks back, but I don't really know if they were pointing to anything. Malwarebytes has been running for 3 hours and hasn't found anything.

Lovely Bloke · 07-03-2013 11:01pm

I had a XP laptop do the exact same thing when it was 5 or so years old.

Stuck Linux Mint on it and it was good as new - still is 3 years later.

The Black Oil · 08-03-2013 1:02pm

That wouldn't suit the old man, methinks.

ZENER · 08-03-2013 1:48pm

What make/ model is the computer ? Sounds like a mainboard issue to me. Had similar issues with a Dell where it would sometimes forget all the drives, turned out to bad caps.

Ken

The Black Oil · 08-03-2013 2:14pm

It's home made.

Motherboard is EpoX 4PDA2+.

The Black Oil · 04-04-2013 10:18pm

Still something not right. Slow to log on. Slow to open programs. Explorer (not IE) a bit grumpy, too. Poor wireless signal.

jsmith679 · 07-04-2013 1:42am

The disk may have been corrupted in some area . Try run Chkdsk . See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

RodgersLFC · 08-04-2013 10:01am

The first thing I always do for issues like this is a complete reinstall of the OS. If the problems keep persisting then at least you know that its most likely a hardware issue. XP gets very slow over time anyway, a reinstall once a year is generally the way to go.

The Black Oil · 09-04-2013 8:23pm

Yeah, I might go for that option, alright. Office 2007 probably won't like that as the key has, um, been used more than once.

yoyo · 09-04-2013 11:00pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

Yeah, I might go for that option, alright. Office 2007 probably won't like that as the key has, um, been used more than once.

Shouldn't matter if the online activation fails try the phone activation :-)

Nick

The Black Oil · 10-04-2013 7:54pm

If that involves talking to a human, won't they say your code has been used 4 times, go away?

yoyo · 11-04-2013 12:19pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

If that involves talking to a human, won't they say your code has been used 4 times, go away?

That does not mean you are not licensed to use it, so they will activate it for you. Once those 4 installs were done on the actual computer, and not multiple ones, you are well within your rights as the license owner

Nick

The Black Oil · 11-04-2013 4:24pm

OK, thanks.

Well, I've reinstalled XP. That seemed to go pretty smoothly, but when I was installing drivers, etc it froze up a few times. I think the culprit is the wireless adapter, which wasn't playing ball - haven't gotten online yet to do updates. I installed the motherboard drivers, DVD software, sound drivers, now on reboot the XP log comes up and I hit a blank screen. I can get in via Safe Mode.

OK, weird...now it came back, maybe it just took a long time - it should haven't gone blank/black for that long (far, far too long). Will install the wireless adapter again, and see how it boots then in case something is still going on.

yoyo · 11-04-2013 5:19pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

OK, thanks.

Well, I've reinstalled XP. That seemed to go pretty smoothly, but when I was installing drivers, etc it froze up a few times. I think the culprit is the wireless adapter, which wasn't playing ball - haven't gotten online yet to do updates. I installed the motherboard drivers, DVD software, sound drivers, now on reboot the XP log comes up and I hit a blank screen. I can get in via Safe Mode.

OK, weird...now it came back, maybe it just took a long time - it should haven't gone blank/black for that long (far, far too long). Will install the wireless adapter again, and see how it boots then in case something is still going on.

Have you tested the hard disk? Could be the disk is failing.. A wireless adaptor could cause these issues though, but do test the disk jic would be my advice

Nick

The Black Oil · 11-04-2013 5:53pm

What's the best way of doing that, CrystalDiskInfo?

yoyo · 11-04-2013 6:28pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

What's the best way of doing that, CrystalDiskInfo?

Something like Vivard or MHDD on the UBCD

Nick

The Black Oil · 11-04-2013 7:40pm

Thanks. Didn't get to try that.

I tried to reinstall XP again. Went ahead then with the audio, video card and ethernet drivers, restarted and it stuck on the 'welcome' screen, audio log on theme sounded slow, crackled/distorted and it just didn't log on. That's not a new symptom. XP itself seems to reinstall OK initially, but I think overall it has been creaking along for a while now.

I've a spare unused HD, so am trying that as attempt 3 for today. Will see how it goes.

RodgersLFC · 11-04-2013 7:47pm

That sounds to me as if you're working with faulty hardware. The change of HD should fix that for you hopefully

The Black Oil · 11-04-2013 8:42pm

XP on the new HD. ATI driver installation went wonky first time around, stalled. Tried again - OK.

Left the wireless adapter until the end. It's not finding a wireless signal - no networks found in range. Tbh, this adapter has always been a pain on fresh installs of XP. Trying a few attempts to remove/reinstall the wireless adapter. Need to get this going to grab the 100+ updates that'll probably be waiting. Froze up during two driver installations on this third attempt with XP today.

Audio still sometimes a bit crackly. This is starting to feel like a waste of time. Again.

yoyo · 11-04-2013 8:46pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

XP on the new HD. ATI driver installation went wonky first time around, stalled. Tried again - OK.

Left the wireless adapter until the end. It's not finding a wireless signal - no networks found in range. Tbh, this adapter has always been a pain on fresh installs of XP. Trying a few attempts to remove/reinstall the wireless adapter. Need to get this going to grab the 100+ updates that'll probably be waiting. Froze up during two driver installations on this third attempt with XP today.

Audio still sometimes a bit crackly. This is starting to feel like a waste of time. Again.

It seems a bit odd to be having so many issues I think there may be an issue with the hardware in the machine. I would visually inspect the motherboard for any swollen capacitors as machines of that age can start to get them, see this image for a reference:

.
Bad capacitors can cause all sorts of weird issues.
The crackly audio is likely a driver issue, have you installed the audio chipset drivers?

Nick

The Black Oil · 11-04-2013 9:34pm

Thanks for your input and patience on this.

OK, since posting, it's been up and down again. It's frozen a couple of times. I think partly due to the wireless, it just locked up. No Task Manager or anything. Restarted, tada, there's the Eircom wireless signal...I go to input the password - freezes again. Restart again...but now it can't find the wireless once more.

Re the audio, it's always been a bit of a funny one. Under Device Manager there's always been a yellow question mark because two Media Audio Controllers have been listed. Drivers come from the motherboard CD and install fine for one Media Audio Controller, but I've also a Philips CD, which has audio stuff - some of it junk/software. The main audio generally played fine, videos, Youtube, etc. I guess there was a conflict somewhere with something hence the system chimes sounding distorted.

I'm probably not the best judge of leaking capacitors, etc, though one or two here look a little off? I'll leave the pics as links rather than embed into the post.

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/rustbucketalbravo/DSC_0064_zpsc01d40ce.jpg

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/rustbucketalbravo/DSC_0072_zps8aaac197.jpg

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/rustbucketalbravo/DSC_0076_zps5f07a0c7.jpg

I've just left it alone for now. Have tinkered enough with it today. Happy to declare this dead if you reckon it is. Have data backed up.

yoyo · 11-04-2013 11:24pm

The Black Oil wrote: »

Thanks for your input and patience on this.

OK, since posting, it's been up and down again. It's frozen a couple of times. I think partly due to the wireless, it just locked up. No Task Manager or anything. Restarted, tada, there's the Eircom wireless signal...I go to input the password - freezes again. Restart again...but now it can't find the wireless once more.

Re the audio, it's always been a bit of a funny one. Under Device Manager there's always been a yellow question mark because two Media Audio Controllers have been listed. Drivers come from the motherboard CD and install fine for one Media Audio Controller, but I've also a Philips CD, which has audio stuff - some of it junk/software. The main audio generally played fine, videos, Youtube, etc. I guess there was a conflict somewhere with something hence the system chimes sounding distorted.

I'm probably not the best judge of leaking capacitors, etc, though one or two here look a little off? I'll leave the pics as links rather than embed into the post.

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/rustbucketalbravo/DSC_0064_zpsc01d40ce.jpg

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/rustbucketalbravo/DSC_0072_zps8aaac197.jpg

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/rustbucketalbravo/DSC_0076_zps5f07a0c7.jpg

I've just left it alone for now. Have tinkered enough with it today. Happy to declare this dead if you reckon it is. Have data backed up.

Picture 2 has 2 bulging capacitors which is not a good sign :-( . If you know someone handy with electronics and soldering replacing capacitors isn't that difficult. I wouldn't spend much more time or money on such an old system though

Nick

The Black Oil · 12-04-2013 10:11am

Aye, I'll leave it go so.

All I can really salvage is the PSU, wireless adapter and HD.

The HD is a 160GB Western Digital (it being new), or a Samsung 250GB one that's a few years old - I'd swapped them out to test as per yesterday's posts, but I'd say either one can be used since it's the capacitors that are at fault. They're both IDE, so how can I use them in a new build - some sort of IDE - SATA adapter, so that it'll work on a new motherboard?

XP Start up/reliability issues

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