Hoping someone can help with pc prob

We are having a pain in the ar*s time with this weird problem on the pc/pc's...am hoping someone here can shine some light on what this is.

A couple of months ago we started having this problem with the pc simply restarting itself while you were using it [whether on the net or not]...if on the net, it left the little icon on the bottom of the screen to say you were online, but you couldn't open any pages and couldn't even bring the connection screen up to disconnect [we have dial up]

Ran virus screens, adaware, spybot...nothing showed up.

Eventually, the kids convinced hubby to buy a brand new pc [the logic being that the other one was getting long in the tooth anyway, and getting a new one would also allow us to do what we wanted/needed to do while we figured out what was wrong with the other one]

So we buy a new pc [Acer Aspire with Microsoft XP Media Centre on it - also had Nortons on it but we bought Trend Micro PC-cillin and installed that instead] - everything seemed okay - until one of the kids got carrid away with themselves and networked the 'old' pc to the new one...and voila...what the old pc was doing, the new pc is doing. So we get a pc technician to come out to the house...he runs industry virus checking stuff on it...nothing. He's here 1.5 hours [and $100 later] the pc doesn't misbehave once. Naturally he leaves and the bastard does it's *I'm going to totally shit you off* routine.

We have checked the power supply - ok
phone - seems okay...this prob occurs randomly and happens whether on net or not. Any help is greatly and gratefully appreciated.

S.

Have screen captured the messages we get in relation to the Media Centre system receiver error:

First, use rescue disks or similar to return the new comp to its original state. Then, format the old PC and never use it again.

Seriously, the old PC needs to reformatted, or at least Windows on it re-installed. It does seem like there's a virus on it, and it's probably one that can hide itself. You should run a DOS-based anti-virus-program, like the F-Secure to make sure there's nothing on there.

And as for the new PC, if it doesn't work after the rescue, check your power supply. Even small spikes in the current can cause erratic behaviour in PC's. Also check for any grounding problems and finally, check that you RAM-modules are okay. You can find software on the net for this.

Ice

Thanks Ice...and yes, never use the old pc again

Am thinking, like you, that it seems it is a viral thing...we have bought new surge arresters, new power boards - hubby is a sparky and has checked the voltage etc., and all is okay [which narked me no end cause I was certain it was the power]

My daughter will be adding to this thread now as she is the one who has been most involved with what we have been trying to do to sort this out [and also because she is way more pc savvy than me, so will make a lot more sense than I will]

S.

Hi Ice, this is Rhiannon, Sharon's daughter.

You're right about the old computer, I'm going to nuke it to hell.

As for the new one, I actually did use the Acer eRecovery disc I made when we got the computer home. I did that about 5 days after we bought it because the problem began shortly after I networked the old and new computers. I know, I know, why the hell did I do that if there was a problem with the old one? All I can say is I'm an idiot!!

So I ran the recovery discs, but that didn't fix the problem. My parents had a guy from Jim's Computers come to the house and he ran some virus program, one he said that IT professionals use, he ran it in Safe Mode and it came up clean. That program wasn't run in DOS, though, I'm not sure how those things work in Safe Mode versus normal mode.

Like Mum said, Dad bought new power boards and surge protectors today. There's one on the power supply (I think) and one on the phoneline.

The RAM is something I've seen suggested on various nerd sites but I have no idea how to do that. You suggested using online software to check that. Would you be able to recommend some programs I can check out?

I'll go get F-Secure and see what happens. It depends on how large the download file is because the super old first computer we ever had, which I'm using now, doesn't have a CD burner. (grrrr) I'll have to download on the old and new computer and hope the stupid things don't restart on me in the middle of downloading.

I also had a look at the Event Log thing on the new computer and found a lot of errors, but I had a hell of a time trying to find the event id's on the microsoft site. Blah @ microsoft.

Mum suggested I give you a list of various things that are wrong with the new computer, and software I've installed since the system recovery, but personally I'm not sure how that will help because the only programs/software that is consistant between the new and old computer are Windows XP, Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Oh, and the Media Centre Receiver error message seems to be a general problem which I think is not related to the restart problem, only because it did it as some as I turned the stupid computer on.

Oh, and something else, I turned the Automatic Restart option off on both computers and we now get the BSOD before the computers restart. Both come up with this:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

And under the techincal information both give some stupid microsoft code that no one in the world can understand. I know that often that techincal information might give you a file that is causing the error but neither BSOD message lists a file, instead we get:

*** STOP: 0000000A ... and the rest of the numbers.

So yes, that's what I can think of right now. I really appreciate any help you can give, as does Mum. So thanks for having a look at this for us.

Laters.

Edit: I'm just wondering if I would need to uninstall Trend Micro before I install and run F-Secure?

There are many, and most of them should work. Read this: http://www.detnews.com/2005/techcolu...lumn-50356.htm

and try these:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
and
http://www.memtest86.com/

They may require some reading to get them to work, but they aren't impossible to use.


The Microsoft error codes are something only people at Microsoft can decypher. The numbers list the memory addresses and errors that happen, but I couldn't even start to guess what they mean.


You should get the free DOS-version, that you don't have to install at all. Just copy it onto a disk or a CD and boot your computer to "Command line only" or whatever the option is on an English Windows. Then just run the (ASCII-based, ie. no graphical user interface) anti-virus. It bypasses Windows' routines, so it should pick up any viruses in Windows that anti-virus software ran in Windows can't pick up.

Get this: ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/free/fp-312d.zip
and these:
ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/fr...ates/macro.def
ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/free/updates/sign.def
ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/fr...ates/sign2.def

Ice

Thanks Ice.

I downloaded the DOS virus scanner earlier, ran it and was told that the drive wasn't ready (or something to that effect), and that the PAGEFILE.SYS was being used by another application. I ran it again in Safe Mode and got the same message. I don't know it that's meant to came up, but it did say it found no virus.

I'll get around to the RAM checker in the morning when I'm thinking a little better.

The computer restarted on me again about 15 mins ago. I sent the error report and was sent to this microsoft page:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response...9afa76c&SID=10

Originally a few people suggested that problem, but I don't know how to check the device drivers to see what's right and what isn't.

You're not supposed to run it under Windows. You need to boot the computer to command line only to run it. When you boot the comp, press F8 and then choose "Command Prompt only" or something to that effect. Then use the command line to run the anti-virus.

This should help: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1723


For Device Drivers, read this: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=322205

Ice