Needle in a haystack

The Black Oil

We've been having problems with our XP machine since the summer. First the internet stopped working which we traced to a broken Belkin wireless adapter. Following a fresh install of XP we replaced the Belkin with a Linksys adapter following some of the advice in this thread. The problems didn't go away and it still kept hanging after logging on to the desktop for a few moments. Installing and keeping the Linksys adapter "visible" on the system seemed quite hit and miss. To rule out a possible problem with the new adapter I installed it on my dad's 9 year old Dell (Win 2000) and it worked without a problem. For whatever reason when it mixed with the XP machine it just didn't want to play ball.

The PC originally only had 512MB of RAM and I'd always been meaning to add more so I ordered 2 GB from Crucial last week. That went in without a difficulty though we were still getting hanging when it came to using the web. Today I removed the original 512 stick of RAM in case it was the culprit. It appeared to work without a hitch after that, let me create a profile thingy to join our Eircom wireless. So I went to update AVG 8, got some security updates and decided to install Service Pack 3. Moved the PC back to the spare room where it belongs and once again I'm experiencing familiar problems. It now hangs when I try to download adobe or even when I try to log into my hotmail. I'm at a loss as to what to do as I have never been able to fully pinpoint the causes of the problems. This time I'm hoping it's not physical and wonder if it's to do with SP3, but even so, apart from uninstalling it I don't know what to do. Roll it back to SP2 and never go near SP3? I've done a quick Google and some stuff that's come up relates to machines using AMD processors, but this one doesn't. Before coming here to write this post I started it up, went to see if the net was working, but no, the wireless adapter was gone from Network Connections. Restarted and it came back, went to download iTunes setup and hanging kicked in, again.

It's more than a little frustrating at this stage and still unreliable/unusable. The machine is XP Pro, SP 3, 2 GB RAM and P4 3.0Ghz processor. There are no error codes, no blue screens, it just hangs after a couple of minutes. I've no idea what's going on.

Dartz

This is going to sound daft, but if I read your post correctly, the computer worked fine when it was outside the room you kept it in, then only started acting up again when you moved it back in?

In all seriousness, keep it outside that room for a while.

What else is in the spare room? Any electromagnetic sources? Radon Gas? Magnetic fields? It really could be environmental.

Overheal

besides EM sources (good call) what about dust, temperature, etc.

Where is the room and the place it was at, in relation to the router? Very much sounds like an issue of wireless signal strength. how much material does the signal have to plough through to get to your machine? Is there a lot of metal or wiring in the walls in between there and the router?

Interference can come from any electric device, but especially things like phones and microwave ovens. Also if you live in an area with several wireless networks operating in parallel, its very likely yours is trying to operate on the same channel as another, and so they are clashing. you will need to go into the linksys router's settings page via http://192.168.1.1 and alter the channel setting via the drop down box.

seanybiker

just rename the spare room to the cool room. Computer will feel better about itself then

The Black Oil

Thanks. No, that's not a daft suggestion about the room...was something I had considered, but wasn't sure. The only other appliances in the room are a lamp and a CD player, apart from that there's a fair amount of clutter, mostly clothes.

I left it alone over the Christmas break and didn't do anything to it. Just turned on again now, mother was using it for the web (miracle that it worked) and was about to go back a page when an error appeared. I wasn't with her so I didn't see the message and don't know if it was just an IE but or a system message. Then the machine froze. :mad: I restarted and it has no wireless, again. If the internet appears again and an error occurs I will try to make a note of it, but I think that's the first time an error message has appeared.

How can I get to the bottom of this once and for all? Could it be SP3, the processor, the hard drive, anything? Reinstall XP again?

Lazarus2.0

If it's a USB card is it plugged into a USB 2.0 port on the motherboard ? Also have you got the latest driver for the device ? When the connection fails is the device still recognised or is XP 'losing' it ?

Overheal

I'm going to suggest a longshot here and tell you to uninstall AVG and replace it with something else (like Avira or Avast) and give that a run of a couple days to see if the problems still show up. Because if its hanging with no error codes, it is possible your Antivirus is trying to pull something.

Other than that, you could always try to completely reformat the machine to rule out any software issues.

The Black Oil

Thanks.

Put the machine on again after it froze, no wireless, restarted, wireless returns. Then IE started to produce errors, mother was certain the message mentioned 'memory', but I didn't see that this time around...something a bit like this. I had a look in Event Viewer, but any errors seemed to be related to IE, unless I've not looked thoroughly enough in EV.



I was then off using Firefox to look up that error, froze again. Restarted, think it froze on the XP logo on startup again, can't remember 100%, but later I was looking to defragment C when up popped

Defragmentation of (C:) has been aborted due to inconsistencies that were detected in the filesystem. Please run CHKDSK or SCANDISK on (C) to repair these inconsistencies, then run Disk Defragmenter again.

same for scanning for errors/disc scan whatever it's called. Found instructions on Google to do the CHKDSK, left that going...for over an hour, I think, came back and it was at 94% of stage 5 when I last looked at it. Seemed to restart itself when I was away, but it was stuck on the blue scrolling bar/XP logo so I unplugged it and haven't used it since.

I could try uninstalling AVG, but I may not be able to stay logged on long enough before it hangs. Maybe I should just go with your option of wiping it again unless these details provide any additional insight, probably not.

Overheal

if you cant get on long enough to uninstall avg I worry about how you would manage to retreive your documents. Formatting means losing all of your music and pictures. Losing pictures is harsh.

Hang on a minute though, this Crucial 2GB Ram - is that One stick or 2 sticks of 1GB ram? Do you even know that your motherboard will accept a 2GB stick? How old is it? For the moment anyway, go back to using just the original 512MB Ram so you can rule everything else out first, and uninstall AVG, and backup your important documents should you choose to reformat. In case it turns out to be hard-drive corruption you are going to want to have the backup made.

The Black Oil

Ah, don't worry about documents etc, they're all on an external HD because I wiped and reinstalled Windows in late November of this year. That was part of an attempt to sort out the issues documented in the link in the opening post. The hanging business only seemed to start (as far as I recall) with that 'fresh' install, though obviously that's not an isolated problem.

The Crucial stuff is 2 x 1GB, yes. I ordered 2-1GB 184-PIN DIMM 128Mx64 DDR PC3200.

The manual for the motherboard says:

Main Memory: Four 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets for PC2100/2700/3200 (DDR266/333/400) DIMMs. Supports up to 4GB memory size. Supports 128-bit dual channel memory architecture.

The machine was made in mid '04, mostly by a friend who knows more than I do. It's on its second hard drive as the first one gave up the ghost about 2 years ago. Maybe slightly less, 18 months, I've a receipt somewhere.

Overheal

Huh.

So really. In all seriousness. This could just be a driver issue? I'm left underwhelmed

The Black Oil

That obvious, eh?

Well the driver off the CD (according to the details in profile in Device Manager) is from May 2006.

When I go to the Linksys website there's an October 2006 version. Not sure if this link will work http://www-ie.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=IE%2FLayout&cid=1166859959649&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=5964940888B10&displaypage=download#versiondetail

If not, the version info on the site says -

Driver 1.0.0.15, 10/16/2006, 5.66 MB

Version Info
Linksys, A division of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Product: WMP300N v2, European ETSI version (grey antenna)
Classification: Setup wizard and driver Release History
Release Date: Oct-16-2006
Release Version: 1.0.0.15
1.0.0.15
- New driver v6.0.2.9 : improves throuhgput and overall performances.
1.0.0.13
- New driver v6.0.0.204
1.0.0.12
Upgrade for all previous versions
- Driver v6.0.0.183
- Solves interoperatability issues
Notes:
- This driver is only for usage in Europe

I've just uninstalled the May drivers, and tried something else and I think I've confused myself a bit as to which ones I've replaced them with...because it now says 11/09/2006 and Driver Version 6.0.2.9.

Seems to be holding for the moment, though the signal strength is 'low' (possibly the room), no IE errors (generally use FF, though). Sorry if this is confusing. I think I'll just shut it down now and see it it's still working and maybe leave it for a few hours if it will let me. Or is there anything else I should check?

Edit, IE just went, was looking at a page on www.myhome.ie which is the same site that seemed to do it earlier in the day. Same sort of error as previously.

Overheal

yeah about that error image you have up, next time post up the page of technical details, see where it says Click Here? The technical information might help to pin down the problem.

We talking DSL here? DSL is a pain in the ass in my experience.

The Black Oil

and

Overheal

I've done a quick Google and some stuff that's come up relates to machines using AMD processors, but this one doesn't.

your error report suggests otherwise

The Black Oil

Sorry I think that should have said this isn't an AMD machine, the processor is from Intel.

Lazarus2.0

Can you run CPU-Z on the machine to verify the CPU make/model ?

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Feelgood

Can I just ask, do you buy and chance have a dog or pet??...

Capt'n Midnight

Feelgood wrote: »

Can I just ask, do you by any chance have a dog or pet??...

would have thought a small child would do more physical damage

OT
The bookshop opposite easons on abbey street used to keep the computer books in the pet section.
/OT

Feelgood

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

would have thought a small child would do more physical damage
OT
The bookshop opposite easons on abbey street used to keep the computer books in the pet section.
/OT

Genuine query Capt!.

The reason I ask is that I had something similar with a laptop recently, turns out that user was keeping their laptop on the sitting room floor and hairs from her dog where getting sucked in the heatsink fan, opened her up removed a ball of dog hair and away it went, not problem with it since....

The Black Oil

Heh, we've a mini Yorkshire Terrier, but he's almost never in the room and he's not able to get up the stairs on his own. If he is upstairs he's supervised most of the time.

As for that CPU-Z thing...not sure if you need any more info from it?