Nasty 7811-Crippling problem

I have an ongoing issue with my 7811. Lately, I am getting this issue where windows is locked up and mostly unresponsive. But, I can still move my mouse, clock still moves, and SOME programs will eventually open if I wait long enough. The computer still ACTS fast. For programs that won't seem to open, they sit in Task Manager for a while, until I clear them out. Until that stuff is cleared from my task manager, my PC will act weird and unresponsive.

Sometimes the lockup is so bad that I have to do a hard reboot. Sometimes when starting back up, checkdisk comes up and finds a TON of crap to fix.

The problem originally seemed to be Steam and Team Fortress 2 related. I tried Steam reinstalls, TF2 reinstalls, and sometimes that would work. Then I discovered that if the problem came up again, I could just delete the personal data folder for TF2 and things would be fine again.

Well, things were fine for a while, and now the problem is back. I should mention, each time this problem comes, it has very similar elements, but always with something slightly different than the other times. The TF2 folder delete didn't work this time, but still seemed to improve things...

I have gone through multiple Vista64 reinstalls, fully updated, full virus scans, etc. My Windows partition is the only thing being changed during the reinstalls...my programs partition stays untouched. Even after a fresh install, the problem has IMMEDIATELY come up.

I theorize that my problem is one of 2 things...a bad driver that I keep installing - I used the default windows audio drivers for a week after my last install and had no problems. I then installed the original Conexant drivers and after a few days, the problem started up. So, maybe the audio drivers... Thing is, I used the preinstalled drivers just fine for 8 months.

Or, my HD is damaged. Has some bad sectors or something that when a program gets to those sectors, Windows is hosed until I delete or move the data from those sectors.

This problem seems to come and go, is not consistent, but is really rendering my computer unusable. I am stumped at this point and am extremely hopeful someone here can help me. Please help!

 

I am sure you did this but just to make sure did you update your bios. I think the problem that you are experiencing is due to a few things i remember having the problem with things not being responsive but then i updated my bios and most problems were gone. I never had problems with corrupted files tho.

 

My bios has been updated for a while, before this problem existed. Unless...has there been a new one in the last 6 months? Thanks for the suggestion, all the same : )

 

If you delete a folder and the problem goes away, then comes back after the the program puts the folder back, that's a huge clue. I haven't used Steam but have heard about problems with their software in the past. You should start with shutting down any startup processes so you get clean starts, then make sure your Windows is good to go. If Checkdisk "fixes" (trashes) files, right there your Windows installation is suspect - you need to look at those files and see what could have been trashed. System Restore can help fix your Windows and programs.

Then start running the applications' startup files (the ones they use to start with Windows) 1 at a time. When you start having problems, the last program either is the problem app, or the one that's having the problem with the problem app.

Related story - my sister called me up saying her computer was broken and wouldn't run email, wouldn't run Norton 360, etc. She'd tried this and that and gotten BSODs, plus bought Office 2007 to fix her email and failed the installation with a lockup.

I went over, and in a few minutes of shutting down processes, found that Corel Photopaint (downloaded for a 1 time use for her kid, and still in the Startup Run services) was locking up Office and other applications including Norton 360. Once that one app's process was shut off and taken out of startup, her computer again ran fine.

Just be systematic about your troubleshooting and you'll get it eventually

 

jhr389, what bios version are you using? .08 or .12?

It sounds like the hard drive may be going, have you tried to read the SMART values? Or it may be something else, PC crashing probs are hard to diagnose if they just happen out of the blue.

 

Thanks, Woot. My startup processes could be extremely trimmed down and the problem would still arise. And I doubt it would be bad Windows, since it could even happen on a completely fresh install. But your sister's story is compelling...

So if a program could screw everything up, it is extremely likely that a bum driver could, too...right? The weird thing is, I ran that driver just fine for 8 months. The problem DOES seem cleared up since I installed a newer conexant driver, but we'll see. I'm just suspect, because this seems too screwy and inconsistent to be caused by a driver, something that is ALWAYS present and used...

Fire268: I am curious about reading SMART values. What is this and how do I do it?

 

New update: My computer just flipped out for about 5 minutes - game crashed, got to the windows desktop, and got sporadic computer stops. It was not frozen, but it had on-and-off bouts of absolute unresponsiveness, with responses finally occurring 30 sec after my inputs.

While this was going on, I was watching my Nvidia system monitor. During this whole period, the disk usage and write would suddenly be 100%, then 0%, seemingly coinciding with the computer's responsiveness. Another odd thing is that the temp reading of the disk I suspect (default one that came with PC), was 0 during the event. When the even cleared up, disk read/write returned to normal, and temp appeared again. Yes, the disk is defragged.

So, does this definitely sound like bad disk? I will say, the temps on it have always been rather high, regularly at 60+ when in use. Could it have slowly been damaged over time with high temps and just lately is when the damage has started to show? Or is it more likely the disk was bad from the start, causing the temps to be high, thus damaging the disk further? Would a heat-damaged disk cause these kind of lockups?

 

Here's a wiki article that explains SMART for hard disks pretty well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology

If you have speedfan installed I believe that it can read the SMART values.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

 

So, it seems I have 70+ "uncorrectable sectors". I think that settles it. Weird thing is, I would think the HD would write and read around bad sectors, not just implode... The occasional corrupt file I find, if I just overwrite it with a new version of the file, boom, things are fine again. Overwriting will put that file ina different physical location on the HD, then, it seems? Either way, I talked gateway into sending me a new drive, but I have to send this one in first.

Even though I am no longer trying to fix the problem, I would still like to continue the discussion if anyone has more input or answers. Thanks!

 

Problem is if the disc needs to read a bad file and can't there is no way to rewrite the bad file, essentially the chicken before the egg. Now if the program trying to read the file has no way of stopping the read it can hault the system by flooding the disc I/O. This can get even worse if there is a bad sector in the page file as then any memory taxing program can cause an issue.

 

Tapa, another reason why people do backups... I started doing them once I heard one of my friends lost his entire wedding digital pics.