CoolFunkMan Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 A few days ago, my PC started to act rather odd. Firstly, upon startup, I got an error saying that 2 dll's couldn't be started. I (being lazy at the time) thought nothing of it. However, yesterday my PC took a turn for the worst. Startup from the windows login screen takes forever. I have to wait well over 5 mins before everything is even loaded up. Programs also take an age to load and they even freeze most of the time, for about 20 secs before continuing. It keeps doing this (even as I type.) So far, I've scanned with anti-virus software (Avira Antivir) and anti-spywate software (Ad-Aware.) Both came up with detections, and I've removed the infected files, to no avail. I also vacummed the dust out of my PC (hey, it's best to try everything, right?) and I also reinstalled my graphics drivers to solve the dll error issue mentioned earlier. Again, no joy... although at least I got rid of the dll errors. Now I'm clueless as to what could be destroying my PC. Has anyone got any ideas? What could I do? I'm thinking that a complete system reinstall might be my only option now. However, I have tons of files I need to keep. How the hell am I going to get those saved? I could use my external hard drive, although that'd take hours. But then that'd be better than nothing... Btw, my specs are Intel Core 2 Do E6420 (overclocked to 2.6ghz), GeForce 8800GTS, 2gb ram, 500gb hard drive. Thanks to anyone who can help... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The fish Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Try Prevx, and if that brings up nothing, make sure you can reinstall Windows, dump all your hard-to-get-again stuff onto another hard drive, and reinstall your OS. If you have a partitioned drive, only stuff on C drive (according to Windows/when I did a similar thing) will be wiped. On a side note, nice rig you've got there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolFunkMan Posted December 30, 2008 Author Share Posted December 30, 2008 Thanks for that! I'll try it as soon as I get home, I'm stuck at work at the moment. I'll let you know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining_again Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 A few days ago, my PC started to act rather odd. Firstly, upon startup, I got an error saying that 2 dll's couldn't be started. I (being lazy at the time) thought nothing of it. Did you (or potentially anyone else) install anything or do a system recovery? However, yesterday my PC took a turn for the worst. Startup from the windows login screen takes forever. I have to wait well over 5 mins before everything is even loaded up. Programs also take an age to load and they even freeze most of the time, for about 20 secs before continuing. It keeps doing this (even as I type.) Overheating or windows issue I would imagine. (If its okay until the windows splash screen its more like to be a windows fault than a hardware fault) So far, I've scanned with anti-virus software (Avira Antivir) and anti-spywate software (Ad-Aware.) Both came up with detections, and I've removed the infected files, to no avail. I also vacummed the dust out of my PC (hey, it's best to try everything, right?) and I also reinstalled my graphics drivers to solve the dll error issue mentioned earlier. Again, no joy... although at least I got rid of the dll errors. You have to be careful not to overdo the virus scanning, sometimes these things are picked up by virus scanners that are to strict and delete genuine files. (could also be something else that could have removed/locked/renamed the dll files, making windows unable to access them) Don't be overly abusive with the hoover, it can still cause static by pulling the dust particles at a high speed. Dust *generally* wont harm it unless its in mahoosive quantities/blocking fans/stopping decent airflow Now I'm clueless as to what could be destroying my PC. Has anyone got any ideas? What could I do? I'm thinking that a complete system reinstall might be my only option now. However, I have tons of files I need to keep. How the hell am I going to get those saved? I could use my external hard drive, although that'd take hours. But then that'd be better than nothing... Hate to be a defeatist, but sounds like it probably is the best option. Actually, have you checked what things are running (CTRL + ALT + DEL > Task manager) if you sort by the CPU usage column maybe that could shed some light. Sometimes it just gets to a point where people have installed a ton of software - and it takes less time formatting than actually trying to work out what the problem is and removing it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolFunkMan Posted December 31, 2008 Author Share Posted December 31, 2008 I ran the software, but it's still messed up. Thanks though anyway. Did you (or potentially anyone else) install anything or do a system recovery? I did do a restore a week or so ago, so that was well before it started. I also did when this all started. You have to be careful not to overdo the virus scanning, sometimes these things are picked up by virus scanners that are to strict and delete genuine files. (could also be something else that could have removed/locked/renamed the dll files, making windows unable to access them) Really? I never knew of this, thanks for letting me know. I'll take note next time. Don't be overly abusive with the hoover, it can still cause static by pulling the dust particles at a high speed. Dust *generally* wont harm it unless its in mahoosive quantities/blocking fans/stopping decent airflow I always get paranoid when I hoover the inside of my PC for this exact reason. I'm always careful because of it, lol. Hate to be a defeatist, but sounds like it probably is the best option. Actually, have you checked what things are running (CTRL + ALT + DEL > Task manager) if you sort by the CPU usage column maybe that could shed some light. Sometimes it just gets to a point where people have installed a ton of software - and it takes less time formatting than actually trying to work out what the problem is and removing it Restart is probably the best option tbh, I've only come to this realisation recently. Also, the task manager has nothing out of the ordinary. My PC is still slow, even if I end the uneeded tasks. Overheating or windows issue I would imagine. (If its okay until the windows splash screen its more like to be a windows fault than a hardware fault) Well, for some reason my PC started to run fine before I shut it down yesterday evening. However, I tried to run it this morning and it was slow again this morning. Also, I heard clicking noises coming from my hard drive. Basically... I think my hard drive's dieing. Thanks for the help though anyway. I'll still try to reinstall Windows, to see if that helps. It won't be for another few days though now, I'm going to be busy. Again, I'll let you know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolan Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Defrag the Hard Drive, and do a disk cleanup. If you have lots of stuff on your HD and it starts fragmenting it will slow your PC down to ridiculous levels. Disk cleanup gets rid of junk files that slowly accumulate but do build up. I think I may be too slow with this info though, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining_again Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Hmm clicking hard drive, eep, backup all the data you need just in case... If your HD is 3+ years old theres a big chance of a failure tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbob Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 Hmm clicking hard drive, eep, backup all the data you need just in case... If your HD is 3+ years old theres a big chance of a failure tbh Most HD's only seem to last about 3-5 years anyway, short lifespan for something so critical to a PC. My advice is to do every scan possible to the PC (Scandisk, Defrag, Virus scan, Spyware scan, Ad-ware scan etc) to see if that solves anything. If not, then back-up everything that cannot be replaced and get a new HDD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolan Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 Most HD's only seem to last about 3-5 years anyway, short lifespan for something so critical to a PC. My advice is to do every scan possible to the PC (Scandisk, Defrag, Virus scan, Spyware scan, Ad-ware scan etc) to see if that solves anything. If not, then back-up everything that cannot be replaced and get a new HDD. HDs actually have the highest failure rate of any PC component, mostly due to the moving parts iirc. Which is why Solid State Drives are generally better, nothing moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolFunkMan Posted January 2, 2009 Author Share Posted January 2, 2009 Tbh, I don't get why my hard drive could be failing. It's under a year old. I'm still going to try to reinstall Windows though, but it won't boot from the DVD drive. Everything is set correctly in the bios too, as far as I can see. It does detect my dvd drive in the bios when I use the detect option, but it never saves it. However, it does still appear in windows. EDIT: I've uninstalled service pack 3, started the reinstall of Windows and it's going ok so far. I'll let you all know how it goes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining_again Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 if you think its failing its maybe a better idea to BACK UP before you do any hard disk intensive things like disk cleanup or defrag (I don't think a defrag does much tbh - was more of an issue for older systems than the faster ones we have these days.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolFunkMan Posted January 2, 2009 Author Share Posted January 2, 2009 My computer is finally back in working order and I've reinstalled the drivers, as well as all the essentails. Looks like it was just spyware/ a virus after all. Thank god for that, lol! Thanks for the help everyone! Oh ffs, now I have yet ANOTHER issue! I moved all the files that I rescued onto my external hard drive. Trouble is, the folder keeps freezing every time I open it. I've even ported it back to the desktop, but to no avail. Can someone please please please help. There's tons of stuff in there that took me ages to get, and some rare music. Thanks if anyone can help... EDIT: Wait, it works, but it's just terribly slow. Hmmmm... I don't know what to make of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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