Windows XP freezes at desktop after booting up

[simonsayers]

I'll throw in another possibility in addition to a bad HDD: bad RAM.

If you have multiple sticks of RAM, can you try booting up with individual sticks and see if the problem is replicated? This can be checked pretty quickly and easily. Maybe also try plugging the stick(s) into different slots.

If the HDD is very slow, there is a possibility that it's running in PIO mode rather than the much faster UDMA. Check under IDE controllers menu in Control Panel/system/hardware/device manager.

You can also run HDtune or HDtach, and if your speed is < 10MB/sec then the drive is probably in PIO mode.

I previously had a problem with my ram, my tech guy swapped em about in their slots and the pc ran ok. I thought it was a hdd prob this time but I will check out these options. ty

 

[eyeCpc]

Bad slots or a need to blast all the dust and dirt out? If you start seeing fans and everything get loaded up with dust then that could be half the problem there. You end up seeing the memory running warmer along with other things.

 

[Lexluethar]

Log into safe mode and run your virus scan and spyware scan there.

 

[simonsayers]

My primary ide channel was set in PIO mode, its now on UDMA or something . I think the chkdsks made it go into pio mode, because when i done 2 chkdsks the boot times and pc performance was terrible.

But im not out the woods yet there's still loads of problems

problems being disk errors in the event viewer still saying i got bad block, and I cant do anything with my anti virus. I disabled it during testing back at the beggining of this thread because xp was freezing, now it runs and functions I cant Uninstall from add/remove, nor can I use the installer to re-install. there are also no ways of re-enabling the services in msconfig. it's almost like it wants me not to use it?

Also my HDD is a MAXTOR 6V250F0. I searched for some diagnostic tools for it but the one I tried, SeaTools didnt even work, it gave me a fatal error, nice.

So my PC functions....but its without anti virus, and is still giving disk errors.


Seeing as the IDE settings made it better a bit, is it worth mentioning that my top DVD rom drive stopped working a few months ago? Maybe my cabling inside the PC is a bit funny? (I dont know much or anything about the cabling / cd drives etcs)

I also swapped the ram sticks about, no change there

 

[KSoD]

Have you tried Safe Mode? That should allow you to retain speed without having the infections harm your system.

Please go into Safe Mode as i suggest long ago and run the Spyware guide.

 

[simonsayers]

safe mode puts my HDD into pio mode and makes it incredibly slow so it would take ages. ive scanned with many programs tonight and am doing a scan with Arriva ANTIVIR, ive foun 3 trojans so far.

argh this is ****ing me off now.

the anti-vir picked up 3 trojans and blue screened. Today has been a big waste. Its good I did the IDE DMA mode thing and discoverd why the HD was acting so slow (pio mode).

but im still getting disk errors in event viewer and the computer doesnt respond very well to anti-virus programs and scans. chkdsk is the biggest time waster in the world

my options are running out

 

[KSoD]

Well if you dont want to take the time to clean it and work with it as is. Format and reinstall.

 

[eyeCpc]

Constant disk errors and an optical drive that doesn't work? First try unplugging the optical drive as well as using another cable. But it sounds more like you need backup what you can off of the drive while you can before it quits on you. bad sectors, worn drive heads

 

[simonsayers]

Well if you dont want to take the time to clean it and work with it as is. Format and reinstall.

i see what ya saying but safe mode is literally 5% of what my computer should do, doin all the scans on that would jus yield the same results. i did a chkdsk the other day before I knew about PIO/UDMA modes and i kid you not it took about 8-10 hours.

 

[eyeCpc]

It sounds too much like the drive is toast. I had one old drive I passed along for use on another case until Windows starting seeing all kinds of problems. You could read and copy anything you wanted off of it but forget reformatting and putting Windows on again.

The problems you are describing there sound the same. I would suggest trying another drive to see if that is the only problem. Toss a quick install of any OS to rule out any board problem you could be seeing.

All we can do is make some suggestions. Mak has tried from his end there.