What The Hell?

[121]

Hi guys,

This post is a little lengthy but I wanted you to know the history of this software problem <_<

I had problems with my PC a month ago. I had a copy of Veitcong that I was playing. I switched on my PC one day and everything was sluggish and kept crashing&#33; I don&#39;t know alot about software/hardware so I started deleting files to try and iradicate the problem. Well after deleting almost everything (including Veitcong) the problem still persisted. Eventually my PC refused to boot and I called a guy in to repair it.

He said it was the graphics card (GeForce3) and charged me £30 within 2 minutes just for looking at it&#33;

I took it to a shop and they said the card was fine and the problem was my RAM. They replaced it but the problem persisted :angry: I eventually got them to replace the motherboard, the graphics card & the processer for £300. I reformatted the HD with a new copy of Win 2K Pro and all seemed fine. I tried to reinstall Veitcong but it stopped half way and crashed. I tried to copy the file to my HD but half way through, I got a message saying &#39;cyclic redundancy error&#39;. My PC started to crash every hour and a blue screen appeared each time saying memory dump? :frusty: Well last week it didn&#39;t boot up again :huh:

I know what your thinking, why didn&#39;t I replace the HD aswell right&#33; :frusty: So back to the shop it went and £100 lighter in my pocket I upgraded to a new 80g HD.

I took the PC home and tried to reboot Veitcong but the same thing occured&#33; I tried to install Max 5 from Kazaa Lite but it does the same thing as Veitcong :frusty:

I had a working copy of Max on a disk from a friend & tried to copy the contents onto my new HD but half way thorugh it read &#39;cyclic redundancy error&#39; :frusty: If everything has been replaced WTF do I do now :angry: Even as I type theres a delay and it takes a few seconds for the words to appear on the screen. I&#39;m running Norton anti virus 2003.

Whenever I boot my PC I get a message in a black box saying cddriver missing in WINNIT. I&#39;ve reinstalled the drivers for my CDdrive with the disk it came with. All ofther programs work fine like the internet etc, but when I try to open My Computer, everything is sluggish (even with Kazaa disconnected). I&#39;ve scanned my HD with Norton AntiVirus & it found one infection which is now quarentined. I&#39;m still getting that blue screen every hour with the memory dump message&#33;

I&#39;ve got to hand in an animation final for uni in 10 days too&#33;

All replies are appreciated, I would love to fix this with you guys before the clowns at my local repair shop rip me off again.

Win 2K Pro (Original Copy)
MSI GeForce 5200
80g HD
512 DDR Ram
Gigabyte K7 Triton N-Force2 Motherboard
A large Headache

[DWk]

first.... just to be sure.... make sure everything is fit tightly together inside your computer (the hard drives, processor, ram, etc.)

ok.... whats the name of the virus norton is telling you about?

go here (http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/) and get ad-aware....and do a scan to ur system and remove everything you have (all bad things the program tells you).

do you have anything important in your computer? cuz my serious recommendation is just format the computer, dont install anything, finish your animation, and get that off your back first..... and then try to fix your problem....

i think you should move to windows xp...your pc is looks good enuff to hold it easily, and you might get rid of some of the problems that you are having (for example the cd driver error).

let me know :)

[Marius24]

you should always avoid local computer shops - if u got a comp problem they are gonna make sure you get ripped off and seel you stuff you dont need :angry:

[121]

DWK,

I&#39;ve got Spybot, how does it compare to ad-ware? I&#39;ve tried pushing all the hardware together and it all seems fine. The guys at the repair shop installed a fresh copy of windows 2k pro with a new HD so that should be ok. I&#39;ll definately go to XP on payday ;)

I can&#39;t reinstall Max 5 so I can&#39;t finish my animation :frusty: &#33; I don&#39;t know what could be wrong because all the main hardware components (including the HD) have been replaced and so has the operating system.

The virus software is Norton Internet Security 2003 (with Live Update enabled).

BTW, my processor is an Athlon 2600. Is there a program to remove backdoor trogans from WINNIT files? I did a free Symantec scan and it found 21 trogans. Norton and Spybot didn&#39;t register these viruses though :(

Thanks for the reply :)

[121]

Originally posted by Marius24@3 January 2004 - 00:58
you should always avoid local computer shops - if u got a comp problem they are gonna make sure you get ripped off and seel you stuff you dont need :angry:
Marius24,

I hear you man, I wish I knew more about my the guts of my system. These guys are like sharks&#33;

[DWk]

trojans huh?

well i recommend you do a clean format and dont bring anything back from the current computer....only way to know if you&#39;re completely safe....

[Smurfette]

Originally posted by Marius24+3 January 2004 - 00:58--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Marius24 &#064; 3 January 2004 - 00:58)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>you should always avoid local computer shops - if u got a comp problem they are gonna make sure you get ripped off and seel you stuff you dont need&nbsp; :angry:[/b]
No you shouldn&#39;t.
You should, however, try and identify the ones that are honest and reliable. Word of mouth is the best recommendation anyone can get.


Originally posted by 121@2 January 2004 - 23:43
I know what your thinking, why didn&#39;t I replace the HD aswell right&#33; :frusty:&nbsp; So back to the shop it went and £100 lighter in my pocket I upgraded to a new 80g HD.
You didn&#39;t know what I was thinking. Right now I&#39;m thinking "why the hell would he change the HDD?"


Originally posted by 121@2 January 2004 - 23:43
I took it to a shop and they said the card was fine and the problem was my RAM. They replaced it but the problem persisted :angry:&nbsp; I eventually got them to replace the motherboard, the graphics card & the processer for £300. I reformatted the HD with a new copy of Win 2K Pro and all seemed fine. I tried to reinstall Veitcong but it stopped half way and crashed. I tried to copy the file to my HD but half way through, I got a message saying &#39;cyclic redundancy error&#39;. My PC started to crash every hour and a blue screen appeared each time saying memory dump? :frusty:&nbsp; Well last week it didn&#39;t boot up again :huh:
From what you say, I take it they didn&#39;t want to change the mobo, CPU and GFX card?
Now, if you&#39;re getting CRC errors when copying files, it ain&#39;t gonna be the fault of your GFX card.
Something to remember that will help you with issues like this... whenever you get a bluescreen (BSOD) write down what it says and search the internet for it when you can&#33; The point of a BSOD is not to wind users up, but to indicate where the fault occured; I&#39;ve not heard of a BSOD just asking "memory dump?" before.


Originally posted by 121@3 January 2004 - 01:11
I can&#39;t reinstall Max 5 so I can&#39;t finish my animation :frusty: &#33; I don&#39;t know what could be wrong because all the main hardware components (including the HD) have been replaced and so has the operating system.
Get Memtest86 and check your RAM. Possibly suspect your CDROM drive or IDE cable if you&#39;re gretting CRC errors.

<!--QuoteBegin-121@3 January 2004 - 01:11
The virus software is Norton Internet Security 2003 (with Live Update enabled).
BTW, my processor is an Athlon 2600. Is there a program to remove backdoor trogans from WINNIT files? I did a free Symantec scan and it found 21 trogans. Norton and Spybot didn&#39;t register these viruses though :( [/quote]
With the firewall and antivirus options enabled, updated and properly set you should be covered. NIS2003 has worked fine for me since release.
You still didn&#39;t tell us which virus Norton has quarantined.

[Project E-01]

Its happeneing when you install software from your cd right? That would point me to the CDROM drive itself. Get the serial numbers and manufacturers name from from the casing, and get a friend to download the most up to date drivers available and put them on a cd for you, alongside the most recent service pack for win2k. (for future reference). If possible, get him to put drivers for your gfx card, network card, Motherboard, and sound card on that cd as well.

edit :- if your worried about viruses sticking around, do a low level format from your bios menu. Assuming your bios supports that.

Clean install win2k. Then install the drivers your friend downloaded - starting with the motherboard, then the service pack, then the rest. (win2k will use its own generic drivers for the hardware until then, which should be safe, but not as quick.)

Hopefully, that should be the end of your problems. Don&#39;t worry about these &#39;trojans&#39; that symantec is reporting - chances are that it tagged Nortons virus definition files. Virus checkers include small snippets of viral coding in order that theuy can recognise them - its not something to worry about most of the time.

[Smurfette]

Originally posted by Project E&#045;01+3 January 2004 - 02:15--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Project E&#045;01 &#064; 3 January 2004 - 02:15)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Its happeneing when you install software from your cd right? That would point me to the CDROM drive itself. Get the serial numbers and manufacturers name from from the casing, and get a friend to download the most up to date drivers available and put them on a cd for you...[/b]
I doubt that would be useful if the drive can&#39;t read the data reliably.


Originally posted by Project E&#045;01@3 January 2004 - 02:15
edit :- if your worried about viruses sticking around, do a low level format from your bios menu. Assuming your bios supports that.
Why does he need a low level format to remove viruses? A quick format from a clean DOS boot will do the job equally as well and take less than 5 seconds.

<!--QuoteBegin-Project E&#045;01@3 January 2004 - 02:15
Don&#39;t worry about these &#39;trojans&#39; that symantec is reporting.[/quote]
He says that Norton didn&#39;t report the trojans.

[Project E-01]

Sorry for the delayed reply here...

Win2k is bieng installed from CD, and is installing fine. This would suggest that the fault lies with the drivers, not the device itself.

The problem with a dos dormat is that dos needs to mount the partition to be able to format it. It cant mount NTFS drives, and the format is only going to be reliable at clearing the virus if it is done before anything is loaded from the H.D.D, therefore a low level from the bios is the most secure option.

With regard to the trojans - norton didn&#39;t, but symantec did was what he said. I wont repeat the rest. :)

[cwctv]

DO NOT low level format manufacturers do this in the factory and if you do and have to send it back under the warranty your screwed they will know AND they don&#39;t like it.


I know what your thinking, why didn&#39;t I replace the HD aswell right&#33;&nbsp; So back to the shop it went and £100 lighter in my pocket I upgraded to a new 80g HD.

[Smurfette]

Originally posted by Project E&#045;01+3 January 2004 - 11:42--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Project E&#045;01 &#064; 3 January 2004 - 11:42)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Sorry for the delayed reply here...

Win2k is bieng installed from CD, and is installing fine. This would suggest that the fault lies with the drivers, not the device itself.[/b]
Yeah it&#39;s working OK when installing with a virtual driver but after the OS is installed it&#39;s using native drivers that would appear to be causing a problem. These are the drivers that would be in use installing any new drivers on CD. Also, I can&#39;t remember ever downloading Windows drivers for a CD; they&#39;ve always been for DOS with my CDROM/RW drives. I&#39;d suspect the drive, it&#39;s cable or memory first. More likely memory (a second stick or high area if only one stick).


Originally posted by Project E&#045;01@3 January 2004 - 11:42
The problem with a dos dormat is that dos needs to mount the partition to be able to format it. It cant mount NTFS drives, and the format is only going to be reliable at clearing the virus if it is done before anything is loaded from the H.D.D, therefore a low level from the bios is the most secure option.
Oh yeah, I was forgetting about NTFS in 2K. I don&#39;t know anything about NTFS cos I like to have the option of using another OS to read data if something untoward happens. I thought that DOS can see an NTFS partiton but not read/write it... doesn&#39;t matter anyway&#33; :)
Even so, a low-level format is rather drastic. Fdisk to re-partition and then format would do it without risking (as cwctv pointed out) voiding the warranty.

<!--QuoteBegin-Project E&#045;01@3 January 2004 - 11:42
With regard to the trojans - norton didn&#39;t, but symantec did was what he said. I wont repeat the rest. :)[/quote]
My bad, he&#39;d talked about Norton and Symantec and I got befuddled :D

[121]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies&#33;

I know I didn&#39;t have to change all of the hardware but I&#39;ve had my PC for 2 years so it needed upgrading anyway.

It&#39;s possible that the Veitcong disk could be damaged, I never put disks back in their cases (my bad) and the Max 5.exe from Kazaa Lite could be corrupt. I&#39;ve tried installing other things without any problems.

Everything is still sluggish (including typing this) and a friend advised me to check the Task Manager. When I click on Processes theres a program there using up 99% of my CPU called SERVICES.EXE :blink: Theres another SERVICES.EXE on the list using up 0%. When I try to end this process it says &#39;This is a critical system process, Task Manager cannot remove this&#39;. I assume this is whats slowing down eveything, what shall I do?

Also, are the cyclic redundancy errors that occur (when I try to install certain disks) hardware or software problems?

[Smurfette]

Originally posted by 121@5 January 2004 - 18:58
Also, are the cyclic redundancy errors that occur (when I try to install certain disks) hardware or software problems?
I can&#39;t help with the services.exe thing but I can tell you I only have one instance running, not two.

The cyclic redundancy errors are, AFAIK, a file integrity error that pops up when a file you are copying comes out different to the original. I got some of those when I had a bad stick of RAM; I would only get the problem occasionally (when I had plenty of stuff running) as files got copied into the faulty area of RAM and a corrupted version was written at the destination.

[121]

Smurfette,

Thanks for the reply. I&#39;ve heard from several sources that bad RAM can hinder performance and create problems like I&#39;ve been getting&#33;

I think I&#39;ve found the source of the problem&#33; If I had found this and posted about it earlier it would have helped pin point the problem :frusty:

When I boot my PC I get a small, black DOS window (when the icons appear on my desktop) which dissapears after a few seconds. I rebooted my PC a few times to write down the information in this window,

(C:&#092;Documents & Settings&#092;Bruce>cd drivers&#092;etc&#092;

The system cannot find the path specified

C:&#092;Documents & Settings&#092;Bruce>hidden 32.EXE SERVICES.EXE)

SERVICE.EXE is the program thats eating up all of the CPU performance in Task Manager&#33;

[Robert00000]

Originally posted by 121@6 January 2004 - 01:17
Smurfette,

Thanks for the reply. I&#39;ve heard from several sources that bad RAM can hinder performance and create problems like I&#39;ve been getting&#33;

I think I&#39;ve found the source of the problem&#33; If I had found this and posted about it earlier it would have helped pin point the problem :frusty:

When I boot my PC I get a small, black DOS window (when the icons appear on my desktop) which dissapears after a few seconds. I rebooted my PC a few times to write down the information in this window,

(C:&#092;Documents & Settings&#092;Bruce>cd drivers&#092;etc&#092;

The system cannot find the path specified

C:&#092;Documents & Settings&#092;Bruce>hidden 32.EXE SERVICES.EXE)

This is what is eating up all of the CPU performance in Task Manager&#33;

All replies are appreciated :)
I don&#39;t know if services.exe is a core windows file, there is a possibilty it could be some kind of virus/trojan.

My advice would be to re-install windows, but before you install anything else press CRTL ALT DELETE to see if services.exe is within the running processes of windows.

Next install the virus scanner and the firewall, then get updates from microsoft. Update your virus definitions and any software upgrades of virus scanner and firewall.

If services.exe is within the running processes you should get another copy of win 2000 or upgrade to windows xp (i would recommend you do this anyway).

It was unlikey that it was a hardware problem, it very rarley is. Most crashes are cause by driver probs. If you go to a retailer for help, it is in his interest to sell you parts you don&#39;t need :angry: .

I had a friend who once built a system. He thought he put all the components in perfectly, but couldnt figure out why the computer didnt boot up. He went to a local retalier, who sold him a new motherboard, saying his was faulty.

Two days later he brought the system over to me to check, including the old (supposedly faulty) motherboard. He told me how he plugged in the components and the connectors he left out because he thought they weren&#39;t neccessary.

It soon dawned on me the reason the system didnt boot up was because he didnt plug in the connector to the power switch, so how the hell did he expect to get it switched on :lol: .

So the moral of this story is you will be taken advantage of by these dodgy retailers if you don&#39;t know what the problem is yourself.

[ricochet]

For task programs check Here (http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist_s.htm). I also have only 1 services.exe rinning at 1,600. If you look at that link I posted there is a virus that can infect that service.exe called the Backdoor.Xibo virus.


I heard that norton can cause problems with the write memory file...

Good Luck Man you need it...

[121]

Thanks guys,

My PC dosen&#39;t shut down when I press CRTL ALT DELETE :blink: It works for me on other PCs.

So the system.exe is a fundamental windows program that controls everything and I&#39;m getting a DOS message every time I boot my PC saying that a cd driver / system.exe is missing. The Task Manager is showing me that system.exe is using up all of the CPU and is causing a severe bottleneck. I remember I time when the Task Manager displayed the System Idle Process at 99%.

I guess it&#39;s time to reinstall windows but my the F**K should I if I paid good money to fix the dame thing :angry: I can&#39;t send it in to repair because of uni deadlines&#33; When ever I go into that shop, they sit around eating sandwiches and ask if you need help 3 minutes later&#33;&#33; I can&#39;t take it else where yet because it&#39;s still under their warranty (rant over).........

Norton has recognised a Trojan Horse in my Kazaa Lite K++ shared files folder. It&#39;s one of those download.dat files you get with everything you download. I cannot delete it and nor can Norton. I&#39;ve noticed I&#39;ve been getting the virus/trojans ever since I downloaded Kazaa in the first place. But if you haven&#39;t got Kazaa then theres no point having a broadband subscription&#33;

Using Kazaa is like having unprotected sex every night of the week with different women :lol:

The thing is, my friends never have the viruses/trojans I get on a daily basis, has someone got it in for me or what? How many times will I have to reinstall Windows? Am I the only one that gets these constant, aggressive, random attacks or is this common place?

Why the f**k do weirdos make these viruses anyway???????????

[nanotek]

i may be a bit paranoid but i do 3 online scans every week along with avg running on my system with all updates , also i use 2 trojan remover progs along with adaware and spybot . i think u will have to format its the best thing in your case if u ask me