~I have a homebrewed computer (AMD Athlon XP 1500+ 1.30GHz with a 1gig stick and a 512mb stick RAM). I didn't build her--but I helped a little. Where 'helped' is a phrase that means 'baked bread and watched the shiny lights'. Which is to say that I'm not a hardware girl and don't know exactly what I'm doing.

~She'd worked fine up until I moved into my new apartment. Once here, I set her up and she wouldn't boot into Windows. She'd get to the Welcome screen and reboot. Wouldn't even get into Safe Mode. So, I did what all good little monkeys do: begged her to work, threatened to turn her into a programmable toaster oven, then did a repair install of Windows.

~It didn't help all that much. Computer was still running slow as balls. I wonder if the RAM is bad, so I swtich up the two sticks (two sticks of RAM, three slots...six hours later I know nothing more than I did before. :-P Except that one of the slots is a little iffy.) and can't find a configuration that makes her any happier.

~I ran Ad-aware, Spybot, HijackThis!, and Symantec. They find nothing out of the ordinary. A few items here and there, but nothing that should be causing this slowdown.

~At this point, I can log into my 'people who are not me' account (it's not an admin account and thus does not load all the crap my main account does). She still runs slow, but she's usable.

~However...since this is the account I let other people use, I can't leave AIM or anything logged in (due to a long seires of retalitory pranks) and it frusterates me. I'd like suggestions for other things to look at that may be causing the issue.



~For people who didn't read all that crap, here's a summary:

Girl needs help.
Computer stuck in a boot/reboot cycle.
Repaired Windows, little change.
Computer slow as that funny-looking kid learning about Towers of Hanoi.
No spyware, no virus.
RAM checks out fine. Slots seem fine. One may be iffy?
Waaah. Help.

~Thanks for any advice.~

9/19/2005 11:48:57 PM

Save all your pics, music, and files on some other media.

Perform a clean install of XP with SP2.

All is well . . .

9/20/2005 12:23:34 AM

9/20/2005 1:17:27 AM

you should have run cpu-z while you had the chance.

dont just repair, youll want to instal win XP w/ SP 2 and FORMAT

get them to send you a disk with sp2 or borrow a friends. the repair installation wont get rid of non-system files, which could be fucking shit up.

[Edited on September 20, 2005 at 1:31 AM. Reason : -]

9/20/2005 1:31:24 AM

Quote :

" ~For people who didn't read all that crap, here's a summary: Girl needs help. "

Boot in safe mode w/o networking


Then run your scans.


and post a hijackthis log.

9/20/2005 1:41:50 PM

if it's a reboot loop (caused by loggin in by select users, not all) most likely it's a program install gone awry, in which case a driver or system file is corrupt or the program installed a file that's code is causing a bsod and you have 'restart' checked when an error occurs... otherwise the only thing is that your rebooting is caused by overheating in which you can find out real quick if that's the case by telling if it happens at the same exact time during each bootup (bad file), or if it happens randomly (overheat/hardware).

either way, backup your files, do a clean install of windows sp2 like aforementioned posts and you'll be set. it could be a hijacker but at this point if it's running slow most likely it could use a clean install.

9/20/2005 6:01:34 PM

upgrading SAV without properly removing the old version, or running SAV alongside norton internet security or the retail NAV could cause or contribute to whatever mess is there. Maybe try add/removing all the symantec/norton tools that are there, then running all the removal tools at http://www.ncsu.edu/it/antivirus, as well as the following that NCSU /should/ have on thier site, but dont:

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/linked_files/tsgen/SymNRT.exe
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/linked_files/nis/RnisUPG.exe
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/norton_systemworks/ver5.0/tools/SYMCLN.EXE


btw...not claiming the symantec stuff would cause all of it. but if in an attempt to fix it, you (sensibly) tried multiple symantec products, you may have easily mudged it up even further...and running all these tools then reinstalling your single symantec app of choice (AFTER REBOOTING) could help recover from at least a little bit of that damage




...also try reseating all the pci/agp cards, and try the memory sticks individually (not sure by what you said whether you just permuted the two throughout the 3 slots, or actually tried the individual sticks). Running memtest86 will also tell you whether it's bad ram pretty quickly. (memtest86.com - just download and burn the iso and boot your machine with it)




if none of this helps, and we can't find anything in your safe mode hijackthis log, then it really is probably time to reinstall the machine from scratch.

[Edited on September 21, 2005 at 8:20 AM. Reason : ]

9/21/2005 8:15:58 AM

~Sorry that I haven't responded. Homework and all that.

~Thanks for all the responses.

~Once I did a repair install, she stopped BSOD'ing and rebooting. I'd thought the issue was over until she started acting up agian. I backed up everything as soon as she started working agian. (Yay for multipule HD's!)

~When I shifted the ram, I made sure everything was well seated and clean. I did try them individually. And ran memtest86. She worked fine with the individual sticks and memtest came back clean.

~I just tried to get her into safe mode, and she blue screened! IQRL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, she tells me. *sighs* I guess that is a big indicator for a new install. Damnit, I hate installing Windows.

~As for the Symantec/Norton stuff...good idea, but this isn't that kind of behavior. I worked Resnet/move-in/ITECS/ITD long enough to know my way around spyware, virii, and 'You mean two isn't better than one?' issues. I'm pretty familier with the

~My computer is running NCSU's Symantec (Installed as v.9, I think, since the .3 has issues), updated and all that good stuff.

~Yeah, I guess that covers and seals it. I supose I will reinstall Windows.~

9/21/2005 9:21:06 PM

Quote :

"she"

Am I the only one who is disturbed by the use of female pronouns for this computer?

9/21/2005 9:25:39 PM

i saw the "she" thing too

9/21/2005 9:32:52 PM

damnit double post

[Edited on September 21, 2005 at 9:33 PM. Reason : ]

9/21/2005 9:32:52 PM

Quote :

"Am I the only one who is disturbed by the use of female pronouns for this computer?"

~Hahahaa. Pretty much all my computers are female. (Silverfish the desktop, Cy the work laptop, Koi the laptop, Random Frequent Flyer the old 95 machine, Norah the iBook) I find that they act like females--moody and tempermental with random forgetful spells and they bitch at me alot!--so I think it's appropriote.~

9/21/2005 9:37:53 PM

Quote :

"I find that they act like females--moody and tempermental with random forgetful spells and they bitch at me alot!--so I think it's appropriote.~ "

9/22/2005 10:04:22 AM