computer help, programs crashing

[slade]

ive been having computer problems for a little while now. i had a thread a while ago about firefox crashing, and i never got that issue resolved. it seems to take up too much CPU, it raises until it gets to 99% and then says "firefox.exe has created errors and needs to be restarted" or something to that effect. the same thing was happening with napster, well i dont think it would take up too much CPU but it would crash with the same message. yesterday i was using a program i downloaded for a math project, and it crashed 3-4 times with the same message. it seemed to crash if it was doing more complex things (like having a few windows open, i needed to graph multiple things). just now microsoft word crashed on me, with the same error message. i was working on the same math project, i had 4 of the graphs i copied into the document and was just starting to type something, then it crashed.

does anyone know what the problem could be? this never used to happen. i havent done anything to the hardware recently. i added a hard drive (well put the stock one back in) and a while before that added ram.

[Jaan]

First step is to make sure you don't have a virus or spyware on your computer. Have you done that yet?

[slade]

First step is to make sure you don't have a virus or spyware on your computer. Have you done that yet?

ive run norton, ad-aware, and spybot with no results. ive checked processes repeatedly at www.processlibrary.com. one time something i hadnt seen before was using 90% of the CPU, and processlibrary said it was a virus. i tried to end it but it wouldnt allow me to end the process. in a few minutes microsoft antivirus had a message come up saying it deleted something, and no search has come up with anything since.

[maxama10]

need to run hijack this.....post log on a tech forum for analysis....

[Glickman]

ive been having computer problems for a little while now. i had a thread a while ago about firefox crashing, and i never got that issue resolved. it seems to take up too much CPU, it raises until it gets to 99% and then says "firefox.exe has created errors and needs to be restarted" or something to that effect. the same thing was happening with napster, well i dont think it would take up too much CPU but it would crash with the same message. yesterday i was using a program i downloaded for a math project, and it crashed 3-4 times with the same message. it seemed to crash if it was doing more complex things (like having a few windows open, i needed to graph multiple things). just now microsoft word crashed on me, with the same error message. i was working on the same math project, i had 4 of the graphs i copied into the document and was just starting to type something, then it crashed.

does anyone know what the problem could be? this never used to happen. i havent done anything to the hardware recently. i added a hard drive (well put the stock one back in) and a while before that added ram.

1. How much ram you have? If its under 512mb but you live off your computer, i would definitely pick up some more (i recommend 1 gig) It will help with letting you use more programs at a time

2. run windows update

3. update all virus/spyware libraries

4. that thing that uses 90% of your cpu, was it called like "Windows Double XP" or something similar?

5. Run hijack this

6. bake me some cookies

7. Have you installed any hardware recently? for some stupid reason windows gets corrupted when you install certain types of hardware drivers

[SCpoloRicker]

Stop looking at teh pron.

[slade]

1. How much ram you have? If its under 512mb but you live off your computer, i would definitely pick up some more (i recommend 1 gig) It will help with letting you use more programs at a time

2. run windows update

3. update all virus/spyware libraries

4. that thing that uses 90% of your cpu, was it called like "Windows Double XP" or something similar?

5. Run hijack this

6. bake me some cookies

7. Have you installed any hardware recently? for some stupid reason windows gets corrupted when you install certain types of hardware drivers

1) 512mb. i added some more from the stock 256 a few months ago. i dont think the problem has to do with the ram since the CPU is what it seems is being taken up. although do you think there could be a bad connection with the ram or something, that creates the errors if you start using more memory? im pretty sure its in though, it reads that theres 512 mb.

2) already ran windows update.

3) already updated definitions.

4) i dont remember what it was called, since it was a while ago... but that wasnt it, and i have windows 2000.

5) i will, i already downloaded it. should i post the log here?

6) i baked cookies for AO a while ago, but my dad ate them . but thats ibakedcookies's job anyway.

7) i installed the ram and a pioneer dvd burner a little while ago, but im pretty sure that was at least a little while before this problem started. then i added the old HD that i had previously replaced with a bigger drive, so i had more storage. right now that drive is only holding videos though, which i havent watched for a few weeks.

right now im following what it says here: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 i just found that site. im basically at the point where i can start scanning, but im downloading a copy of linux (im going to try putting it on another computer) which is taking a while. i tried the online scans but they didnt work, well one didnt work and the other caused firefox to crash, lol. i want to try fixing everything myself, but if i cant i guess ill have to have someone look at it...

oh, and does anyone know of a good (free) program that allows you to block processes? so if that process shows up again, i can just block it (since i couldnt end it).

Stop looking at teh pron.

ironically, the problem didnt come up until half a year after i stopped.

[Coralis]

Sounds like its time to back up your important stuff and reformat your hard drive and reinstall windows time to me.

[slade]

Sounds like its time to back up your important stuff and reformat your hard drive and reinstall windows time to me.

too much to backup... my paintball videos alone are 3.5 gigs. Then theres, you know, homework and stuff.


I followed everything in that link i found, ran the scans in safe mode and ran the online scans. one scan found one thing which was from wildTangent which it said was spyware or something which it couldnt delete... i deleted it manually but im not sure if that would have completely gotten rid of it.

im guessing the problem is most likely due to hardware issues, considering the scans didnt find anything and the computer is about 4 years old. is there anything i could do besides just get a new computer?

[slade]

Stop looking at teh pron.

why do i always think of jokes a day after they would have been (somewhat) funny?

my poor video card got corrupted, and i think my ram is infected with hookers . My hard drive forgot to use a trojan and caught chlamydia.

[Jaan]

too much to backup... my paintball videos alone are 3.5 gigs. Then theres, you know, homework and stuff.
<snip> is there anything i could do besides just get a new computer?

Yeah. You might just get another hard drive, throw XP onto that, and use this current drive as a slave and move everything important over to the new drive.

If it's a hardware problem, old stuff is cheap as hell, I have piles of old computers here myself that I cannibalize, and occasionally I get bored and put a working one together. You just missed out on the M.I.T. flea market (they don't run it during the winter), that's a great place to find old hardware, like $5 motherboards.

New computers are cheap though, and often it's not worth fixing the old ones, except for fun.

Hey, how many computer programmers does it take to change a light bulb? They can't, it's a hardware problem nyuk nyuk (c:

[Glickman]

oh, and does anyone know of a good (free) program that allows you to block processes? so if that process shows up again, i can just block it (since i couldnt end it).


ironically, the problem didnt come up until half a year after i stopped.

yea its called msconfig


dont touch it

[slade]

well. i guess it wasnt software, it was my hardware.

for a while i was having a problem where programs would crash and it would have an error message about the memory, and yesterday the sound stopped working. so i took it apart and tried re-seating the ram and sound card. i put it back together, powered it up, and... nothing happened. i took it apart again, and tried re-seating the ram again, and the video card. then i powered it up, and it beeped 6 times, and the 4 lights on the back were yellow,yellow,green,green. according to the dell website the lights mean "memory failed to be sized or enabled" and the beeps mean "8042 Gate A20 cannot be toggled." i have two sticks of memory so i tried using just one, switching between the two and the two different slots, with the same error... so i guess its a problem with the motherboard, right? and i have no idea what the message about the gate is, does anyone know? maybe i should just scrap it and get a new computer, since this one is 4+ years old.