Constant Crashing

[Vladdorin]

Hello all,

I have recently run into the issue of my computer slowing down dramatically and then crashing. After that, when it attempts to boot back up, it gives me a "Disk Boot Failure". However, if I turn it off for a moment and try again it will work. Any ideas, guys? =)

Thank you for reading!

 

[The_Prophecy]

When you get into Windows, download and install Everest Home Edition and check your hard drive temperatures. They can be found under Computer --> Sensor. Post the idle temps of your hard drives here (in BOTH C and F)

 

[Vladdorin]

Everest only shows the motherboard, CPU, PWM, and graphics card. I see no hard disk.

 

[lordaardvark2]

Everest only shows the motherboard, CPU, PWM, and graphics card. I see no hard disk.

is/are your hdd(s) old? newly purchased? The_Prophecy was trying to say that perhaps they are overheating in your system, causing the crashes. what i would try, is if you are brave enough to open up your case, put your hand NEAR your hdd(s). not ON them, as you could possibly get burnt, but close enough to see if they are radiating heat. if they are, and you feel it, and its significant, i'd recommend staying off the comp as much as possible until you can cool that badboy down. you don't wanna risk damaging your hdd and all of its possibly important data.

give that a try and get back w/ us. remember NOT TO ACTUALLY TOUCH IT. i did that with a fan once....

good luck

 

[Vladdorin]

I can feel no heat radiating from it. As for the age, it's about a year old. However, the machine is a bit older (custom built).

 

[lordaardvark2]

I can feel no heat radiating from it. As for the age, it's about a year old. However, the machine is a bit older (custom built).

well my friend, this is both good and bad. good, because you don't have to worry about melting your hdds :lol: . bad, because that would have been relatively easy to fix. i doubt that your hdd is going bad after 1 yr, although for all i know you could be a computer slave-driver, killing off hdds left and right.

my next step personally would be to think back in the recent past... have you done anything that would create this problem? downloaded any questionable pr0n? dropkicked your computer? installed your mum's cookbook programs from 1998 (actually caused problems with MY computer, no joke :lol: ) or did you just like come home for the weekend and find this error? this background may reveal a solution.

 

[Vladdorin]

I haven't done anything out of the ordinary. I usually use my PC for 3D animation, modeling and gaming. I haven't done anything different lately. By the way, I appreciate your assistance very much. Thank you.

 

[lordaardvark2]

I haven't done anything out of the ordinary. I usually use my PC for 3D animation, modeling and gaming. I haven't done anything different lately. By the way, I appreciate your assistance very much. Thank you.

nice interests, i must agree, admirable uses for the computer. :lol: i do some of the same stuff!

okey doke, strike two. so nothing is new, no abnormal heat problems. you may wanna try dl'ing SpeedFan, just in case, i love that program... :lol:

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

website seems kinda odd, but its all good, don't worry about it. i have it running as we speak. now this probably won't point out your problem, but its kinda interesting to check out your temps. i'm not sure what kinda cooling you've got, but you may wanna check it out.

anyway, would there be any way that you could test your same system with another hdd? because of the error message you said you got, obviously, we can assume it IS the hdd. thats a no-brainer. i'm not saying go out and buy a new hdd just to test, thats not necissary. i have this ancient 2 gig i use for testing and stuff. if you can try that out, you could rule out the possible decline in health of your hdd.

and, about the help, don't mention it. i'm glad i can be useful on a boring sunday nite!

 

[pscowboy]

Two things to consider. Power supply and the heat sink paste (or pad) on your cpu.

Obtain a comparable p/s and replace the one you have. You should always have a spare anyway. See if that settles the issue.

If not, the next project is a little dicey. If you're not comfortable stripping down to the bare cpu, find a fairly competent hardware techie acquaintance to do it for you. Make sure the cpu fan is working while you're at it.

If it's paste, clean well down to bare metal & redo it with a nice thin, but even, coat. If it's a pad, make sure it's in perfect condition. I'm not a fan of pads, so I replace mine and all my customers, for paste; which I redo once a year during a maintenance visit. MUCH better heat transfer.

 

[The_Prophecy]

If it's paste, clean well down to bare metal & redo it with a nice thin, but even, coat. If it's a pad, make sure it's in perfect condition. I'm not a fan of pads, so I replace mine and all my customers, for paste; which I redo once a year during a maintenance visit. MUCH better heat transfer.

On that note..... be sure to use Arctic Silver 5

 

[lordaardvark2]

Two things to consider. Power supply and the heat sink paste (or pad) on your cpu.

Obtain a comparable p/s and replace the one you have. You should always have a spare anyway. See if that settles the issue.

If not, the next project is a little dicey. If you're not comfortable stripping down to the bare cpu, find a fairly competent hardware techie acquaintance to do it for you. Make sure the cpu fan is working while you're at it.

If it's paste, clean well down to bare metal & redo it with a nice thin, but even, coat. If it's a pad, make sure it's in perfect condition. I'm not a fan of pads, so I replace mine and all my customers, for paste; which I redo once a year during a maintenance visit. MUCH better heat transfer.

i don't mean to offset or derail the thread in any way, but i have a question.... what would one use to do such cleaning? is it necissary to use a special cleaning solvent? will rubbing alcohol work? the thing is, i saw some like ARCTIC SILVER brand cleaner things, and i'm not so keen on spending $20 for a one-time dealie, so i was wondering if it was 100% necessary.

 

[Vladdorin]

Should reformatting solve my issue? I see the hard disk attempting to scan for errors at the beginning of each boot, but it just crashes. If I exit out of that, I can boot properly.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

i don't mean to offset or derail the thread in any way, but i have a question.... what would one use to do such cleaning? is it necissary to use a special cleaning solvent? will rubbing alcohol work? the thing is, i saw some like ARCTIC SILVER brand cleaner things, and i'm not so keen on spending $20 for a one-time dealie, so i was wondering if it was 100% necessary.

Most heat transfer pads and old thermal grease can be cleaned quite well with xylene-based cleaners (Goof-Off). After all the grease and pad is cleaned off, a final cleaning with rubbing alcohol on a lint-free cloth will leave the surface completely clean for application of new thermal grease.

See Arctic Silver 5 typical instructions for general instructions on how to apply. (Note, this PDF is specific for Intel dual-core socket 775 CPUs. Go to the Arctic Silver home page to get instructions specific for other CPUs.)

I didn't mean to get the thread off-topic, either. For the OP, I would check your hard disk with the manufacturer's diagnostic utility. Go to their web site (Maxtor, Seagate, WD, etc.) and download their diagnostic tool. It will allow you to check your hard drive for errors/bad sectors.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to check your RAM, either. Try Memtest86+.

 

[lordaardvark2]

Should reformatting solve my issue? I see the hard disk attempting to scan for errors at the beginning of each boot, but it just crashes. If I exit out of that, I can boot properly.

so if you fail a boot first of all, and boot again, it works? is it stable afterwards? i would second the idea of trying out a manufacturer utility, and also the format, if you've got the time. i know that backing up stuff and coming to terms with the deletion of other stuff can take a while, as well as the install and all, but it has helped me before. JUST REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR MUSIC. that got me last time. all my hard-dl'd music....!

anyway, i hope that your hdd isn't totally dead. the fact that you CAN run off of it eventually is a decently good sign. keep us updated! good luck.

 

[Vladdorin]

I'm not sure what the problem is. My computer no longer experiences the slow downs and crashes, but it does attempt to scan the hard drive for errors on every boot. It gets irritating, as it freezes at a certain percentage and then crashes. If I choose to cancel the check, it continues and boots just fine, then runs the check on the next boot. Annoying...