Infinity_Wasted

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okay, this is my first post, and hopefully it's a useful one, cause I need some serious help.

it all started when I installed new video drivers from Nvidia so I could play Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade. ever since then, my computer hasn't been working right. now, about 4 weeks later, it's on it's last leg, and if I can't get any help by January 2nd, then I'm going to have to just erase it and reload the whole hard drive.

the problem: Random reboots, frozen screens, blue screens, black screens, and the most perplexing one yet, appears in DOS, when the computer is doing the BIOS check. it says "Disk Read Error. Press Ctrl+Alt+Dlt to restart."

answers to all the others would be nice, but a solution to that would make me most grateful, cause it could mean that there's something wrong with my hard drive.
my computer is getting a little dusty. could to much dust collecting in the computer cause something like this?

also, my specs:
ASUS A8N-SLI
Athlon X2 3800
Hitachi Deskstar SATA II Hard Drive (C Drive)
Western Digital SATA II Hard Drive (D Drive)
EVGA Geforce 7600GT
HIPER PSU (Modular, in Blue)

please help. I honestly don't know if my computer will turn on if I put it into hibernation or power it down. anything- ANYTHING- by the end of the day, I would appreciate.

thanks for you time,
Jesse.

PS. Yes, I am moderately knowledgable with computers.
 

waylander

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I am assuming that you've tried reinstalling the old drivers to see whether that was the issue?

Did you use a driver cleaner when you removed the old ones? Also, most hard drive companies have utilities that will run a disk check for errors. They should work with any hdd so download one and run it.
 

Apache14

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This could be caused by a few things but the most likely one i can think of is that your hard drive is on the way out or has errors (due to the blue screens and Disk Read Error) or that some of the crucial windows files are corrupted.

Hope this helps :?
 

Infinity_Wasted

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I am assuming that you've tried reinstalling the old drivers to see whether that was the issue?

Did you use a driver cleaner when you removed the old ones? Also, most hard drive companies have utilities that will run a disk check for errors. They should work with any hdd so download one and run it.

no, I did not remove the old ones when I installed the new drivers, and I was pretty sure that was causing the problems until I started getting the aforementioned errors during bootup. I'm also sure that it's probably the video drivers because I've been having trouble running movies and videos since then.
the problem there, is that the new drivers installed OVER the old drivers from EVGA, so I'm kinda screwed there, if it is the drivers.


I forgot to mention that I did run a virus scan, and nothing came up. I also tried defragmenting the drive, but it froze before I could even get it started.
 

Apache14

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and the most perplexing one yet, appears in DOS, when the computer is doing the BIOS check. it says "Disk Read Error. Press Ctrl+Alt+Dlt to restart."

This indicates the hard drive not the drivers as in the bios the windows drivers arnt running. Also u could try to roll back the drivers in device manager to prove the drivers
 

Infinity_Wasted

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and the most perplexing one yet, appears in DOS, when the computer is doing the BIOS check. it says "Disk Read Error. Press Ctrl+Alt+Dlt to restart."

This indicates the hard drive not the drivers as in the bios the windows drivers arnt running. Also u could try to roll back the drivers in device manager to prove the drivers

hmmm... do you think this means I'll have to return my hard drive (I still have the warranty)? or can it be solved by simply reloading Windows?
 

Infinity_Wasted

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formatting and reinstalling seems like the best course of action to me. returning the drive is more of a last resort for me. I don't really want to do it. lol.

I think I'm also going to partition my C Drive, which is 80 GB into 2 partitions. 1 for JUST the OS, and the other for all the OS-related stuff (Winzip, Networking utilities, itunes, etc). that would make reloading Windows much easier, cause I wouldn't have to get my stuff onto the other drive.
I found out recently about Windows ability to set recovery points for the Operating System too. I never knew about that, so after I reinstall, I'll be setting a recovery point too.


oh, and I already did the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, and everything was fine.

I'm gonna get started reloading it. thanks for the help. I'll let you all know if it works when it's done, probably on the 1st or 2nd.