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So, I finished Memtest, no issues. Ran SeaTools and both drives passed.

This morning I was able to get the PC to boot in Safe Mode and restarted the machine successfully and I’m using it now w/o an issue.

So I haven’t done a Clean Boot Diagnostic because I’ve never had to, which I presume is the next step. Since this PC seems to only act up after it’s been off for a good while, how will I be able to tell which driver is the culprit?

Should I still have the power supply tested? We are going to open up the case clean it and reseat everything.

I am thinking about the optional updates I allowed Windows to do when I first restored the PC. Windows recommended the Nvidia driver be updated, along with the Marvell Yukon driver for my onboard network adapter. I allowed Windows to update my Razer Lachesis mouse and my Razer Lycosa keyboard. For some reason the keyboard appears twice on the list of updates. Windows updated “ATK-system-ATK0110 ACPI utility, whatever that is. What I did not allow to be updated was the “Marvell Inc-storage-Marvell 61xx RAID Controller” because I don’t have a RAID setup. Maybe that was a mistake.

I also thought about loading the video driver from disk that came with this PC when it was new, but I got two video driver errors for two different WHQL certified drivers and I doubt those drivers are at fault. Thanks for your help and patience.

Diane

PS After I wrote the above message, I shut the PC down for awhile about 2 hours or so; I just now tried to boot into Windows in normal mode and was stuck on the ‘Welcome” screen. The little circle stopped spinning…..so I can’t CTL-ALT-DEL, but must reset. When I do, I get the desktop background, taskbar and no icons. I move the mouse and I get the Windows startup sound and miraculously everything on the desktop, icons and gadgets all appear.

When I go to Event Viewer, I see 19 Service Control Manager errors but these all have to do with the Safe Mode bootup.Several of them have to do with Network Service and are ID7001’s, i.e., DNS client service depends on TDI support drivers which failed to start because a device attached to the system is not functioning; winsock service failed to start because a device attached to the sytem is not functioning; following boot, start or system start driver failed to load and on and on…..I did not find any such messages after the hangup in normal mode. Sorry if this is just too much info, but I am floundering a bit now. There were also a half dozen or so DCom errors.

Jerry:

Thanks for answering. PC always freezes on first bootup in the AM. Tomorrow morning, I will attempt to bootup in Safe Mode. Question…if it boots into Safe Mode, then what would be the next thing? Would that give a clue as to the cause?

I don’t have a spare video card; I’m not sure how to check fan speeds or how I would know if the fans are running slowly. I’m going to have my husband do the power supply check. I also might have him clear CMOS while he’s in there, but I don’t know what else to try. I also found in my reading to try Seagate’s SeaTools to check out my 2 hard drives. I hope I can figure this out as I’m sure these reboots aren’t really good for the components. Thanks again.

Diane

Unfortunately, I use RecipeFox in conjunction with my cooking database program and it requires Java. I might have picked up the infection that way. I will be looking for an alternative solution.

D.

I ran the Windows Defender Offline and it found:

“Exploit: Java/CVE-2010-0840.po” on my system. And, I thought I practiced safe surfing. I’m now a believer in Windows Defender Offline” for sure. None of the other anti-malware programs I have installed found it. I had the WDO remove it. When I rebooted my PC Windows told me Java wasn’t working properly, so I used Revo to remove it and got the latest version of Java 7.

I am a bit leery about my PC now as I am still getting Service Control Manager errors…..I just may wipe the whole thing out ans start over.

Thanks for the help.

D.

The last error I got before starting WDO, was this:

“InitializePrinterProvider Win32.dll. This can occur because of system instability or lack of system resources”…something definitely going on here. I’ll post back with the results of the full scan I’m now running.

Diane

I have run Sophos RootKit and it found nothing. I am running the WDO now.

I checked my EV logs which is where I found the errors. The Printer Spooler and Diagnostic policy errors were Service Control Mgr errors ID 7000. Then, on my last reboot i got this:

??C:Windowssystem323E29.tmp has been blocked from loading due to incompatibility with this system. Please contact your software vendor for a compatible version of the driver.

I don’t have a clue what this might be. There is no solution for this gem at the M/Soft site. I’ve saved all my stuff via imaging to disk so I’m not worried about data loss. I’m just at a loss as to what to try next.

D.

I went ahead and reinstalled Win 8 CP as a clean install over itself. The installation failed and Windows reverted itself back to my first Win 8 upgrade install. The OS ” didn’t know why the installation failed.” Not giving up and not having much at risk on this laptop, I tried the install again and this time it was successful. I saw no appreciable difference in performance. I didn’t have sound and the resolution was stuck on 1024 x 768, but getting the drivers for the mobile Nvidia card and onboard sound took care of those issues. I now have several hours of reconfiguration to do. I couldn’t get the Realtek WLan driver to install “because the driver didn’t recognize the OS”. I don’t know what that driver does, but I have sound with just the Realtek audio drive itself. It’s a wireless LAN driver, but right now I’m wireless and have sound.
I put it in because Belarc showed me it was there before. I’m not sure what it does exactly.

I have a yellow ! in Device Mgr for an unknown device, but I think it could be the webcam or the Synapse touchpad that I don’t use and didn’t bother with. Otherwise, so far, so good.

Diane

The exact same thing occurs on my PC. As long as I can get them to go behind with one click, I do not consider it a big issue. The always on top setting will make them stay on top.

The always on top makes them always there, just like you said…..in looking around last night I came across a Microsoft article about re-registering the files associated with the gadget process; now I can’t find it. I’ll put it here if I’m able to locate it….if my memory serves me right you run the fix from the command prompt.

D.

Thanks…I’ll look for that option.

Thanks to Ted & Clint.

I’ve looked at the box…It is Win XP Professional with SP2. The OS is not in use on other computer. It is the upgrade version. If I need to swipe his drive clean and use this disk, I will install it w/o the product key and then install it again with the product key as I am familiar with this procedure.

I do hope however, he is able to find his own Windows disk….Thanks for your help.

Diane

Sounds like you’ve solved your lock-up problem. Just in case, it occurred to me to ask if you have more than one of your anti-malware apps set to do real-time scanning. While it’s good to have more than one anti-malware scanner on hand, it’s best to have only one running in real time, with the others used for on-demand scanning.

Thank you for your input.

Avast, my anti-virus runs automatically; Super-AntiSpyware updates automatically on bootup, but does not scan. It is a real resource grabber if it scans when Windows starts. I do have it set to run in protection mode in real time when Windows starts however. I manually run the scans in SAS.

Anti-Malware Bytes is used as a scanner only. Updates and scans are done manually. Appreciate the info re: PC Tools Threatfire.

Diane

Guys…Day 5

So far so good! Thank you.

Diane

Satrow: Thanks for your input.

I know SAS is tough on bootup. Before I do much of anything in the AM, I make sure SAS has updated itself in the tray. It usually does so right after AVAST. I appreciate your identifying more tools to add to the arsenal for my potential use.

D.

P.S. Day 2 with no freeze-ups. Fingers X’d but it might be we got it licked with re-doing the PSI settings. I’ll give it a few more days.

Hi,

Do you have the UAC active and PSI set to update programs automatically? If you do, I would suggest either to disable the UAC or to uncheck the PSI option to update programs automatically. I can confirm that there is something wrong either with PSI or with the UAC (and I haven seen it happen in Vista and 7), that will lead to an occasional lock up in Windows, or even to boots that can last forever.

I have UAC active and PSI was set to update automatically. I have changed PSI’s settings and will use it manually as Ted M suggested. Thank you.

D.

Diane,
Hello… I apologize for not being clear in my post..OK,
Let’s give it another try…

Hi JP Fred:

Your post was clear; maybe my answer wasn’t.

When I started having this issue, I decided to get the latest WHQL certified driver which a few days ago was 275.33. I used Revo to remove all traces of the prior driver from my PC.

In looking in CP, I have the Nvidia 275.33, Physx Driver and Nvidia Automatic update service only(that I’ve disabled). I have no 3D software installed.

I went into Nvidia control panel for the setting you suggested and it’s there, but I am going to hold off fooling with it for the moment while I wait to see the results of the “drumming down” I did to Secunia PSI this morning.

So far, I haven’t locked up, but I haven’t done much other than email yet. Thanks again. D.