Microsoft Security Essentials on Win7

[bmoc]

I am partial to Hitman Pro's Kickstart http://www.surfright.nl/en/kickstart

I'd also recommend running Tweaking.com's Windows Repair Tool if you can get the system to run somewhat stable. http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/wi ... n_one.html

[Xeogred]

Well, I shut down the PC last night and now the screen is blinking as it's trying to boot up. I don't think it's the monitor but I have no idea.

I'll see about checking those out today.

[Ziggy587]

Test the RAM: http://www.memtest.org/

The longer you let Memtest run, the better. Let it run overnight, if possible.

Test the HDD: Open the case and pull out the HDD to determine the make and model number. If it's Western Digital or Seagate or something else that doesn't suck, you can go on their website and download tools that will have diagnostic tests. Usually you can find one that will boot outside of an OS.

I say test the RAM and HDD first since it's easy enough to do.

[Xeogred]

I actually did replace the original ram stick the PC came with. It definitely didn't have any initial problems, but I wonder if that can get faulty with the system over time? Maybe I should have never replaced the ram?

I'm pretty sure I still have the old stick laying around so maybe I can pop that back in and see if anything happens.

[ExedExes]

I see Kickstart's already been mentioned. The best use of that is if you have ransomware that locks your computer upon entering Windows, because you can download it to a flash drive and make it bootable. Of course anything good that can boot into Safe Mode works well too. If you can get into Safe Mode, Clamwin is a good free AV option.

A sign of a bad RAM stick would be evident upon first starting the computer. A few months ago I assisted with someone's computer that had this issue. Turned on the computer, black screen with no monitor issue or any POST beeps or anything like that. I opened it up and saw it had 2 sticks and took one out and found the computer booted with just one. I eventually replaced the bad stick with a replacement from Crucial and the computer was saved.

On my old desktop build, I would get a POST beep when the RAM stick was bad. But you wouldn't get anywhere, not even onto Windows, with a bad stick of RAM.

[Ziggy587]

A sign of a bad RAM stick would be evident upon first starting the computer. A few months ago I assisted with someone's computer that had this issue. Turned on the computer, black screen with no monitor issue or any POST beeps or anything like that. I opened it up and saw it had 2 sticks and took one out and found the computer booted with just one. I eventually replaced the bad stick with a replacement from Crucial and the computer was saved.

On my old desktop build, I would get a POST beep when the RAM stick was bad. But you wouldn't get anywhere, not even onto Windows, with a bad stick of RAM.

That's not always the case. If a stick is totally dead (or not compatible) that could cause the computer not to POST. But I've found bad RAM sticks where the computer was able to load the OS without any issues.

There was one time I upgraded the RAM in someone's computer. I got the RAM used off eBay. The computer was able to POST and load Windows just fine. After getting to the desktop, you wouldn't know anything was wrong. Then I noticed I couldn't launch FireFox, but I was able to launch Internet Explorer. At this point I decided to run MemTest and found that one of the new sticks was bad (I'm sure if I played around in Windows a little more I would have found other weird issues). Luckily the eBay seller refunded the money without issue.

That's why MemTest exists. RAM isn't strictly pass or fail during POST, there's more to it than that.

[Xeogred]

Can a GPU cause weird things like that too? Those are the two things I "added" to that PC. Think it just had onboard video before I put in a low profile card, and I put in a ram stick to up the ram.

[Xeogred]

Hours later after running scans with Tweaking.com's Windows Repair Tool, it has found no problems. The mystery continues.

I'll try to do a memtest next.

[isiolia]

Can a GPU cause weird things like that too? Those are the two things I "added" to that PC. Think it just had onboard video before I put in a low profile card, and I put in a ram stick to up the ram.

Most likely, if there was an issue with the GPU it'd bluescreen or you'd lose picture once the driver loaded - though more commonly, it'd boot using generic drivers. If it was a new addition, maybe the PSU isn't quite up to the task...but it sounds like you had it in there before and it was fine?

If you haven't, I'd double check that everything is seated, not clogged with dust, fans spinning, that kind of thing. Flakey connections can manifest in odd ways, and if the machine is getting hot it might be throttling down to compensate, making things slow. I've had a handful of machines with damage ports (USB, IEE1394) that acted oddly as well.

I'd suspect a dying HDD. You should be able to run drive tests off of the Ultimate Boot CD or something. Could also try running a Linux live disc to effectively remove the HDD and Windows install from the test.

[Xeogred]

Memtest also passed with flying colors after only about an hour of scanning.

So yeah, last resort is I'm guessing the HDD. I don't think the PSU is very good either and it is a slim prebuilt case machine, I do remember it gets pretty dusty real easily. It never feels extremely hot or anything though and it's still pretty quiet.

Whenever I do try to do some Disc Error checks and whatnot though, it seems to go slower than ever on that stuff.