FREEZING, ERROR MESSAGES AND BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH 1

[sphinx76]

My computer is a 433mhz AMD and is running windows ME. I also run Norton antivirus. Lately, my computer has been freezing quite often, and when I try to reset the computer right away, it will not detect the hard drive. When I turn it off over night and restart in the morning, the computer runs scandisk and then boots normally. PC will run for a short time and then it will freeze and give me error messages, such as 'cannot write to drive C'.

Also, sometimes when this happens, right after I boot up, before I get to the desktop, I will get a message that says "unable to initiate virus scanning engine database files".

Please tell me what is going on with this darn thing!! Could it be something to do with power management? I have tried different settings, but to no avail. I have tried system restore. This works for a while but eventually it does the same thing. Could I have bad RAM? The only thing I have downloaded lately is Bomzai Buddy, but I have recently erased it.

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[mainegeek]

I would replace the cmos battery and then let scandisk run a surface scan at boot.

 

[rabflorida]

From your description it sounds to me as if either your hard drive is developing or has bad sectors, or the hard drive is going. I have come across similar PC symptoms. The first thing I do is unplug the hard drive from the power and IDE cable, then replug it plug back in. (I have had success with just that alone, don’t ask me why!) The next thing is to run scandisk and do a surface scan to detect and mark any bad sectors. If it continues, the third thing I would do would be to re-image or fdisk and start from scratch all over again, but it may not cure it, if sectors are bad or hard drive is going. I found that almost always, errors writing to drive C: is a sign of a failing hard drive. Back up your data asap just in case. Good luck. (These are just my thoughts, open to other suggestions)

 

[smaxted]

I have to agree with Rabflorida it does exactly sound like your hard drive is going. If your battery was going the clock in cmos wouldn't be able to keep proper time. I'd try another hard drive just to see....and then work from there...Also make sure your using a good power supply to cutdown/prevent read/write errors on your hard drive. Scotty Mac a.k.a smaxted

"Another day, another problem"

 

[sphinx76]

Mainegeek...thanks for your reply...I tried your suggestion last night and let scandisk do its thing overnight. It seems to have worked!!! No problems at all today!! Thank you very much!!

rabflorida and smaxted: Thanks also for your suggestions...they will be the first thing I try if the problem persists.

Sphinx