System Corruption

[depawl]

Have had to reinstall ME on this computer 3 times in the last month. It's a Presario running ME. After a week or two I get the Windows New Hardware found wizard on boot up. But where the new hardware should be it's blank. Can't get beyond it even in Safe Mode. Just goes to a GSOD (Grey Screen of Death).
After reinstalling ME and fiddling with some other stuff (eSafe antivirus was corrupted and had to be reinstalled) it 's back to normal for now. Have run AdAware, SpyBot, etc, which found minimal infection. HJT log is clean.
Any ideas?
Hardware problem?

 

[electronicsfreak]

Do you have any idea what hardware its supposedly finding? How old is the hard drive? Also whens the last time you cleaned the inside of the computer/powersupply?

 

[depawl]

No that's the weird thing. No changes have been made, no hardware (or software) added. In the Add Hardware Wizard, the place where it normally lists the hardware is blank. This machine is probably 5 or 6 years old. I checked the inside and it was a bit dusty but I've seen a lot worse. If I can get it to last 'till Christmas it'll be time for a new one. I was just curious as to what could be causing this problem.
Thanks.

 

[edfair]

Since it is working fine for a while it sounds like something is changing at some point while it is running to the point it is corrupted on the next bootup.

Don't recall if ME had a bootlog available but suppose so and there is a program available to help you look at it. Called "boot log analyst". Would suggest that as a start. There are also some identification programs available that might show you something out of the ordinary that might be kicking off the hardware identification during boot.

You could also use your CMOS settings to kill off some stuff when the problem comes back. Floppy controller and floppy and the secondary IDE and opticals would be two that might affect you.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[zeitghost]

6 years old... cmos battery?