plz help my pc is in melt down!

[winchester007]

I have not done any changes to my pc for over a year. But the other day it started acting weird while I was playing a game. The images started tearing. So I figured it just needed a reboot. Well it never got back to windows after that. It just starts and shows the mb splash screen, then it goes to this other screen that says "windows did not start successfully a recent hardware or software change might have caused this." Then it gives me four options
1. safe mode
2. safe mode with networking
3. safe mode with command prompt
4. start windows normally.

The problem is that no matter which option I choose it just restarts the pc and comes back to this screen. I appreciete any adive you guys can give me. I thank you in advance. Here is my pc specs:




1 x AMS CF-3206SB Black/Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail1 x ASUS A8N5X 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard -- Retail1 x AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Manchester 2.2GHz Socket 939 67W Single-Core Processor Model ADA3500CGBOX - Retail1 x XFX PVT42GUAD7 GeForce 6800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail1 x RAIDMAX AURORA RX-580F 580W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Retail1 x NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM1 x CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWINX2048-3200 - Retail1 x Microsoft FA6-00010 Black USB Wired Ergonomics Keyboard - OEM1 x Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM1 x Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value SB0400 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

[chunkylover53]

Did you try re-seating the RAM, or taking one stick out and trying to boot with just 1 stick?

[winchester007]

I tried reseating the ram but that didn't work. Then I switched out the video card to another one but that didn't work either so I have to assume it is the hard drive at this point . thanks for your help chunky.

[The Wise Monkey]

It doesn't sound like a hard drive problem - it may be something to do with Windows. Try running a repair on it. To do this, boot from the CD, press enter to install fresh, press F8 to accept the agreement, then there should be an option to press R to repair your current installation.

This will wipe your Internet Explorer bookmarks, and you will have to download the latest updates again, but all your programs and files will be left intact.

[zburns]

W/M, Chunky, 007: Is it possible that 007 has got a dose of "bad virus" or "malware" intentionally designed to screw around with software. If he is not extremely careful about running anti virus and anti malware apps, something could have come in; could happen even if he is very careful about running AV and malware protection. Just a thought!!

[The Wise Monkey]

Its possible, but they should still be able to boot into safe mode if they have a virus, unless it has messed up the OS files, in which case running a repair should restore them.

[chunkylover53]

The last time this happened to me, it was ram & windows. The PC would start, get to the safe mode selection, then no matter what I selected it would reboot and bring me back... forever.

It tunred out I had a bad stick of RAM, and I had to run a repair on windows after I changed it out. That's why I suggested winchester try using just one stick of ram.

If he tries the repair, and it fails, I am leaning towards replacing the ram. The worst case scenario if I'm wrong is that he's got extra ram in his pc.

[The Wise Monkey]

Good point - you should try and run Memtest86 to check your RAM:

http://www.memtest.org/

[winchester007]

I will try all these suggestions and get back to you guys, I really thank you for the help. I hope at least to find out waht went bad and replace it then hopefully get my files.
Oh I also am very careful about running a virus program actually it is c.a. they are pretty good. And I have the firewall and malware. So unlikely but not impossible. I well post back and tell you guys what happens. Oh I also had one more question , can I put a pci express x16 2.0 graphics card into a regular pci express x16 slot?

[The Wise Monkey]

Yes, you can - the card will only run at the speed of the slot.

[winchester007]

I did the windows repair utility and surprise surprise it worked, so thank you very much.

[The Wise Monkey]

No problem - glad you got it sorted. :)

[MinGraphics]

Hi Guys, I am posting here because Chester007 is my son in law and what happened to his computer is now happened to mine this afternoon. 2 months ago it happened to my sons computer and I changed his hard drive because nothing else worked. Could this be some kind of virus, we are all on the same network? I will start with the ram on my computer and see what happens, if that doesn't work I will do the same thing that worked for Chester007.

Here are my specs from the super PC grads list now on page 2.

Antec 900
Intel core 2 duo e8400 Wolfdale
Asus P5KC
EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512mb
Corsair 520HX psu
Corsair XMS2 2GB 2x1GB DDR2 RAM
WD 320GB SATA HD
Samsung 226BW 22" widescreen
Vista 32bit home prem

I will let you know what happens.

[The Wise Monkey]

It does sound odd that you have all had the same problems...

What anti-virus are you using?

[MinGraphics]

OK it was RAM in my case, I bought 2 more gigs because I am going over to 64bit this year, just not sure if it will be vista or I might wait for windows 7. Anyway I put all 4 gigs in to see what would happen...well I should have listened to you guys, as soon as I took the new RAM out my computer is back to normal.

[The Wise Monkey]

Guess it was just coincidence that you have all had the same problem, but caused by different things.

Computers are weird sometimes... :D