Computer problem

[Figuremod73]

Oh yea, i have that covered as well. USB hard drive

You know, we take for granted how sophisticated and useful these machines are sometimes. Its terrible when something goes wrong with them!

Im not gonna play with it anymore the next few days. Ill get someone to look at it again soon.

[johnmiic]

I would like to add-make sure you have backed up everything! I can't tell you how much I spent over the years getting data recalled/retrieved.

[Toy Talk]

Run the memory test first, but you are on the right track. Since you know there was no problem prior to the storm then you have your cause. Now you are left looking for the effect. You have effectively ruled out the normal software problems.

Run the memtest, then open the case and look at the fans.

The behavior you are experiencing is either bad memory or a bad fan; you have tested everything else already.

If you notice a case fan or CPU fan (if you have one) is not running then you have your problem. A CPU heats up quickly, within 5-10 minutes, after starting the system. The hotter the CPU gets the slower your system will get until eventually your screen freezes.

[Figuremod73]

Ok heres a update:

I had someone come over whose a little more knowledgeable come over and look at. They cleaned the cookies and installed an updated version of Mcaffey anti-virus. The virus check came up negative. When the cookies and some of the options were changed it seemed to run better a little while then began to do the same thing again.
Now the memory chip is becoming suspect so memcheck would be a good idea. Im thinking about taking it to a comp specialist but im a little afraid of what they would charge,lol.
If I got a apple it would be a ipad. They are awesome and would be great for reading books and comics on. Its just their cost. Apple is quality thats for sure i use to use them in school.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I had something similar happen to mine. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but the UPDATED virus software seemed to be the problem. Not sure why though.

Don C.

[Toy Talk]

Same thing happened to my last iMac. Good for ten minutes and then bogged down to the point where I couldn't call a menu up. It was nearly three years old, but I had the extended Apple warranty.

Sent it off to Apple and told them I thought it was the hard drive. They replaced the monitor, which wasn't faulty, with a faulty monitor! Grr! Gave it back to me with a dodgy monitor and the SAME hard drive.

After ten minutes... crashed again. Double Grr!

Phoned Apple - they sent someone to my house to replace the hard drive. That fixed it, but then I said "Now about this faulty monitor you just installed..."

He made a phone call. The next day a courier arrived with a brand new iMac. Bigger screen, bigger hard drive, more memory. Free!

So even the bad Apple stories have a happy ending.

I agree that Apple is by no means immune to hardware failures; which I have a feeling may be at the heart of the problem in this thread. However, since 70% of all computer failures are software related it often pays to check the easy stuff first.

Since the event appeared after the storm I am not completely ruling out a bad pagefile.

[Captain Big Trousers]

Are we at the part where annoying Apple fans like me chime in and say "Get a MAC'??

Same thing happened to my last iMac. Good for ten minutes and then bogged down to the point where I couldn't call a menu up. It was nearly three years old, but I had the extended Apple warranty.

Sent it off to Apple and told them I thought it was the hard drive. They replaced the monitor, which wasn't faulty, with a faulty monitor! Grr! Gave it back to me with a dodgy monitor and the SAME hard drive.

After ten minutes... crashed again. Double Grr!

Phoned Apple - they sent someone to my house to replace the hard drive. That fixed it, but then I said "Now about this faulty monitor you just installed..."

He made a phone call. The next day a courier arrived with a brand new iMac. Bigger screen, bigger hard drive, more memory. Free!

So even the bad Apple stories have a happy ending.

[mazinz]

Excellent suggestion. memtest is one of the hardware test I was referring to when I said try the other stuff first and then we could look at hardware.

Yeah if it is the ram chip, failure to fix the problem can result in it destroying your hard drive (which happened to me). Memtest was a life saver. In my case once I ran it on the first chip the red error flag light up like Christmas

[Toy Talk]

I would strongly recommend downloading and running memtest:

http://www.memtest.org/

It really sounds like one of your ram chips is going. Running this free program (which will load before windows start up) will tell you. If any sectors of the ram chip list errors that is a safe bet the chip went bad and needs to be replaced.

Excellent suggestion. memtest is one of the hardware test I was referring to when I said try the other stuff first and then we could look at hardware.

[mazinz]

I would strongly recommend downloading and running memtest:

http://www.memtest.org/

It really sounds like one of your ram chips is going. Running this free program (which will load before windows start up) will tell you. If any sectors of the ram chip list errors that is a safe bet the chip went bad and needs to be replaced.

[Brad]

This is whats on it:

Used disc space: 9.56 GB
Free disc space: 64.9 GB
Intel Pentium 4 cpu: 3.20 GHZ
1.60 GHZ, 512 MB of ram

Currently virus program is buggy and outdated, ive been thinking about re-installing windows xe (or upgrading)

I really suspect its a virus. I hardly ever download on this computer. Could i have gotten some kind of virus just from visiting websites? I surf alot (nope, havent been anywhere naughty.)

I am no expert but I would certainly look into bumping up the RAM. 512MB is small. I would go to at least 2GB. I run 3GB on my computer and it helps it run much faster.

Also using selective start up helps too. It shuts off all the unneeded programs from running in the background.

[megoapesnut]

Are we at the part where annoying Apple fans like me chime in and say "Get a MAC'??

[Fire Marshal Bill]

2) Uninstall your outdated and no longer licensed antivirus software, then reboot your machine. Outdated antivirus software applications will often cause computers to run slow as it tries to continuously check for updates, patches, and scans.

I can testify to this! I almost replaced my computer last year because i couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. It was running horribly slow. By chance, i got an email stating that there was a new version of my antivirus software available. I downloaded and installed the new version and it completely hosed my computer. So i deleted it and rebooted. My computer never ran better . It was like having a new machine. I did install antivirus software again, just a different brand .

[Toy Talk]

The computer's slowness grows as the computer runs.
There were no problems prior to the storm
You get a random memory error (was that there before the storm)
Your antivirus software is out of data and buggy

I think that covers everything we know at this point. That being said lets keep the Q/A coming along.

1) What operating system are you running: i.e. Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7.

2) Uninstall your outdated and no longer licensed antivirus software, then reboot your machine. Outdated antivirus software applications will often cause computers to run slow as it tries to continuously check for updates, patches, and scans.

3) Clearing your cache is excellent advice.

4) Although this next part is not your issue, it will help dramatically. Upgrade your RAM to 1GB (2x what you are currently running). My guess is you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, both run smoothest on 1GB of RAM or more.

5) Installing and running Malwarebytes is another excellent suggestion.

After you do all of those things let me know how our patient is doing. My biggest concern is the obvious connection between the storm and poor performance; do not disregard that as the problem because without a doubt it was the catalyst. I can provide you with the "how to" for running checks on your physical hardware if that is where this ends up, but lets look for the easy stuff first.

[Mikey]

Do you have malwarebytes anti malware ?

It's free

If not, download it, run it ... and then see what happens