Lock ups with W2k

All of a sudden last week my computer wants to lock up everytime it's started. doesn't matter what it's doing but it locks up and I have to restart. Sometimes it doesn't even make it through start up?

Any suggestions ????

 

Several. In this order.

1. Take off the case cover and clean out all the lint/dust/etc. Then leave the cover off and point a fan into the case. Run that way for a while to see if it helps.

2. from a cmd window, chkdsk /r and when it says it needs to do the job after a reboot, say yes. So this for each drive/partition.

3. start~run~sfc /scannow (you'll probably need your install CD)

4. Download both spybot and ad-aware. Run the update for both. Then run spybot and remove any items it finds and puts a check mark by. Next run ad-aware and let it remove what it finds.

5. Right-click My Computer, select manage, and go to your event log section. Delete all contents from each log section. Then set the filter to not show information and success audit information.

6. Reboot and check the system & applications logs. If you seen any errors and they don't make sense to you, open an error then click the icon below the up/down arrows. That sends a text-only copy of the event to your clipboard. Open a reply here and paste the contents into it. Do this for each error that you don't feel comfortable with.

7. If the lockups have now stopped, put the cover back on and see if it continues to run OK. If not, you have either a bad fan or your PC is in an area with very poor air circulation and is overheating which can and will cause the symptoms you describe but usually some other strange benavior.

And FWIW, even if step 1 takes care of things, the others will give you a cleaner system to work with. I'd also suggest you continue to run spybot and ad-aware once a week or so. Check for updates (can be set to do automatically if you have an always-on broadband connection) then run the apps.

 

Thank you for your quick reply. I have printed it out and will use that if I have that problem again after I fix my next problem!

Last night I ran the setup again for w2k in safe mode hoping it would let me at least get on the net for a few minutes and when it restarted it crashed completely. It thinks it's a brand new install and hung on me! NOT TO MENTION IT ERASED MY WHOLE 30 GIG HARD DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used the fdisk once I found out what had happened and repartitioned both HDs so to get a good clean install. Now the system won't let me load W2K, WIN98, WIN95, WIN3.11 or even DOS

It keeps locking up when I try and load w95 or w98 after it configures the drive or verifies the drive and then it starts to say that win98 needs 7????? this is where it locks up and goes no further. If I could get win 98 to load then I would be happy. What have I done!

 

Try fdisk /mbr and see if you can load an OS then. Sounds like you may have gotten a virus of the type that messes with your master boot record (and normal fdisk, format won't touch that section of the drive) or possibly one of the CIH variants that has done evil things to your system.

The original CIH would only mess with Win9X systems. There may well be a recent (late 2002) variant can also do damage to NT based systems like 2K & XP. Or if you had a dual boot PC with 9X on it and the 2K section was formatted FAT, the virus could have destroyed the files on your drive rather than anything you did.

A CHI removal tool that runs from a floppy can be gotten from Here.

Or if you have the software available and the expertise, a low level format will give you a clean start.