Question from a noob

Like the title says I'm not very computer smart so I'll ask you guys. The other day I was browsing around hongfire when my comp crashed on me. After the restart it said something about having to check and verify the OS disc and when it finished I noticed some problems. I couldn't rename some of my files without it freezing or delete files without a screen popping up about est. time while doing nothing and stays open even after I closed it. Only after I restart the computer does it disappear but as soon as I do any of those things again the problems reoccur. Plus I've noticed that it's somewhat slower than before it crashed on me and it seems less responsive. What I'm asking is do any of you have solutions for this problem or should I bring it in? Is it something I could do myself or should I have someone look at it?

Is your computer making clicking noises?

Other than the mouse no.

What kind of files are you renaming or deleting?

Okay, looks like there's a problem. What kind of crash was it, describe to us what happened. Did the screen go black, or did the windows interface just freeze, and nothing could happen? Crash is such a general term.

BTW having someone look at it would be expensive, and unnecessary because working on a computer is not like working on a car, you don't need special tools to fix most problems with a computer.

My first guess would be that during the 'error check' it corrupted or didn't fix the problem on the hard drive.

Go to "My Computer"
Then select C: drive, and click properties
Click on the "Tools" tab
Click the Error Checking "Check now" button.
Checkmark "Automatically fix errors" and "Attempt recovery of bad sectors"
Click start

Depending on the speed and the size of the drive, it might take a few hours, so do it when you aren't going to use the computer (like overnight).

This is a good start until you describe us the crash.

@jenslyn: All files whether it be pictures, documents, folders, etc.

@Rothen: When it crashed it just froze. The screen didn't turn black or anything but the mouse icon wasn't showing up and the comp didn't respond to anything at all. I'll give your suggestion a shot and see what happens.

edit: I gave it a try but the problem remains.

Frankly, it sounds like a serious virus attack. Unless your computer (I'm assuming a desktop) is overheating, but this doesn't sound like a case of overheating.

While it is a given that he should run anti virus when using windows, then a problem only showing up when renaming/deleting does not sound like a virus to me

It frankly does not sound like a virus attack.

Try running cmd, then chkdsk -r

@Tegumi: I heard and read some rather interesting tales describing the nature of certain virus attacks. This doesn't sound anything out of the norm for viruses.

Either that, or your OS has some serious faults. Question is, how did the OS become faulty in the first place? Was it a sudden thing, or were you experiencing some minor things before the shit hit the fan?

Well, that's nice and all, but I've worked IT before and most of the time viruses are not the cause.

It was fine up until the crash. All this happened right after I rebooted the system.

@Tegumi: You weren't the one to give me a -rep, right? As for your post, from what AJ27 is saying, he was browsing the internet, i.e. Hongfire, and then the system crashed. Unless the computer was seriously overheating and components were melting, then there would've been some sort of sign that something was wrong before everything went kaput. I don't believe there was a software/OS problem because apparently was working fine before it, so I hypothesized that it could've been a virus attack. And again, this ia all conjecture until AJ27 can give us some more details.

One more question: you are working on a desktop right? Check to see if the hard drive isn't super hot, because then we can rule out the overheating reason. I highly doubt this is the case because most hard drives have more than enough space internally to keep it from overheating, unlike laptops. Also, is there too much dust around your hard drive? If there is, you might want to clean the area with a wet dust rag/towel and make sure there isn't any dust in the hard drive itself. If there is dust inside, you can either get an office duster (aerosol can of CO2) or wipe off the dust with cotton swabs/balls.

And here's a link that I found to be pretty useful (behold the power of google): http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-44306-Troubleshooting-Sudden-Rebootscrashes.html

I was not. The only people I de-rep are stupid people and Filipinos. Actually, the former incorporates the latter.


His problem seriously sounds like a hard drive issue, and keep in mind that viruses are software too.

@Tegumi: You're right that viruses attack the software, but I've heard cases of viruses forcing the computer to shut down and reboot or something of the sort. This sudden shut down does sound like a hard drive issue, and I know that cases of overheating, the hard drive has a failsafe system that shuts down by itself to protect it. But if that happened, nothing else should've been affected unless the hardware was damaged to the point that it affected the software. Then again, I don't think we know enough information to diagnose and troubleshoot this case.

overheating is not the only cause of hard drive failure..

OP: Counter-question time. Do you ever get oddly named or sized files?
Do you ever get STOP errors?
And if so,
Do you promise to write down the error codes of any future STOP errors?



The computer "shutting down due to a virus" is actually about the sasser (and variant) worm, which exploited an Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS, hence the worm's name) vulnerability, crashing the LSASS. This would cause the affected system to display a brief information message and countdown and then shut down on itself, because a termination of the LSASS and ensuing loss of security policies triggers an auto-shut-down.
Symptoms given by original poster are completely different from this.

yup i had that virus to in the past^^..

Congratulations?

If you need to know anything else just ask. I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge. And to your earlier question yes, it's a desktop. Another problem I've noted is that videos that played fine before skip a bit now and some are very choppy. I've checked and all the drivers are updated to their latest specs but the problem remains. It's getting borderline irritating now.