Windows XP Blackouts & Corrupt System32 - HELP PLEASE!

[Oubaassehonne]

I came to this website as a last resort. I am desperate and in urgent need of some advice - non-superficial advice.

Just to set my status: I am a very experienced XP user and have been using it for the past 5 or 6 years. I am in no way a beginner/novice, etc.

For the past year or so I have been experiencing a weird flaw in my Windows XP, something that has never happened before. I use Windows XP SP2 PRO. Just a standard installation disc. No tweaks, no changes.

Ever since I moved to the UK and gotten broadband on a 8Mbps dial-up modem, I have been experiencing this problem. I thought that if I got a router with a secure NAT firewall, it would have resolved the problem, but it didn't.

Here's the problem:
Out of NOWHERE, the first symptoms of the problem are heard through my speakers. In most cases, it starts with slight cracking sounds and in rare cases (when watching a movie or listening to music) it makes a heavy glitch noise. After the sound symptom, my screen starts flashing BLACK and then comes back (the power button remains green). As time progresses, it flashes black more and more.

It turns out that when I restart after that, Windows either states that a system file is missing and cannot load, or when I log onto my account, it states that a file is corrupt.

Okay, so the problem has something to do with my system files (system32 mainly) becoming corrupt out of nowhere.

Since then I have become a devoted CHKDSK user, because after I run it, I have a 50/50 chance of my Windows being restored (and my 3 other HardDrives that are sometimes affected).

At first, about a year ago, my PC would last me about 2 or 3 weeks before I have to completely format. Now, about 30 minutes after XP is back on, I get the black screen flash.

I have tried almost EVERYTHING I can think of to find the source and I cannot find the solution. I thought it must be a hacker who keeps attacking me, even though I have 4 firewalls:
-Router NAT
-Windows Firewall
-Zone Alarm Security Suite
-Sygate Personal Firewall Pro

When I put Windows Vista Ultimate on, this problem disappears, so I thought that maybe XP had an obvious vulnerability to hackers.

BUT: at one time, my router was turned off when i formatted and I got the black screen flash and system crash AGAIN. So i thought - maybe the problem is internal - like a hidden trojan on one of my other 3 harddrives. Well, then I decided to plug in the hard drives one at a time to see which one gives a problem. Without going further than my main secondary one (with all my installations), I crashed, so it definitely wasn't HDD 3 and 4. My HDD2 was scanned and scanned and scanned thoroughly for anything suspicious and I got rid of everything that might be the problem (even files that I got a year ago that COULD have been the problem) but with NO LUCK. I'm STILL stuck.

Then I thought again - maybe it IS a hacker. But how can he get through 4 firewalls?? (Still possible, obviously).

On 18 December 2007, Service Pack 3 Release Candidate was released for Win XP, so I decided to get another clean XP installation CD and to put service pack 3 on. The problem is STILL HERE.

I cannot find ANY information on the internet regarding the black screen flash. Only the corrupt system32 stuff everyone talks about, but no one gives a source or a solution to the problem.

Other info:
I have a static IP, for whatever bizarre reason.
I have some custom ports forwarded on my router (6112 and 6909), but I crashed even with those ports closed. My UPNP is disabled, DMZ is disabled and INCOMING PING is ENABLED.

Weird Behaviour:
This problem only seems to surface when I'm actually ON the PC. When I'm away, it never occurs.

3rd Party Software info:
I have left out EVERY installation that I normally install on XP in order to find the route of the problem, but I still crashed. Sygate cannot be the problem, cuz I only started using that recently. I don't know if Zone Alarm can be the problem, because I've used it for over 2 or 3 years now.

System info:
Processor: AMD Athlon64 3500+ - 2.21 Ghz
Motherboard: MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum
RAM: 1024 MB DDR RAM
HDD: 200 GB Western Digital HDD
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB PCI-Express (NVidia Chipset)
Audio: (Internal) Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit
Router: Plus.com AR-7200 (non-wifi)

Can ANYONE help me? Ask as many questions as you want. I can probably answer all of them - anything that I haven't mentioned here.

What is the problem? How do I prevent it? I don't wanna go to Win Vista, because my PC is only good enough for it for about a week, then it starts going slower than I want (and I'm a super fast PC user).

PLEASE! HELP!!! I am desperate!! I have formatted my PC about 9 times in the past 48 hours and I am getting sick of it. Formatting used to be so much fun. Putting everything back on with a clean, fresh start. Now it has become an obligation.

[jbennet]

Windows either states that a system file is missing and cannot load, or when I log onto my account, it states that a file is corrupt.

Okay, so the problem has something to do with my system files (system32 mainly) becoming corrupt out of nowhere.

Chkdsk has a friend. Its called SFC (system file checker).

SFC compares your essential windows files to those in a safe place (or, if it finds they are also corrupt, the ones on your XP CD).

To run SFC go to run and type

sfc /scannow

It will not tell you if it is successful or not. Just let it run and then reboot your PC. It may ask for your XP CD.

If that doesnt help , you probably have a hardware problem. Either lack of Power or Overheating.

[Oubaassehonne]

Thanks. I'll try that.

Though, I still am looking for a CAUSE and PREVENTION of the problem, not just a way to fix it.

Lack of power and overheating have been on my mind. I have a 500 Watt Power Supply box and now all of its power cables are used. Plus, this house seems to have poor wiring, so whenever another appliance in the house is turned on, my speakers make a cracking sound (not the same as with the corrupt system sounds). It COULD be that the poor wiring can indirectly affect the power and data transfer to my HDD, leaving it with corrupt files in the process?

Also, my primary Windows HDD is VERY hot when I touch it, but I have nowhere to put it to cool it. My other 3 HDDs are next to a dedicated fan, BUT, I have tried to put XP on HDD 3 and it still crashed. Maybe overheating is not the probkem, but the power COULD be. Any suggestions> Think I should get a UPS to ease the poor electricity feed from my wall socket?

Thanks for your help so far.

[Oubaassehonne]

Then again, why is it that Vista isn't affected, if THAT is the problem?
Also, I have been using this PC for almost 3 years now and I never got this problem until about a year ago. COULD be round the time that I got my 3rd HDD that this problem started. I have added a 4th HDD back in September and a small LED light stringy-thing. If this problem occurs again, I will try unplugging my HDDs, except for 1 and 2, and then I'll see what happens (though it's not very practical for me to have 3 and 4 unplugged, since I need them every other minute.

[jbennet]

i think its power

PSUs push less power as they get older. A cheap 3 or 4 year old 500w psu will only push about 400 without overheating.

Your hard disk should NOT be that hot though. Its normal to be warm but not hot. If the temperature is above 65 degrees (top!) for a prolonged period then your disk will suffer permanent irreversible damage (the platters actually warp)

[Oubaassehonne]

My Main HDD is warm, but not piping hot. I mean, I wouldn't get burnt or anything if I touch it and keep my hand on it.

And - when I had windows on my HDD3, why did it crash even if its temperature was perfectly fine?

My PSU is an AOpen AX500-A, so I doubt it's a 'cheap' unit. Still, if you say that it supplies less power over time, I guess that could also be the case. Though, I see so many other people with only 350 Watt supplies with equal amounts of hardware plugged into it. I intentionally bought the 500 Watt one so that I won't run out of power.

I think I'll try moving my main HDD to the area with the dedicated fan and then my most inactive HDD (number 4) i'll move to the main HHD's spot, cuz that one isn't accessed too much.

Thanks for your help. I shall return if the problem persists.

[jbennet]

i didnt mean any offfense bhy my use of the word "cheap"

what i meant was that cheaper power supplies (those under ~$120) generally measure there Peak output - not thier safe output as thier wattage

e.g

cheap power supply sold as "500w" might have:

peak wattage (maxium it can work at before catching fire or something) 500w

safe wattage (max it can put out under normal conditions without generating excessive amounts of heat or system instability) 350w

thats a 150w difference between its stated and real output.

Thats why an reaslly expensive 350w psu can sometimes drive the same stuff as a cheap 500w psu.

[Oubaassehonne]

No offence taken. Don't worry :) Was just mentioning my model PSU, to clarify.

Okay, new info. I have now blacked out again a few minutes ago and my CHKDSK worked in fixing it.

Since last time, I have unplugged 1 HDD and I have moved my primary to a dedicated fan-cooled area. So it still happened. Zone Alarm isn't installed, so that's not the cause.

I can't stop bringing up the VISTA issue. It doesn't happen there. So if it's not lack of power, then it must be something with XP or whatever. Don't think my HDD is physically damaged, because the exact same blackout happened on HDD3 a few days ago and I doubt that one is damaged.

If this helps in any way, my Event Viewer states at my exact time of blackout, that there was a 'DCOM 10016' error, and at the exact same time a 'RASMAN 825' warning.

Any idea what those mean? I've googled it a bit, but I'm not even sure if those can explain why I blackout. Still, they happened on the exact moment of my blackout and could be a clue.

[jbennet]

Go to windows update and make sure you have all the most recent updates first.

are you running xp pro 32 or 64 bit as i found this?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899965

[Oubaassehonne]

I run XP PRO 32x SP3. All updated.

I now see some info about the DCOM error with people talking about NVidia NForce stuff - that's what I have installed.

They say I can turn off the Nvidia Firewall (didn't even know there was one) through 'network access manager' - where's that?
They also said something about an app_filter its part of the nvidia firewall that I should grant permission to something in my Cmponent Services, but it's not listed there like they said it would...

Odd that this problem MAY be my Nvidia Nforce drivers, since I've never had a problem for the past 3 years...

[Oubaassehonne]

. .

.

[Oubaassehonne]

I just installed the latest drivers for my motherboard. I doubt it's gonna solve the problem, but at least it's a step I should have taken long ago.

[bishwanaren]

ok here is my view,
1. Is that sound comes when you go and try to run in the safe mode?
2. Check in the Device manager whether any drivers are proper or not!
3. Check in the BIOS whether all your h/w are detected perfectly
and do please reply me after checking

[heero69]

I also have the same problem as you the dreadful error 10016 with the same xpsp2res.dll failing, the PC crashes making a crackling noise if I'm watchin a video or listening to music, if I'm not it just becomes unresponsive. Does anyone have an idea why this happens alot?

I got XP Pro SP3
Intel Pentium D 3.0Ghz
1GB DDR2
Realtek HD Audio chip
Nvidia 6600 LE

[heero69]

ok here is my view,
1. Is that sound comes when you go and try to run in the safe mode?
Not really for me but some times my pc ma crash trying to boot in to windows after I had a crash and was forced to manual shutdown

2. Check in the Device manager whether any drivers are proper or not!
Again theres drivers for everything except for my SM BUS controller that I cant find a driver for but I disabled it so it shouldn't be a problem

3. Check in the BIOS whether all your h/w are detected perfectly
and do please reply me after checking

Everything is correct in the Bios too

hope that helps

[bishwanaren]

ok now take your hard disk out of the system and try to boot inside the windows and check whether you are able to boot, and fine whether it gives an error message " no OS found or anything like that " . if no.

1. do a clean boot
ie goto msconfig disable all the start-up items, and disable all the services but before disabling the services alone ensure that you have checked the checkbox "Hide all microsoft services ". Ok.

If too no go,

boot using the cd and go to recovery console

Use the Windows Setup floppy disks or the Windows CD-ROM to start your computer. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10 or press 'R" to repair.
After you start the Windows Recovery Console, you receive the following message:
Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console

The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.
Type EXIT to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

1: C:\WINDOWS

Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to
(To cancel, press ENTER)?
After you enter the number for the appropriate Windows installation, Windows will then prompt you to enter the Administrator account password.

Note If you use an incorrect password three times, the Windows Recovery Console closes. Also, if the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database is missing or damaged, you cannot use the Windows Recovery Console because you cannot have correct authentication. After you enter your password and the Windows Recovery Console starts, type exit to restart the computer.

When you use Windows XP Professional, you can set group policies to enable automatic administrative logon.

For more information about how to set Recovery Console to enable automatic administrative logon, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
312149 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312149/) How to enable an administrator to log on automatically in Recovery Console

Then

do
CHKDSK
chkdsk drive /p /r
The chkdsk command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it. The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information.

You can use the following options:
/p : Does an exhaustive check of the drive and corrects any errors.
/r : Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
and then
do

FIXBOOT

fixboot drive name:

Use this command to write the new Windows boot sector code on the system partition. In the command syntax, drive name is the drive letter where the boot sector will be written. This command fixes damage in the Windows boot sector. This command overrides the default setting, which writes to the system boot partition. The fixboot command is supported only on x86-based computers.

ex :
fixboot c:

if too no go, reply me tell me is there any error number coming? or give me exact message of full error... ok

[bishwanaren]

please do reply

[heero69]

please do reply

I'll try all that today, If any complications
I might aswell do a clean instal, I have all my files backed up so it wouldn't be a problem.

[Oubaassehonne]

I have semi-solved the problem in my own way. You seem to have added sufficient information on how to repair the damage, but not how to prevent the CAUSE.

Here's the link to my other thread:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/post562484.html#post562484

Thanks for your help - I didn't know about fixboot! :D

[heero69]

I've done the fix boot in the past and that fixed the problem for a few weeks...my pc hasn't crashed in a week now since I updated the drivers, if it starts again I might just do a clean instal of xp. Thanks everyone for your help and support.

[jbennet]

I run XP PRO 32x SP3. All updated.

I now see some info about the DCOM error with people talking about NVidia NForce stuff - that's what I have installed.

SP3 has issues with DCOM. Check Here

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2010&SiteID=17