Computer is working, but acting goofy.

[Peotr]

I'm having a goofy time with my system.


1. Steam stops working. On restart, repeatedly claims there is already a connection to the Steam account. Solution: Reinstall Steam. (Java?)
2. Curse stops working. Curse claims that the most likely problem is a corrupted .Net installation. Reinstalled both Curse and .Net. So far, no solution. (Java?)
3. WoW won't allow me to adjust gamma. Setting video settings back to default fixes this problem until I log in to a different character.
4. Google will stop working, or won't find a homepage on start. Allows you to type into the address field, but doesn't do anything. Reinstalled, no permanent fix.
5. Inkscape just explodes. Period. No start, no nothing. Reinstallation does nothing. (definitely uses some Java)
6. Mumble croaked for me on Thursday, but I updated to 1.2.4, and now everything seems fine.
7. GeForce Experience occasionally flips its shit and decides that I don't have a GeForce card. I have reinstalled GeForce Experience and latest drivers twice. So far, it's holding.

The computer is working. But taken all together, these hiccups make me think something is seriously poopy.
I have done multiple virus and malware sweeps, nothing found so far. I have reinstalled Java. My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium, I haven't reisntalled my OS and I'm kinda dreading that. I'm starting to think I have bad memory or bad hard drive (OS is on a 90G OCZ Agility 3).

Any thoughts before I commit to something more intensive?

-- Peotr (Normal Guy)

[Stosh]

First thing, check your memory.

Go to http://www.memtest.org and download an ISO, burn it to a CD and boot the CD. Let the test run long enough to complete several times, if you have even a single error you have bad memory.

If anyone ever has weird, reoccurring computer problems that aren't easily explained, the first thing to do is to check your memory.

[Crimsonbanshee]

I agree with stosh, memory issues can be a pain leaks allocation ect. One bad stick had me wanting to send one machine to the dump.

[Adella]

I also had 1 bad stick before that drove me up a wall trying to figure out what it was. Good call Stosh.

[Zeyla]

Could be the motherboard or the CPU also, if it isn't the RAM. A motherboard or CPU that are on the edge of going out can cause all kinds of strange behavior. And actually a failing PSU can as well. If you are certain it isn't a malware/rootkit/virus issue, and the RAM checks out OK, my guess would be the motherboard. Wouldn't hurt to try out a different power supply if you have one readily available.

Testing the Mobo/RAM is harder though, There are lots of system check utilities out there, but I haven't had much luck over the years having them tell me a motherboard or cpu was bad with any confidence.

There is an outside chance it could be something corrupt with your Windows Install as well. Head over to tweaking.com and download their Windows All-In-One repair tool. I have used it in the past and it does a good job of fixing some windows system related issues. Saved me a few times from having to do a full system refresh or rebuild. It walks you through the repair process making backups, run chkdsk, SFC tool, etc before you get to the service repair areas.

Hope you get it figured out Peotr!

[Lonskils]

In my experience, it's time for a new power supply and mother board. Something has made it past your surge protector and by the time you chase down the issues you'll have wasted enough time to have someone send you a new mother board, ram and chip.

[Peotr]

Latest update: Memtest ran all night, no problems. I had this odd hope that everything might have cured itself, but an hour ago Google funked out and had the 'bleh, I'm here, but I don't want to do anything' problem. This was after a fresh reboot.

This computer is newish. It's over a year old, but that was a year I spent in the hospital, so it wasn't being used. The oldest item is the power supply, and I'm not quite sure how old it is. I had a 550W Antec, but I scrounged up a 650W Antec (that was built by SeaSonic), and it has all the newest cabling, so I don't think it's terribly old.

Like I said, the computer still works (for the most part). Sunday I found out that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat won't run anymore (crashes when trying to load a saved game, any saved game) and I'd played that almost to the end on this system (with this drive, this RAM, this CPU and this OS, etc.)

[Stosh]

Welp.

Do you have access to another hard drive? I know you don't want to reinstall your OS unless it's a last resort, but you could swap out the hard drives, install your OS and see how your computer behaves with a fresh OS. If it doesn't help, at least you can put your old drive back in. Maybe even that's too much work. Download a copy of Ubuntu or another OS that you can run via a bootable DVD/usb drive mess around with that.

Those are my inexpensive, non destructive ideas to narrow things down to a hardware issue or a corrupt file in the OS.

I'd probably test your drive for bad sectors through Windows as well, it's free and can't hurt assuming you don't have a SSD.

[Lonskils]

Almost sounds like an issue I as having with a p4 once where the fan wasn't cooling the chip and it had slowly melted into the board under it and a cursory glance wouldn't even look bad. Not until i took the fan off and saw the chip was now part of the board. It still worked, but would hang up, reboot randomly at times, etc. It just sounds like a short. I also remember when TBC came out, the stupid grphix card would shit the bed anytime I had to render any of those huge graphics textures. It was so irritating!! Power Supply fixed it all. heh

Rambling now lol.

[Adella]

Definitely Seems like an issue with the OS to me. You say your OS is on a 90G SSD does this mean all your games and other files are stored on a larger standard SATA HDD or something? That is how I have mine set up. If this is the case then it is pretty painless to perform a reformat of your OS SSD and leave your storage drive alone. The OS will recognize all the files on the storage drive after the format as long as you are using windows 7. I would just do a full format of your SSD and reinstall windows 7. It doesn't even take that long. Just make sure and sync your web browser to the cloud and all your bookmarks and crap will be easily restored after the format by resyncing your preferred browser with the cloud.

[Peotr]

You say your OS is on a 90G SSD does this mean all your games and other files are stored on a larger standard SATA HDD or something? That is how I have mine set up.

OS and virtual memory is on a 90G OCZ SSD, WoW is on a 60G Samsung SSD, user accounts, program files and cruft are on a Western Digital hard drive.

I scavanged a 120G hard drive (IDE *or* SATA, woohoo!) from my old, old computer. Gonna try setting a new OS on that and see what happens. Just finished Windows 7 installation, doing all the update bullshit.