ANy idea whats happening?

[salf]

My system specs:

 

AMD Athlon XP 1.7

K7 T266 Pro2 motherboard

512 MB DDR RAm (233 i think)

80 GB HAD

GeFOrce3 ti500

Sounblaster Xlive 5.1

 

OS: Windows XP pro.

 

Ok, heres my problem, since something like one week ago, everytime i turn on my PC the first 2 times it gets frozen (sp?), i can only work from the third time, this is an average situation:

 

I get home, turn on the PC, windows loads, and i start the Internet Explorer (for example) i notice that my mouse doesnt moves, and the TASK MANAGER doenst works, so i have to restart, now 2nd time same thing happens, could be during the windows loading phase or after, it just gets frozen, without any warning, sound, anything, so i restart, and usually by the third time the problem is solved, but after windows is loaded it take slike 10 minutes for any program to load, for instance if i start AutoCAD, it wont load till after that time, so i could go around , eat something, watch tv, and 10 minutes later the programs are loading, then i could work without problems.

 

What could it be?

 

BTW, before posting this, this thing happened like 8 times in a row, i was about to lose my mind, now im able to write this, but who knows....

 

CPU overheating?, i opened the case, and all 3 fans are working (video card, CPU and Power SUpply), and even if it was a temperature problem, i find strange that after im able to work with the PC, i can leave it on, the whole night and day and nothing happens, so i dont think is a fan problem.

 

Norton Antivirus ran lastnight, and it found nothing, plus Ive never got any email virus, my ISP deletes them before i get them, and even if it doesnt, before download them to my PC, i check them online on my ISP page, and i manually delete all the spam email, etc.

 

Any ideas, right now im writting this in a rush, hoping the PC doesnt crash again, so ill look for more details on my system specs later.

 

Thanks a lot., any idea will help.

 

[ February 14, 2004, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: salf ]

[salf]

right after i posted that, i tried to edit it, but during that, the PC crashed again, now im working on WINDOWS SAFE MODE (screen looks horrible)

 

I restarted it, and click F5, in the DOS screen, i selected something like START WINDOWS IN THE LAST CONFIGURATION WITHOUT ERRORS (something like that, im trying to remember what it said and translate to english at the same time)

 

WHen windows loaded in this SAFE MODE, an error window shows, it said something like:

 

"Error loading C:WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll

Error during loaing routine of an DLL file"

 

SOmehing like that, it could be that?, gonna check WIndows online troubleshooting for now.

[Fran]

Hi salf,

 

You may have a corrupt Windows installation. It is also possible you have a bad sector on your system drive where that particular dll is located. Have you run scan disk or defragged your drive lately? I would check your disk first and then investigate whether your Windows install needs repair.

 

I would also back up your data before doing anything.

[mbr]

It could be IE. I've had horrible problems with IE. It'd completely died on me 3 times, twice forcing me to reinstall windows (they are so conveniently linked that you need to reinstall windows to get a clean version of IE back on - nice work MS!).

 

I just had to reinstall because my computer was doing the same. I'd try updating IE, although it didn't work for me.

 

Good luck. It really sucks.

[JHalton]

My PC has exactly the same problem. Its been doing it since September 2003. I need to sort it out but not had the time since then.

 

Mine used to do it in Windows but has progressed into doing it whilst booting up. Personally I think its a Mother board problem because I've had a New Hard Disk, reinstalled Windows on It about a month ago, Still doing it. Have a look at this solution, I'll have to do it as well soon.!!

 

Here, have a look at this!

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000330

[William Alexander]

Jhalton & Others,

 

What motherboard are you using?

 

Just went through a similar sitiuation, although the key factor was lan based. System stopped recognizing router address, shut down all internet and interupted DHCP, had to hard address to access the lan. Still no mail connection. IT guy pinged and looked and looked- it should not be doing this! There were app issues also.

 

Just about the same system configuration as Jhaltons. For this systems difficulties it's either whats going on here and or spyware infiltration. We found lots of none XP / app registry entries. But no viruses.

 

Just installed FRESH XP pro, everything came back on LAN and Mail automatic, basic info. Originally it took the systems OEM people 5 try's to get it on the Lan. Does not say much for them, though.

 

 

rgrds

WDA

 

[ February 14, 2004, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: wda ]

[Greg Hess]

First step in troubleshooting crashes/lockups.

 

Run memtest.

 

http://www.memtest86.com

 

It doesn't matter if you bought retail ram, the ram's brand new, your friend swears the ram is fine, or the ram's always worked fine.

 

Run the memtest.

 

2-3 passes. If you get errors, return the system to stock settings. If the system is already at stock settings, try increasing the ram timings (slow the ram down).

 

If you still get errors, test each dimm individually. When you find the dimm with errors, replace it.

 

I'd say 90% of computer problems are caused by loose something or other. (Cables, cards, dimm's, power connectors).

 

The remaining 9% are caused by cooling, power, or memory.

 

Only the last 1% deal with misc or software issues.

[salf]

Thanks all for your help, Greg Ill run that memtest after i solve this new issue:

 

Whenever i ran WIndows in Safe Mode (for any reason, i had to do it a few times long ago), windows loads just with the minimum settings so you can fix whatever is wrong, so the resolution of the screen is horrible, alll i had to do was either restart windows, so it will load in normal mode or change the screen resolution on safe mode (it will ask to restart, etc)

 

Now i cant do that, so far Ive run windows in SAFE MODE, in LAST KNOWN CONFIGURATION WITHOUT ERRORS and in VGA MODE, and in neither of them it lets me adjust my screen resolution.

 

I already updated my WIndowsXP, ran scandisk, and Norton Utilities (WinDoctor and DiskDOctor), but theres no way i can get back to my original screen res., what to do?

 

When Windows loads, theres one of those Tray Icon messages that says something like "your screen is at low settings, if you want windows to fix it, please click here", I do that, but nothing happens!, if i righclick on the desktop, and go to Monitor COnfiguration, the res. is the lowest 640x480 and colors are 4 bits, but theres no higher option! (used to be 800x600, and 1024x768, etc and 16 bit, 32 bits true colors, but not anymore)

 

So theres actually no way i can fix my screen resolution....help!!!!!

 

BTW, the error message i said before, the one about windows cant load some DLL library (NvCpl.dll) keeps on showing, could that be?, i tried a search in microsoft.com, under that file name, i get 25 results, but no one is that file, theyre some other DLL files, but not the one i need.

[Greg Hess]

Sounds like your video card drivers were corrupted, or your video card is loose (in the slot), not recieving enough power, overheating, or damaged.

 

While in VGA mode, use add/remove software, and remove the old nvidia drivers.

 

Go to www.nvidia.com and download new drivers.

 

Install them. Reboot. See if that fixes the problem.

 

Also note that your particular motherboard chipset (VIA) is notoriously anti-creative. Aka it HATES creativelab soundcards. You might find some of your problems disappear if you remove that soundblaster live card. Many people who encounter odd system problems, or instability issues with via motherboards can usually be traced to creativelab's soundcards.

 

After the video is fixed, and the memtest checks out ok...if your still having problems, considering removing the soundcard for troubleshooting purposes.

[salf]

Ok, news update:

 

Right after i posted the last info, i just reinstalled the latest video drivers i have, i didnt unistall first like Greg suggests ( i did it before seeing your post), this drivers are 44.03 by Nvidia, only drivers Ive install on this PC are official ones, this are the latest drivers made so far by nvidia for the GeFOrce 3 series, however, during installation it says that its not a Windows Certified driver, why?...no idea, anyways, after reinstall and rebooted, screen is back to normal!...wooohoooo, and also that error window about the DLL file, doesnt pops up again...... fixed?.......dunno....looks so.

 

So everything looks back to normality, so far my PC havent crashed again, and Greg, one thing, i tried to run the memtest, but nothing happens, i mean, i download the program, when you run the install file, it asks for a floppy, and it installs the program on the floppy, then you suppose to reboot your PC with the floppy disk in and thats it. I guess it reads the disk and runs the test.

 

However, i reboot and nothing happens, it reads the disk, but windows loads usually and i dont see any "test running" or "test results", so i must be doing something wrong.

[Greg Hess]

Salf,

 

You must change the bios setting to boot first to floppy.