Computer problem: Windows won't start anymore. . .

Keebs1984

Ok so, normally, I am pretty tech savvy when it comes to computers. I built my own and installed all the drivers and patches myself when I built my last one (about 3-4 months ago). Unfortunately, for some reason, I can't figure out how to fix my computer. Any help would be great. First my computer specs:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
• 4 GBs Corsair RAM
• ATI HD 2900XT
• Asus Motherboard (can't remember which exact one)
• Windows Vista Home Premium

When this problem first started occurring, before the login screen would even pop up it would start saying stuff like LoginCC.exe could not execute, MOD.exe could not execute, CCC.exe could not execute, etc. This would basically cause all applications to not run. After a quick reset the computer would work fine and everything would be cherry. Unfortunately the problem did not go away on its own and eventually got worse over the next 4 days.

Now when I start up my program it can't initialize Windows at all and tells me that a "Kernal is probably missing or corrupt" and that to fix it I should put in my Vista OS CD and click the repair computer option (which I have done 3 times now). I have also ran a Windows Internal Memory test to see if my RAM had gone haywire or not and it found nothing. In addition, in the unlikely case of such, I also decided to check to see if it might have been a virus using Windows Live One Care program (90 day trial ) and again it found nothing.

I am basically scraping the bottom of the barrel now. The last thing I am thinking of doing is reformatting, however, I was to make sure this is a software issue and not a hardware issue before I do that.

Any help would be much appreciated. THANKS.

Rikimaru_X

Welcome to my world man. I can't run windows. Only in safe mode. I haven't deframented in over a . . . year I think. I think that might be the problem. I'm sorry to hijack your topic, but even if you don't got the avaliable space to do a defag...

defrag can you still do it?

n25philly

Sounds like a problem with the hard drive to me.  I've never done a file check in Vista so I'll need to look it up, but there is likely a bad sector of some kind of hardware failure.  If you can get into windows in any way, such as safe mode, it would be a good idea to back up your data.

Spathotan

As philly said, sounds like a harddrive. When you start seeing shit about kernals and sectors, then its the harddrive. More than likely, the sector said programs are on that you said are not starting properly, such as CCC.exe, which is your video card software, the catalsy control center, was damaged, and finally bit the dust. Ive had this happen to me twice, there is a 99% chance it is the harddrive, and a 1% chance its the motherboard. Being as you have an ASUS, I wouldnt toss a bad motherboard problem out the door just yet.

Keebs1984

Originally posted by Spathotan


As philly said, sounds like a harddrive. When you start seeing shit about kernals and sectors, then its the harddrive. More than likely, the sector said programs are on that you said are not starting properly, such as CCC.exe, which is your video card software, the catalsy control center, was damaged, and finally bit the dust. Ive had this happen to me twice, there is a 99% chance it is the harddrive, and a 1% chance its the motherboard. Being as you have an ASUS, I wouldnt toss a bad motherboard problem out the door just yet.

Would a reformat fix it or do I need to buy a new harddrive?

xxthecorexx

when ever there is ANY doubt get a new hard drive. save your old one and slave it to see if you can recover any of your old data. atho you may be able to get the failing drive reformatted and get windows reinstalled, how long will it be before it leaves you SoL again.

 

i've had a horrible streak of maxtor drives failing on various computers i maintain, enough that i think their drives are complete shit and not just subject to random drive failure.

n25philly

Sometimes the errors can be fixed by doing a file check, but almost all of the time you need to go with a new drive.  A new drive is definately the safer way to go.

maskedweasel

Originally posted by n25philly


Sometimes the errors can be fixed by doing a file check, but almost all of the time you need to go with a new drive.  A new drive is definately the safer way to go.

Doing a file check would be step one. If it boots after a file check then you can go into your error logs and see what kind of error you are getting.  As you said it has been gettin progressively worse, theres a good chance that you have a bad hard drive or possibly a virus that really did a number on your file system. 

You could just as easily have had something cause a sector on your drive to become unreadable. If you wanted to go so far to make the check, i would pick up a copy of SpinRite, as it can fix those bad sectors/blocks, and recover your Data making your drive bootable again.

How exactly are you running a repair?  Are you going in using R at the first prompt or going through with a new install and then repairing? Those are two completely different ways which may help you fix your problem, if for nothing else, then to get into windows and check your logs. 

Also, reformatting will fix the problem temporarily. If it is a bad drive then you'll be in the same situation in a couple weeks.  Reformatting will, however, remove all of your data, so you may as well buy a new drive anyway, unless you're sure it's not the hard drive and more of a software problem.  (do you hear clicking, whirring, etc? What type of drive is it? How long have you had it?)  What you could do though, if you wanted to, is to setup a second partition and install on that one just for tests sake. 

 

Sinizter

your first problem is windows vista.. but i won't get into that.

 

Try doing a vista reinstall instead of a complete reformat ( i believe this is different than the repair option). It will give you a fresh OS and you will keep all of your old data. Of course, you could always just buy a new hard drive and transfer your data from the old drive to there.

 

 

But, like i said.. try a vista install first.

Spathotan

Originally posted by Keebs1984

Originally posted by Spathotan


As philly said, sounds like a harddrive. When you start seeing shit about kernals and sectors, then its the harddrive. More than likely, the sector said programs are on that you said are not starting properly, such as CCC.exe, which is your video card software, the catalsy control center, was damaged, and finally bit the dust. Ive had this happen to me twice, there is a 99% chance it is the harddrive, and a 1% chance its the motherboard. Being as you have an ASUS, I wouldnt toss a bad motherboard problem out the door just yet.

Would a reformat fix it or do I need to buy a new harddrive?

Reformating would be a temporary fix, its inevitable that it will error out again. When I first encountered this problem I reformated, and it was fine for awhile. But once data is put on/near/attempted to be put on the bad sector, dead again. Just get a new drive.

Neptus

I had the same problem with my crappy awesome laptop.
It's a broken section of your hard drive and if you're luck you might get a week out of it before it shuts down on you again.
If you still have a warranty go hassle your way out for a free one, if not you're gonna need some monies.