Compaq Big Problem

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Hi. My friend has a Compaq Presario S4000V Windows XP Home, Pentium 4 2.2GHz and 512 MB ram (512-64video=448) 448 ram, 80GB hard drive.

It all started when she had Limewire. I reinstalled the OS with the CDS from compaq with both destructive and regular reinstallation, to make sure that all the problems with registries and spyware adware viruses and other problems were gone.

After the reinstallation I had a beep, sometimes 2 when you see the Icons loading from the taskbar, but the PC was runing properly for 40 minutes. After that It froze, so I had to restart it. When the bios was booting up I didn't get any beep, but when the icons were loading. Sometimes It beeps, sometimes It doesn't. I reisntalled the system just to make sure I didn't have any problem with the installation but the problem is always there. When the welcome screen appears it takes a while. Sometimes it froze, so I thought it had something to do with heat. I opened the cover and put a fan and it worked for a long time. So I thought it was heat. Now even with the fan it froze once, so I reinstall the system and something new appear like there was a problem with Microsoft kernell audio spliter, winnm WDM audio, acoustic echo canceller, wave audio mixer, it says has not passed the windows logo testing.

I reinstalled again everything was working but anyway the welcome screen takes a while loading,but i didn't get any problem with the audio devices,the PC has sound and everything. Everything else was fine. But when I'm trying to install service pack 2 it freezes the PC when finishing installation prefoming cleanup appears. IT always freezes when service pack 2 is finishing the install.

I had reinstalled many times OS. I've checked the Bios and loaded defaults. Reseat the ram, unpluged the IDE cables, the CMOS battery There is an audio update which cannot be installed because there won't be any sound and the device manager will show an error. This computer seems to be like that since it was bought. My question is what the H+++ is going on here? Is the CPU broken? I don't think it's the hard drive because I run check for errors ( the one which takes around 2 hours) and nothing I removed the battery ram ide cables and nothing. Whats going on here the CPu?

[rjfvillarosa]

What type of reinstallation CD have you got? is it a recovery CD that recovers Windows from a secret partition on the harddrive or is it a full Windows installation CD?

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It's a set of 7 Cds which reinstall the OS and the drivers for the PC. I guess it's the one which recovers the full OS. Altough, there is always a 8MB partition when I do Format C://.

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I formatted the hard drive but there is always a little partition which says unpartitionated space 8MB. When I do the installation I always choose create a new partition for the system recovery. I think 8MB it's way to little to fit 3.5GB which hold the new partition I created for the recovery option.

[rjfvillarosa]

There is so much garbage floating around on Limewire I wouldn't be surprised if she hasn't picked up a rootkit or boot sector virus, the only way to get around that is a zero fill of the haddrive and that is going to destroy any hidden recovery partition.
Make absolute certain you have a full installation disk and then download the diagnostic tools from the harddrive manufacturers site, the manufacturers dignostic tools will run far better scans than anything else and they also contain a zero fill or low level format utility.

[conexion]

okay after I did some math I found that drive c (windows drive) has 72 GB total and drive d (presario_rp) has 4.23 GB, that equals to 76.23 the whole drive it's suppoused to have 80GB so where is the other 3.5GB???????????

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I cheked them there is two partitions which I created both C primary DOS has recovery has 6% and NTFS Windows Partition has 94%

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by conexion drive d (presario_rp) has 4.23 GB,

The recovery partition (hidden) the reason why you can't zero fill the drive.
It says here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...346266&lang=en recovering a blank harddrive, I would make 110% certain that your recovery CD's contain a full version of XP and then I would do a zero fill followed by a full reinstall.
That should get rid of whatever is interfering with your atempts to reinstall.

[TimPoet]

Conexion, do you understand RJ's suggestion?

Sometimes a virus or rootkit can be so bad it will survive a normal format. He's suggesting, if you have the right kind of XP recovery disk

Make absolute certain you have a full installation disk

.

Then download the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic tool program files. In there you will find a program that will perform a "zero-fill" or a "low level format," which wipe the malware that may be causing these problems.

Capice?

[glc]

76.23 sounds right for an advertised 80gb drive. See the sticky in the Drives forum.

Zero the drive.

[conexion]

So will I have problems if I fill zero the drive after that? Or is it going to work

[conexion]

Ok, got it! I'm going to try that.

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It's a Maxtor 4R080J0. Before I do it, I just want to let you know that I'm woking with this PC without any Windows XP updates, ad-aware and spybot scans, full installation of oxio easy media creator with napster and uninstall of napster cannot be done becasue it will crash the system. Sometimes when I turn it on it freezes up. So I'm going to get I think maxblast.

[glc]

I believe both Maxblast and Powermax can zero fill - they may call it low level format.

[conexion]

Ok guys. I tried the low level format or zero fill. It seemed to work properly, I was able to download a lot of updates including service pack 2 (although it seemed to take a longer time installing), but there is some of them which I have problems getting because it freezes the PC, those are alll of this frameworks: Microsoft.Net Framework version 1.1, Microsoft.Net Framework 2.0 x86 (KB829019).
Besides of that, I think there is wrong driver update which is: C-MEDIA AC'97 AUDIO DEVICE. Each time I installed my sound disappears so I have to rollback the driver, when rolled back it becomes Realtek AC'97 Audio.
Now I found that the PC froze when I was scrolling down the page while using the sidebars.
I'm afraid each time I go online I got more a chance to crash the PC like before I filled zero the hard drive, and probably it will crash sometimes but rarely when the desktop is appearing.

Do you guys now what could be wrong??

[conexion]

Now in addition to all those poblems I find that when I go to security center I see that it's not monitoring the Norton antivirus which I have for three months and it's full updated. I remember that before the low level format or zero fill I reformatted a lot of times the hard drive and I also got either the antivirus monitor didn't work properly or the firewall monitor didn't do it.

[conexion]

The security center issue is fixed. I followed the directions from Micosoft to get another antivius. So I did, I removed Noton 2003 and I installed AVG free. Now it's monitoring the three things in there.

[glc]

Please use the Edit button instead of posting several replies one right after the other. Thank you.

[conexion]

Well, I still don't get the problem but I still looking for it. I opened task manager and left the PC on and it crashed leaving a mark of 65% CPU usage. After that I restarted the PC and I did the same and the PC crashed with a read of 96% CPU usage. I can do a spyware and adware removal and I'm going to do it, the problem is that when I try to run those applications they make the PC crash sometimes, but I don't think too much of malware because PC is just updated and it has not been visiting websites. Besides of that, I'm getting beeps, sometimes 1, sometimes 3 one after one.

[glc]

If you are getting beeps like that, you have a hardware issue. Test your ram. Check for overheating.

[conexion]

Which is the most reliable RAM diagnostics program? I'm working with this PC and I found that when I am using it continuosly, it doesn't crash. But, if I just turn it on and leave it alone it crashes, it happens most when I'm scanning for malware, especially with ad-aware and spybot. I opened the case and check the RAM sticker and it says 512MB but my PC propieties say 448MB I guess the rest it's for video onboard share. I want to scan the RAM.

[glc]

www.memtest.org

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It sounds very weird, but the problems seem to disappear when the PC user is moving either the mouse or typing on the keyboard. The memtest did show 0 errors for both ECC Errors and Errors. Probably the CPU or Motherboard? This PC has always been with the same problem since it was bought. Right now I'm trying to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0: x86 (KB928416) but It says failed unable to install update.

[glc]

Why are you installing .NET 3.0? All that does over 2.0 is add Vista components.

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I'm using this PC right now and it's stable so far. It seems that it has problems when trying to download net framework, which I installed on another PC and it went through without showing any problem. This noon I had three beep codes. I run a memtest diagnostic and not problems showed up. I have the processor as a suspect, any good diagnostics utility?

[glc]

3 beeps is usually a video problem.

[conexion]

Since it has been like that I think since it was bought, don't you think that the motherboard on the graphics section might have a factoy problem? I going to keep looking for beep codes but I going to run a different OS, Lindows and see if I have the same problem, but I'm almost sure it isn't software what is causing the problem because I even tried my Windows XP professional OEM and it crashed in the installation.

[glc]

I even tried my Windows XP professional OEM and it crashed in the installation.

*Definitely* a hardware problem.

[conexion]

Ok. I think there is hardware problem and I think it has to do with the motherboard. One of the reasons is that when I go to windows update, there is an update for the integrated sound and when I install it the sounds dissappear, so I always have to rollback the driver. I don't know if there's a BIG coincidence that Windows has the wrong driver.
Now do you think there's a program to determine if the motherboard is faulty or not, what do you think of Norton SYstem Works.

I want to know what is wrong with this PC and I'm happy because everytime I read, I learn something new. I already gave up trying, but I'm just way to curious to find out. The system just keeps crashing, and that's the reason which some updates and installations don't work properly. I even chat with a compaq representative and told me that they didn't sell motherboards unless you take the PC for a bench repair. I'm just going to keep reading more about motherboard malfunctions.

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