CCL Messageboard

Several weeks ago, during a clear, bright day, my electricity dimmed or browned out three times in quick succession. I wasn't personally on line at the time but my computer was turned on and connected to the internet. As soon as I realized what was happening I immediately shut it down. I started having problems immediately and now it has been getting worse. The symptoms are:

EVERY time I power up it goes into the Chkdsk mode unless I hit a key within ten seconds. Once in the Chkdsk it gets to about 50% done and then completely freezes up and I have to initiate manual shutdown to restart. I tried letting it run overnight one time but in the morning it was still at 50%.

Sometimes when shutting down it will just run forever and not shut down unless I hold down the Power button until it stops. Occasionally if I leave it idle for a while it will also freeze up.

I keep getting HTTP Server Error 502 when logging on to Verizon Central.

Most frustrating of all, my printer/scanner no longer sends scans to my computer. I can print from the computer but nothing will go the other way. It will say "HPScan.exe Corrupt File Chkdsk". This sucks because I had just started submitting CR's to improve the database after finally learning how to do so and now nothing.

At the time of the incident I had a disc for Civilization III in and sometimes now I have problems starting the game, I don't know if that is related.

I would love any help or advice and please keep in mind that my computer skills are only marginally better than that of your average Amish person so I don't know all of the correct jargon and I am a little slower catching on sometimes. I would greatly appreciate any help. I can even offer a trade - comics for tech support!

Thank you all for any aid you can offer.
Howie

Do you hear any odd noises from the computer (specifically, the hard drive)? Clicks or anything?

It's possible the drive got whacked. You could attempt a system restore just to see if some files got messed up (but not the drive), if you can even make it that far.

That it's freezing on CHKDSK makes me immediately suspect the drive is bad, combined with the other errors you are seeing while operating the PC.

Is this a custom/built yourself computer or a dell/hp/lenovo/etc (based on your stated level of technical proficiency, I am assuming it's a pre-built/name brand machine)? Do you have a secondary computer you could pop the drive in and run CHKDSK from there? Do you have another drive to use temporarily if you needed to?

Yes, there has been a high-pitched whirring sound at times that makes it seem like the computer is struggling. I did attempt to do a system restore at one point but for some reason it would never start.

It is an HP Pavilion that I got a few years ago from one of the big box stores and it was pretty much a plug in-and-go model. I didn't really have to do much to install it myself.

I do not have access to another PC, although I can still use my girlfriends laptop when needed. I also don't have another drive.

ok, I am assuming you are on either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Go to your start menu, type "cmd" in the search box. An item called "cmd.exe" should show up under "Programs" in the search results. Right click it and select "Run as Administrator". Select "OK" or "Yes" (or whatever the affirmative action is) to any prompts that display. This will open a command prompt or "Dos Shell".

Type "chkdsk c:" (without the quotes) and press the enter key on the keyboard. This will initiate CHKDSK for drive "C" (most likely, your one and only disk drive) in read-only mode. It should only report errors, but not attempt to fix them.

Maybe try this before bed and let it run all night. Let me know what you get back from that - does it still freeze? Also note, if you have a very large drive, that has a lot of stuff on it, it's possible (but unlikely) it really could take that long to scan - so it may not be "frozen".

This method will allow you to open other windows while it runs, so you can easily tell if the whole PC is locked up - or if the process is just taking forever.

Thank you very much. I will try that and let you know what happens.
Thanks!
Howie

OK, so I followed your instructions last night and here is what happened.(I actually watched it, didn't take as long as I thought it would).

It started out well but at about 45% there started popping up Error Detected in Index $I30 for file xxxxxx (basically six digit numbers, way too many to list). There were dozens of these. The error detected was the same for all of the files. Once it got to 50% the scan stopped and and it gave me this message:

Index verification completed
Errors found in CHKDSK
Cannot continue in read-only mode

To quote Han Solo (and all of the others) "I've got a bad feeling about this"

Any idea?

Index errors usually mean the filesystem, but not necessarily the disk itself, has some issues.

let's try one more time to make it fix what's wrong. Do you have a light on the PC that flickers when there is disk activity? It's typically red or blue, but may be a different color. it should usually be "off" when the pc is just sitting idle, and should start flickering a lot -turning almost solid at times when you are actively doing things on the machine.

Run this command (same way I mentioned for the first time, just new options this time - again, recommend you run this in the night/down hours, as it will take a while)

"CHKDSK C: /F /V /R"

this is probably going to get "stuck" at 50%, the key is - if your disk activity light is blowing up, then it's not stuck :)

For what it's worth, my wife's new laptop drive had a few issues and it took 6 or so hours to fully scan and repair and that's with only maybe 50GB used on it.

Thank you, I will try that this evening.

OK, so here's what happened. After I typed in the command it started out well. It actually got past the part where it had frozen up before. It was saying something about a lot of "Orphaned Files" and it seemed like it was fixing things. Once it went into the fifth of five stages it started scanning Clusters? I went to bed when it was at about 11 or 12 % and when I got up this morning it had frozen on 15%. I saw the light you were talking about, mine is orange. It was lit up a lot at first but this morning it was not on at all.

Today it's been acting odd, at first there were 100+ updates to install and it has frozen up once or twice.

There were definitely some filesystem errors - the only thing that really concerns me is the noises you hear (which aren't what you normally hear, say, from a week ago and before?) - which may indicate the drive is on its last leg. I am reading online that some people say this (chkdsk "freezing") has commonly ended up in a totally failed drive not long after.

Before you do *anything else* with this computer, I recommend backing up any critical data/pictures/etc ASAP - signup for a box.com or dropbox.com account if you need to to upload them, or burn to a DVD, copy to a USB stick, etc - don't forget your CCL data! Export browser bookmarks, save your Documents directory, etc.

Once that is done, you can, if you are up for it, restore your system back to "factory state" using the discs that should have come with the pc. If you continue to have problems/oddities after you do that, I would then highly recommend you replace the drive. New hard drives are (relatively) inexpensive, and swapping them out isn't too hard either, depending on how the inside of the PC is laid out.

If on the other hand, you would rather not do that, you could just buy a new drive, "image" the old drive and restore it to the new drive. Then run CHKDSK on it once it's set in as the full-on replacement and let that fix the filesystem errors.

The system restore is the easiest, and will be the easiest if you just want to swap in a new drive. But you will have to reinstall all programs you installed after setting up the pc. The other option is more involved, but should not require reinstalling everything.

Just out of curiosity, do you ever defrag your HD?

No. I have fragged things before but never de-fragged! (Joking!)

Seriously though, I have never done that nor do I know how. I do have Norton Anti-Virus which has been pretty good as far as I can tell. I don't have problems with pop-ups, spam or viruses. Sometimes Norton will ask if I want to run a diagnostic and it will zap anything deemed harmful if that's what you mean. I have a buddy who is good at that kind of thing but he has been seriously busy lately with a kid and some health problems so I don't want to bother him too much.

Defragmenting your hard drive manages the file system and helps your computer run faster when accessing/writing to the hard drive.
Not Norton - that's anti-virus/security software.

Windows has a crap defragger built in that is at least better than nothing.
How often you need to defrag depends on what you use your PC for and how much you use it, but at least once a month could have possibly prevented some of the issues you're currently experiencing.
As the files on a hard drive become increasingly fragmented (spread out across the drive in "random" places) the more you run the risk of damage to the hard drive from working MUCH harder than it needs to as well as data corruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_Defragmenter_(Windows)

PCs are just like cars - you gotta do regular maintenance on 'em. If you let them down, they will let you down.

Thank you for your advice and recommendations. Looks like Ive got some learning to do! I have a hard time with computers for some reason, I like to think I'm fairly intelligent, but this stuff mystifies me sometimes.

My computer is used for business 85% of the time. The sites I visit are all related to my "work from home" job. PayPal, eBay, CCL, a lot of toy websites, Wikipedia, etc. and when I'm not working I usually visit sports sites, the Onion, entertainment type places or I'm playing a game like Civilization or Starcraft but not on-line, just solo play.

How would I go about doing a defrag? Would once a month be sufficient for my usage? I have Windows Vista by the way.

Thanks!

close any/all programs that are running including anything minimized or 'in the background' like outlook or other email. close everything.
go to "My Computer" and right-click your hard drive
select properties
on the "General" tab there is a "Disk Cleanup" button that can be immensly helpful - if you're going to do this, do it BEFORE you defrag. be patient, it could take a while
on the "Tools" tab click the "Defragment Now" button under the "Defragmentation" area
when the defrag program opens you can click "Analyze" to see how badly your hard drive is fragmented, or just click the "Defragment" button which will run analyze first, then it will defrag. It will probably take quite some time to complete.

NOTE: running a defrag on a damaged but still funcitoning hard drive can ruin it!
It would be like forcing somebody who is exhausted to get up a run a marathon.
defrag is a maintenance tool, not a repair tool. if your hard drive is undamaged this will probably make a big difference in how fast certain aspects of your computer run (based on your previous comments), but if the hard drive is damaged in any way you might be screwed - if chkdsk couldn't even complete, a defrag may be a lost cause at this point.

I'd buy a new hard drive, pull the old one out and do a fresh install of Windows on the new one, then once you've got Windows up and running install the old drive as a slave and pull all your files off to the new drive.
then you could reformat the old drive and see what condition it's in from there - it could make a fine storage/back-up drive.

What Xylob said works just fine, and I have done that a few times. This will require you to manipulate the jumper on the drive (most likely) to attach it as a slave - optionally, if you have the extra connectors, you could just hook it up as a master on a new port. I assume you are using SATA connections - you will need to know this before purchasing a drive. What model of computer do you have (brand and model number) - we may be able to help you get the interface info you need with a google search.

You can schedule Defrag to run on a set schedule. I usually set mine to run at like 3am every sunday or something similar.

You guys are awesome!

Not at my computer right now, I'm at my girlfriends house. I know that it is an HP Pavilion, not sure about the model number. I also don't know what SATA connections are. I can find out tomorrow when I'm back at my house.

Thanks very much!

I totally forgot about the schedule feature. Set it and forget it!