Anyone have a clue as to what's going on?

NOKCOMPUTER · 18 Sep 2010

Ok, more weirdness. So far I installed my graphics driver, miro, vlc, flash & java. I made a windows restore point after each program. I then restarted my computer and it would boot, went back to loading and got the message that some hardware change had effected windows from starting and gave me the option of startup repair, or start normally. I chose startup repair, while it was doing that a system restore option appear - I guess the startup repair wouldn't work, I clicked on it but it never gave me an option to choose a restore point. It seemed to go ahead with the startup repair and got me back into windows. Then I noticed my display driver went back to the standard vga one, and the stuff I installed wasn't showing up on the desktop. I also noticed the product ID I entered for Windows activation changed to something else (I hadn't activated at this point, but the numbers were still different from what I put in. I was stumped, so I chose to system restore just before I installed java, that worked and windows reloaded with the stuff I had just installed, graphics driver was back and adjusted the screen correctly, but Windows activation product ID was still different from what I entered. I checked event viewer and noticed a few errors starting around the time I first rebooted today after these installs all referring to Event ID 7 The device \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, had a bad block. I went to Device Manager and under Other Devices there are the yellow triangles next to Marvell 91xx Config ATA Device and Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller. Wow, this is really frustrating.

Note: Just did a Chkdsk and it did go through rather quick and repair some error in index $I30 on chkdsk...whatever that means. Haven't noticed any errors in Event Viewer since then.

Anyone have a clue as to what's going on.

bobtran · 19 Sep 2010

It sounds like the pc restored to the last good configuration that it knew about. You can now install those drivers again although you might want to do a little more research on them as one of them appears to be bad.

Windows uses a default temporary key when you first install. This key is changed when you activate your Windows installation.

alphanumeric · 19 Sep 2010

If you are referring to "Product ID:" displayed on the System screen, that is not your product code that you used to install Windows. The two will never match. At some point Microsoft changed that functionality, likely to prevent someone from pulling up that screen and writing down the product code. I'm sure you can see how that could be misused.

NOKCOMPUTER · 19 Sep 2010

Ok, computer is back to slow. I was trying to copy some files from the windows.old file to a backup drive and it was taking forever. I'm now back to boot problems and extreme system slowdown. I think all signs are pointing to a bad drive, I tried the diagnostic test on WD's site and the quick test hung for 30 minutes. I did it on the exact same WD backup drive and it took 2 minutes to complete. I don't know what else it could be.

Sux cause I can't even back up the files that are on their now.

Carl Lawrence · 19 Sep 2010

Are your drivers up-to-date/check their websites.

gregrocker · 19 Sep 2010

Run chkdsk /f and the HD daignostics a few more times to see if you can get it to repair. If not, you'll need a new HD.

This is why I always test hardware at the time of a new install, with memtest, HD diagnostics and chkdsk.

NOKCOMPUTER · 23 Sep 2010

Yep, it was the HD, replaced it and I'm up and running now. Time to RMA a new WD 1TB Drive.