im worried...

I have AVG free edition. On friday, windows suddenly did a bottoms-up and
crashed AIM, refused to let me use the Ctrl+Alt+Del function, the program lis
vanished, and i freaked out.

Ive been told that this is something to do with windows SP2 updates, but
what can i do to fix it? It repeated the same problem earlier on today, and
its really scaring me.

AVG now shows a ntoskrnl file as "changed". I dont know what this means, and
im a bit of a newbie with such matters. Can anyone help me? Im worried about
losing important college work if it happens again.

I dont have the original windows disc, so i cant use that (it went missing),
what can i try? Will i have to replace my HD? or the OS? I really cant afford
repair bills atm, so is there an easy, less expensive way to sort it out?


--
"If You Can't Accept A Persons Faults, Try Looking At Your Own First"

"Tsunade" <> wrote in message
news346ACD8-1F1A-4D63-AC89-...
Im worried about
> losing important college work if it happens again.
>

1 you should be making a full weekly backup of all your college work to
recordable media such as cd or dvd.

2 you should also make a separate daily incremental back up and set your
text program autosave to at most 5 minutes.

3 I would save all work to the daily disc manually every 20mins (or end of
page) and at the end of a work session. If you dont already do this you
should do it now before doing anything else. This may sound a bit heavy
handed but it can be a nightmare trying to recreate a terms worth of work.

Once you have proper backups set in place and you have verified that your
work has copied properly to disk you can relax.

Avg is just reporting a file change not an infection. Its unlikely to be a
problem but download the latest virus definitions and do a full scan to put
your mind at rest. You also should be running an anti ad/malware program
like Adaware or Spybot ( preferably both) to remove any unwanted ad or
malware.

Where did you get the sp2? If its a third party download (not WU or official
disc) it may contain malware or corrupted files)

If the problem started immediately after the sp2 update then you could try
removing the update from add/remove programs in control panel.

If you added sp2 some time ago and the problems only just started its more
likely to be something else causing the problem. So what did you do/dl just
before the problem started?

Tsunade wrote:

> I have AVG free edition. On friday, windows suddenly did a bottoms-up and
> crashed AIM, refused to let me use the Ctrl+Alt+Del function, the program lis
> vanished, and i freaked out.
>
> Ive been told that this is something to do with windows SP2 updates, but
> what can i do to fix it? It repeated the same problem earlier on today, and
> its really scaring me.
>
> AVG now shows a ntoskrnl file as "changed". I dont know what this means, and
> im a bit of a newbie with such matters. Can anyone help me? Im worried about
> losing important college work if it happens again.
>
> I dont have the original windows disc, so i cant use that (it went missing),
> what can i try? Will i have to replace my HD? or the OS? I really cant afford
> repair bills atm, so is there an easy, less expensive way to sort it out?
>

Follow Spikey's advice about backups and do it. Hate to see someone
blow a career by not graduating on time or flunking out of college due
to the loss of computer files.

As for the problem, ntoskrnl.exe should not change unless the kernel was
changed. This could happen by updating system and system driver files but
there should be a correlation to the date when such action was taken. SP2
upgrade will change ntoskrnl.exe but this file does not change frequently.
Keep an eye on its timestamp.

Beware of being connected via IM. Keep the current definitions for anti-
virus and anti-malware. AVG Free updates daily except for weekends and
it does take a holiday, now and then. Keep the firewall (two-way) enabled.
Understand the dangers of IM.

And where is the Windows cdrom or recovery disc? If there is a recovery
partition, extract it for a copy of Windows XP. And if possible, get or
borrow a copy of Acronis TrueImage and make an image file of the computer
in its present state. This might the only way to recover it if the Windows
installation cdrom or recovery disc are missing.

I havent dl'd anything, i use my PC primarily for playing music and sometimes
games such as Resident Evil 3 and so on. I dont often play Online games, i
have firewall set, i dont accept file transfers over IM, and i update and
scan regularly with anti-spyware and anti-virus.

I really dont understand how this happened, it just occured suddenly and
without warning, the PC had not shown any problems at all prior to this. Its
really worrying that its happened twice in 3 days, and if it keeps happening,
will it damage the PC?

I had SP2 installed at the repair shop, and it was the windows official
version. Id had it back from repair for almost 2 1/2 weeks before it first
started acting up.

Its really baffling how this happened, im very careful with my PC, and i
make sure its well looked after.
--
"If You Can't Accept A Persons Faults, Try Looking At Your Own First"


"Spikey" wrote:

>
> "Tsunade" <> wrote in message
> news346ACD8-1F1A-4D63-AC89-...
> Im worried about
> > losing important college work if it happens again.
> >
>
> 1 you should be making a full weekly backup of all your college work to
> recordable media such as cd or dvd.
>
> 2 you should also make a separate daily incremental back up and set your
> text program autosave to at most 5 minutes.
>
> 3 I would save all work to the daily disc manually every 20mins (or end of
> page) and at the end of a work session. If you dont already do this you
> should do it now before doing anything else. This may sound a bit heavy
> handed but it can be a nightmare trying to recreate a terms worth of work.
>
> Once you have proper backups set in place and you have verified that your
> work has copied properly to disk you can relax.
>
> Avg is just reporting a file change not an infection. Its unlikely to be a
> problem but download the latest virus definitions and do a full scan to put
> your mind at rest. You also should be running an anti ad/malware program
> like Adaware or Spybot ( preferably both) to remove any unwanted ad or
> malware.
>
> Where did you get the sp2? If its a third party download (not WU or official
> disc) it may contain malware or corrupted files)
>
> If the problem started immediately after the sp2 update then you could try
> removing the update from add/remove programs in control panel.
>
> If you added sp2 some time ago and the problems only just started its more
> likely to be something else causing the problem. So what did you do/dl just
> before the problem started?
>
>
>

"Tsunade" <> wrote in message
news:95442089-3A90-4DEC-A079-...
>I havent dl'd anything, i use my PC primarily for playing music and
>sometimes
> games such as Resident Evil 3 and so on. I dont often play Online games,

Have you installed anything since sp2 was put on?

Do you have automatic updates switched on with it set to download
automatically?

Why was your pc in the repair shop for?

For the moment and assuming you have got your backups in place I would run
checkdisc. Double click on my computer/ right click on C: / then
properties/ click the tools tab/ and then check now. Tick both options then
start. You will get a message saying it must do it when you restart.
Restart the computer and it will start the checking process. It may take
several hours.

Tsunade wrote:

> I havent dl'd anything, i use my PC primarily for playing music and sometimes
> games such as Resident Evil 3 and so on. I dont often play Online games, i
> have firewall set, i dont accept file transfers over IM, and i update and
> scan regularly with anti-spyware and anti-virus.
>
> I really dont understand how this happened, it just occured suddenly and
> without warning, the PC had not shown any problems at all prior to this. Its
> really worrying that its happened twice in 3 days, and if it keeps happening,
> will it damage the PC?
>
> I had SP2 installed at the repair shop, and it was the windows official
> version. Id had it back from repair for almost 2 1/2 weeks before it first
> started acting up.
>
> Its really baffling how this happened, im very careful with my PC, and i
> make sure its well looked after.


Taking the clue from Mistoffolees' reply, just what did the repair shop
do, other than install SP2? This was SP2, the update, and **not** Windows
XP-SP2, correct? And between the time after SP2 was installed and when
the crashes started, what "old" (i.e., pre-repair) applications that would
also modify hardware settings (e.g., video resolution changes) were started?
These could account for any kernal changes.

Finally, how are the motherboard monitors in regards to CPU temperatures,
voltage levels, etc.? Servicing sometimes disrupts a good working system
by shifting cables around, loosening connectors, altering airflow, etc.
And random shutdowns are symptoms of these faults.