Computer completely unstable, urgent help!

[Pulse]

Things have gone from bad to worse over the past few weeks or so and my computer is now completely unstable and will crash at completely random occasions, regardless of what programs I have running.

When the computer crashes, it displays a blue screen of death saying something along the lines of "ERROR_IN_NOPAGE". Windows Explorer also crashes on start-up, leaving me with no other option but to restart and pray it runs successfully the next time.

Here is an example of the pop-up I receive after my PC crashes:

Furthermore, steam crashes at random occasions, regardless of whether or not I'm in-game! Joy!

Examples:

I'm guessing I could have some very nasty virus lurking around somewhere, as attempting to do a virus scan with Norton often results in the computer crashing, as does attempting to de fragment C:

I think the only option for me right now is to re-format; only every time I try to format C: via My Computer, it gives me the following message;

I've attached a DxDiag .txt report which should show all of my specs and so forth, I'm completely at a loss with this hunk of plastic and metal whirring beneath me.

So, any advice?

 

[The Brick]

To reformat, just boot from the windows cd and select the partition (C to install to. Then choose to format it.

 

[Barney Fife]

B4 you format, can you do system restore?

 

[Xendance]

The blue screen of death... I get that when trying to install Microsoft products or updating them.

Im going for a format.

 

[Pulse]

To reformat, just boot from the windows cd and select the partition (C to install to. Then choose to format it.

My computer came with Windows XP already pre-loaded onto it and with some kind of back-up/restore CD, which when booted up normally contains no data whatsoever...

B4 you format, can you do system restore?

Attempted this, had a fair few problems with files and folders being taken back with me to a previous restore point so I thought this wouldn't help whatsoever as if it is a virus it would surely be carried back also?

The blue screen of death... I get that when trying to install Microsoft products or updating them.

Im going for a format.

Let me know if you reformat successfully, I think I will be following suit soon enough.

 

[Link]

My computer came with Windows XP already pre-loaded onto it and with some kind of back-up/restore CD, which when booted up normally contains no data whatsoever...

You need to put the cd in and restart the computer. Assuming its set to boot from CD, instead of loading windows, it will load a wizard, which will give you the option to restore computer to factory defaults (Or something like that). Basically, it is like reinstalling windows, only its an image instead of an install.

Don't worry that the disc appears blank, there won't be much data on it, and it will be hidden anyway, the image will be in a hidden partition on your hard drive.

 

[Laivasse]

Yes, system restore will restore viruses, depending on the point in time that they were made.

Have you tried scanning in safe mode? Do you have Hijackthis? The latter program might show you some suspicious registry entries that you can delete to stop malicious programs running on start up, as long as you know what you're doing. If you don't, you can always take a log file and post it here (although a tech forum would likely be far more useful to you).

A question - if you don't have a Windows CD, and if your back-up CD is blank, what are you going to do once you format? It sounds like you could be in hot water if forced to format. I would try to avoid it if at all possible. I've actually got the same comp as you and I know about Time/Tiny's shitty restore methods. They've put a hidden partition on your HD which I think the back up CD is designed to read from. I personally would be FAR more comfortable with an actual Windows CD - I never bought their fishy guarantee malarkey and so never tried out that restore method myself.
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Edit - guess Link just cleared up the question I asked above. Looks like that could be your best option if you have given up on salvaging things.
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Get hijackthis here. If you're confident that you really want to format, I can email you some files which you can stick on floppy, which will create a little bootable version of Partition Magic to format from. BUT I've also heard that these floppies use a special version of DOS called DRDOS, which will actually discover and delete your hidden partition when formatting. So I don't know if that's a good idea for you.

 

[Pulse]

You need to put the cd in and restart the computer. Assuming its set to boot from CD, instead of loading windows, it will load a wizard, which will give you the option to restore computer to factory defaults (Or something like that). Basically, it is like reinstalling windows, only its an image instead of an install.

Don't worry that the disc appears blank, there won't be much data on it, and it will be hidden anyway, the image will be in a hidden partition on your hard drive.

When attempting to adjust my BIOS settings to ensure the computer boots whatever is in the CD drive before loading up the actual hard drive I get a red warning message along the lines of "Not enough drives for a RAID!!!" and I can't select any of the options available...

Hence why I'm in such a bastardised situation.

I'll try that hijackthis program Laivasse, in hope it finds some kind of cause of my problems. I'm beginning to think system restore is my only hope at the moment though, given the circumstances.

 

[Laivasse]

Hijackthis isn't an antivirus prog per se. When trojans screw you up though, they very often add registry entries which allow them to start up with your comp on every boot - hijackthis lets you have a look at all the relevant entries and delete anything you already know to be suspicious.

From there if you reboot into safe mode and do a scan, it's about damn well the best means of tackling dodgy stuff on your PC. If you also have a grasp of what should and shouldn't be in your system32 folder, even better.

If you're getting weird errors in your BIOS it could also be hardware...?

 

[Pulse]

A little update!

Have managed to make it some what stable now, only I had to uninstall steam as it was constantly crashing and I'm unable to play games without experiencing a BSOD anyway.

Have been wanting to upgrade for some time anyway and currently have my eye on this.

Thoughts on the above rig? A worthy investment? Anyone know of any better deals?

 

[DEATHMASTER]

build it urself? Or get something well researched from a store for cheap like me and upgrade that.

 

[The Brick]

Yeah it's wallet rape. Well not quite as much as Alienware, but still pretty bad.

 

[Pulse]

The price isn't really that big of an issue and I really don't want to go through the hassle of building my own rig, as much as I would love to have my very own customised PC, I just don't have the time or resources available.

Still, for the specs being offered I think it would keep me going for another 2 years or so of gaming, agree/disagree?

 

[Barney Fife]

I agreed to disagree with ya.

 

[Laivasse]

Looks okay, but if you want something a bit more future proof maybe you should be looking to include graphics cards with Directx10 support.