A Nightmare Solved! (And a very long post)

justme4now

13 years ago

For the last couple of days, without any notice, I started to have problems with EVERYTHING that I tried to do!

Open notepad .."Notepad Not Responding".

Open browser (any of them) .."Browser Not Responding"..

Same thing happened on every task that I tried!

To make it even worse was what would happen 'After' I was able to close the not responding program!

A pop-up message would appear saying .. "Windows Explorer is not responding" or "Windows Explorer needs to shutdown"!
(This is NOT Internet Explorer)

Two different things would then happen .. Explorer would shut down and restart or I would be given the option to shut it down manually.

After ten or twelve times of allowing the auto restart .. I made the mistake of selecting the shut it down manually option!
(I wanted to see if restarting explorer myself would help)

Guess what?

I was rewarded with a completely Black Screen with the only option being .. to use Ctrl/Alt/Delete to bring up the task manager and shut down!

Well now, The Real nightmare begins!!

Power button on .. computer starts and after the initializing screen loads ... a black screen comes up and just sits there all day if I hadn't got REALLY, REALLY frustrated and used the power off button to shut down!

As most of you probably know .. shutting down your pc this way (power on button) brings up the "Computer couldn't shut down normally" screen, after you power back on.

You are then given .. yep, 'Options'!
Start Normally.
Check For Problems.
Etc. Etc.

The Start normally option just put me back to the black screen and I would have to use the power button to shut down!

The Check for problems option would run for an hour and then offer me a restore to a previous date pop-up option!
(The diagnostics Couldn't find the problem)

Well, Everything 'seemed' okay after the restore (back to desktop) until I tried to do anything again!

Back to programs not responding!
Back to Explorer shut downs!
Back to booting to the endless black screen of DEATH!(Computer Happily running along anyway)

Well .. that's when an idea struck me!!

A few days before all of this mess started, I had a DVD that I had burnt .. long ago and didn't label.

I had no idea what was on it and wanted to find out!?
(Really Bad Idea)

Put the thing in my disk drive and brought up the VLC media player.
(Yep, Really Bad Idea)

You guessed it .. "Program Not Responding"!

(Tried everything to see what was on that g-d forsaken dvd.)

Shut the pc down, went to bed to recover for the battles ahead!

Well, a new day starts with the same old problems .. Until I remembered the DVD in my disk tray!

Took the disk out and .. You may have also guessed .. Everything is back to NORMAL!!
I 'Think' that the pc was somehow trying to boot from that DVD?
(Really, Really bad idea!) 8)

The rest of the problems?
I don't know but they went away when that dvd went in the trash! 8)

The moral of this story?
DON'T EVER PUT ANYTHING INTO YOUR DISK DRIVE .. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS!

(I still don't and probably never will know WHAT was on that D@MN disk!)

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Comments (4)

zep516
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Glad you have it sorted, the only next problem I could have imagined is that the disc drive draw would not have opened, mines sensitive and does not always open.
justme4now
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Zep,
Right before pulling my hair out and lucking out with the fix .. I was about ready to ask you to help me search for the problem using HijackThis!

Does HijackThis work with these types of problems or just malware?
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zep516
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Hijackthis is not used for Malware much at all anymore. Hijackthis only shows a few loading points that Malware use to use. Malware has become very difficult now to find out where it loads from and you need much more intensive scans, like DDS, OTL, scans, the worst malware now gets into the MBR (Master Boot Record) such as Zero Acess Root kit, TDSS & more. I have always used Hijackthis in the computer help forums, it provides for me a good overall view of the computer, shows all the start ups (04's) all the services (023's). Tells me the Anti Virus installed and it there are 2 running, will show conduit hijacker and a few more. It may show an infection but rarely anymore. Not used in the Malware Removal community at all.

Your problem would have been difficult to diagnose especially with the black screen at boot, that usually indicates windows can't find the operating System or the Master Boot Record is flawed. What would have been nice is if you got the Error "Operating System Not Found" at boot time, then the first order of things is to check the CD Rom drive because Windows always looks there first, and asks "Do you have anything for Me" and the CD Rom say's "yes I have something boot it please" and off it goes and attempts to run anything there.
DA_Mccoy
13 years ago
Checking the drive for forgotten media has long been a standard suggestion for system boot failures. It's right up there with the suggestion of checking monitor or speaker connections.

As to the media itself left in the drive, we all have done it.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are those that prevail.

Z,

I liked your explanation so much better than the generic boot sequence definition.

DA

This post was edited by damccoy on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 8:27

A Nightmare Solved! (And a very long post)

Comments (4)

zep516

justme4now
Original Author

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A Nightmare Solved! (And a very long post)

Comments (4)

zep516

justme4nowOriginal Author

Related Discussions

zep516

DA_Mccoy

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

justme4now
Original Author