3rd round of installing vista on same computer, having performance issues

[cloud32187]

Alright, got a computer in here with windows xp installed on it and was far beyond fixing/repair installing. No COA for XP on the bottom only for vista. I tell the customer that I would need to install vista, and i got the go ahead to do it. I did do standard diagnostics, ram, hd, etc. However i'm getting some funky issues.

First attempt- Everything installed smoothly get vista installed and then everything went down the crapper. Did large batch of windows updates and never wanted to start back up again. Tried repairing via vista recovery disk but that wouldn't work.

Second attempt- Same thing, everything installed perfectly. Did a large batch of windows update then I get stuck in a "could not configure updates, reverting changes" loop and wouldn't start up. Tried doing all the standard fixes to break the loop but to no avail.

*Now i start to think that there must be some windows update thats getting installed that the systems not agreeing with. I even re-burned a copy of the disk to rule out any dvd corruption*

Third attempt- Everything installs perfectly. I do windows update in increments so if something happens i can narrow it down. All windows updates get installed after a few reboots. I figured that everything would be good and restore data that was backed up to the hard drive. Everything's still good. Reboot, then explorer.exe is hanging and overall the performance is terrible, even in safe mode. Now i think that its a hardware issue and figured maybe the hard drive was going and somehow missed it, nope, manufacturer diagnostic software passes with flying colors.

I'm going to try the ram overnight again but in the meantime i figured i would post here and see if anyone had any thoughts.

 

[seedubya]

I have a machine in right now with similar issues (sometimes won't start, corrupt user profles that resolve after a restart etc.) that passes the manufacturer's diagnostic flyingly BUT when I run any surface scan on it it drops offline completely at 37.2% done - without fail!

New HDD it is but a hard one to explain.

 

[FremontPC]

Check the disk with Crystal Disk Info.

Visual check of the mobo and cards for bad capacitors (domed tops, split and oozing, etc.).

If that all looks good, remove all but one stick of ram. If still no go, pull that stick and swap it for one of the others. Yes, even if the ram tested OK.

Is it a name brand box or a local build with OEM Vista on it?

 

[PC Ops]

I've also seen these issues caused by failing HDD's (which passed (manufacturer) tests fine).

So my bet would also be the HDD.

 

[brandonkick]

Try another hard drive. I've seen plenty of drives that dianostical softwares thought were fine but were actually junk.

How much memory is in this machine? If it's less then 2GB, upgrade it to atleast that. For Vista, I prefer 4GB.

Place one stick of 2GB memory in the lowest slot.

Also try removing any unnecessary hardware.

 

[HFultzjr]

Alright, got a computer in here with windows xp installed on it and was far beyond fixing/repair installing. No COA for XP on the bottom only for vista. I tell the customer that I would need to install vista, and i got the go ahead to do it. I did do standard diagnostics, ram, hd, etc. However i'm getting some funky issues.

First attempt- Everything installed smoothly get vista installed and then everything went down the crapper. Did large batch of windows updates and never wanted to start back up again. Tried repairing via vista recovery disk but that wouldn't work.

Second attempt- Same thing, everything installed perfectly. Did a large batch of windows update then I get stuck in a "could not configure updates, reverting changes" loop and wouldn't start up. Tried doing all the standard fixes to break the loop but to no avail.

*Now i start to think that there must be some windows update thats getting installed that the systems not agreeing with. I even re-burned a copy of the disk to rule out any dvd corruption*

Third attempt- Everything installs perfectly. I do windows update in increments so if something happens i can narrow it down. All windows updates get installed after a few reboots. I figured that everything would be good and restore data that was backed up to the hard drive. Everything's still good. Reboot, then explorer.exe is hanging and overall the performance is terrible, even in safe mode. Now i think that its a hardware issue and figured maybe the hard drive was going and somehow missed it, nope, manufacturer diagnostic software passes with flying colors.

I'm going to try the ram overnight again but in the meantime i figured i would post here and see if anyone had any thoughts.

FULL hardware diagnostics first....Power Supply, Hard Drive, Ram, Clean Heat Sinks, Check Temps, etc., etc..

The see how it runs on a Linux Distro.

What are the specs on this machine and it up to par for Vista.

I've seen Vista installed with some very poor specs and owner opted to replace with XP, so it "ran better".

Biggie.....MIN 2gb Ram.

 

[cloud32187]

Hey guys, thought i would update the situation

So last night i ran memtest for about 7 hours with no errors found.

Still having issues with performance so i ran a chkdsk and if found a boatload of corrupt entries. After that performance seems normal but i know its most likely not permanent and will happen again.

I did however run crystaldiskinfo (never really used this software before, but i think now i should work it into my kit) on the drive and it came up with a caution for reallocated sectors count. This for some reason was not flagged in the manufacturers software smart data. This leads me to believe that it is in fact the hard drive that's the issue.

I went ahead and ordered a new drive. Thanks for all the insight guys. As always you're very helpful.

 

[FremontPC]

I hardly use the smart tests (long test, short test). I just check the actual smart values with Crystal or the like. Nice thing about Crystal is it seems to see the external drives that others miss.

To me, the long and short tests are like the sorry-it's-too-late warning lights on a car dashboard.

 

[brandonkick]

SMART is worthless.

I have plenty of drives that smart thinks are ok, that are junk.