My pc keeps loosing data. Help!

[Brick_top]

Hi, I'm new here.

I just bougth a new system
P42.8c HT FSB800
2*256MB Dual-channel DDR400
Seagate Barracuda 7200.2 120GB (st3120022a)
Intel D865Perl
Radeon 9500 Pro
WindowsXP Pro SP1
Dx9.0b

I have 2 Tv cards and i experience the same problem in this new system
the cards are:

1 - Tv-Radio-live (bt878khf) (Philips - PAL - B TV tuner) "sorry, can't be more specific about it.

2 - Tv-live (conexant fusion 878a) (Tv tuner is the same i guess).

Whenever i install this cards in my pc it loses data. It installs great and works great but sometimes when i reboot my computer "normally" some files are erased.
When it happens the tv card is still installed and working perfectly.
The files are erased when it goes throught "scandisk" it goes througth "scandisk" withouth the pc having crashed or anything like that, i just reboot my pc normally and sometimes i watch during scandisk that it is erasing some files. unfortunately it's too fast for me to see exactly which ones, but i remember seeing "logonui.exe" being deleted, one time it deleted the sound card drivers, other time i couldn't use the "device Manager", other time it deleted some dll's that made some software not to work...

When i remove any of the cards the problem disapears the only problem that i keep having is this: (without any tv card installed).

whenever i make a chkdsk in a dos-box it gives me the same error "CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.

Which is not solved by using the "chkdsk /f" parameter.
I already downloaded Seatools from seagate's website but it did not found any errors in my drive.

I also tried O&O defrag professional (recommended by a person in another forum) because it defrags the MFT. Strange thing is that this software has a "checkdisk utility" and i used it in 6 times and in one of them it gave a "Filesystem is corrupt" error...

But the pc keeps working great (without any tv card) and with the MFT error..

Any Ideas?

 

[Fushigi]

My first thought is that the TV tuner(s) aren't the problem but may be making the symptoms more apparent. TV tuner hardware can't delete a file and I doubt the associated drivers would be randomly deleting files.

- Is your anti-virus software up to date? This behavior sounds like something a virus would do.
- Check for spyware. Download both Lavasoft's AdAware & Spybot S&D and clean up the machine.
- Run Windows update for any security-related patches.
- Scandisk/chkdsk/3rd party drive checker and check every sector.

With the software side covered, go after hardware:

- Check/replace the IDE cable.
- Inspect the power connector and use a different one if any of the pins aren't seating well.
- Is the power supply adequate (power fluctuations can cause this sort of thing).

 

[Tannin]

Wild stab-in-the-dark stuff, but does this reming anyone of the infamous Sound Blaster data corruption bug?

My first hunch would be to reforat and do a clean install, but do not load the TV card drivers to test the assumption that the cards come with poorly-written software.

A wild guess, but WTF? My rule of thumb is that weird problems usually have weird causes.

 

[Brick_top]

Hi! Thanks a lot for replying

I also don't think it can be tv tuner related but the problems arise as soon i install them so i thought worth mentioning them.

I don't have an Anti-virus, but my pc is not connected to the internet. I'll see if i can get one.
I'm going to download that spyware software.

For the scandisk i used Seatools from Seagate website (didn't give any error) and O&O defrag (sugested by someone from the www.tv-cards.com forums) because it can defrag the MFT.
I don't know if any of you read my first post entirely but i say that using the O&O defrag chkdsk utility in one of the times (ran it 6 or 7 times) it gave a "Filesystem is corrupt" error.

I will replace the IDE cable and the power connector.
My power suply is of 300w (don't know if that's what you mean)
I don't have an UPS and that might be a problem.

Tannin - I already tried to format (only a quick format thought) and the problems didn't disappear.

Thanks.

 

[blakerwry]

In order for chkdsk to run properly you may need to run it from the recovery console (boot from winXP CD). This is especially true on boot/OS drives.

 

[Brick_top]

In order for chkdsk to run properly you may need to run it from the recovery console (boot from winXP CD). This is especially true on boot/OS drives.

Hi. What command should i type? "chkdsk /f" ?

Thanks.

 

[CougTek]

Fixmbr if I recall correctly

 

[Brick_top]

Fixmbr if I recall correctly

Thanks.

 

[Handruin]

More info on fixmbr.

I haven't dealt with the policies on XP all too much, but would it be any benefit to enable the logging of file deletion. (If there is such a thing?) Maybe this could track any changes to your system to determine if the cause is corruption, or some program.

If you are able to get a connection to the internet, visit http://housecall.trendmicro.com to scan your machine for viruses. This is a free tool that several members on this board have used. (Self included)

 

[Brick_top]

More info on fixmbr.

I haven't dealt with the policies on XP all too much, but would it be any benefit to enable the logging of file deletion. (If there is such a thing?) Maybe this could track any changes to your system to determine if the cause is corruption, or some program.

If you are able to get a connection to the internet, visit http://housecall.trendmicro.com to scan your machine for viruses. This is a free tool that several members on this board have used. (Self included)

I downloaded the free edition of the AVG anti-virus don't know if it is good but is what i can get for now, i cannot get an internet conection for now.

Thanks for the links

 

[blakerwry]

In order for chkdsk to run properly you may need to run it from the recovery console (boot from winXP CD). This is especially true on boot/OS drives.

Hi. What command should i type? "chkdsk /f" ?

Thanks.

yes, chkdsk /f

 

[Mercutio]

More info on fixmbr.

I haven't dealt with the policies on XP all too much, but would it be any benefit to enable the logging of file deletion. (If there is such a thing?) Maybe this could track any changes to your system to determine if the cause is corruption, or some program.

It's of limited use in this case. Files & folders have to be specifically tagged for auditing, and auditing has to be turned on in Local Security polices. If the files in question are being corrupted rather than deleted, auditing is of no use at all.

No one has mentioned RAM as a possible culprit yet, which is pretty much always a suspect when file corruption issues are present.

Why do you have/need two TV tuner cards?

 

[blakerwry]

picture in picture of course

 

[zx]

No one has mentioned RAM as a possible culprit yet, which is pretty much always a suspect when file corruption issues are present.

I agree here....weird problems often arise from bad memory. Try using memory from another computer to see if that's the problems.

 

[blakerwry]

weird problems often arise from bad memory

I was going to mention it, but I have bad memory.

 

[Brick_top]

More info on fixmbr.

I haven't dealt with the policies on XP all too much, but would it be any benefit to enable the logging of file deletion. (If there is such a thing?) Maybe this could track any changes to your system to determine if the cause is corruption, or some program.

It's of limited use in this case. Files & folders have to be specifically tagged for auditing, and auditing has to be turned on in Local Security polices. If the files in question are being corrupted rather than deleted, auditing is of no use at all.

No one has mentioned RAM as a possible culprit yet, which is pretty much always a suspect when file corruption issues are present.

Why do you have/need two TV tuner cards?

Hi! i haven't been able to come here, thanks for the replies.

I only have one card the other one was borrowed to me by a friend.

Thanks.

 

[Brick_top]

Fixmbr if I recall correctly

Hi.

I used that command "fixmbr" and this was the result i got:

**CAUTION**

This computer appears to have a non-standart or invalid master boot record.

FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed.
This could cause all partitions on the current hard disk to become inacessible.
If ou are not having problems acessing your drive, do not continue.

-----------------------------------------------

But i did continue. And tried to do the fixmbr again and it gave me the same message.

 

[Brick_top]

More info on fixmbr.

I haven't dealt with the policies on XP all too much, but would it be any benefit to enable the logging of file deletion. (If there is such a thing?) Maybe this could track any changes to your system to determine if the cause is corruption, or some program.

It's of limited use in this case. Files & folders have to be specifically tagged for auditing, and auditing has to be turned on in Local Security polices. If the files in question are being corrupted rather than deleted, auditing is of no use at all.

No one has mentioned RAM as a possible culprit yet, which is pretty much always a suspect when file corruption issues are present.

Why do you have/need two TV tuner cards?

I don't know much about computers but why would the memory only start failing when i install any of the tv cards?

 

[blakerwry]

The symptoms point to a problem that is commonly related to bad memory... how you got from point A to point B is harder to figure out.

 

[Brick_top]

The symptoms point to a problem that is commonly related to bad memory... how you got from point A to point B is harder to figure out.

well, looks like you and Mercutio were right.

Yesterday i downloaded Microsoft's windows memory diagnostic http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp after having more serious problems with my computer, now i can't even install windows withouth seeing a "blue screen" or the setup program to ask me for files it can't find in the cd.

I used the memory diagnostic and according to it my pc has problems in its memory since it did not pass in any of the tests.

I already tried the tool in 2 computers here at work and they passed the tests.

I'll see if i can get some memory to test in it.

Thanks.

 

[blakerwry]

I usually use a program called memtest86 to test my RAM. If the RAM has major problems (ie: windows wont install) then you'll usually see an error pretty quickly. But I like to run it overnight to see if there are any possible problems with the RAM.


If you have 2 or more sticks I would try 1 stick of RAM at a time. If they both work independantly, but not together then try putting them in different slots. IF you just cant seem to get them to work together reliably then try lowering timings or returning the RAM for matched DIMMs.

 

[Brick_top]

Hi i removed the memory module that was having problems. And i tried to stick the healthy one in the slot in wich the bad one was to see if the problem was really from the memory (maybe this was just stupid and unecessary but in my ignorance that made sense).

I just installed windows and the tv-card and until now it is working fine the only problem i keep having is the MFT error.

Thanks.

 

[blakerwry]

might be a good idea to do a reinstall or repair of winXP in that case

:-(

 

[Brick_top]

might be a good idea to do a reinstall or repair of winXP in that case

:-(

I did that right after removing the damaged module. The tv card has been working for 2 days now withouth any data loss. only the MFT problem keeps arising.

 

[blakerwry]

did you boot to the recovery console and try a "chkdsk /f" ?

 

[Brick_top]

did you boot to the recovery console and try a "chkdsk /f" ?

I still haven't. i will do that as soon as i get home.

I'm going on vacation i will only be able to come here next year.
I hope i don't come here with more problems.

Thanks.

 

[Tannin]

So have a good one!

 

[Brick_top]

So have a good one!

Thanks I'll try. 8)

 

[Brick_top]

Hi! i'm back from my vacation.

Just wanted to say that my pc's problem was a bad memory module.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[blakerwry]

 

[Brick_top]