Sudden Freeze, Crash, Restart.

[Der Gothmann]

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU: Intel Duo Core (Quad Core, cannot access number any more.)
RAM: 4GB
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q Pro
GPU: NVIDIA GTX250
HDDs: 1TB Western Digital, 500GB Western Digital, 150GB Seagate
Sound: Creative Xfi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro


Today, at about 3:30pm I left my desk for five minutes. When I returned, I found that my PC had not only restarted, but had begun the repair console, and was almost done. Needless to say, I was worried.
So, I waited for the welcome screen to appear, and logged in. No trouble there. A brief message about VGA something appeared for about three seconds and went away... great. About fifteen minutes later, the screen froze, and the PC restarted.

Okay, thought I, this is going to be a pain, isn't it?

Lo, I was right.

After another fifteen minute gap, the PC crashed again. I booted it up in SAFE MODE, and had a looksee.
None of the devices were flagging up a warning, nothing needed updating, and I couldn't find any other problems in a basic scan of the bits in front of me. I reinstalled the graphics drivers to be sure, and went ahead.
I attempted to reboot to normal mode again, and the system froze and restarted shortly after entering my password. It didn't make it to the desktop.
I rebooted again in SAFE MODE and tried a system restore to earlier that morning, (being the only available restore point,) knowing that nothing had been changed in a couple of days. My PC started rebooting and applying changes, but stuck on a black screen/white blinky CMD shortly after loading BIOS.
Freeze, restart.
I ran the repair console again from the DVD, and it found no problems. I did a memory check, and the system loaded all the way to the desktop, and told me System Restore was a success. (No word on the Memory Check.)

Freeze, restart.

Okay then, run in SAFE MODE. I tried disabling VTune, reinstalling graphics drivers again. Run in Normal Mode.
Freeze, restart.

About ten minutes passed and I saved a new restore point to be safe. The PC continued to behave again. I decided to grab some updates from Windows Update to see if that helped. Everything was going ahead for almost an hour, and I thought it was settling down!
Freeze, restart.
Now, not only is my computer screwed up, but, because it crashed in the middle of updating, it now attempts to install them when I hit the welcome screen, causing a bloody singularity event. It can't install half-downloaded updates, so after a few minutes... freeze, restart.


I am now sitting in SAFE MODE again, and I am flummoxed. The only things I can tell are remarkable are as follows:

PC runs fine in all versions of SAFE MODE without issue.
Speccy can no longer find info about CPU, RAM, Motherboard, GPU or HDDs, stating "Cannot initialise SPC dll", (I doubt this is related.)
Normal Mode lasts between ten seconds and an hour after login before freeze and restart.
No BSOD.
The usual "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown, would you like to check online, etc." message pops up on restart, with no help at all.

This has never happened before. I have had the PC for a couple of years, working almost perfectly for the whole time, (a couple of crippling viruses, driver clashes, etc.) and this has happened suddenly, and without any prior warning. I have not installed anything new in the last day or two, nor have I downloaded anything new.

Who would like to be the first?

[Der Gothmann]

Also, (you'll all love this,) I have no backup of the extraordinarily valuable data on my system. Though I doubt this will be an issue, as my data seems totally unaffected, it seems like these problems only happen when I have a broken external drive, no money at all for a replacement, (yes, really,) and about 1.5TB of important data, (making the number of HDDs needed large.)
My last external HDD was an Hitachi 2TB. Worst HDD ever. It worked for half-an-hour and went bananas. This was only a short while ago.

[Der Gothmann]

UPDATE:
I just ran Windows Normal Mode on DIAGNOSTIC STARTUP.
Freeze, restart.

If it weren't for the system booting up perfectly in SAFE MODE, I would be quick to point the finger at hardware issues, but it just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, I guess I should be thakfull, but it certainly does leave me puzzled. Maybe it's a simple error. Hopefully, it's a simple error.
Also, remember that black screen with the blinking CMD console line (you know what I mean, right?) That now happens for an inordinately long period of time after the BIOS has finished, but before Windows starts loading in Normal Mode.

What does all of this devilry mean?
Can ANYONE tell me?

[Der Gothmann]

Now SAFE MODE with NETWORKING isn't letting me use the internet either.
It won't PING anything either.
Come on guys, this is starting to fall apart!

[Der Gothmann]

Okay, I now suspect a virus. God knows where it came from if it is. I didn't think it was for a minute until now, but I finally got the thing to stick around on the desktop for a bit after keeping the Win 7 DVD in the tray while booting up. I didn't ask it to boot from disk, but it seems to be a little bit more stable now. Without it, the system restarts on the welcome screen. I found out that masses of services were disabled in the Services panel, and Avast refused to work. I re-enabled a bunch of them, and turned off Windows Aero. I am now re-installing Avast in the hope that it will get going and kill the possible infection. Malwarebytes didn't pick anything up, but I tend to find that it often doesn't with system crushing bugs (I once had to do a complete re-install of Windows because of the blasted Beagle Worm.)
I will shortly perform a full system scan, followed by a boot-time one.
I will still likely need help with this. What I am doing is only a temporary fix.

[Musthaveittoday]

Check the psu is up to it, more things you do, and more power draining things like gaming etc if the psu is bad or a cheap low watter you will get the same result.

[Der Gothmann]

PSU is an 850 Watt Novatech.

Also, today, the system is restarting before it even gets to the loading screen. I am starting to get immensely frustrated with this. The longer I leave it, even without power, the more destroyed my system seems to be getting. I am going to try and install a secondary operating system to see if it responds in a similar way.
That is, if the DVD will ever load.

[Der Gothmann]

Okay, news:
I tried to boot the Win7 Disc, and after about 30 minutes, it failed and said:

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer. (Exactly what I was trying to do)
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3 Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \windows\system32\hal.dll

Status: 0xc0000098

Info: Windows failed to load because the HAL is missing, or corrupt."


This is certainly a development, but I am not sure if it will fix the issue, or if it is even possible, as the message turned up while I was attempting to do exactly what it wants me to do.
I will update my progress, but don't stop those helpful suggestions!

[Der Gothmann]

Basically, I seem to get this message every time I attempt to do anything except run the ASUS Express Gate, (which runs automatically before windows is meant to load anyway.)
Does it seem odd to anyone else that a bad HAL.dll would prevent the disc from booting?
I don't know, I haven't encountered it before.

[Der Gothmann]

I tried again, and the same sort of thing happened, but this time, the file cited was:

"\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe"


A friend of mine is popping over tonight to have a look. He described the problem as "intriguing", which is not a good sign!

[Der Gothmann]

Also, SAFE MODE is no longer working.
I should have seen that coming.

[Der Gothmann]

I managed to get a memory test up and running.
I'm running a 3 Pass Extended memory test, (I have a funny feeling that it won't help.)

[Der Gothmann]

Also, running "Last know good configuration" or any of the other possible available options results in an infinite loop of seeing the "missing or corrupt" messages and asking me to pick one of the myriad options, just to return me to the first screen again.

[Der Gothmann]

Wow. Apparently, almost at the end of the memory test, the "missing or corrupt" screen turned up again.

[Musthaveittoday]

If you have Hal and 32 dll messages your O/S is damaged, Recovery console won't fix that, you should re-format, I think your problem there is you have raid or AHCi options enabled in the bios, so unless you make a driver disc to load when Win asks for the 3rd party driver you will fail, either make the disc or turn them off, I can show you how to re-enable AHCi later with a simple hack.

If this is a Dell machine they put sheet on there to feck you up, best option is to connect another DVD and bypass the Dell ones, they fail to read due to Dell being over enthusiastic with anti virus measures, that's what they say anyway, truth is you ring their cash cow number for assistance.

[Der Gothmann]

From what I am experiencing, it seems to be resolved (at least, for now. I am sure you will hear from me otherwise.)
This is good, because the system refused to let me reformat my OS drive for the same reasons it has been refusing to do anything else.
Also, it most certainly is not a Dell. *Spits on Dell* No, I constructed it from parts I ordered from Novatech a couple of years ago. (Quality parts, I might add. They have never failed. Just the OS it seems.)
My friend, Mark, came over to look at it last night. His whole job is to install and fix PCs.
Admittedly, he was even more baffled than I was, but after prodding it in similar ways to how I prodded it, it just started working again.
He has no idea what was wrong, and no idea what he did to it, but it seems fairly stable at the moment, (except that half of the game launchers are refusing to work and the Sims 3 is dead.)
The only odd bit is that it demanded that I activate Windows once I got back into the OS. Not a huge issue, but still.

So, don't consider the thread closed just yet, because it may come back at any moment.