Lately my PC gradually slowed down. Eventually, after two games of SC2, the pc shuts down and windows cannot restart completely. It instead shows the blue screen after the win7 logo swirls in to view.
After a few hours, having connected the HDD as an external drive, it became accessible again where previously windows7 said there was a Cyclic Redundancy problem.
What possible causes could have attributed to this? A virus? The hard drive slowly dying?
Also, what is the best protection I should be getting?
What is the best anti-virus to check my backup drives for viruses? Does a virus infect a backup drive when attached to an infected system?
Thanks in advance.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
Might be a virus. The only serious antivirus I'm aware of is norton. I'm sure there are many others though. Also, the virus could spread to your backup drive if your backup drive was plugged into the infected computer AT ANY TIME. However it might now have, and of course you may not have a virus at all. Thats why online backups are preferred, cuz a local virus cant get to them. You can normally instruct an antivirus to scan a particular area, so I'm sure any antivirus could be told to sweep your backup drive for anything nasty.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Feel free to Send me a PM if you have any questions/concerns!
Thanks zeldarules. Maybe I should just install and scan with all the available anti-viruses.
I don't know much about hardware, and am concerned if I should continue relying on this drive. If there were no viruses, this means it's a hardware thing, right?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
The cyclic redundancy check, or "CRC" error, indicates a bad spot on your hard drive.
It sounds like your problem is hardware. If you've had the HDD for more than a few years that is a red flag right there. Viruses these days tend to not want to be discovered. Their goal is either to steal your data or make your computer a bot. Obvious signs like you're experiencing run counter to that. I would say either the HDD is ready to die, or it somehow got corrupted and just needs a file system check to fix errors.
I wouldn't place too much weight on a single CRC error. Sometimes data just gets corrupted. It could be a more or less serious hardware fault, it could've been a program's fault or maybe something went wrong in Windows itself.
As long as it doesn't happen again: Act as if it never happened (No guarantees!) :3
I would also like to add that I heard from a friend who experienced weird PC shut-downs when playing certain Sc2 maps. I heard of it today, unfortunately I cannot remember what map he was talking about..
Weird stuff anyways.
Just to make sure I'd run the standard stuff: Full virus scan, a checkdisk and check your Task Manager for dubious processes. If a game slows down that often is because some process takes up a lot of memory or CPU cylces. It could be the game itself, a malicious program or maybe something just goes wrong.
Hard disks are not long lived (3 years if you are lucky), changing them regularly is the norm on pcs (it's becoming the same for macs too), their quality (for long use) has degraded (versions after versions brands after new brands) as cpu uses have become more and more intricate and varied and the overall quality has gone down drastically... they are not to be relied on for safekeeping... ghost of your system (pref and other) can be made, but all data should be stored on cds or dvds (checking if the data is well saved is time consuming but the only way to go, because back up hard disks run the same risks)...
As it has been said it could also be nothing... that's windows quality.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Lately my PC gradually slowed down. Eventually, after two games of SC2, the pc shuts down and windows cannot restart completely. It instead shows the blue screen after the win7 logo swirls in to view.
After a few hours, having connected the HDD as an external drive, it became accessible again where previously windows7 said there was a Cyclic Redundancy problem.
What possible causes could have attributed to this? A virus? The hard drive slowly dying?
Also, what is the best protection I should be getting?
What is the best anti-virus to check my backup drives for viruses? Does a virus infect a backup drive when attached to an infected system?
Thanks in advance.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Curse PremiumMight be a virus. The only serious antivirus I'm aware of is norton. I'm sure there are many others though. Also, the virus could spread to your backup drive if your backup drive was plugged into the infected computer AT ANY TIME. However it might now have, and of course you may not have a virus at all. Thats why online backups are preferred, cuz a local virus cant get to them. You can normally instruct an antivirus to scan a particular area, so I'm sure any antivirus could be told to sweep your backup drive for anything nasty.
Thanks zeldarules. Maybe I should just install and scan with all the available anti-viruses.
I don't know much about hardware, and am concerned if I should continue relying on this drive. If there were no viruses, this means it's a hardware thing, right?
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
It sounds like your problem is hardware. If you've had the HDD for more than a few years that is a red flag right there. Viruses these days tend to not want to be discovered. Their goal is either to steal your data or make your computer a bot. Obvious signs like you're experiencing run counter to that. I would say either the HDD is ready to die, or it somehow got corrupted and just needs a file system check to fix errors.
Thanks Karawasa, I'll do just that. This baby's been in the front line for quite some time. 4 years iirc.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
I wouldn't place too much weight on a single CRC error. Sometimes data just gets corrupted. It could be a more or less serious hardware fault, it could've been a program's fault or maybe something went wrong in Windows itself.
As long as it doesn't happen again: Act as if it never happened (No guarantees!) :3
I would also like to add that I heard from a friend who experienced weird PC shut-downs when playing certain Sc2 maps. I heard of it today, unfortunately I cannot remember what map he was talking about..
Weird stuff anyways.
Just to make sure I'd run the standard stuff: Full virus scan, a checkdisk and check your Task Manager for dubious processes. If a game slows down that often is because some process takes up a lot of memory or CPU cylces. It could be the game itself, a malicious program or maybe something just goes wrong.
Hard disks are not long lived (3 years if you are lucky), changing them regularly is the norm on pcs (it's becoming the same for macs too), their quality (for long use) has degraded (versions after versions brands after new brands) as cpu uses have become more and more intricate and varied and the overall quality has gone down drastically... they are not to be relied on for safekeeping... ghost of your system (pref and other) can be made, but all data should be stored on cds or dvds (checking if the data is well saved is time consuming but the only way to go, because back up hard disks run the same risks)...
As it has been said it could also be nothing... that's windows quality.