Hi I am at my whits-end here!!!

My Vista Home Prem x64 (SP1) machine has been acting erratically the few days.
I left the machine totally powered down for a few days and when I started it up I connect my Canon digtal camera which it did not recognise. So just used the PC memorycard reader to download images to Adobe Photoshop Bridge CS3.From this point the machine began to run slowly and hang. This behaviour continues today!

I have gone to a restore point a month ago which did not correct the problem. I carried out a Repair via the Vista installation CD. This found no issues. I have tried to run a Check Disk on the C: drive but the program just wont start.

The machine was hanging in SafeMode also. When I reboot in SafeMode the display shows the last driver as crcdisk.exe(it sits on this driver for a few mins) before the logon screen.

I can log on in both normal and safemode but its not long before the machine hangs. I have great difficultly running programs; even the System Restore took many attempts and machine reboots before it would work. I uninstalled the AVG antivirus software as I thought that might be an issue; this again took many atempts and reboots.
Nothing has fixed the problem. AVG is now reinstalled.

I am not a great techy person at all and really need some help. My business is suffering as I am a photographer and use this machine for Image cataloging and Photoshop editing.

PLEASE SOMEONE ?

my machine is
Intel i7 965 @ 3.20Ghz
6gb ram
ASUS P6T WS workstation Mother board
Raid0 x2 256gig hitachi drives (C: drive)
1gig (D:drive)
140gig (E: drive 10k rpm)
1gig external Western Digital Mybook (for data back up)
NVIDA GeForce GTX285

Machine was custom built with Vista home prem x64 sp1 installed.

First You can try regularly using ATF-Cleaner or CCleaner to clear out temporary crap. For CCleaner uncheck to install any tool bar and on your first use click on the options tab --> advanced and UNCHECK Only delete file in windows temp folder older than 48 hours.

Second right click on my computer/computer --> manage --> Event Viewer --> Windows Logs --> System. Look for entries with an X. Please tell me what the most common entries are.

Third I would try to scan the disks, staring with the OS boot disk. You mentioned that check disk doesn't run but hangs however it can also be run from the command line or from the recovery console accessed from the Vista disk. With all of the problems that you are having with windows I recommend using the recovery console from the Vista disk. From the recovery console type in chkdsk c: /r.

Originally Posted by seedsie

The machine was hanging in SafeMode also. When I reboot in SafeMode the display shows the last driver as crcdisk.exe(it sits on this driver for a few mins) before the logon screen.

Do you mean ccdisk.sys?

Going to run thru all you suggested and get back to you asap... cheers!

Hi townsbg

These are the most common x events.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode
Date: 20/06/2009 09:49:23
Event ID: 10111
Task Category: User-mode Driver problems.
Level: Critical
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: photo-pc
Description:
The device USB MS Reader (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash.
Windows will attempt to restart the device 5 more times.
Please contact the device manufacturer for more information about this problem.


Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode
Date: 21/06/2009 14:47:52
Event ID: 10111
Task Category: User-mode Driver problems.
Level: Critical
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: photo-pc
Description:
The device USB MASS STORAGE (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash.
Windows will attempt to restart the device 5 more times.
Please contact the device manufacturer for more information about this problem.


Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode
Date: 07/05/2009 23:10:26
Event ID: 10111
Task Category: User-mode Driver problems.
Level: Critical
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: photo-pc
Description:
The device Microsoft WPD FileSystem Volume Driver (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash.
Windows will attempt to restart the device 5 more times.
Please contact the device manufacturer for more information about this problem.




Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode
Date: 20/06/2009 09:49:21
Event ID: 10110
Task Category: User-mode Driver problems.
Level: Critical
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: photo-pc
Description:
A problem has occurred with one or more user-mode drivers and the hosting process has been terminated.
This may temporarily interrupt your ability to access the devices.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I note that none of these critical events happened since Sun 5th July which is when my problems started.

Running thru the rest of the checks you sugguested and will post results separately

Thanks for your assistance townsbg

Cheers Seedsie!

hi again townsbg

You asked about starting in safe mode and the driver the boot up sits on for a while is definitely CRCDISK.EXE.

I jsut cant get CCLEANER to download / RUN from the web page. It works on another machine so the website is fine. I tried installing CCleaner directly from the website(Run option on the download dialog) my PC appears to do nothing. I tried Save the CCleaner setup executable. The PC goes through the motions and gives progress bar to indicate the exe is being saved. However via explorer i cant find the downloaded file. I tried this 3 times all to the same location(I am sure of the download location).

I ran CHKDSK c: /r via the command prompt (from Vista CD System Recovery Options)
At the final stage 5 of 5 of CHKDSK this utility verfiies free space...This finishes with the message:

Free space verification is complete.
An unspecified error occurred.


An specified errors worry me!
Thanks in advance

hmmm bah!! misery...

After running chkdsk i restarted the pc and during the boot up process I saw on the screen that one of my drives the c: drive Raid0 (2x 298gig Hitachi drives) was inicating that an Error Occured.
I then entred the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager" (ctrl I) and the screen showed the drives and there status and beside the twin 298gig Hitachi Drives the status reads:

Error Occurred

I am guessing these drives are buggered!

So now when I try to boot the PC from the c: it loads drivers to the crcdisk.exe and then I get a BSOD and we start the boot procedure again.

I then booted from the VISTA Installation disc and it now cannot find an operating system to repair(the first dialog box after you select your country and language).
So errr do I load drivers as instructed on the dialog box ? Will this wipe all my drives of just my c: drive? Not a prob really as I have backups of data drives d: and e:

Will wait for a reply from you before I continue as I dont want to mess up any strategy you may have

Cheers

I need to know what the blue screen says. I would do a Memtest and would download the drives' manufacturer's diagnostic tools. Also check out Beginners Guides: Diagnosing Bad Memory - PCSTATS.com.

Hi

The blue screen flashes very fast I barely see the blue background let alone text.

It also wont boot from the VIsta CD Rom. I just get taken to the install screen. If I choose the Repair option it cant find an operating system to repair...so the only option on that screen is Load Drivers. Should I do this? Are the drivers on the Vista Disk?

The only other discs I have are the ASUS mother board disc and the DVD r/w install disc.

duh sorry I'm not helping you much here!

hmmm think I should contact the manufacturer. The c: drive must be trashed!

You should go to the drives' manufacturer's website and download a bootable diagnostic disk, burn it on a cd, boot into it, and test the disks. Then run a memory test. If you have a raid 9 and you lost 1 drive you lose everything on both.