Delayed write failed & other wonderfull windows messages

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Hi everyone,

Sorry to be a new member and all of a sudden start asking for help however I fear I have a serious problem with my computer and some of you may be able to sort it out. Also, sorry this is like a huge essay but I think I need to sort this problem out quickly and I have tried to give you every detail and symptom as possible.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 which I got more than a year ago now and I have used pretty much every day since then. I use my computer for all sorts but mainly for MSN Messenger and the internet.

Anyway, about one or two weeks ago now I got a little bubble message appear at the bottom right hand of my screen saying something about "C:\Mft" and that there is a Delayed Write Failed. This message kept popping up and every time I closed it, it popped back up again after another 10 seconds.

Then, all of a sudden my Norton Antivirus 2006 Protect Center stopped working and was switched off, and when I try and turn it on the program just freezes and I am unable to turn it on. Another thing which I cannot do now is click a simple link which opens up a new window in my Internet Explorer. When I click the link the finger cursor just freezes for about 3 seconds and nothing happens. Another example if my Internet Explorer's history has dissappeared too and does not place any pages/websites I have been on into the history. Recently I have been playing a lot of Rome: Total War on my computer and thankfully this error has not stopped me doing so.

Sometimes when I turn my computer off I get the same message about the "C:\Mft" and how it is corrupted and/or something like that. Stangely, however, I dont get these messages anymore at all, and I was able to do a defragmentation of my computer last night which, recently, it did not allow me to do so.

I use Diskeeper 10 Professional Premier and it says this about my hardrive;

The overall health is at "Critical" for the following reasons:

1. The MFT usage was currently 93 percent of the total MFT size, which indicates it is likely the MFT will become fragmented.

2. The volume is heavily fragmented. The average number of fragments per file is 1.76.

3. The free space on this volume was very low (10%), making it difficult to defragment the volume.
---(I have a 60GB hard drive)

I will put my hand up and say that I do not defragment regularly and I dont do it much at all (which may be the root of my problem).

Also, here is some info about my computer some of you may want/need to have;

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)

BIOS: Default System BIOS

Processor: Intel (R) Pentium (R) M processor 1.73 GHz

Memory: 512MB RAM

Page file: 429MB used, 816MB available

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c

Graphics card: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300

Sound card: SigmaTel C-Major Audio


I class myself as a reasonable person with computers, but I think this problem is way beyond my knowledge. I did search about this problem, but it involved editing the registry which I dont want to do on my own or without proper guidance. So, if anyone wants to give me some advice about this problem then I'll be very grateful however please keep it simple and easy so I can understand it.

Thank you very much for reading all of this and I will be grateful for any advice on this problem. James.
 
Please try to use proper thread titles from now on. It makes things easier for everyone. ;)
 
Didou said:
Please try to use proper thread titles from now on. It makes things easier for eevryone. ;)

Oh yer ok sorry for that, its just I need to attract a lot of attention for this one as I fear its a big problem and I dont think I can solve it alone.

Thanks again though.
 
You probably have a virus. Which one, I don't know...

First of all, your virus scanner has been disabled.

Second, your MFT is almost completely full, which by default, would be a rediculously large portion of your hard drive

And third, you are receiving complaints about a corrupted MFT, but you can still use your computer? Most people with a corrupted MFT lose their data.

My theory is there's a virus and it is probably writing little, tiny files all over your drive... Maybe 512 bytes in size or something along those lines. Every file gets added to your MFT (like all files), but the files take up virtally no space unless in great numbers, so you get millions and millions of new entries, which fill up your MFT.

This explains your low disk space and your low MFT space, but there's isn't much other explanation for an MFT that's so full aside from data corruption due to partition damage or physical drive media problems... But even those wouldn't disable your virus scanner and let you still use your computer... most likely. :)

Try http://housecall.antivirus.com for a free online scann. Works really well under IE and Firefox.
 
Rick said:
You probably have a virus. Which one, I don't know...

First of all, your virus scanner has been disabled.

Second, your MFT is almost completely full, which by default, would be a rediculously large portion of your hard drive

And third, you are receiving complaints about a corrupted MFT, but you can still use your computer? Most people with a corrupted MFT lose their data.

My theory is there's a virus and it is probably writing little, tiny files all over your drive... Maybe 512 bytes in size or something along those lines. Every file gets added to your MFT (like all files), but the files take up virtally no space unless in great numbers, so you get millions and millions of new entries, which fill up your MFT.

This explains your low disk space and your low MFT space, but there's isn't much other explanation for an MFT that's so full aside from data corruption due to partition damage or physical drive media problems... But even those wouldn't disable your virus scanner and let you still use your computer... most likely. :)

Try http://housecall.antivirus.com for a free online scann. Works really well under IE and Firefox.

Thank you so much for the advice and help Rick.

I tried the website you given me (remember by copying and pasting it into a new IE because just clicking it doesnt work) and it just stays on the 'Updating and starting House Call" and nothing happens.

I tried it in Netscape but it comes up with "Trident Plugin for Netscape... The plugin performed an illegal action operation. You are strongly advised to restart Netscape" and then it freezes :S -- this may have something to do with the error/virus I have.. ? I tried again, this time choosing for this message to not be displayed again.

It did work but the site you given me didnt come up at all, so I changed the rendering machine from IE to Firefox and it worked, however when loading the scanner it said "Netscape has encountered a problem and needs to close" and I was forced to close it :mad: Tried again but the same thing came up.

I did try to install a new anti-virus (being McAfee) but it dont think it worked for some reason. Maybe the virus is stopping any sort of anti-virus/scanner from working? I must point out that my Norton protection centre has stopped working, and when I try and open Norton Anti-virus it freezes. Also, sometimes, rather randomly, I get messages from Norton (I know its Norton because of the little norton logo in the corner of the message box) however this message doesnt have a title and it doesnt contain anything at all :confused:

Thanks again for all the advice and anymore would be fantastic guys.

James.
 
jamesino said:
Maybe the virus is stopping any sort of anti-virus/scanner from working?
Oh yeah, virus writers are very clever. I've seen viruses that any time they detect the word "virus" in any Internet browser, they blue screen your computer. ;) Very smart.

So Housecall not working, Norton being disabled and McAfee being uninstallable are all possibilities.

Another tip is never install more than one virus scanner... Because you might end up with a bigger problem. :) Norton is especially prone to not play well with others.
 
Hello and welcome to Techspot.

I agree with the guys, you`ve probably got some kind of virus infection.

Go HERE and follow as many of the instructions as you can.

Post a fresh HJT log as a .txt attchment into this thread after doing the above.

If it does turn out to be virus related, I will move this thread to the appropriate forum.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:
 
If you cant run those scanners posted in howard's links, while in normal windows (since the virus maybe stopping it) then try booting into Safe mode.. it will at least eliminate the problem of the virus booting up as part of a startup app and giving you crap when you try to get rid off it.
 
Ok I will do those steps in this Hijackthis thingey (not sure what that is but I'll give it a go later).

Thank you everyone for all your help and advice and I'll report back and see how I get on.

James.
 
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