Two problems with my PC

[sw123]

Hello all

I am stumped. My computer has two problems, neither of which i can fix

The computer I use has older technology, and it definitely needs an upgrade

In about a year, I am going to try getting a job to get my own computer, but since that hasn't happened yet, I will need to live with what I've got

So my first concern was that I was trying to play Team Fortress 2, which requires 512 MB RAM, and I had 1 GB, so I said, ok I'll play this. So I was in a server, and my computer suddenly stopped and gave me a BSOD, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I regret that I have no minidump file on this, but if it happens again I will post one.

So after this I decided to try and play Garry's Mod, which doesnt require as much RAM. I ran that, and in the middle of playing on a server, it gave me another BSOD, same IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. So i said "what the hell is this" and though that maybe I had some bad RAM. So I decided to try Memtest to see what RAM stick(if any) was bad.

Now onto the second problem:

While trying to burn Memtest on a CD, I put in the blank CD to my DVD/CD-RW drive. But when no Autoplay showed up, I went into My Computer. Immediately I noticed something strange. 3 CD Drives were registered, but I only had 2 installed. Again, I thought "what the hell is wrong with this machine??" and looked in device manager. It looked as though everything was there, including a Virtual DVD drive, which I had no idea what it was. Immediately I though "VIRUS!!" and uninstalled that drive from device manager, and ran a complete virus scan overnight. It came back clean, to my amazement.

Next, i took out the 2nd CD Drive to see if that fixed it, and it still registered 2 drives(remember only 1 is installed). I put the CD drive back in and tried to access both of these drives, neither of which worked.

So now I'm stumped. I cannot access my DVD drive and without it, I cannot burn Memtest. So I come to two questions:

1: I already know how to use Memtest, but I do have a second Hard Disk, and I was curious if I could load Memtest onto that in order to use it, or is it better to have a CD.

2: I was considering uninstalling my DVD drive to see if no CD/DVD drives show up in my computer. I could do this in Device Manager, and I did think about using the "Add Hardware" feature to try and reinstall the disk drive with the hope of getting it functional.

My dad would be the person financing any repairs, so I am thinking of sabotage to try and get him to buy the new parts that the computer needs, although I basically built this computer and kept it going for as long as I could. But of course, he won't buy the new parts because "it works fine for him" and all he does if Quicken and email. I told him to let me handle this computer and he should get his own so I can reverse his logic. I would sabotage the paging file to get the computer to be error plagued and possibly fried, which would hopefully teach him the consequences of not keeping his computer up-to-date.

So you guys think you can help me out? I am only trying to keep my half of the computer working but I don't have any money to buy new parts. Do you guys think it could be salvaged or should I go for the sabotage?

Thanks,

sw123

 

[captaincranky]

The "IRQ" nonsense is usually video driver issues.

Memtest I believe must be run from a CD, since theM$-DOS OS is on the disc to enable it to run as a self contained entity. Besides, the download file is an ISO image of a CD anyway.

A few months back I experienced an issue with malware that forbid access to the Optical drives. I could only describe this as "prankware". Dunno if it has any direct bearing on your situation. In this case, the scans came back clean as well.

Is it possible that any the the gaming sites you visited installed a CD emulator? Did someone else that used the computer?

2: I was considering uninstalling my DVD drive to see if no CD/DVD drives show up in my computer. I could do this in Device Manager, and I did think about using the "Add Hardware" feature to try and reinstall the disk drive with the hope of getting it functional.

If you use device manager to uninstall the drive(s), a simple reboot will reload the drivers, with no intervention on your part.

I'm not really comfortable with assisting you to "sabotage" your parents computer.

 

[sw123]

Thanks for the reply captaincranky

Everyone in my family of 5 uses this computer with the exception of my mom, who has her own mac -,-

So you think I should redownload the video card drivers?

I also got a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA BSOD recently as well as an engine crash while trying to play CS:S.

I will also rerun a scan for any viruses, but I wonder if you can identify the virtual cd drive, it was called MagicISO Virtual CD drive. I don't visit many gaming sights, all i do is play them and pwn in them lol

thanks for the reply

sw123

 

[captaincranky]

Here's the virtual drive; http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/Virtual-CD-DVD-Rom/MagicDisc-Virtual-DVD-CD-ROM.shtml It seems to me that somebody would have had to install that!
Much of what you're telling me could be the result of an underpowered machine/ video driver.

You should probably update the video driver, but you also need to investigate startup programs and running processes. With 5 people using the machine, only God knows what all is happening.

A clean copy of the CD emulator should be available with the provided link. That program should be removed, if only to eliminate as the source of problems. Maybe somebody installed a "dirty" copy of it. Those type of programs can cause trouble in many machines, especially the infamous, "Daemon Tools".

I think there's a decent "virtual drive" freeware program here at Techspot too, but the name escapes me.

 

[sw123]

Thanks again for writing to me captaincranky

To my knowledge, the only things in startup are things like Steam, Xfire, MS Messenger(which i am trying to get rid of) and Avira AntiVir.

Daemon Tools were installed when my brother had this computer, and my PC is definitely underpowered. However Daemon Tools was uninstalled and the computer was working perfectly fine

Since Avira takes FOREVER to finish a scan(by the way my computer has more than 3 million files on it), I will have to wait to update the driver. I did notice something in the Device Manager. There was another MagicISO SCSI/RAID drive, and a SCSI/RAID device, which I cannot identify at the moment, that had a yellow exclamation mark. Should I try to update its driver? And I was wondering about it, if it could be my hard drive. A little more recently I have had a strange occurence in my computer, where the hard drive made a noise like it was shutting down and the computer stopped responding completely, including the cursor not moving, absolutely nothing. I thought it could be that the powersupply is failing but I wasn't certain. If I should update this driver, please let me know

Also I had no intention of installing a virtual CD/DVD drive. Never had a need for it. I am not a software pirate trying to load CD images on it I assure you

Regards sw123