Business Box Unresponsive - Strange Problem

[init6]

A dental office that is one of my customers uses a centralized software system, and all their machines are working fine except one. The Dentrix software was having trouble sending these electronic insurance claims, and after defragging, making sure anti-virus definitions were up to date, etc. I discovered a big problem:

Upon rebooting, it boots into Windows XP Pro just fine, and that's the end of it. Ctrl-Alt-Del fails to bring up the Task Mgr, no applications will run, nothing will run at all. Very small apps like Calculator will run, but no Outlook, no Word, no Dentrix applets, nothing. It is possible to shut down the computer from the Start Menu, but that is all.

I'm not sure whether this is hardware or software related, so I figured I would post it here. I'm not sure whether it's hardware or software related, or even where to start in diagnosing and solving this issue. HELP!, for lack of a better term!

 

[Carnival Forces]

1. boot into Safe Mode.*
2. Start \ Programs \ Accessories \ System Tools \ Scandisk , turn it on Thourough and have Automatically Fix Errors" turned on.

*A. If it's not stable / can't get into Safe Mode boot up into DOS mode.
B. run "chkdsk" (i think it is), also try "scandisk" (if the first doesn't work, infact, just try both to be safe, to run 'em just type in "chkdsk" or "scandisk")
C. do something for me, run "scanreg/fix" (type in "scanreg/fix", if that doesn't work, then just type in "scanreg", this might actually help fix your problem as well, and i'm curious as to what its results are)** ()

**All the things should be typed in without quotation marks

()Keep in mind that you are asking for advice on a public forum, all remedies applied are at your own very real risk. I, for one, accept no responsibility for any "fixes," "solutoins," or "suggestions/recommendations" made. User beware.

Hope This Helps

 

[init6]

Ugh, I can't believe I didn't try to boot into it Safe Mode.

Oh well, that is exactly what I'll be trying tomorrow morning!

I'll definitely check the hard disk, but if that's not it, what's the recommendation here? Reformat/reinstall? They can afford to have the box down for a day or two, but I need to get it back up and running as quick as I can.

Also, I didn't just reboot it once. This was happening Thursday, apparently, then I went in on Friday and checked it and it worked fine until I rebooted it. Then it did the same thing that it was doing on Thursday afternoon.

Thanks in advance!

 

[The Bryophyte]

Is this comp. hooked up to the internet?

If so, and the software fixes suggested above don't help, I would look to performing a virus scan on it.

If you can't run virus scan from it, just map it's drive on another comp in the office and scan it using that.

 

[plot]

hrm.. corrupt disk would cause that? maybe the computer lacks ram, and the pagefile is corrupted..


-or-

the computer lacks ram, and teh pagefile is set way to low.

also for kicks, run memtest86 or whatever everyone around here always suggests.

 

[init6]

Thanks for all the input, guys. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a virus, but I'll try slapping Norton AV 2003 on it tomorrow just to double-check, as well as check all the RAM (I believe it has 256MB, though, and it's a Tbird 1.2).

Hopefully I'll have good news to report tomorrow!

 

[ItsTooHot]

If it doesn't have a virus scanner on it...


I'm pretty sure it IS a virus. How can any business, that actually wants to conduct business, not use AV software?

 

[init6]

It does have anti-virus software. It has Norton AV 2002. But because nothing would run at all, I couldn't do a full scan.