Big problem. =(

[Epical]

So last night I was thought to myself "Well, my computer has been on for a good while now, so why don't we give it a night's rest?" Weehehehhehehehelllllll what a bad fucking idea.

I turn my computer on this morning and find it odd that I didn't hear the Windows "Hey, I'm starting up" song. I didn't really think much of it and when I went to open Winamp, it would open then close itself. I was all O_O, and kept trying to open Winamp. Finally I restarted the computer assuming something went wrong along the way when I first started it up this morning. I try to open Winamp again, and this time it's giving me the "Winamp has somethingsomething serious error and has to close -> Send Report -> Don't Send" window. This happened about 10 times in a row. I tried to play some random sounds to see if it was a hardware issue (sound card) by going into my sound card's MIDI player. I opened that and it said it couldn't find the audio device.

So, I opened my case and reseated my sound card, possibly thinking that during it's time of being on, it might've dislodged... or something?

(As a side note, if I could go back in time, I would just leave it without Winamp if I could, but shit gets worse: )

Once the sound card is back inside, I start up my PC again, and this time my computer "trips" on itself just about as it is going to finish the Windows XP start up blue bar thing (the first OS splash page), has a blue screen for just a split second, and then restarts itself. THIS IS WHERE I AM NOW.

I'm currently in Safe Mode (With Networking), and the computer seems to be functioning fine, so I'm going to assume this is a... driver issue (or at least something software-side)? Funny thing is that I haven't changed/uninstalled ANYTHING in the last couple weeks with the exception of downloading video files here and there. Virus scan says nothing (it's still going), and my Diskeeper says it can't connect to the service (???), so I'll probably just use the default Windows defragger to see if it helps.

I have Dynamis in like two hours, so I neeeeeeed to get this fixed. If I can't get it fixed on this PC, I may try to manual-install FFXI on my downstairs PC using the .bat file trick, since my PS2 will take like a day to update.

SUPER EXTRA HUEG LIKE XBOX HALLLLPPPP PLEASE.

[Isiolia]

Have you tried booting without the sound card present?
Have you tried hitting F8 to get to the Safe Mode/etc menu and hitting the Last Known Good Configuration option? This will only be present if you have System Restore enabled, which is great for this kind of thing, terrible if you have spyware/viruses.

If so...

Do you have multiple RAM DIMMs? Have you tried booting with only one or the other? Stupid as it sounds, I had RAM go bad on me once like that. Literally, I opened a video file and the computer glitched and restarted. Could not boot after that. After a reformat and failed attempts to install Windows I finally ran a RAM check and realized one of my DIMMs had failed. I would save you that trouble, so check your RAM before doing something that takes more than a few minutes.

You may not have time to run it fully, but this http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ is a great tool to have around. Just realize it has multiple pages of tools, not just what you see initially XD
Memtest86 is a good test to run if you want to confirm some RAM is bad, or if you only have one DIMM and can't do an elimination test.

If not that, you may have some hard drive corruption. I'm sure *something* on that CD can do a scan if you can't get one done in Safe Mode (Windows can't repair a boot drive), I usually use BartPE for Chkdsk though. Or you could always pull the drive and put it in your old computer.

[Epical]

First off, thanks for the very informative post. =)

Yeah, I have two RAM DIMMs, and I don't even want to entertain the thought of one of those being a defect (they've been working great since I got them in January, and my system is still showing all 2GB). >< Currently downloading UBCD (although I'm not 100% sure on how to use it). It seems like it's a VERY useful CD to have around.

As for the Last Known Configuration, I don't think that would really do much since I haven't changed anything other than these downloaded video files (which I've now deleted).

At the store I work at, I remember a random conversation between one of our computer techs and myself where he said that an HDD can always be a defect, it just has to have enough things on it to hit that "mark" where it'll just shit out on you. But again, everything is running fine in Safe Mode, so it's something about regular Windows that is screwing it up. I would assume that if there was a serious hardware problem, it would be apparent in Safe Mode as well.

I think, like you said, the most probable thing is the sound card is some how messing with my system. After I'm done copying my POL folder, I'll boot without it in the case and see what happens. Lets hope that does the trick. =\

[Fhqwghads]

Might be worth it to run msconfig.exe. When you're in safe mode, start -> run -> msconfig -> click OK.

Try messing with some of the items under Selective Startup. I'd uncheck everything, then add one at a time until you get the fault. At least that will help to narrow your options down a bit. This is a suggestion if removing the sound card doesn't work, of course.

[Epical]

Update: just booted my computer up without the sound card inside and it booted up fine. It's hard to think that the sound card may be defective when it has worked fine since I bought it (a few weeks ago). Currently posting on the Creative support forums... hope some admin/tech one over there can give me a solid solution.

[Epical]

Oh man, this is what someone on the Creative forums said:

Please check for RAM- errors (use Prime95). Reinstall Windows (is needed, maybe data is corrupted) and then reinstall drivers. Use the newest drivers you can get, with the exception of AMD/ATI Catalyst 7.2 This driver will produce lockups of the catalyst controlpanel in WinXP on X1950 cards. Use 7.1 instead.

Did you have got a bigger soundfont loaded for your X-FI? You should delete it from memory before shutting down your PC. Install Vista drivers (3012) in WinXP. I know they dont produce this problem anymore (my buddy renegade/ Turrican experienced this issue, he' s a soundfont- programmer)

By "reinstall Windows", I assume he means reformat, and this PC is too new for me to go through that whole hassle right now. As for the other stuff, anyone have anything to contribute based on what he said?

[Vertabreaker]

Oh man, this is what someone on the Creative forums said:

Please check for RAM- errors (use Prime95). Reinstall Windows (is needed, maybe data is corrupted) and then reinstall drivers. Use the newest drivers you can get, with the exception of AMD/ATI Catalyst 7.2 This driver will produce lockups of the catalyst controlpanel in WinXP on X1950 cards. Use 7.1 instead.

Did you have got a bigger soundfont loaded for your X-FI? You should delete it from memory before shutting down your PC. Install Vista drivers (3012) in WinXP. I know they dont produce this problem anymore (my buddy renegade/ Turrican experienced this issue, he' s a soundfont- programmer)

By "reinstall Windows", I assume he means reformat, and this PC is too new for me to go through that whole hassle right now. As for the other stuff, anyone have anything to contribute based on what he said?

Pop your windows CD in and go to the admin console and do a disk check. If it's a drivers issue, have you tried rolling back the drivers on the hardware and re-installing updated drivers?