Computer problem

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I've been having a computer issue for a couple days now, and it's very annoying. Upon startup, nothing loads. Like if I try to open anything, it doesn't work. It seems to be in a frozen state. Ctrl+Alt+Del yields a black screen and then a notification box saying: "Failed to load security and power options" or something like that. I have to manually restart using the power button on the computer many times now. I've tried to disable all of the startup applications and rebooted it, to find the startup applicaiton that's causing it, however the problem still persisted. I've searched for solutions to this problem, however it seems there aren't many on the interweb. The oddest thing is, it only affects one account. I'm typing this using the other accounts on Windows 8, and the problem doesn't affect this one. help pl0x

[Musicman247]

It could be several things, the two which spring to mind immediately are the hard drive sectors the profile was written to have become corrupted, or there is a program being called at startup that is not initializing correctly.

For the first, log in with another profile and run a scan on the hard drive. Desktop> File Explorer> Right click on the HDD> Properties> Tools

For the second you'll need to run msconfig and check your startup programs. You may need to start the computer in safe mode to access it.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Alright, the scan found errors. Can I fix them, or do I have to backup my data and stuff?

[Musicman247]

Agreed. Backup what you can, then run a check disk w/repair

Start Screen> All Programs> Right click Command Prompt> Choose 'Run as Administrator'> in the Command Prompt type 'chkdsk c: /r' (without the apostrophes)

Check Disk may ask you to restart your computer so it can check all the sectors. As it finds bad sectors it will attempt to recover them.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

When I run the command in Command Prompt, it says "The type of file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive." Should I tell check disk to run the next time the computer restarts, and then restart it?

[Musicman247]

Sure.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Check Disk doesn't seem to work. It finished scanning and repairing the drives, and when I tried to log in to the "corrupted" profile, I couldn't even get to the desktop screen. It changed from the login screen to a blank purple one and stayed like that.

[Musicman247]

Backup the files on that profile, create a new profile and try to copy the files into the new profile.

[Taters]

I had a similar problem once that was fixed by installing Windows a second time on the same hard disk partition; it allowed me access to everything from the previous installation without calling up whatever scripts or programs screwed it up in the first place. Not sure if that would help here, though.

[Andere]

Backups should actually be done before problems happen i.e. when the system works - when problems happen, you use the backups. To backup a system that doesn't work only creates a backup of a system that doesn't work... In case you ever manage to backup the malfunctioning system.

Have you tried the basic and simple F8 - safe mode? Go to safe mode by http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-boot-i ... safe-mode/ --- pressing Shift+F8

In Safe Mode, pick a Restore Point. If you manage to do it well, you may loose some installed programs, but you may be able to to save the system.

Black screen may point towards a virus infection. It may indicate that you need to, preferably, zero format your disk(s), in order to clean it all. Or it may be a sign of severe hardware problems. Hard to tell. Please give system info. I don't know Windows 8, but in Windows 7 a source could be Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\Event Viewer, giving tons of information.

Best of luck. These troubles may be troublesome.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

System info, like...? Sorry, I'm very uninformed in the way of computers and such.

I do keep getting a 0x8000000000000002 Error code in the Event Viewer, and it seems it's related to overclocking and memory? I'm not sure.

Also, I've gotten a [&@%!] load of warnings from "MagniPicUpdater", which seems to be the source of the freezing problem, based on internet searches.

[Musicman247]

Shift+F8 does not work in Windows 8. Believe me, I've tried. You have to go into Settings and choose Startup Options if I'm not mistaken (Windows 8 settings, not Control Panel). From there you can choose to start in safe mode or use system restore to restore your system to the way it was at a previous date.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Yeah, Microsoft decided to hide the option to boot into Safe Mode. Not very convenient.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

How exactly do you overclock your memory...? And I'm not sure I can post a screenshot of the exact error, I can probably post a screenshot of the Event Viewer if that's helpful.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I see. I don't remember changing any of the memory settings or anything like that. The application "MagniPicUpdater" seems to be the cause of this problem.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I didn't even know it was on my computer. Most of the search results yield help topics on how to remove it.

[Andere]

MagniPicUpdater seems to be a virus, http://systemexplorer.net/file-database ... gnipic-exe

Get rid of it, period.